Chile

Ballard

I've still got 300 days until I leave so it's a bit early for me to plan things in any detail but I'm wondering whether it's a case of choosing going south from Santiago towards Patagonia or heading north for The Atacama.

As things stand I'm the only one to have booked flights but presuming that at least one of my friends books at some point it'll be a point of discussion. We might need to look at booking internal flights depending on our thoughts.

Three weeks doesn't look long enough at this point but circumstances make it difficult to go for longer at the moment.

Peccary

I'd pick Patagonia if I had to choose as there is more to fill your time. You will need to plan as this is peak season and the long school holidays in Chile. I would fly as far south as I wanted to go and work back up leaving a couple of days in santiago to rest, visit some wineries etc.

I find the tour itineraries on STA travel really handy for planning and ideas for routes

Ballard

I glanced at domestic flight prices in Chile and see that it's far from cheap. From what I've read it's cheaper to book once you're in the country but that's not a big help planning-wise. The flight that I looked at was £500 one way to go north. Blimey.

benjus

Might be worth investigating if there are any workarounds to buying the flights... maybe using a Chile-based travel agent for example?

Argentina and one or two other countries in the region have substantially subsidized flights for residents - if you buy these fares and they find out that you are not a resident they will deny you boarding or charge you the difference in fare. I don't think this happens in Chile but it's worth confirming if you're considering trying to buy the cheaper tickets.

PeacefulWaters

I've seen flights from Santiago to Calama for less than £40 on Google flights.

I'm currently looking at a three week trip in the colder July/August period.

Santiago
Easter Island (flights are very expensive but it will be my only chance)
Atacama desert
A week or so driving around the Lake District and popping into Argentina without an FLK number plate

Not booked yet. Feel free to throw any curved balls!

eDicky

Have the catastrophic fires currently raging in central and southern Chile, and their possible long term consequences, been taken into account?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38766681

PeacefulWaters

eDicky wrote: »

Have the catastrophic fires currently raging in central and southern Chile, and their possible long term consequences, been taken into account?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38766681

Nope. Thanks.

blindman

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

I've seen flights from Santiago to Calama for less than £40 on Google flights.

I'm currently looking at a three week trip in the colder July/August period.

Santiago
Easter Island (flights are very expensive but it will be my only chance)
Atacama desert
A week or so driving around the Lake District and popping into Argentina without an FLK number plate

Not booked yet. Feel free to throw any curved balls!

You may know already but its apparently cheaper to book the Easter Island flights on the LAN.ch web-site (In Spanish)

PeacefulWaters

Thanks. Booked business class from Milan (£1,400 cheaper for the pair of us). Flying with Iberia. Exactly the same flight I'd have picked up connecting from the uk.

Three days in Santiago then flights with Sky Airline upto Calama and four nights in San Pedro.

Back to Santiago for a night and then off to Easter Island for three nights. Those flights were £800 less than Google flights thought they would be.

I've got the rest of it to plan, but will most likely do a few days driving around the lakes. There's an outside chance of Punta Arenas too!

Now I just need to add four BA flights to my year to get silver status.

Ballard

I booked direct with BA and for the first time ever opted for business. My friend did consider booking business too but he's yet to actually sort his flight out and the business flights have gone through the roof since I booked so (presuming that he does book eventually) we will be in different cabins. As things stand I paid less than double the current economy price (Avios got me £250 off) so on that basis it seems a bargain.