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Country guide
Chile is a narrow strip between the Andes and the Pacific, the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica. Its 756,102 km² are arranged almost entirely along one north–south line, with Peru and Bolivia at the top and the Drake Passage at the bottom, so nearly every journey here is a journey up or down. The 2024 census counted 18.5 million people. Santiago is the capital and largest city. Chile also administers Pacific islands far offshore, among them Juan Fernández and Easter Island, which means two places under the same flag can sit an ocean apart.
Reviewed by Elena Voss · SSMTour Travel Editor
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Omnespsx (D•ES) · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
60 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
Cerro San Cristóbal is a prominent hill rising within Santiago's Metropolitan Park, recognized as the city's defining urban viewpoint. The hill offers panoramic vistas across the Chilean capital toward the Andes Mountains.
Plaza de Armas de Santiago de Chile
Plaza de Armas is Santiago's principal historic square and the city's Kilometre Zero.
La Moneda Palace, known locally as Palacio de La Moneda, serves as Chile's presidential palace and stands as Santiago's foremost national civic landmark. The neoclassical building occupies a central position in the city's civic district.
Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos
The Museum of Memory and Human Rights is Chile's principal museum addressing dictatorship-era state violence, memory, and human rights.
Museo de Arte Precolombino
The Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, known locally as Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, is a museum in Santiago dedicated to Indigenous art and material culture from across the Americas.
Sky Costanera is an observation deck situated at the summit of Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest completed building in South America. Located in the Providencia district of Santiago, Chile, it offers the highest public panoramic viewpoint in the city.
Cerro Santa Lucía
Santa Lucia Hill, known locally as Cerro Santa Lucía, is a landscaped historic hill situated at the edge of Santiago's city centre. The site combines military fortifications, garden terraces, and a compact viewpoint overlooking the urban area.
Casa Museo La Chascona
La Chascona House Museum, locally Casa Museo La Chascona, stands as Pablo Neruda's distinctive Santiago residence in the Bellavista quarter.
Mercado Central
The Mercado Central de Santiago is a historic iron market building and Santiago's best-known seafood and food-market landmark. The structure features distinctive cast-iron architecture imported from Britain in the 19th century, with a prominent central nave and skylight.
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes is Chile's principal fine-arts institution, anchoring the Parque Forestal and the Lastarria museum circuit in Santiago.
Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago de Chile
The Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral, known locally as Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago, stands as the principal Catholic cathedral of Chile's national capital. It occupies a commanding position on the west side of Plaza de Armas, the historic heart of Santiago.
Museo Histórico Nacional
The National Historical Museum, locally Museo Histórico Nacional, stands as Chile's central national-history collection. It occupies the former Royal Audience building on Plaza de Armas in Santiago.
The Gabriela Mistral Cultural Centre, known locally as Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, is Santiago's major multidisciplinary performing-arts and exhibition complex. It serves as the cultural anchor of the Lastarria neighbourhood, one of the city's most distinctive quarters.
Barrio Lastarria is a compact neighbourhood in central Santiago known for its concentration of cultural venues, dining, and pedestrian-friendly streets.
Barrio Bellavista is a bohemian neighbourhood in Santiago, Chile, situated on the northern bank of the Mapocho River at the foot of San Cristóbal Hill.
Barrio Yungay is a community-protected heritage district in Santiago, Chile. It is recognized for its distinctive low-rise architectural character, network of passages, and prominent large-scale street murals.
Parque Bicentenario
Parque Bicentenario de Vitacura is a major landscaped public park situated along the Mapocho River in the Vitacura commune of eastern Santiago, Chile.
Parque Quinta Normal
Parque Quinta Normal is a historic public park in Santiago, Chile. Established in the nineteenth century, it represents one of the city's oldest green spaces and has evolved into a significant cultural destination.
Parque Forestal
Forestal Park, or Parque Forestal, is a linear public park beside the Mapocho River in central Santiago.
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural
The National Museum of Natural History, known locally as Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, stands as Chile's principal natural-history museum. It serves as the flagship institution within Quinta Normal, a significant public park in Santiago.
Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda
La Moneda Cultural Centre, known locally as Centro Cultural La Moneda, is a subterranean exhibition centre located beneath the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile. The venue presents major Chilean and international shows.
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
The Museum of Contemporary Art, locally known as Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, is a cultural institution operated by the University of Chile. It shares the historic Bellas Artes palace in central Santiago.
Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco is a historic religious complex in central Santiago, comprising a church, convent, and museum under unified management. Founded by Franciscan missionaries, it stands among the oldest colonial-era structures in Chile's capital.
Teatro Municipal de Santiago
The Municipal Theatre of Santiago, known locally as Teatro Municipal de Santiago, stands as Chile's premier venue for opera, ballet, and classical music. This nineteenth-century architectural landmark occupies a central position in the capital.
Museo de Santiago - Casa Colorada
Casa Colorada is a colonial-era house in central Santiago, Chile. Built in 1769, it is one of the oldest surviving structures in the city and serves as the Museo de Santiago Casa Colorada.
Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco
San Francisco Museum of Colonial Art, or Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco, is a specialized museum within Santiago’s historic San Francisco religious complex.
Palacio del Ex-Congreso Nacional de Chile
Former National Congress Building, known locally as Ex Congreso Nacional de Chile, is a historic legislative palace in central Santiago. The republican ensemble includes the former palace and its surrounding gardens.
Palacio Cousiño is a nineteenth-century mansion in Santiago, Chile, built during the country's mining boom era. The palace was constructed for the Cousiño-Goyenechea family, whose wealth derived from silver, coal, and other mineral extraction.
Pereira Palace, or Palacio Pereira, is a restored mansion dating from 1874 in Santiago's historic centre. It functions as a national heritage centre and represents nineteenth-century elite residential architecture in Chile's capital.
Palacio de los Tribunales de Justicia
Palace of the Courts of Justice, or Palacio de los Tribunales de Justicia de Santiago, is a monumental neoclassical civic building in central Santiago.
The Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum, or Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, is a Santiago cultural institution built around an international modern-art collection.
The Violeta Parra Museum, Museo Violeta Parra, is a Santiago national institution devoted to one of Chile's foundational folk artists. Violeta Parra was a musician, composer, visual artist, and folklorist whose work crossed creative disciplines.
Museo Ferroviario
The Santiago Railway Museum, Museo Ferroviario de Santiago, is an outdoor museum devoted to Chile's railway heritage. Its setting inside Quinta Normal Park lets travelers encounter historic locomotives and rolling stock at full scale.
Museum of Science and Technology, locally Museo de Ciencia y Tecnología, is a hands-on science museum in Santiago. It forms part of Quinta Normal's family-oriented museum cluster and focuses on scientific and technological education through direct participation.
Mirador Interactive Museum, or Museo Interactivo Mirador, is a hands-on science museum in metropolitan Santiago. It is designed around participation, so visitors learn by touching, moving, testing and observing rather than only reading labels.
The National Aeronautical and Space Museum, Museo Nacional Aeronáutico y del Espacio, is Chile's principal aviation museum. It stands in Cerrillos, a commune in southwestern Santiago, and preserves the country's aeronautical heritage through aircraft and aerospace-related displays.
The Museum of Visual Arts, known as Museo de Artes Visuales, is a focused contemporary art museum in Santiago’s Lastarria neighbourhood.
The Japanese Garden of Santiago, Jardín Japonés de Santiago, is a restored terraced garden within Metropolitan Park on Cerro San Cristóbal.
Santuario de la Inmaculada Concepción del Cerro San Cristóbal
Immaculate Conception Sanctuary, or Santuario de la Inmaculada Concepción del Cerro San Cristóbal, stands at the summit of Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago. The sanctuary and its monumental Virgin statue create the hill’s defining destination.
Mapulemu Botanical Garden, known locally as Jardín Botánico Mapulemu, is a botanical garden within Santiago’s Metropolitan Park on Cerro San Cristóbal.
Araucano Park, or Parque Araucano, is a large urban green space in Las Condes, eastern Santiago. It gives visitors a broad recreational landscape within one of the capital’s most developed districts.
Inés de Suárez Park is a substantial neighbourhood park in Providencia, Santiago. Named after the Spanish conquistadora Inés de Suárez, it is primarily a local green space woven into the daily life of a densely populated district.
Patio Bellavista is a commercial and entertainment complex at the entrance to Santiago’s Bellavista neighbourhood. It works well as a lively urban stop between central Santiago and Cerro San Cristóbal.
Vega Central
La Vega Central Market is one of Santiago’s major working food markets, serving both wholesale and retail customers. It connects Chilean agricultural production with everyday city life, so the experience feels practical and energetic rather than staged for visitors.
Mercado de Abastos Tirso de Molina
Tirso de Molina Market, also known as Mercado de Abasto Tirso de Molina, is a market hall near Santiago’s larger La Vega market area.
Museo de Artes Decorativas
The Museum of Decorative Arts, or Museo de Artes Decorativas, is a specialist museum within Santiago’s Recoleta cultural complex. Its focus is European and Asian decorative arts, giving the visit a more concentrated character than a broad national-history museum.
Museo Histórico Militar
The Historical and Military Museum of Chile occupies a substantial heritage building in Santiago that formerly served as Chile’s military school. The museum connects the building’s institutional past with displays about the country’s military history.
The Gabriela Mistral Museum of Education is a national museum in Santiago’s historic Barrio Yungay. It focuses on Chilean schooling and educational history, while its name honors Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean poet, educator, and Nobel Prize winner.
The Museo del Sonido, known in English as the Museum of Sound, is a specialist cultural museum in Santiago’s Yungay neighbourhood. The museum explores recorded sound, playback technology, and the ways people have listened to audio across changing periods.
Museo Numismático
The Museo Numismático del Banco Central de Chile is Chile's specialist public collection dedicated to coins, banknotes, and monetary history. Housed under the auspices of the nation's central bank, it preserves and exhibits the country's numismatic heritage.
Casa Central Universidad de Chile
University of Chile Central House, or Casa Central de la Universidad de Chile, is the historic headquarters of Chile’s oldest state university.
Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho
Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho is a monumental former railway terminus in Santiago, Chile, now reused as one of the city's principal exhibition and event spaces.
Constitution Square, or Plaza de la Constitución, is a ceremonial public square in central Santiago. It forms the formal forecourt of Palacio de La Moneda, Chile’s presidential palace.
Baquedano Square, also known locally as Plaza Baquedano, is a major public square in Santiago, Chile. It stands at an important urban junction between the city centre, Providencia, Bellavista, and Parque Bustamante.
Family Park, also known as Parque de la Familia, is a large public park on the west side of the Mapocho River in Santiago, Chile.
El Arrayan Nature Sanctuary, locally known as Santuario de la Naturaleza El Arrayán, is a protected foothill setting on the northeastern metropolitan edge of Santiago, Chile.
Parque Natural Aguas de Ramón
Parque Natural Aguas de Ramón is a protected natural area on Santiago’s eastern foothills. The park offers a reachable mountain escape within the metropolitan region, with trails entering Mediterranean sclerophyll forest and following creek drainages toward the Andean piedmont.
Parque Natural Quebrada de Macul
Parque Natural Quebrada de Macul is a natural park located in the eastern foothills of Santiago, Chile.
Cajón del Maipo is a canyon and mountainous valley region southeast of Santiago, Chile, formed by the Maipo River as it descends from the Andes.
Museo de Sitio y Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·
A 10–16 day visit should pair Santiago with one major region, such as the Atacama, the Lake District or a Patagonian gateway. Chile’s length makes combining north and far south in a short itinerary transfer-heavy.
Chile’s consular service publishes the visa rules used for entry. Nationality, travel purpose and length of stay determine the requirement, and any application should be made through the official consular channel.
Santiago is the central international and domestic hub. Flights connect the desert, lake and Patagonian gateways, while long-distance buses cover mainland corridors and remote parks require a confirmed final transfer.
October through April is the broad operating window for many central and southern journeys. Atacama conditions, central-valley heat and Patagonian wind are distinct, so the least flexible regional leg should set the calendar.
Chile uses the Chilean peso (CLP). Current withdrawal costs and merchant acceptance are Not recorded; review the amount in pesos and any conversion offered before completing payment.
Chile uses 133 for police, 131 for ambulance and 132 for fire. Power is 220 V with Type C and L plugs, while nationwide tap-water guidance remains Not recorded.
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