My three-month Chile and Argentina itinerary was built through recommendations from backpackers. We tend to follow similar trails up and down continents. It wasn’t a surprise that my stop after El Calafate was El Chaltén, and it wasn’t a surprise to run into people I met in Bariloche a few days later in Mendoza.
But for most backpackers, it was a surprise that I carved out a week of my trip just for Valparaíso. Travel agents offer day trips to Valparaíso from Santiago to see the coastal city’s famed street art, take photos from the top of the hill on which the city is built, and visit (the most famous) Pablo Neruda house.
A day or a weekend is perfectly acceptable for bohemian and quirky Valparaíso. I stayed for 11 days.
If you’re going to be in Santiago for any reason, stay at least four days in Valparaíso. Stay for the street art, stay for the beaches, or stay just to recover from your hangover. Valparaíso is more than just steep hills and street art; it’s a truly beautiful city that provides a great introduction to Chile through music, history, and empanadas three times as big as Argentina’s.
Stay For The Street Art
If a building in Valparaíso doesn’t have a mural on it, it will get tagged, so homeowners might as well commission someone to paint something beautiful. This is one of the biggest draws to Valparaíso, and even on cloudy days, the street art doesn’t disappoint.
Valparaíso’s street art has its own Greatest Hits album, including, “The Piano Stairs,” “We Are Not Hippies We Are Happies” and “That’s An Emu, Right?” Spend an entire day on a scavenger hunt of these Insta-bucket-list-items. You’ll have the chance to take dozens of additional pictures between each stop.
At the 10 a.m. street art tour, our guide showed us landmarks where street art turned a kids-smoke-here-and-cause-trouble alley into beautiful works of art. He pointed out 1UP and other international artists who came to Valparaíso. And he picked the best route for escaping stray dogs that become very attached to tour groups.
(Stay for the love and protection of the stray dogs. Strays in Chile are well-fed, old, and a more pleasant sight than most stray dogs around the world, but they are also stage-five clingers. Pet them once and you’ll have a walking companion and faithful protection for your entire Valparaíso trip.)
This is the tallest piece of street art in the city. It was done by a couple. The wife was 4 1/2 months pregnant at the time.
Stay For the Rooftop at Planeta Lindo
The street art extends throughout the entire city of Valparaíso, including the doorstep of the Planeta Lindo hostel, where I stayed for the entirety of my trip.
Two white angel wings frame whatever guest or tourist walks by and poses. The wings are right next to the door, where Guti, Sergio, and their friends are usually hanging out and having a chat. I still have a sticker with these angel wings on the bottom of my laptop that Sergio gave me after I checked in. The stickers cost money, but hey, I had a nice laptop, so I could just have one. (Chileans have a generosity that remains unmatched after visiting 20+ countries.)
Excuse the 2. a.m. photoshoot lighting.
Great staff, free laundry, and comfy beds aside, the reason I booked Planeta Lindo was for the view. The kitchen was on the top floor of the hostel – and steps away from the kitchen was a rooftop where you could chill out, have a coffee, or (in my case,) get some work done.
It wasn’t easy to leave that view. One day, a group of guests and I decided to enjoy a rooftop Happy Hour around the neighborhood. Those were our conditions: a rooftop and Happy Hour prices.
Well, wouldn’t you know, after about a half hour of humming and hawing and flaunting empty pockets, we decided that Planeta Lindo was the best rooftop with Happy Hour prices we could get. The corner store was still selling bottles of wine for two U.S. dollars, and we never had to get up from our chairs until it was time to go to bed.
The views were beautiful morning…
…and night.
Stay for the Beaches
The bus system in Valparaíso is a true test of the backpacker attitude.
Valparaíso was not present at the conference where grids were chosen as the best way to arrange a city. Looking at the bus route from the hostel to downtown gave me flashbacks of the highly-dreaded, Dramamine’s dream of a bus trip between Chiang Mai and Pai. Along the way, the bus driver might pull into an alley and wait 10 minutes for a woman and child (presumably, someone he knows) to get on the bus. Vendors will come on and introduce you to the South American selling cycle: they put a pencil or tissues or a chocolate in your hand, only to take it back five minutes later if you’re not going to buy.
If you can handle all of this without complaints, eye rolls, or panicking, congratulations, you can handle the rest of your confusing, ever-changing backpacking adventure.
Take the bus from Planeta Lindo for about 40 minutes and you’ll end up at Viña Del Mar. Stay on a little longer and you’ll end up in Reñaca. A fair bit longer brings you to Concón. It’s a sandy choose-your-own-adventure – I’ll let you peek through the pages so you can plan ahead.
About The Beaches Around Valparaíso
Viña Del Mar is the most famous beach of the three. If you don’t know that before arriving, you will as soon as you navigate the sea of umbrellas to find your gringos. (Hint: they are the only group without an umbrella, and sorely regretting that error.) It’s the spot where rich families spend their summers – the high-rises facing the ocean are a spectacle.
Reñaca is a little further out, much less crowded, and personally my favorite beach. You might be able to surf if the waves aren’t too aggressive, and you definitely can stroll down the boardwalk and find somewhere to eat for lunch and dinner. (Good news for heavy sleepers: even the sun takes its time in South America. Valpo mornings tend to be foggy, with the summer sun peeking out around 1 p.m.)
What about Concón? Save this for an evening, as per Sergio’s suggestion. Three girls and I from the hostel opted for an Uber out to the dunes. We drank wine, watched sandboarding attempts, and gossiped about Chilean guys and American celebrities and who we left back home. The sand dunes at Concón may not make the “# Reasons to Visit Valparaíso” lists, but it makes the list of places where “Wow, I’m backpacking and meeting people from all over the world and life is pretty cool” really hits you.
A snapshot from my time at Viña Del Mar…
…Reñaca…
…and Concón.
Stay For Your Hangover
“I spent 11 days in Valparaíso.”
“Opppaaaaa, party time! Much party. Time for detox, aaay?”
Valparaíso has a reputation amongst Chileans as a place where tourists go to tour and locals go to party.
The top spot in Valparaíso is Terraza Bellavista, or simply called “Terraza.” The Chileans in our group were at Terraza to dance, the Germans were there to pull, and the girls were there to hold the cards and giggle amongst themselves. I coined a few dance moves at this rooftop spot: among them were the “Take-Your-Jaw-Off-The-Floor,” the “Try-Your-Best,” and the “Keel-Over-From-Laughing.”
Terraza is a great night out if you enjoy a mix of reggaeton, pop, and adjusting to South America’s “pay for your drink, get a receipt, hand the receipt to a different person, get your drink” system at the bar. You can get those drinks until 5 a.m., so it’s best to extend your stay now.
Stay For Whatever Event Comes Up When You Arrive
Clubs are typically not my jam, but the dancing in South America was too good to stay away. Usually, I bombard hostel staff with this question upon check-in:
“Where I can I see some live music?”
“You want music? Oooopaaaa.” At Planeta Lindo, Sergio pulled out a brochure for a free, four-day music festival hosted by the Rock and Popular Music Schools of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.
Oooopaaaaa indeed.
On Saturday, I grabbed a gang of backpackers and took them on a bus to the festival grounds. We hopped around each of the four stages, dancing to a “Chilean Post Malone,” traditional Latin music, and Niños Del Cerro. You can take a listen below. Niños Del Cerro was probably my favorite band that I saw in South America, but that might be because I’m used to the indie scene in Austin. I could almost taste the kombucha while they were playing. Is it too late for them to apply for SXSW?
But That’s Not All…
Rocko Dromo was not the only event that pushed its way into my itinerary. Red Bull’s Cerro Abajo was taking over the city three days after my departure. I was/am not hip to the world of competitive biking. But, Red Bull tends to be the flag-bearer in the world of wacky, once-and-a-lifetime extreme sporting events. You won’t see this in your home city.
Three more nights, please.
We spent that Sunday morning following Guti to the top of the track and then back down to the bottom. The tour featured ice cream sales in one-person-wide alleys, whispered stories about local characters, and neighborhood kids giggling and yelling out to Guti from balconies across the racetrack. When crowds got sticky, a Chilean guy would “moo” with such accuracy that everyone had tears of laughter cooling their faces. Laughter, pranks, and the sweet sound of vendors filled the air between each biker’s run. We made it back just in time for a siesta.
At the time, I was hanging around with a group of German, Australian, and Dutch travelers. Friday night we had piscolas and watched a band at Mascara. Saturday was for Terraza. What were the plans tonight? We were all leaving the next day. I was heading to Vicuña on an 8 a.m. bus and everyone else was making their way toward Bolivia. But Guti and Sergio had wristbands for Terraza, which was open for the Cerro Abajo afterparty. Us girls had been eyeing a few of the bikers at the starting line. The boys didn’t need anything to convince them to go out. Terraza (before 1 a.m.) it was.
Before you travel, I advise convincing yourself that two hours is a fine amount of sleep.
It was hard to pull myself away from the night of dancing under confetti, making fun of the boys for their sad attempts to pull, and flirting/signing with Chileans. With an hour of sleep under my belt, I managed to creep out of Valparaíso before the sun came up.
For the rest of my trip, I would shock people with the length of my stay in Valparaíso. But five months after leaving, I still swear that I could enjoy at least a month in the hipster paradise that is Valpariaso.
A month is a long time, but I recommend staying at least an extra day.
