Santiago or Buenos Aires
 

We are planning a hiking trip to Patagonia February 2020 and have the option of two days/nights in Santiago at the beginning or Buenos Aires at the end. We enjoy walking, historic sights, good food, people watching, not so much museums though. Know little about either city never been south of Costa Rica, which would you choose? Interesting area to stay?

Neither of those cities especially grab me. Museums aren't a highlight in either one. Although I did enjoy all of the Neruda houses (they wouldn't be what you'd call a museum). I'd probably instead pick Valparaiso which isn't that far from the airport in Santiago (maybe1.5 hours in a car). Better food IMO. Wasn't impressed with the generally underseasoned food in BA and I prefer seafood to beef. Great scenery with the painted metal houses, graffiti, and ocean views. You can also go to the beach in nearby Viña del Mar (Valparaiso is more of a working harbor).

Stay up around Cerros Concepcion /Alegre, or like me (if you're cheap) the Ibis Hotel on the waterfront. The later is convenient to the trams and you can walk or use the tram (ascensor) up to Concepcion (It should be operating again).

Tours4Tips worked out well for me there. I liked both the 3pm tour (general orientation and graffiti) and the 10am tour (they call it the Cultural Tour). I was even able to get onto the 3pm tour on my arrival day, since the Ibis is only a few blocks from the starting point.

Maybe a minor point, but sounds like you are from the US. I found Chileans to be friendlier toward Americans.

Both airports can be a little chaotic, if you're trying to decide where to fly into. My friends go to Chile every year for flyfishing and there is always a chance of missing a tight connection to your onward flight. But at least you wouldn't have to change airports!

Hi, between those two cities ill go with Buenos Aires, is a place with more culture more history. It has a lot of influence (architecture) of Europe, and for me is one of my favorite cities in South America.
Food there is AMAZING.
I been as well in Santiago, its not horrible of course but it doesn't have something special as i saw in buenos aires.

In BA you can walk around and see people dancing tango, the part of Caminito is beautiful a different.
I wouldn't even doubt and go to Buenos Aires.

Thank you. We’re now thinking of heading down to Punta Arenas instead a few days early and going on a penguin tour, anyone ever do that? I've read some reviews and they are all over the place one to five stars.

Santiago is just a big city, not bad, a lot to explore. I would not suggest Valpo. Not been to Argentina so can't comment on that but overall for us Santiago was fun -it was great to take the subway everywhere, if you like walking and urban exploring it is fine

OP -- we visited both Santiago and BA as part of a Patagonia hiking trip. In our opinion, BA is a way, way better city than Santiago. See my trip report for info on the two different penguin tours we did from Punta Arenas (Magellanic and King Penguins) : https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...Patagonia.html . They're amazing and we highly recommend. Don't want to reinvent the wheel, so let me know if you have further questions after having read this.

We were glad to get out of Santiago after one day but happy to spend a month in Buenos Aires. Where to stay? It is a huge city and a lot depends on how long and what you want to do. Most stay in one of the Palermo’s - we enjoyed Palermo Soho the last time, or the more upmarket district of Recoleta.

If you did err on the side of Chile, then, rather than Santiago, I would head up the coast a couple of hours to Valparaiso.

Thank you. We are flying to Punta Arenas and staying two nights prior to Chile/Argentina hiking. Appreciate the link LAX, your trip was very similar to ours and info on the penguin tours helpful. We are going to spend one night (about 30 hours total) in BA at the end just to get a little taste, probably Recoleta.to see the cemetery and walk around.

Tons of options for where to stay in BA, but we stayed in San Telmo and enjoyed it. That's an option to consider. FYI, my write-up is here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi..._District.html