Relaxing in the Chilean beach town of Viña del Mar
by Nancy Tardy, Henderson, NV
Do you like the laid-back ambience of a beach resort town? Have you explored and tired of the Caribbean and Central American resorts that are a 30-dollar taxi ride away from shopping and alternative dining options? Do you like learning about other cultures and sampling a wide range of cuisines? Viña del Mar, Chile, known as The Garden City for its Mediterranean cityscapes, may be a perfect choice for your next trip.
Getting there
For my 2007 trip, I traveled from the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport to Santiago, which was easy. The 10-hour nonstop flight with American Airlines cost about $800 and was just the right length for a leisurely dinner, movie, extended nap and breakfast prior to the 8:00 arrival at the spacious, new Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport.
Many travelers enjoy spending a few days in Santiago, but I wanted to escape the large metropolis of six million residents. Since Viña del Mar is only two hours away, I chose to travel directly to this smaller city of approximately 300,000.
I had made my own plans and reservations and was traveling alone, plus I don’t speak Spanish, so I wrote out and memorized the Spanish phrases needed to purchase transfer and bus tickets for the trip. It was inexpensive (approximately $25 for a round-trip ticket to Viña del Mar), and riding on the quiet, luxurious, air-conditioned Chilean buses was easy.
Other options for getting there include renting a car at the airport or asking your hotel in Viña del Mar to send a car to pick you up at the airport and return you there after your stay.
The airport is located west of Santiago where the traffic is much lighter. This makes the drive to the ocean through one of Chile’s most productive wine regions most enjoyable.
Where to stay
Viña del Mar has a well-developed business core with a variety of banking, shopping, hotel and dining options. I chose a hotel in a quiet, safe area near the beach, north of the business district and across the tidal estuary called Marga Marga. I enrolled in a 5-day Spanish language school program (www.spanish-school.com.mx/chile), an enjoyable but largely futile attempt to improve my foreign language skills.
Every day I walked the 20 minutes downtown to the International Center, located near the local cathedral, where Jennifer, my private teacher, encouraged me and helped where she could, laughing when we could no longer keep up the deception that I would accrue fluency in such a short time.
I stayed at the Monterilla Hotel (Av. Dos Norte 65; www.monterilla. cl), a small, charming hotel that provided comfortable, quiet rooms about two blocks from the beach at a cost of approximately $100 a night. A buffet breakfast and a computer with high-speed Internet connection added extra value at no additional charge.
Other hotel options, including the expensive casino resort Casino Viña del Mar (Av. San Martín 199), are located in the beachfront area. Many travelers wanting ocean-view rooms enjoy Hotel San Martín (Av. San Martín 667; www.hotelsanmartin.cl), located near the Playa Acapulco.
Remember that the expensive high season and the period of warmest weather for this beachfront city is November through March. I traveled there in April, enjoying comfortable 70-degree days, though swimming in the cool waters of the Pacific was a definite no-no.
Dining out
The summer crowds had departed, leaving the streets and sidewalks easily navigable and the restaurants anxious to serve. Within a 6-block radius of the hotel, more than 20 restaurants offered a wide variety of fine dining and quick grill options; the area is appropriately called the “gastronomic district.”
One of my most memorable dining experiences was at Delicias del Mar, a Basque seafood restaurant on Avenue St. Martín. It is decorated with hundreds of photographs of Marilyn Monroe, and when I asked about the unusual décor, my waiter replied that the owner’s father had a passion for Marilyn and collected these photos from all the stages of her life. The food and service were excellent.
Plan to spend between $15 and $30 for lunch, including wine and dessert, anywhere in the “gastronomic district.” Chile, like other South American countries, features a lengthy lunch hour and late-evening dining with unhurried service.
Viña del Mar is an excellent base from which to make short trips up and down the coast. The 2-hour return trip to the Santiago airport encourages further exploration in this long, skinny country or allows one to jet off into the Pacific vastness to one of the most isolated and intriguing places on the planet, Easter Island.
One last helpful hint — U.S. citizens arriving in Chile through the Santiago airport each must pay a 100-dollar entry fee (Canadians, Mexicans and Australians are also charged fees), which is duly noted with a passport stamp and is good for the life of that passport.