We have three days in Santiago mid-July on our last leg home after a 7 week trip around the globe - spent mainly in the northern hemisphere summer.

We have booked San Cristobel Tower.

Do you have any new and interesting recommendations that do not appear at the top of the tourist guides list ???

Thank you for any advice that you may have.

Hi Good_Will,

What a fantastic trip! Here is a mini guide to Santiago written by one of Ruba's professional travel writers, which includes several top spots to see in Santiago, both on and off the beaten path - enjoy!

http://www.ruba.com/guide/Alex/Best_...Santiago_Chile

Best,
Erin
Community Manager, www.ruba.com

We have just returned from a 7 week trip over 5 continents. Our trip reports will therefore be fragmented in different forums and in responding to different threads. I just wanted to say that we enjoyed visiting Santiago and the choice of San Cristobel Towers was possibly the best we made on our entire trip. The staff were great and our room was absolutely top class.

I will look forward to your trip reports, especially for Santiago. I will only have a couple of days there, and will have to decide what to do. Did you take a tour?

I enjoyed La Chascona, the Moneda museum complex (nice cafe inside) and the Pre Columbian Museum, Bellavista. I got around by metro and foot.

Hi Kodi and all - trip reports are not going to be detailed for short stops - we only had 2 nights there in a trip covering 7+ weeks and 4+ continents. We do like LAN Chile airlines. During our trip we flew Business Class on Qantas, BA, AA and LAN. We would rate LAN 1, Qantas 2, BA 3 and AA a very very distant 4th. This is based on service, food, wine, cleanliness, seating, communications and even landing quality. Hitherto on the last feew occasions BA was 1 for us.

I organised our trip to fly LAN from New York overnight to arrive in Santiago just after 0620am. We arrived at San Cristobal Towers at 0730 and were able to check in immediately with an upgrade to a wonderful suite. While only there for 2 nights it felt like 4 because part of the deal was a 1700 check out on the last day - we recommend the Romance Package on the Starwood Site.

After arriving at the hotel we took a walk to the funicular and up to the towering statue of Mary overlooking Santiago - well worth it. Great views of santiago and the towering Andes. We walked down through the Botanical Gardens and then through the suburb of Provedencia. Then we walked along the river through some beautiful parks toward downtown until we reached the Mercado - a must visit. Have to go now but will post more later.

A museum: the Museo Precolombino
http://www.precolombino.cl/

A view: up Cerro San Cristobal on a clear day. Take the funicular and you can stop at the zoo halfway up if you want.
http://www.parquemet.cl/

A lunch or dinner: Bellavista
http://www.patiobellavista.cl/index.php

A visit to one of Neruda's homes:
http://www.fundacionneruda.org/ing/h...na_ingles.html

A walk in a park and a coffee: the Parque Forestal and Café µosqueto on Mosqueto 440.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/taecilla/48104169/

An explore and lunch: Barrio Lastarria
http://www.barriolastarria.com/plano..._lastarria.htm

A place to people watch: the Plaza de Armas

An architecturally interesting place with exhibitions, a showcase of Chilean crafts, a café and a restaurant: Centro Cultural La Moneda under the Plaza in front of the Moneda presidential Palaca
http://www.ccplm.cl//index.php?optio...=226&Itemid=83

A place for a stroll uphill on the spot where Santiago was founded: Cerro Santa Lucia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Luc%C3%ADa_Hill

A trusted guidebook: Fodor's
http://www.fodors.com/world/south-am...hile/santiago/