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Luxury Hotels, Ski Lodges, Cruises, Escorted Tours, Videos
Chile is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with loads of fantastic attractions, unmatched in variety. There are extreme differences to explore, from Patagonia to the Atacama Desert, towering mountains, rugged seashores, National Parks, the incredible Altiplano Lakes, magnificant glaciers, the Chiloe Archipelago, awesome virgin forests and all the magnificant histtorical architechure in Valpariso. Chile has it all. Antarctica cruises leaving from Chile offer even more variety and are a once in a lifetime opportunity for the well seasoned traveler. Being close to Santiago, the Valprriso beaches and beach resorts offer luxury at its best. Great restaurants, fine cuisine, opulant nightclubs, gambling casinos, fun bars, loads of exciting cultural attractions, excellent surfing conditions for beginners to pro surfers will please the adventure seekers. Chile Luxury Hotels, Ski Lodges and Inns Chile Escorted Tours, Vacation Packages, Cruises
Chile Travel Videos and Information
The coast of Chile is over 4000 kilometers in length with the most fabulous scenery in the world! Antarctica cruises, on the other end, start in Punta Arenas, offering a once-in-a-lifetime show of ice formations and floating icebergs over the icy waters of Drake pass and the Antarctic Ocean. Both routes offer an amazing wildlife with sperm whales, massive penguin colonies, sea wolves and elephants, cormorants and with a little luck the artic seagull, a bird that twice a year travels 20,000 kilometres from the North Pole in search of food. Patagonia is the scene of the world's great adventures. Even if we know little of the place, the name itself inhabits our subconscious, whispering of an unknown finger of the earth, el fin del mundo. We picture large silent spaces, tempestuous seas, windblown solitude. This is an ideal area for camping, hiking, and trekking because of its several national parks, mountains, and forests. Climbing mounts Tronador and LanÃn and the upright walls of mounts Torre and Fitz Roy is a classical activity which represents a challenge even for expert mountain climbers. There are many winter sport resorts and mountain retreats around this area, and golf courses in the city of Bariloche and its surroundings. Windsurfing may be practiced in BahÃa Serena; and if you are properly dressed, you can trek on glaciers and mountains. Valparaiso is where most cruise line visit, and is close to Santiago's important tourism areas. Valpariaso is made up of many cultures, making the homes very attractive and colorful. Valpariaso is now a World Heritage Site since 2003. Vina del Mar, the Garden City has been used as a tourist city for the Chileans since 18000. The nightlife is exciting and the people are friendly. There are dozens of fun attractions, wineries, historical sites, luxury hotels and beach resorts here. The fast flowing rivers of the Patagonia are ideal for rafting and canoeing. The first Europeans to lay eyes on this landscape were led by Ferdinand Magellan, who pioneered passage through the treacherous strait that now bears his name. His expedition named the mainland 'Tierra de los Patagones,' unwittingly spawning the myth of a race of Patagonian giants. To the south, they saw the horizon darkened by smoke from the natives' fires, and named the great island Tierra Del Fuego. The legend of Patagonia was set in motion. The indigenous groups who inhabited Tierra del Fuego deserved to be legends, as these were the world's first and greatest adventurers. In arriving on Tierra del Fuego they had completed the world's furthest human migration, arriving finally at the very end of the earth, where the Andes disappeared into the sea and glaciers flowed to the water's edge. With nowhere else to wander, they stayed and fished the coast in canoes, collected shellfish, hunted guanaco and rheas on the pampa. Photos taken at the turn of the century depict a stone age culture where extremity had crystallized: the end of the road for the most restless wanders in history. To the east of the Andes, the Patagonian pampa is an immense desert, by some accounts among the five largest deserts in the world. West of the Andes is another world. Here both the Central Valley and the Coast Range have sunk into the Pacific; what were once glacial valleys are nowfjords, and what were once mountaintops are now islands. Hotsprings lay revealed by coastal erosion, while great glaciers further fragment the landscape, necessitating maritime or air travel. Great forests cloak the Andes from the Pacific shoreline to the continental divide, bisected by surging emerald rivers carrying glacial silt to the sea and providing habitat for fearless trout and salmon. This immense territory is best understood as two separate regions, separated by the vast expanse of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Northern Patagonia is one of the world's last great expanses of wilderness, accessed by a gravel highway known as the carreterra austral completed in 1988. Even today, road access to the region is not complete, and travelers on the Carretera Austral must hop ferries across the mouths of the great fjords. Here the port of Chaité® provides access to the northernmost portions of the Carretera Austral, including truly world-class rafting and flyfishing, and cruises and island hotsprings. Southern Patagonia, known as Magallanes, is a world apart, where the broad expanses of the pampa meet with the glacially sculpted spires of the Andes. Torres del Paine National Park and World Biosphere Reserve is the most famous of the vast protected areas in Magallanes, preserving habitat forguanacos, foxes, rheas and flamingos. Punta Arenas is the capital of the Magallanes province. Facing the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego, Punta Arenas is the principal departure point for cruises and flights to Tierra del Fuego, to the Canal Beagle, Isla Navarino, Cape Horn and Antartica. Central Chile is the cultural nucleus of the country. All of Chile's largest cities are located here, as are most of its universities and industries, its vinyards finest agricultural lands, colonial and early republican architecture. In fact, central Chile is something of a microcosm of the country, balanced between deserts to the north and forests to the south, with the capital poised between the highest peaks in the Americas and a host of premier beach resorts. To the west, modern highways connect with the coastal cities of Vina del Mar, Valpariso, and San Antonio. Like Santiago, the central coast enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with short, mild winters and a sunny summer season lasting over eight months. Here a chain of white-sand beaches and coastal resorts offers something for every taste, from luxury hotels to secluded cabañ¡³¬ picnics on the beach to fresh seafood in an open-air restaurant. To the north, the climate grows gradually hotter and drier. The chain of beaches and resorts continues north to La Serina Chile's second-oldest city now known for its production of pisco a grape brandy which follows close behind wine on the list of Chile's preferred drinks. To the south, the central valley comes into its own. These were the fertile lands first claimed by the Spanish conquistadores; here the Chilean huaso (cowboy) still spends his day astride his horse in the traditional manta (poncho) and sombrero, honing his skills for annual rodeo . To the east, the Andes are an unforgettable presence, cloaked in white in winter and spring, storing melt water for the rivers which irrigate Chile's heartland. Beyond that first line of peaks, visible from anywhere in the Central Valley and from many places along the coast, lies a wilderness of glacially sculpted canyons, glaciers and microclimate forests, alpine lakes and thundering rivers. Lateral roads lead into the cordillera, providing access to numerous national parks and truly endless opportunities for skiing and hiking, mountaineering, mountain biking, horseback riding and rafting. Enjoy the vino Live it up at the Explora Lodges Visit Easter Island (Rapa Nui) Ride the Futaleufu River
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