Tour from Valparaiso to Santiago
 

Would like recommendations for all day tour, picked up from cruise ship in Valparaiso to Santiago. Has anyone taken such a tour?

Santiago is beautiful but Valparaiso is so interesting, historical and funky. Make sure you spend some time seeing this special city and its hills.

aboutchile gets very good reviews.

We were fortunate to find Hector Medina, http://sites.google.com/site/privatetourguidechile and were thrilled with his services. Hector offers preplanned tours, but is happy to change, add or delete anything, it is truly a personal tour service. He pays attention to your comments and makes suggestions based on what you appear to like.

I trust you are spending some time in Valparaiso? Otherwise, IMHO a day would be much better spent in Valparaiso itself than Santiago

Hi, I'm from Chile but I moved to the states about 10 ys ago.
If you visit Chile then set aside time to visit Valparaiso, you won't regret it. Take of the the 100 years old elevators to check the neighbohoods, a very pretty one is Playa Ancha, take a bus to the Villaseca elevator and then once on top of the hill take on foot all the way to Avenida Gran Bretana, you will see amazing woodframe houses & gorgeous views from paseo 21 de Mayo (the navy school & museum are there too)
Other hills of interest are Cerro Alegre, Cerro Cordillera. Take time to visit the chilean poet Pablo Neruda's house (La Chascona)a very oddly decorated house. From Valparaiso you can go to Vina del Mar (just about 15 minutes by bus)& Concon great place to grab some fresh seafood & eat next to the ocean.
Safety is important, don't carry a big camera on your neck or look too touristy, otherwise just common rules for big cities with normal crime rates (pickpocketing, etc)if you are there on a weekend check one of the many antiques flea markets (there used to be one by the Congress building)
Have fun1