Which area to stay in Santiago
 

I will be staying in Santiago for a couple of nights before leaving to visit a few destinations and then will return back to Santiago for one night before flying out of Chile mainland to Easter Island. My plan is to leave some excess baggage at the hotel in the first visit and then pick it up in the second one.

I had booked an apartment in the Belles Artes district (near the Belles Artes metro) and after reading some more about Santiago am wondering if that is a good choice. In particular I've seen recommendations for areas such as Los Condes which are more newly developed. My earlier decision was based on being near Centro but I do not want to sacrifice safety for the sake of being close to the Centro. Looking for thoughts and advise. We are a couple with a 2 year child (will be nearly 3 in April when we go)

http://www.booking.com/hotel/cl/inte...ntiago.en.html
Great option for me from $90 bidding priceline.
ihg.com get their Chase.com CC 60000 points with first use for
some free stays.

Whenever we go back home we always stay in Providencia, easy access to Restaurants, Metro, Shopping all in walking distance.
We always stay in the Santiago Park Plaza, who also has a building with new apartments across the street from the Hotel. Hotel is on Ricardo Lyon a very lush avenue with tall green trees. It may be a little over your budget, but the convenience of the location is priceless to me.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/cl/sant...b593b611426276

We enjoyed staying at the Santiago Park Plaza too, beautiful breakfasts, nice bar, great service and wonderful location.

I would not be afraid of Bellas Artes area. It is a great place. It is full of culture, good restaurants, independent movie theatre and new Gabriela Mistral Center... highly recommend.

Thank you everyone for responding and allaying my doubts. We will keep our Belles Artes apartment as is

The best place to live in Santiago is in the Lo Barnechea area. The area is an upper class municipality which is safe and secure. The neighborhood is beautiful.

There are no hotels in Lo Barnechea. It is just a residential neighbourhood..

Santiago for the most part is perfectly safe. Stay smart, don't flash cash and you'll be fine. The areas of Providencia and Las Condes are newer and in my opinion feel a bit more stale. The smaller neighborhoods of Lastarria and Bellavista feel more unique to Santiago and have lots of great shops and restaurants. Pay attention, and don't carelessly flash your fancy iPhone in public. Most likely, the worst thing that will happen to you is that you will be cheated by the taxis (some of them use fast meters or take a roundabout route). From the airport I recommend Transvip, to Bellas Artes it should be less than CLP $20,000 or about US$40. If you need a hotel I recommend www.Bungolow.com for the best rates.

Thanks much for the response scooter. Appreciate the tip on the taxis. We booked a cab with our hotel directly and they are charging $40 for the pickup. Glad to know its consistent with what you indicated. We are just two weeks away now and very excited.