Reader Advice on Things To Do in Santiago, Chile

I received this email a couple of days ago from a reader named Jacobo, giving some tips on my list of 30 Things To Do When Visiting Santiago, Chile. If any of you have used my list on your trips, please give me feedback and I will post it on here for the benefit of all of the readers. Here’s the email I received, with a few grammatical corrections:

I just considered your list when showing Santiago to two American friends. Based on this experience I would suggest that you add:

Museo de Arte Precolombino (Pre-columbian Art Museum)

This is not just a classical anthropological or ethnographic museum, full of all kinds of different objects, rather, exclusively an “ART” one. It displays a large and extremely well selected collection of art objects from the different Latin America cultures. Wonderful ceramic, stone, jade, copper and gold objects, rare textiles, etc. Also some interesting temporary exhibitions and a good book, video and reproductions store.

Address : Bandera 361. Downtown. One block away from Plaza de Armas and three from La Moneda. (Good web site : www.precolombino.cl)

I believe that this museum, along with Ralli, is the only one worth being visited by tourists.

“Changing of the Guard” – (When visiting La Moneda)

You can see the ceremony of the change of the guard every other day at 10 o’clock in the square in front of the main entrance of the presidential palace. Far from having the magnificence of Buckingham Palace, this is a very decent ceremony carried by members of the police (some good looking female cops and officers among them) wearing dark green uniforms. Some minutes after its end you can visit the House. No identification documents are required, only metal checking, as in the airports.

Winery Tours

There are many tours to wineries near Santiago. The tour, “Tren del Vino” considers a long trip in an antique (100 years old) train. A little far from Santiago (about 95 miles), takes a whole day. The tour includes a 2 hour bus ride from Santiago, 2 hours in train, visiting wineries and tasting wines, lunch (of course having wine), a visit to an interesting wine museum (Colchagua) and a two hour bus back to Santiago. Important : This tour is only on Saturdays. Reserve at least three days before. Price approx. US$125. http://www.gochile.cl/eng/Tour/Tours-Tren-Vino.asp

I would also suggest that you remove the following:

“Bellas Artes” and “Arte Contemporáneo”

Our visit to these museums was disappointing. I would at least eliminate the “Arte Contemporáneo”.

Fútbol

The Chilean soccer teams are really horrible. I would not recommend going to see a game, unless it were played by foreign national teams (if possible from Brazil or Argentina).

So again, any feedback is much appreciated, keep it coming.