On one of the weekend trips I got to know Valparaiso and Vina del Mar about 2 hours from Santiago, seeing some immense vineyards along the way. Almost grown together these two cities couldn’t be more different. Valparaiso is one of the oldest cities, Vina del Mar one of the youngest. In Valparaiso you have many historic buildings; the city seems somewhat chaotic and poorer then its neighbor. It has a big port and the parliament has its seat there. Vina on the other hand is a modern somewhat artificial holiday complex with tons of hotels and restaurants. It was high summer and it was very hard to find a place for the night.
I think I have never seen a beach so crowded as this one and this despite the fact that there are signs everywhere telling you that swimming is prohibited. People don’t really care and do it anyway. The waves come in very strong but are of no good for surfing since they break in the last moment.
Although it’s nice to wander around in the city, the real reason in my opinion why somebody shouldn’t miss visiting the place is a little north to the city. If you like to walk and don’t mind doing so for a few hours then just take off from the center heading north along the coast. Passing some smaller Holiday complexes, it will take you to spectacular views and cliffs with birds and sea lions on an isolated rock out in the sea. If you like you can even have some desert adventures in the dunes that start to emerge.
Clearly the people in Chile like to travel as it was sometimes almost impossible to make your way through the crowds in the huge bus terminal on a summer weekend. I have never seen anything alike.