14 Best Hotels in The Central Valley, Chile

Overlooking the stunning Apalta Valley and Lapostolle winery, the Clos Apalta Residence is one of South America's most upscale wine residences, where fresh, made-to-order cuisine is prepared daily in a four-course, wine-paired menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The hospitality team assists with every request, be it a private winery visit, nature walk, or bike tour, and each private house has a wine-stocked courtesy minibar and sweeping valley view. The small villas are well designed with maximum comforts and privacy, each being a steep uphill walk or buggy ride from the other. Shared facilities include a handsome living room, infinity pool, and rooftop BBQ.

This tastefully restored 17th-century hacienda is one of the oldest in Chile, and its sweeping 20,000-acre estate exudes an old-world charm. There are 70 horses at your beck and call, antique-filled rooms with cozy fireplaces, and polite service. Overnight guests enjoy brass, four-poster beds, chimneys in each room, a large swimming pool, and beautiful woodlands with nature trails and hillsides to explore on foot, bike, or horseback. Don't miss out on their four-course lunches and dinners for a flavor of the aristocratic life. The location, just five minutes from Ruta 5, makes it an ideal base for exploring nearby wineries, olive oil mills, and thermal baths.

This quiet, family-run hotel, at the end of a dusty street two blocks west of the Plaza de Armas, is quite a bargain. Simple rooms have small desks and windows that open onto a portico or overlook the parking area in back.

Ask for one of the older rooms in front, where a narrow garden holds níspero and cherry trees.

The owners can provide great travel advice for the area.

Right on the Plaza de Armas, this beautiful, colonial-style hotel is certainly Santa Cruz's most central, but it isn't the most historical. Despite its traditional architecture---such as wooden columns, Spanish-style arches, hand-painted tiles, antique reproductions, and stained glass---this hotel was built in 2000 with many modern conveniences, including LED lighting, Wi-Fi throughout, and a relaxing spa and pool area. Rooms vary in views and street noise. At the center of the complex is a creek crossed by wooden footbridges and a curvaceous pool surrounded by lush foliage. The complex also includes a shop selling exquisite handcrafted goods, a wine shop stocked with Colchagua Valley wines, the most popular casino in Colchagua, and a museum that features a reenactment of a mammoth attack.

The main attractions of this hillside hotel are the mineral baths, the thermal swimming pool, and the peace and quiet. Despite its great location overlooking the Río Cachapoal, the hotel doesn't have much of a view; only the restaurant and a few rooms in the pabellón del río (river building) afford glimpses of the boulder-strewn river. Dating from the 1960s, the pabellón's rooms are smallish and somewhat spartan; rooms in the older patio central building, however, are spacious.

This pretty Spanish-style boutique hotel is only minutes outside of Santa Cruz, yet it's peacefully surrounded by its own vineyards and gardens. Run by a Danish-Chilean couple, the hotel tends to Scandinavian simplicity in its bedrooms and living areas, which are all equipped with brightly polished wooden furniture and glossy wood-paneled floors that lead to balconies overlooking the gardens and pool. Staff are young, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable about nearby wineries.

This countryside B&B is in a charming family house with six en suite bedrooms comfortably decorated in a homey style with hand-painted wash basins. Outdoors is a large lawn with a small swimming pool next to tall pergola-trained vineyards. The typical Chilean country-house construction has thick adobe walls that keep rooms cool in summer and central heating and small fires to keep the house cozy in winter.

This large, Spanish-style villa boasts vineyards, green lawns, a big garden with fragrant orange trees, pool, tennis court, and a small stable to keep you amused when you aren't winery hopping in nearby Santa Cruz. The design is a bit dated, but all the bedrooms open out to a garden view, making them light and attractive. If you're staying in winter, ask for a more spacious upstairs suite with a fireplace. There is a restaurant on-site serving lunch and dinner and a big games room with a bar for entertainment in the evening. Horse-riding, mountain biking, and walking (all unguided) are included, and massages in your room can be booked in advance.

The comfortable Marina Vichuquén has an enviable location right on the shore and makes use of it with its own marina, where there are plenty of opportunities for water sports. Many of the hotel rooms have nice views of the lake as well as the surrounding pine forests. If you want to explore the nearby countryside, you can rent horses or mountain bikes.

This large mountain lodge set right in the middle of the Andes offers heli-skiing in winter and mountain treks in the summer. After a day on the virgin slopes or the green heights of the Andes, you can return to the comforts of the lodge, including a sauna, steam room, hot tub, and pool. Enjoy the remote, mountainous location for nature hikes, horseback rides, and heli-fishing. The rustic-chic lodge charms, and rooms are neat and modern; the restaurant has a limited but sufficient menu with a decent wine list and a large fireplace to keep it cozy during the winter.

With a large, sunny garden, a pool, and a fountain, this cheerful family posada in the rural Isla de Yaquil area provides both good value and a peaceful stay in the Colchagua Valley. Rooms are pleasant and cozy, and each has an outdoor sitting area. The nearby village is small and gives a real taste of rural life in Chile.

A car is necessary to go farther afield to restaurants and wineries.

Designed to look like two large wine barrels, this boutique hotel right in the Gillmore vineyard is owned and run by the Gillmore family, who have created a warm space with plenty of personal touches. Rooms have attractive balconies overlooking the pond and swimming pool, and the restaurant (lunch and dinner) serves homemade Chilean cuisine using local produce and, of course, Gillmore's delicious wines. If you want to pamper yourself, spa services include wine-based body and facial treatments.

This peaceful family-run lodge is set high in the mountains and surrounded by a private estate of woodland, trout-filled rivers, waterfalls, and swimming holes. The ranch-chic design is welcoming, as are the expat hosts, who have installed a beautiful garden with old trees, a log-burning outdoor hot tub, and large swimming pool. Outdoor activities include horseback riding, trekking, and a guided evening astronomy tour; indoor activities are strictly oriented around relaxation, log fires, and rummaging through the locally stocked wine cellar.

With a grand, swooping titanium roof and rooms that are individually decorated by different artists, this statement hotel is one of Chile's most luxurious. There's a newer wing of seven glass-walled bungalows (called Puro Vik), plus a fleet of fine horses at your beck and call, a state-of-the-art winery, a spa with vinotherapy, and an infinity pool that drops off into the lush valley below. Guests on the all-inclusive hotel plan will enjoy fine dining with VIK's wine included at the superb on-site restaurant, which prides itself on sourcing locally and organically, often from the garden on the grounds.