Local Expert
EdwardS
Born and raised in Texas. Howdy! Growing up with the flavors of the Tex-Mex culture has greatly inspired me to travel through Latin America. So far I have traveled to Costa Rica,…
Born and raised in Texas. Howdy! Growing up with the flavors of the Tex-Mex culture has greatly inspired me to travel through Latin America. So far I have traveled to Costa Rica, Mexico, and now Chile. It is through my travels that I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing worse than traveling to a foreign city and ending up in a restaurant where everyone else is carrying the same guidebook as you. In fact, many of the best places in Santiago are barely mentioned in guidebooks. I will give you the insight to the cleanest and safest city in America del Sur. Happy trails.
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As previously mentioned, Chileans have a very large sweet tooth and no shortage of options to ruin their teeth, but the overwhelming favorite is ice cream. If you are the type of person who likes to stay away from chain restaurants, then there is just the place for you when it comes to ice cream. Tucked away in Patio Bellavista is Il Maestrale. While this shop has less selection than a larger chain, the quality is not lacking. So don't be shy about asking for a sample if you are unsure as to what flavor you want. But the inside scoop here is that they are all wonderful and you can't go wrong with any flavor of ice cream being offered. It is hard to give you a heads up here, because the flavors are always changing. The one thing I can tell you is that there will surely be a flavor there that you have never heard of and if you get a scoop of it you will not be disappointed.
When you need your fix of an American style shopping experience head over to Mall Arauco. If you were just dropped off in the center of this mall and not told where you were you would probably think you were in an outdoor mall in California. This mall is new and has everything you could want from a one stop shopping center. The mall is composed of a outdoor and indoor sections. In the outdoor sections you will find many restaurants to eat and have a drink, as well as some shopping choices. However, inside is where you will find most of the shopping. The inside is huge and it feels like you could spend a day inside and not see everything. Put on your walking shoes, grab your credit card, and get ready to do some shopping.
When you need to get out of Santiago for a day than there is no better place to visit than Valparaíso. Only a short 45 minute trip by bus, Valparaíso sits on Chile's Pacific coastline. However, the city looks like no other city on the planet. Some have compared it to San Francisco, but for those who have visited both San Fransisco and Valparaíso the differences are many and in the end there will be no mistaking the uniqueness of this city. Like San Fransisco, the homes of Valparaíso are built right up the sides of hills, and looking at the homes from the bay it looks as if the homes are built right on top of each other. Despite the chaotic look of the homes there is order and reason present in the Valparaíso. While Valparaíso is not as flashy and tourist minded as Vina del Mar, Valparaíso offers up the look and feel of old Chile and is a great city to walk around in and get lost. Part of Valparaíso's rich history is linked with the Chilean Navy. In fact, the Naval Academy is located in Valparaíso as well as the Naval Museum. Walking through the old cobble stoned streets of Valparaíso one can only imagine that not much has changed since the early days of this city. However, there has been a recent push to clean up Valparaíso to attract more tourist, but part of Valparaíso's charm is it dirty sea faring facade. But the best part of Valparaíso is that when you are done walking around admiring the architecture you can hope back on a bus and be back in Santiago in time for dinner.
On one of the few days when the smog lets up in Santiago one of the best places to see the beauty of the city is in Parque Arauco. The park is located in the posh neighborhood of Las Condes and offers up a large open green space right in the middle of the city. In addition to all of the greenery you can see the snowcapped Andes from two directions. One of the best ways to experience the park is to walk through the large rose gardens and take a seat on one of the many benches in the gardens. Cool breezes and many shade trees make finding a spot to sit a relax easy to find. There is also lots of flat open grassy areas for picnics and for kicking a soccer ball around. One of the best features of the park is the fact that you can get away from the noise of the city and after being in Santiago for any amount of time you will enjoy the quiet spaces in the city. With the fragrant smells of the rose gardens, the views of the Andes, and the quietness of the park there are not many better places in Santiago to spend a lazy afternoon. So enjoy your trip to the park and be ready for a nice relaxing time.
Chileans have a very large sweet tooth. In fact, it is hard to go more than a couple of blocks without seeing some kind of storefront selling something on the sweet side. Perhaps one of the most beloved sweet things for Chileans to enjoy is ice cream, and one of the best known names in ice cream is Gelateria Bravissimo. This is a local chain of ice cream shops found all over Santiago. Just walking by one without stopping is hard to do when you get a shot of all of the flavors of ice cream being offered up inside. Here you can get ice cream in a cup, cone, shake or sundae. But be warned, some of the sundaes and shakes are very large and even two people eating on them will have trouble getting it all down. Even though Bravissimos are known for their ice cream, they also offer up some light eating in the forms of sandwiches and salads, but something just doesn't seem right about ordering a salad at an ice cream shop. So when your sweet tooth starts to ache Bravissimo has what it takes to make it feel better.
If you are walking around Barrio Bellavista, and the wind is just right then the smells of fresh baked pastries will tease you. If you are curious as to the origins just follow your noise. More than likely your noise will lead you to Dulceria Las Palmas. Since you are here, you might as well take a load off and settle in for a nice meal. When entering the restaurant your eyes will immediately be drawn to the left and all the sweets on display. There is everything from ice cream, cookies, chocolate and custard pastries, and cheesecakes. There aren't many other places with such an impressive variety of sweet things in Santiago.
Despite what your eyes and noise tells you, this is more than a sweet shop. Dulceria Las Palmas also is a great place to have lunch. I would recommend ordering the daily special. Usually, the daily special consists of your choice of juice, salad or soup, a main course, desert and a coffee or tea. You get all of this for around $8. In a recent trip to this restaurant the main dish was your choice of either a plate of grilled chicken or pot roasted pork with rice. With so much food included in the daily special there will be no need for dinner. The seating fills up pretty quickly so if you want to ensure a seat before the lunch crowd plan on showing up around 2 p.m. because by 2:30 you may have to wait for a seat to open up.