Where to Stay in Santiago, Región Metropolitana

What is Santiago known for?

Santiago is known as the capital and cultural centre of Chile, a city of museums and churches ringed by the Andes. The mountains define the skyline. The Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral stands over the old core, the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts holds the national art, and the Bernardo O'Higgins Monument marks the civic heart of Santiago de Chile between the Andes and the Chilean Coastal Range.

What are the main landmarks in Santiago?

Santiago carries its landmarks in stone and canvas. The Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral anchors the old centre, joined by the San Francisco Church, the Basílica del Salvador, and the Basilica de la Merced. Its museums run deep.

The Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts, the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, and the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende gather the art and record of Chile, while the Bernardo O'Higgins Monument stands for the city's civic past.

What is the history of Santiago?

Santiago was founded in 1541 in the valley between the Andes and the Chilean Coastal Range, and it has been the capital of Chile through the centuries since. The site set the city's fate. Laid out on the flat floor of the Santiago Basin, within the Chilean Central Valley, the young settlement grew around a central square where the Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral would rise, and the oldest churches, among them the San Francisco Church, still mark the first streets of Santiago de Chile.

From that founding core, the city spread across the basin to become the largest city of Chile and the anchor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region. Greater Santiago gathered around it. The Bernardo O'Higgins Monument and the Chilean National History Museum keep the record of the nation's making, while the Museum of Memory and Human Rights holds the memory of its harder passages.

Growth pushed east in later years, climbing from the valley floor into the Andean foothills beneath the peaks, so that the modern city now reaches from its old square toward the wall of the Andes.

Where is Santiago?

Santiago lies inland in the Santiago Basin, on the floor of the Chilean Central Valley. Mountains hem it on both sides. The Andes rise sharply to the east and the Chilean Coastal Range walls off the sea to the west, so the capital of Chile sits raised well above sea level in a broad valley, its newer edges climbing into the Andean foothills beneath the peaks.

What is the climate of Santiago?

Santiago holds a warm subtropical climate in its sheltered valley. Santiago bakes through its hot summers. Ringed by the Andes and the Chilean Coastal Range, the capital of Chile sees warm summers and cooler, damper winters, while snow settles on the nearby Andes above the city even as the valley floor stays mild.

How do you get to Santiago?

Santiago is the main point of arrival in Chile, reached as the capital and largest city near the centre of the country. Most visitors land here. From the valley, roads climb east into the Andes for the ski country and run west through the Chilean Coastal Range toward the coast, so a traveller can reach the mountains and the sea from the same base in a single day.