Welcome to Wineland

Pick up your rental car at the airport in Santiago de Chile. Be sure to use a navigation device when driving into the city. Some roads change the direction at peak times. Best, park your rental vehicle at the hotel and explore Santiago de Chile on foot or via metro. There is a wide variety of options for guided tours of the city, such as classic city tours, bus tours, tipping tours, guided tours with a focus on history and human rights, or with a focus on street art and much more. There are also guided tours of Santiago’s markets focusing on gourmets, including cooking.

You see, there is something for every interest and budget. Ask at your hotel reception where to book your city tour. If you would like to see the city from above, for great views, you can choose between the observation deck “Sky Costanera” and the city hill Cerro San Cristobal. You can go up San Cristobal via funicular or teleférico.

If you arrive late, it is worth extending the stay by one or two days, to explore Santiago.

Overnight stay in Santiago de Chile. Distance covered: about 25-30 km on asphalt, depending on where you will be staying.

Leave Santiago and head south with your rental car. You will soon reach the nearest wine growing area, the Maipo Valley. Is has been chosen among the three most attractive wine tour destinations, along with Portuguese Alentejo and Canadian Okanangan Valley. Maipo Valley has earned the nickname “Little Bordeaux” because of its many beautiful French-style bodegas. Along with offering first class wines, the Maipo Valley has been chosen for the vast range of tours such as: horse riding, trekking, biking, wine & food matching, winemaking for tourists and much more, as well as excellent gastronomic options. It is hard to choose between the many beautiful Maipo wineries.

We recommend the following: Viña Santa Rita is a piece of Chilean history. Why, you best discover on your own. The winery includes a museum with interesting exhibits from pre-Hispanic times and the colonial period. Viña Perez Cruz is a beautiful contrast to Santa Rita. One of the zone’s youngest wineries and famous for its award-winning modern architecture. If you like horses, you should visit Viña Haras de Pirque, a place where noble thoroughbred horses have been bred and trained here since the end of the 19th century. It was not until about 100 years later that the owners began to grow wine as well. The beautiful wine bodega has the shape of a huge horseshoe.

Distance covered between 35 and 100 km, depending on the visited wineries, mostly on asphalt.

Drive your rental car further into the heart of rural Chile today, heading south to the Cachapoal Valley. The hot summers and rainy winters there offer ideal conditions for the cultivation of excellent red wines, particularly Carmenère, a genuine Chilean specialty. We recommend a visit to at least one of the following wineries: Viña Anakena standing out with several award-winning wines, Viña Vik, just founded in 2006 by a Norwegian entrepreneur, including an exquisite and exclusive hotel and last but not least, the traditional Viña San Pedro.

In the Cachapoal valley you also have the option to book a tour with a picnic, a riding trip through a winery, or similar activities.

Overnight stay in Santa Cruz or in a wine hotel nearby. Distance covered between 200 and 280 km, depending on the wineries you visit and the accommodation you choose; mostly on asphalt.

Drive your rental car to the idyllic town of Santa Cruz, one of the centers of Chilean country life. If you had stayed in Santa Cruz the night before, take it easy this morning and leave your rental car during the morning. Start the day with a stroll and visit the very interesting «Museo de Colchagua», including exhibitions on prehistoric and pre-Hispanic and colonial times, Chile’s struggle for independence as well as local traditions. Schedule several hours for a visit since the museum is quite complete. After an exquisite lunch in Santa Cruz, get back behind the wheel of your rental car and visit a winery of the Colchagua Valley. Colchagua is THE wine growing area in Chile and therefore, there is an infinity of wineries to choose from. If you find it too hard to decide, just stay a little longer. Here are some tips: Viña Santa Cruz is one of the most important wineries in the region and one of the first to open for tourism. You can take a pleasant ride on a cable car to a lookout point, admire the starry sky in an observatory and learn about Chile's indigenous cultures in replicas of their typical houses.

The guided tour at the traditional Viña Viu Manent includes a nice ride through the vineyards in old horse-drawn carriages. Viña Casa Silva is the oldest winery in the Colchagua Valley and is also one of the most beautiful in Chile. It was founded by a French pioneer from Bordeaux. The winery has a nice hotel. Viña Montes stands out for being constructed entirely following the rules of Feng Shui – so harmony and wellbeing is guaranteed there. Viña Casa Lapostolle is owned by the French Lapostoille-Marnier family, who gave the famous Grand-Marnier liqueur. This winery also houses a very exclusive guest house.

Overnight stay in Santa Cruz or in a wine hotel nearby. Distance covered between 15 and 100 km, depending on the visited wineries and chosen accommodation, mostly on asphalt.

Time for a break after so many wine tastings! Say goodbye to Colchagua Valley and drive with your rental car towards the Pacific Coast. This route leads you through a very rural area. For your beach day we have two recommendations, depending on your interest.

1) Pichilemu, THE surfing spot in Chile. This is all about surfing. Many people come from far away to search for the perfect wave. At Punta de Lobos you can relax on the beach or on a rock above the beach and watch the surfers - or rent some equipment for yourself.

2) Those who like it quieter, will love Matanzas, a little north of Pichilemu. The rather uninviting name (“butchering, butchery”) comes from the time when sea lions were hunted in this area. The small village offers camping sites and upscale accommodation, and the gastronomic options range from the local fishermen with their stalls to fine restaurants. The beach is long and beautiful and even in the high season never really crowded. An impressive high dune makes the scenery perfect.

1) Overnight Stay in Pichilemu. Distance covered between 90 and 110 km, depending on the route.

2) Overnight Stay in Matanzas. Distance covered about 150 km.

After a relaxing break on the beach, get on the road again, to discover another wine valley: In the Casablanca Valley, the combination of coastal terroir and salty sea air give the local wines their very own taste and character. For outstanding wines and very good tourist infrastructure, the valley was rewarded in 2013 with the inclusion in the list of „Wine Capitals of the World“, a title awarded by the association “Great Wine Capitals Global Network”. There is a large selection of wineries, we recommend a visit to one or some of the following: At Viña Emiliana you will learn about organic viticulture and see on site the advantages of this method.

The small and exclusive Viña Bodegas Re combines exquisite tradition and modernity in a most amazing way. Viña Matetic near the Pacific Coast is rather young and offers beautiful modern architecture as well as a nice hotel and good gastronomy. Viña Mar towers over the valley and offers a special flair due to its Mediterranean architecture.

Overnight stay in the Casablanca Valley or in Valparaíso. Distance covered between 100 and 200 km, depending on the visited wineries and chosen accommodation; mostly on asphalt.

Leave your rental car behind today and discover the UNESCO World Heritage Site Valparaíso on foot. The city's nickname is „La Joya del Pacífico“ („The Pearl of the Pacific“). It is Chile's most important port and therefore has always been a magnet for immigration and trading. Until today, the city preserves its rough port city charm and is very picturesque with its unique cityscape of multicolored houses looking down on the harbor from the hills that surround the bay. At the same time, Valparaíso has gained a reputation as the creative heart of Chile, due to a renaissance of art and culture. In the many small streets, you will find art galleries and fashion design studios, as well as a multitude of other start-ups by creative minds.

Visit the museum “La Sebastiana”, one of the eccentric and beautiful houses of Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, who was once an important part of Valparaíso´s society. The lower and upper parts of the city are connected by inclined elevators, so that you do not have too much struggle with the numerous staircases. They were constructed around 1900 and still do their work day in, day out. Every visitor should at least once dare to drive for a few Pesos with one of them, it´s a real highlight!

Overnight stay in the Casablanca Valley or in Valparaíso. Distance covered about 0-45 km, depending on the accommodation, mostly on asphalt.

Drop off your rental car in Santiago de Chile and take your return flight. Distance covered about 80-120 km depending on the accommodation, mostly on asphalt.