Transportation To and From Santiago Int'l Airport

TransVIP shuttle my fav from $5

sometimes free with some hotels...

www.chile-hotels.com/santiaga.htm

Transvip and Turtransfer are shared vans which take you to a specific address. the cost is per person and varies according to the sector of the city and how far away it is from the airport. They run between US$10-12. If there are two of you, you might prefer a taxi. Again it depends where you are headed, but roughly US$30-33. Both can be paid and booked inside the customs area, just before you exit into the public areas of the airport. This avoids the avalanche of drivers who hang around that exit and ensures a safe ride. You do not tip either of these services.

We took the van once and was ok. Although ,being this a few year back, the vans in Santiago
( also the one that took us for a city tour) were the most uncomfortable I have seen in a long time, have they changed them? Coming out of those vans I felt like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.......

I used the Transvip which wasn't much hassle from airport to hotel. I think on returning to the airport I would take a taxi as they wanted too much lead time.

I will be needing to get transportation from the Holiday Inn at the Santiago airport this weekend to the Sheraton conference center in Santiago.Is a cab the best way ?Any ideas on how much it might cost leaving around 5PM at in the afternoon? Thanks!

I would go into the airport (just across the service road from the hotel) to the ground level arrivals. Look for the "taxi oficial" desk. They have set prices for different locations. The taxi will probably be about CLP$16,000. The other option is to do the same but book a shared van, which will be cheaper, about CLP$5000, however it will be more difficult to know exactly how long you will take to get there as they drop people off at different hotels and it is just luck if you get there quickly. At 5 pm you should be just beating the start of rush hour and it should take 30 mins or under by taxi. It will head straight up the Costanera Norte highway and come off near the Sheraton.
Here is a photo of the counter. They offer a discount for round trips and that might be worth your while if you know when you will be finished:
http://www.taxioficial.cl/nosotros.php

I think that Holiday Inn is the usual first stop for the shuttles, so as long as you don't have to wait too long for a shuttle to leave it should be pretty painless. I prefer the taxis on the return, though.

Thanks so much for the information!

The vans are not shuttles and do not stop at any particular hotel. They go to whatever addresses the passengers supply to either pick them up or drop them off. Passengers will be grouped according to areas, but there is no way to predict exactly where they will stop. I have been lucky and been in a van with only two others going to private addresses in my neighbourhood and I have been unlucky and in a van which seemed to stop everywhere and took an hour to get to my home.
The airport Holiday Inn is just a few meters from the place where the vans load up.

For dutyfree: I was at the airport this morning and asked about the price of the taxi. It would be CLP$17,000 to the Sheraton. Book it as a round trip and there is a 20% discount.

We called the shared vans "super shuttle" here, that's what I meant.

If there is no one headed for Holiday Inn, of course they won't stop there.

But if OP is going to HI, he is going to be the first stop in all likelihood.

There are two threads going here; the original about transport from the airport to an unnamed hotel or address and a second one started by dutyfree, who is staying at the HI which is in the airport, a few steps to where he needs to get the van or taxi to the Sheraton. In the top right photo number 5 is the HI and number 6 is the airport building, literally across internal road. All the vans depart from that road so that is as close as they can get to the HI.
http://www.aeropuertosantiago.cl/planos-del-aeropuerto/planos-del-aeropuerto.html