Chile
South America · Santiago · CL
Chile stretches like a narrow ribbon along South America's western edge, compressing an astonishing range of landscapes into a country that spans nearly 4,300 kilometers from the dry Atacama Desert to the glacier-carved fjords of Patagonia. Santiago sprawls in a bowl of Andean peaks, its modern skyline punctuated by colonial churches and hillside neighborhoods where vineyard-dotted valleys begin their ascent. The Atacama's salt flats and geysers feel genuinely extraterrestrial, while the Lake District's emerald forests and snow-capped volcanoes evoke a Central European fairy tale transplanted to the Southern Hemisphere. Chilean cuisine ranges from the Pacific coast's ceviche and congrio to the hearty curanto of Chiloé, a pit-cooked feast of shellfish, meat, and potatoes. Patagonia's Torres del Paine is one of the planet's most spectacular national parks, and Easter Island's moai statues add a layer of Polynesian mystery to a country already defined by dramatic extremes. Chile rewards those who travel its length, finding connections between landscapes that seem geographically impossible to coexist within one nation.
Overview
Chile is a country in South America. Its capital is Santiago and the international dialling code is +56. Languages commonly used in everyday life here include Spanish. Local currency is the Chilean Peso (CLP). Our guide covers 1 airport, including Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport. We also list 1 city in Chile: Santiago.
Patagonia's Torres del Paine
Torres del Paine National Park, at the southern tip of the Andes, is a landscape of concentrated drama: three granite towers rising like cathedral spires above a glacial lake of impossible turquoise, surrounded by glaciers that calve icebergs the size of automobiles. The W Trek, a four-to-five-day route, winds through valleys of lenga beech forest, passes alongside the rattling wall of Grey Glacier, and ascends to the base of the towers for a sunrise that paints the granite pink and gold. Guanacos graze on windswept plateaus, condors circle above ridgelines, and pumas, though elusive, hunt across the park's eastern sector. The park's weather is notoriously fickle; four seasons can pass in a single afternoon, and trekkers learn to layer and adapt quickly. Torres del Paine confronts visitors with geological forces operating on timescales that make human activity feel brief and incidental.
Atacama Desert's Otherworldly Terrain
The Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert on Earth, extends across northern Chile as a landscape of salt flats, volcanic cones, and wind-sculpted rock formations that NASA used to test Mars rovers. Valle de la Luna, just outside San Pedro de Atacama, is a labyrinth of sand dunes and eroded basalt ridges that glow in shades of rust and violet during sunset. The El Tatio geyser field, at 4,320 meters elevation, erupts columns of steam at dawn when the temperature differential between boiling groundwater and frigid mountain air is greatest. Salar de Atacama, a vast salt crust, reflects the Andean sky in its shallow pools where flamingos wade in pink clusters. At night, the absence of light pollution reveals a sky so dense with stars that the Milky Way casts visible shadows.
Santiago's Cerro San Cristóbal and Bellavista
Cerro San Cristóbal rises from Santiago's urban fabric as a green lung offering panoramic views that span the city grid to the snowcapped Andes beyond. The funicular, operating since 1925, carries visitors past subtropical gardens and a giant Virgin Mary statue to viewpoints where the full scale of Santiago's basin setting becomes clear. Below the hill, the Bellavista neighborhood is a bohemian quarter of street art, independent restaurants, and the former home of poet Pablo Neruda, now a museum filled with nautical curiosities and sea-green walls. Weekend afternoons bring crowds to craft beer bars and penas, informal venues where cueca dancers stomp and handkerchiefs wave to acoustic guitar rhythms. The Barrio Lastarria offers galleries, independent bookshops, and Thursday night street fairs. Santiago rewards exploration on foot, where the transition from modern towers to colonial courtyards reveals a city of many layers compressed into a single valley.
Chiloé's Curanto and Wooden Churches
Chiloé, a foggy, forested island off Chile's southern coast, maintains a cultural identity distinct from the mainland, preserved through its unique architecture, mythology, and culinary traditions. The island's UNESCO-listed wooden churches, built by Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries without nails, stand in small fishing villages where palafito houses on stilts line the waterfront. Chiloé's signature dish is curanto, a communal feast where shellfish, smoked pork, potatoes, and dumplings are layered in a pit with nalca leaves and cooked over heated stones, a method dating back to the island's indigenous Huilliche people. The island's folklore includes the traito, a ghost ship that appears in fog to lure sailors to their doom, and the pincoya, a mythical figure whose dance determines the bounty of the sea.
Easter Island's Moai and Rapa Nui Culture
Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, sits 3,700 kilometers from the Chilean mainland in the vast emptiness of the Pacific, home to nearly 1,000 moai statues carved from volcanic tuff between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Ahu Tongariki, the island's most impressive ceremonial platform, displays fifteen moai in a row against rolling green hills and crashing surf, a sight that conveys both the ambition and mystery of the civilization that erected them. The Rano Raraku quarry, where moai were carved and never removed, leaves visitors standing among partially buried statues emerging from hillside earth. The volcanic crater of Rano Kau shelters a serene lake dotted with totora reed islands, while the ceremonial village of Orongo perches on its rim, connected to the legend of the birdman cult. Rapa Nui culture survives through its descendants, who maintain traditional dance and navigation practices.
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- Capital
- Santiago
- Currency
- Chilean Peso (CLP)
- Languages
- Spanish
- Calling code
- +56
- Internet TLD
- cl
Entry requirements
Check who can enter →See which passports travel visa-free or need a visa to enter Chile.
Which nationalities can enter Chile?
Current visa status for tourism for the origins we cover, with links to the detailed requirements.
Airports (1)
All airports →Cities (1)
All cities →Frequently asked questions
Do I need a visa to visit Chile?
For the origins we track, travellers from Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Italy currently enter Chile visa-free for tourism, and 3 more origins are visa-free too. Entry rules depend on your passport and the purpose of your trip, so check the current requirements for your own nationality with our entry requirements tool.
What is the capital of Chile?
Santiago is the capital of Chile, and the country sits in South America.
What currency is used in Chile?
You pay with Chilean Peso (CLP) in Chile. Exchange rates move day to day, so check the current rate before you change money or use your card abroad.
Which languages do people speak in Chile?
The languages we list for Chile are Spanish. A couple of greetings in the local language go a long way when you travel, even in cities where another language is widely used.
What is the international dialling code for Chile?
The dialling code for Chile is +56 — keep the plus sign when you save the number.
Which airports serve Chile?
Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL) in Santiago is the airport we cover for Chile.
Which cities in Chile do you cover?
Our guide lists 1 city for Chile: Santiago (capital).