Chile food & wine program
Duration: 6 days
Highlights: •Chile’s Wine Country produces some of the world’s best wines.
•European history and architecture dating from the founding of Santiago in 1541.
•Chile is the training ground for northern hemisphere international skiers from July to October.
Chile is a country of contrasts and striking beauty that offers an enviable combination of tourist security, natural wonders, and excellent services, making for the splendid journey or great adventure your clients are looking for.
The longest and narrowest country in the continent, with a length of 2,700 miles and an average width of only 120 miles, Chile has a strong economy, a solid infrastructure, and a long tradition of democratic government. Chile retains an air of uniqueness as it is the most southerly nation in the world, and is separated from its neighbours by natural barriers. In the north one of the most arid deserts in the world; to the east one of the greatest mountain ranges of the planet, the Andes, with heights close to 7,000 m; to the west the Pacific Ocean opens out, and to the south, the Drake sea and Antarctic Ice. Due to these natural barriers, and extremes of nature, Chile enjoys a diversity not found elsewhere on the planet. It is also this diversity - with the heat of the deserts in the north, and the cold of the glaciers in the south that makes Chile known as the Land of Fire and Ice!
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Itinerary
Day 1 - Welcome to Santiago!
Upon arrival at the airport, you are transferred privately to the Carlton Ritz Hotel. In the afternoon, dive straight into a sightseeing tour of Santiago to include a visit to the colonial centre. Here you will see the Palacio de la Moneda, the Plaza de Armas and the delightful Barrio Concha y Toro neighbourhood. Take a short metro ride to Bellas Artes station to explore this peaceful area on foot. Here you can find the Fine Arts Museum, built in a neoclassical style, and the pleasant Forestal riverside park. Visiting the city in this way allows you to experience Santiago in the same way Santiaguinos do! Next travel to San Cristobal Hill where you board the funicular railway to climb up to the top of the hill for a stunning, panoramic view of the city and the omnipresent Andes Cordillera. From here you can also visit the Pueblo de los Dominicos Handicrafts Market.
This evening enjoy dinner at the lively resto-bar ‘Bocanariz’, a highly sophisticated addition to the easy-going Lastarria neighbourhood.
Meal Plan: D
Day 2 - Santiago
After breakfast at your hotel, you have the opportunity to visit Bodegas Re. This vineyard has preserved its ancestors’ clay vessels from the Maule Valley and still produces a number of their wines within them, demonstrating that it is still possible to make excellent wines using ancient techniques and modern knowledge. Next visit the Matetic vineyard and enjoy lunch at Equilibrio where chef Matias Bustos mixes traditional culinary techniques with innovation and uses local ingredients in his dishes. Finally, transfer to Casona Matetic, within the stunning grounds of the Matetic vineyard and surrounded by over 22 acres of woodland and more vineyards.
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Day 3 - Tour of the historic port of Valparaiso
Enjoy breakfast at your leisure and then ride out to Chile’s central coast. Here you will take a tour of the picturesque port of Valparaiso. Your lunch will be in a local restaurant and then travel to Casas del Bosque Vineyard, back in Casablanca wine valley, for a romantic wine tasting session, followed by cocktails at sunset. At the end of your day, transfer back to the Carlton Ritz Hotel in Santiago.
Meal Plan: B,L
Day 4 - Wine tasting and grape harvesting in Colchagua
After breakfast at leisure, drive for three hours down the Pan-American Highway to the Colchagua Valley. En route travel though the Maipo, Cachapoal and Colchagua wine-producing areas. Stop at Viña Estampa where world-class, fine wines are produced using a winemaking technique known as ‘Assemblage’. You will have the chance to join in with the grape harvesting for the next vintage premium wines. Work up and appetite doing this and then delight in an exclusive, gourmet picnic for the two of you, set in the gardens of the vineyard. Once you have eaten your fill, transfer to the splendid Vik Vineyard Lodge.
Meal Plan: B,D
Day 5 - Your day at leisure in Colchagua
Spend the day at leisure in Colchague. Perhaps visit the Lodge’s wine cellar and go horseback riding or take a bike tour through the beautiful vineyards. Alternatively, unwind and indulge in Viña Vik’s tranquil vinotherapy spa. The spa offers treatments inspired by the land and incorporates Vik grapes into its one-of-a-kind massage, facial and body-scrub treatments.
Dinner this evening is included and will be at the lodge.
Meal Plan: B,D
Day 6 - Departure
After breakfast you are met at your hotel and transferred to Santiago’s Airport for your departure flight.
Meal Plan: B
