Cruises from Santiago

Chile’s capital is inland, so its cruise traffic is split between two Pacific ports. Valparaíso, a UNESCO-listed city of hillside neighborhoods, funiculars and street art, is the more charming, while San Antonio is a working container port with little to see but good road links to Santiago. Lines have shifted between the two over the years, and your cruise documents may simply say ‘Santiago’, so confirm the actual port early.

The signature itinerary is the 14- to 17-night voyage around the tip of South America to Buenos Aires, calling at Puerto Montt, cruising the Chilean fjords and the Strait of Magellan, then visiting Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, Cape Horn, the Falkland Islands, Puerto Madryn and Montevideo. Other sailings head north to Callao for Lima, Manta in Ecuador and through the Panama Canal to Florida, or south for scenic Antarctic cruising.

For North Americans, Santiago is an overnight flight with little time difference from the East Coast, and a pre-cruise stay can combine Andes-backed city sightseeing, wine country and the Pacific coast. The trade-off is that both ports are well over an hour from the airport, so arriving on the morning of the cruise is risky.

In Valparaíso, ships tie up in the harbor below the city’s hills, and passengers check in at the VTP passenger terminal along the waterfront, with shuttle buses linking the terminal and the berth. Taxis and transfers drop off at the terminal, where you hand over your bags and clear security and immigration. In San Antonio, cruise passengers are processed at a passenger terminal inside the DP World container port, with buses taking you between the terminal and the ship; the town itself has little to offer, so most travelers arrive directly from Santiago or Viña del Mar. Both ports issue boarding windows, and lines can build when big ships turn around.

In Santiago, Providencia and Las Condes are modern, safe and convenient for the highways to the coast, while Lastarria and Bellavista have more character, with cafés, galleries and nightlife. On the coast, Valparaíso’s Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción have boutique hotels in restored mansions with harbor views. Viña del Mar, Valparaíso’s beach-resort neighbor, has larger hotels and is a good base for either port, about 15 minutes from Valparaíso and roughly an hour from San Antonio.

Cruises operate from about October to April, the southern spring and summer. December to February brings the warmest weather in Patagonia, long days and the best conditions for Cape Horn and the Chilean fjords. October, November, March and April see repositioning voyages north to Peru and the Panama Canal or south toward Antarctica, with cooler conditions in the far south but fewer crowds. Santiago’s summer is hot and dry, and the coast is cooler.