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Santiago’s Free Walking Tour
In the heart of Santiago, tourists are provided with the opportunity to partake in a free walking tour through some of the streets of Santiago. The tour is highly informative and provides people with the chance to learn more about Chilean history whilst also getting a bit of a feel for the city. This walking tour is perfect when you have limited time to see the city. Perfect for a short Santiago stay.
The tour guides are fantastic!! Franco (or as we referred to him James) was a wealth of knowledge and provided great insight to the city and its history. This tour is fantastic for people who are new to the country and are looking for a way to better understand the history of both Chile and its capital. And the best part of all is that it is free. All that the tour guides ask is that you provide a tip at the end of the tour. This tip not only goes to the guides but the printing of maps, the easily recognisable ‘Free Tour’ tee shirts and to help pay the people who organise all of these aspects to the tour.
Now for The Actual Tour
As mentioned above, tour guides are super easy to find. All that needs to be done, is people who are wanting to go on the tour need to meet at Plaza De Armas at about 10:00am. Upon arrival, you need to look for people wearing bright red tee shirts that say ‘Free Tour’ on the back. When you find a guide they will ask which language you prefer to speak (English or Spanish) whilst on the tour. Once this is established and there are other people wanting to be on the tour, your guide will begin.
The tour takes approximately 4 hours and you visit 15 iconic locations around Santiago. Another big positive for this tour is that if you do not to stay on the tour for the full 4 hours, you can leave at any time and tip however much you deem appropriate. So if you wanted to stop and spend more time at the Pre Columbian Art Museum you can do so. However, if you stay on the tour to the completion, there is no reason why you cannot go back and visit the location that you wish to explore at the completion of the tour.
The places that are visited on the tour include:
- Plaza De Armas, Catedral, Municipalidad, Correos (Santiago’s main square, Cathedral, City Hall, Post Office)
- Museo de Arte Pre-Columbino (Pre-Columbian Art Museum)
- Antiguo Congresso (Old Congress Building)
- Palacio La Moneda (The Government House)
- Bolsa de Comercio (Santiago Stock Exhange)
- Teatro Minicipal (The Opera House)
- Cerro Santa Lucia (Santa Lucia Hill)
- Barro Lastarria (Lastarria Neighbourhood)
- Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts)
- Parque Forestal (Forestal Park)
- Plaza Italia (Italy Square)
- Barrio Bellavista (Bellavista Neighbourhood)
- Casa Pablo Neruda (Neruda Museum)
- Cerro San Cristobal (San Cristobal Hill)
Again we cannot recommend this tour enough. The guides are fantastic and will provide you with a much greater understanding of both the country of Chile and city of Santiago.
Want to know more about Santiago Chile? Check out Incredible Things To Do In Santiago Chile!