11 Best Sights in The Central Valley, Chile

One of the best museums in Chile, this attractive, colonial-style, 20th-century building houses exhibitions on the history of the region. It's the largest private natural-history collection in the country and second only in size to Santiago's Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. Exhibits include pre-Columbian mummies, extinct insects set in amber viewed through special lenses, the world's largest collection of silver work by the indigenous Mapuche, and the only known original copy of Chile's proclamation of independence. A few early vehicles and wine-making implements surround the building. The museum is the creation of Santa Cruz native and wealthy businessman Carlos Cardoen. His foundation, Fundación Cardoen, runs three additional museums in greater Santa Cruz, which are dedicated to wine, antique cars, and indigenous arts and crafts. Purchase a Route of the Museums pass if you want to visit two or more.

Despite dripping with charm and class, MontGras is one of the friendliest and most approachable vineyards in the valley, with excellent English-language tours of the property as well as the option to just taste wines by the glass. Creative tour options include a blind tasting, an open-air barbecue, or a “Winemaker for the Day” class where you can create your own blend. If your visit coincides with harvest (February-April), you can also do a “My Harvest” tour to pick grapes and then foot-tread them in a traditional way.

Facing the central square is this imposing, fortress-like, white stucco structure. Originally built in 1817, the church has had numerous refurbishments following major earthquakes.

Here you can look into the lifestyle of Chile's 19th-century rich and famous. Construction began on the current house in 1829 and was completed with the inauguration of the chapel in 1852. The Errázuriz family, who can trace the 2,600-acre estate back through family lines to 1756, donated it to the Chilean Army in 1975. It was reopened as a museum in the 1990s and is now the only remaining preserved, intact estate of its kind in Chile open to the public. Inside, sumptuous suites are filled with opal glass, lead crystal, bone china, antique furniture, and family portraits evoking Chile's aristocratic past. Servants' quarters are also part of the tour, as are the kitchens and 16 working patios, each dedicated to a specific household chore, such as laundry, butchering, or cheese-making. Guides are knowledgeable and have tales to tell, as many grew up hearing family stories about working at the estate. The tour ends with a visit to the chapel, which has Venetian blown-glass balustrades around the altar and the choir loft. Visits are by prior reservation only, and English-speaking guides are available with sufficient notice.

In the center of the palm-lined Plaza de Armas is a colonial-style bell tower with a carillon that chimes every 15 minutes. Inside the tower is a tourism kiosk with information leaflets.

Right on the main square, the Ruta del Vino office organizes tours and tastings at 21 of Colchagua's best-known wineries. Prices start at 12,000 pesos per person and rise up to almost 200,000, depending on the complexity of the tour. Some options include traditional meals or hikes amid the vines. The harvest season—March and April—kicks off with the Fiesta de la Vendimia (Grape Harvest Festival) and is always a great time to visit.

Though most wineries have their own guides, few speak English, and some wineries accept visits arranged only by Ruta del Vino.

Lapostolle's showcase winery rises impressively from the vineyards in a wooden nest formation, offering a memorable view from both inside and out. The prized grapes are picked from the biodynamic vineyards and taken to the top floor, where they are separated by hand, dropped into tanks on the floor below, then racked to barrels on the floor below that, and so on until the grapes are six floors down into the hillside, where they are finally trucked out and shipped around the world. Join one of the daily tours with tastings, or stay for a fabulous lunch at the Clos Apalta Residence with a fresh and organic menu picked straight from the on-site garden.

This small winery, which rests on lands where grapes have been grown for more than a century, is one of the few places in the area where you can simply show up unannounced and sip some vino. As you sample the red wines, including Chile's unique Carménère variety, a tasty Petit Verdot, juicy Malbec, and rich Cabernet Sauvignon, you'll notice that the likeness of Laura Hartwig, the elegant owner of the estate, has been beautifully drawn on the labels by the famous Chilean artist Claudio Bravo.

Montes is one of most recognized wine brands in Chile today, but it started with humble roots in 1987 in the Curicó Valley with a group of young entrepreneurs. Today it is in the heart of Apalta, Colchagua, where the second generation of the Montes family helps run this feng shui--designed winery and restaurant. Deep, rich, and concentrated red wines and bright whites showcase a diverse portfolio of vineyards from around Chile. Enjoy the wines with food at Fuegos de Apalta with its showstopping fire-themed menu from star Argentine chef Francis Mallmann. The regular tour takes you through the winery processes and finishes with a wine tasting inside, or there is also a more active wine tour that involves a mountain hike followed by a picnic and wine tasting at the summit.

In the lesser-visited Lolol region, this winery is owned by the same businessman who has the Santa Cruz Hotel and Museum. Something of a Disney World for wine lovers, it's one of the most kid-friendly options in the area with an antique car museum, wagon rides, bike rentals, and a cable car ride to a hilltop lookout. Adult tours finish, of course, with plenty of wine tasting.

Visit at night and you can stargaze from the observatory (open all year, depending on weather).

What better way to visit the vineyards at Viu Manent than via a horse-drawn carriage ride? The stylish equestrian entrance is part of the tour package, which also includes a wine tasting in the beautiful colonial-style house. Focusing mainly on red wines from the Colchagua Valley, including Malbec, Viu Manet also pours a couple of coastal wines from Casablanca. Pick bottles to taste after the tour or over lunch at the excellent Rayuela restaurant, which keeps live oysters in freezing-cold Jacuzzis out back.