Biasedabroad

You already have a lot of good advice. I highly recommend at least 2 nights in Valparaiso... over Vina del Mar. Make sure you fill us in after you finish your travels.

Hasebaer

My partner and I went on a trip to Chile two years ago and it was the best trip we've ever done - by far! You will have such a great time! One reason why we enjoyed it so much is because we didn't setup a full itinerary, but decided on how long to stay at each place once we arrived and saw how we liked it there.

We started with Santiago as our base for three days (two nights) and then went south. One the way we stopped at the Concha Y Toro winery, which was really great. We also stopped briefly in Temuco (visiting friends) and then went on to Pucon.

Pucon was really my favorite. There's so much to do and it also a place where Chileans go on vacation. We climbed the Villarica volcano, which is an amazing experience. Anybody who sees our pictures (which I would be happy to share), said that Pucon looks the most stunning and they want to go as well.

We went on to Valdivia, which was pretty and the most memories I have of that town is the Brewery (Kunstmann), the market and the modern art museum.

From there we went all the way south to Isla Chiloe and I have to admit, it was really beautiful. However that's about it. It took us several hours to get there and there's really not much to do. Also the weather is a little colder, since it is further in the south. So we cut our stay there short and went back north.

We stopped in a small fishing and beach village called Tome (north of Conception) just to visit a few friends of friends.

Unfortunately we didn't make it to Vina, because the annual music festival was going there and everything was sold out.

We did not take any flights, but used overnight buses instead (much cheaper). They have first and business class seats on buses and it's comparable to first and business class on airplanes. Depending in the distance we upgraded to a better seat, which was still very affordable and not much money.

Although I really wanted to go to Patagonia, it is way too far and we decided we'll do Patagonia as a separate trip and visit both the Chilean and Argentinian part of it.

Let me know if I can help with anything.

Peter

Biasedabroad

I agree with pookymimi that it is too much traveling and La Serena is not worth going to in my personal opinion. It is a nice relaxing place, but for some reason (and I don't understand why), Chileans tend to like it more than foreigners and I include myself in that.

GillsinEurope

Thanks for the help guys! We've cut out La Serena this time around. Hopefully we'll be back in the near future and we'll make it a point to go there some other time. Here is my itinerary so far. Tell me what you think.

Day 1: Valparaiso - Arrive in Santiago, take bus to Valpo. Stay night in Valpo

Day 2: Valparaiso - Explore more of Valpo, take bus back to Santiago in the evening. Stay night in Santiago near Las Condes area (anyone have a good recommendation for a place to stay that won't break our bank)

Day 3: Santiago - Explore Las Condes. Stay night in Las Condes.

Day 4: Santiago - Explore Santiago. Stay night in Providencia.

Day 5: Chiloe - Take a morning flight to Puerto Montt, take bus down to Chiloe. Stay night in Chiloe.

Day 6: Chiloe - Explore Chiloe. Take evening bus back to Puerto Varas. Stay night at Casa Ko (outside of Puerto Varas)

Day 7: Lake Region - Explore area, waterfalls, horseback riding, canopy(?), etc. Stay night at Casa Ko again.

Day 8: Puerto Varas - More exploring. Take bus to Puerto Varas and explore the city. Stay in Puerto Varas.

Day 9: Puerto Varas/Santiago - Morning in Puerto Varas, take flight back to Santiago. Fly out back home in evening!

What do we think of this? Any tweaking, suggestions, ways to cut back on costs. I've considered the overnight bus thing and am definitely not opposed to it, but not sure if it's best for our schedule. We're trying to pack in a lot!