Santiago

Santiago's viewpoints are the best introduction to the city's dramatic setting. Cerro San Cristóbal, the great green hill rising from the Bellavista district, is the centrepiece of the large Parque Metropolitano — ride the restored 1925 funicular or the cable car to the summit, crowned by a white statue of the Virgin Mary, for a panorama across the whole city to the wall of the Andes beyond (clearest in the morning or after rain clears the valley's haze). The park also holds gardens, pools and walking trails. In the very centre, the smaller Cerro Santa Lucía is a delightful surprise — a steep, landscaped hill of stone terraces, fountains, balustrades and turrets built on the rocky outcrop where the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded the city in 1541, with city views from the top and a maze of romantic paths to wander up. Together the two hills frame the city and reveal its valley-and-mountain geography.

Santiago's historic core gathers the city's founding monuments around the Plaza de Armas, the main square laid out in the 16th century and still the city's heart — flanked by the grand Metropolitan Cathedral, the old Royal Court palace (now the National History Museum) and the central post office, alive with chess players, buskers and shoeshines. A few blocks away stands La Moneda, the neoclassical presidential palace, whose courtyards can be visited and whose changing of the guard draws a crowd, with the cultural centre beneath it. The atmospheric Mercado Central, housed under an ornate 19th-century iron roof, is the place for a lunch of fresh Chilean seafood (try the conger-eel soup or a seafood platter), and the nearby La Vega market overflows with the country's astonishing produce. The pre-Columbian art museum (Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino) nearby is among the city's finest. The centre rewards a daytime wander on foot.

Santiago's most enjoyable neighbourhoods cluster near the centre. Bellavista, at the foot of San Cristóbal, is the bohemian quarter — colourful houses, murals, theatres, the lively Patio Bellavista dining-and-craft complex, buzzing nightlife, and La Chascona, one of three eccentric, ship-themed homes of the Nobel-winning poet Pablo Neruda, now a museum. Adjoining Lastarria and Bellas Artes are the city's most cultured streets — belle-époque architecture, antique shops, café terraces, the cinema and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the country's main art gallery in a grand 1910 building. To the east, the modern districts of Providencia and Las Condes show Santiago's prosperity: leafy avenues, shopping and the high-rise financial hub of “Sanhattan,” dominated by the 300-metre Costanera Center, South America's tallest building, whose Sky Costanera observation decks give the ultimate city-and-Andes view. This mix of bohemian, cultured and modern barrios, all linked by a clean and efficient metro, makes Santiago easy and pleasant to explore.

Santiago's location is its trump card, putting some of Chile's best experiences within a day trip. The country's celebrated wine valleys begin on the city's doorstep — the Maipo Valley for bold Cabernet Sauvignon (the historic Concha y Toro and boutique wineries), the cool Casablanca Valley for whites on the way to the coast, and the Colchagua Valley a little further south — all with cellar-door tastings and lunches among the vines. An hour and a half west lies the coast: the colourful, hill-tumbling, UNESCO-listed port city of Valparaíso with its funiculars and street art, and the beach resort of Viña del Mar beside it. And the Andes rise right behind the city — in winter, world-class ski resorts like Valle Nevado, La Parva and Farellones are little more than an hour away, and the dramatic Cajón del Maipo canyon, with its mountain river, hot springs and the El Yeso reservoir, offers hiking, rafting and stargazing year-round. Few capitals put wine country, ocean and high mountains so close at hand.