Im at the preliminary stages of planning a trip for next January (2006) to Chile. We definitely want to go to Torres del Paine (stay at Explora hopefully) and take a side trip to Easter Island. Im trying to figure out logistics and if theres anywhere else we need to hit. We will spend 4 nights in TDP and probably 2 at EI. So that leaves 3 to juggle with. Any suggestions? I hear there are some nice wineries in Chile so was thinking maybe doing something like that. Sadly, the number of things i want to do is too much for the time we have there so I need some help widdling down the list. We are in our late 20s, and pretty speedy sightseers. Since we live in NYC, we are not interested in seeing big cities.

Hi! My son and I are living in Chile right now so hopefully I can help you with some suggestions. I think it depends on how you plan getting around while you are in Chile. My mom came to visit us a couple of weeks ago and we rented a car for the week she was here and we felt that it made the trip wonderful by being able to stop at things that you would otherwise just pass by in the bus. Some of our favorite things were visiting Púcon in the lake region. They have a beautiful lake there, a volcano that you can arrange a tour to hike up and there are hot springs near by that my son and I absolutely loved. If you head to Curico you will be near the wine route and there are plenty of wineries that offer tours. You can get wonderful wine for really inexpensive prices (on average about $8 a bottle and it was some of the best I have ever had). Also if you are near Curico I would go to the Miguel Torres winery for lunch. They offer a four course meal for $20 and it may have been the best meal I have ever eaten in my life. Also for another $10 you get 4 glasses of wine with the meal. My last suggestion since you will be there for the summer season is to go to the town Pichilemu it is a wonderful beach town that does not kill your budget. I hope this has been a help.

Have you accounted for the time you need for travelling? If not you only have 1 day and maybe not that left out of your 10 days. If you do have 3 days then I would suggest that you spend 1 in Santiago even if you are from New York and the other 2 in going to Valparaiso and seeing the wineries between there and Santiago.

You might want to consider the lake region - Puerto Montt area, Chiloe, Bariloche.

you have to consider san Pedro de Atacama (desert, geysers, moon valley... UNIQUE