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A May 2009 trip to Santiago by LenR

Station Photo - Santiago, Chile More Photos
Quote: While doing all the well-known sights is important, we also like to discover some unusual areas in a city we are visiting and we did this in Santiago. Here are three suggestions and also some information about getting around this sprawling city.
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Barrio Brasil Best of IgoUgo

Story/Tip

Church Photo - Santiago, Chile
Quote:
This is a mixed residential neighbourhood to the west of the city centre. It was once fairly affluent but the middle-classes moved out some decades ago. This was compounded when the Via Norte-Sur highway was constructed separating the area from the city centre. The western end of the area is still quite depressed and not an area to explore at night by yourself but the eastern end and the heart of the barrio has come back fighting.The attractive Plaza Brazil is the centre of the area. This has some nice trees, benches, basketball hoops and soon on. There is a variety of cafes around the plaza and just west on Campania the Templo de la Preciosa Sangre is a big basilica with palms in front. I...Read More
Pedestrian street Photo - Santiago, Chile
Quote:
South American cities seem more alive than those in say Australia and the US and I have concluded that this is because of the European design of plazas and squares that can be seen in almost all of them. This encourages people to get out of their apartments and walk, sit and talk in the squares and adjoining streets. In Santiago, we found several places where we joined the locals and watched the local street theatre.The most obvious was the Plaza de Armas which is the centre of the old city and was laid out by Pedro de Valdivia when he founded Santiago in 1541. The plaza is surrounded by some of the city’s most important buildings – cathedral, post office, museum, church offices, city hall...Read More

Holley Best of IgoUgo

Story/Tip

Quiet Photo - Santiago, Chile
Quote:
This is a pedestrian area off Avenue Providencia which has two different personalities. By day it is a pleasant place to walk amongst the boutiques and cute half-timbered teashops while at night it becomes a haven for night clubbers and others. I was told that this ‘used to be "the place" in Santiago to hang out but that is no longer the case as here and nearby Calle Suecia are places for druggies and prostitutes’. There was no evidence of this when we visited late one afternoon but I must say that parts of the area seem to have seen better days so there could be some truth in this statement.The whole Providencia area, has many slick, American-style bars that pull in a huge crowd of profes...Read More

Surface Transport Best of IgoUgo

Story/Tip

Articulated bus Photo - Santiago, Chile
Quote:
Apart from the metro, buses are the only other public transport option. The Transantiago system has standardized bus routes and combined local (feeder) bus lines, main bus lines and the subway network. It includes an integrated fare system, which allows passengers to make bus-to-bus or bus-to-metro transfers for the price of one ticket, using a single smartcard. While this is great for residents it is of little value for the visitor who has just arrived.The bip! charge card allows you to get on any metro or bus. Furthermore, you can transfer from metro to a bus or vice versa and not get charged extra, as the fare carries over for 90 minutes from your first point of entry. Passengers who do...Read More
Station Photo - Santiago, Chile
Quote:
The Santiago metro is an excellent system which is easy for foreigners to use. We bought a ticket and boarded the correct train after only 30 minutes in the city. There are several lines but the two of most interest to visitors will be line 1 which was built under the Alameda (the main east-west road through the city) and then east through Providencia in the 1970s and the more recent Plaza de Armas to Quinta Normal leg of line 5.In 1968 the decision was taken to build a rubber-tyred metro system with 5 lines and totalling 60 km. In 2009, the total length of the network is 102.4 km with 104 stations.The Metro sells tickets from 6:00 to 23:00 Monday through Friday, 6:30 to 22:30 ...Read More

About the Writer

LenR

LenR
Townsville, Australia

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