Parque Nacional Los Glaciares

Patagonia is a region and it’s a territory divided between Chile and Argentina. Patagonia as people know it is really Torres Del Paine and a lesser known park, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is beautiful and different than Torres Del Paine. The weather is warmer and the landscape is different. If you have the time to explore both parks, you should. I would allocate at least a full week to each park. However, if your time is limited like mine was, definitely spend more time in Torres Del Paine. The infrastructure for tourists in Chile is just better. Parque Nacional Los Glaciares lacked basic things like clean restrooms, which was disappointing. This is not to say the Argentinian Patagonia was bad, far from it.

Las Condes
Home of Sanhattan and Chile's Economic Elite

Las Condes is a province in the outskirts of Santiago and it is commonly known in Chile as Santiago for the economic and political elites. Las Condes is home to Sanhattan, Chile’s financial district and home to the current president, President Sebastian Pinñera. Las Condes has all the high-end hotel like the W Santiago or the Ritz Carlton, as well as Santiago’s most respected restaurants.

Staying at W Santiago

Staying at the W Santiago was an experience in it of it self. I don’t typically stay at high-end hotels because I don’t personally see the value in spending $300 a night for a room. However, for me travel and credit cards go hand-in-hand. Last year, my American Express Bonvoy card came up for renewal and I contemplated in closing it. The card is $95/yr and it has a free night at any Marriott property valued at 35,000 points. The W is about $300/night during my dates and it was a no brainer to pay the annual fee and keep the card.

A few thoughts on the property: it's pretty high end and it's located in Las Condes, Santiago's wealthiest neighborhoods. The experience of checking in to getting your room is fantastic. They treat you really well, offer you drinks as you check in and tell you about the amenities. The coolest amenity is the outdoor pool, located on the top floor with a fantastic view of the city. The room was nice and they were accommodating in my requests. A few nights before check-in, I asked for a room with a double-bed, the top floor and early check-in and they delivered. I was satisfied with my stay and I’m renewing my American Express Bonvoy card because it’s really easy to come out ahead with the annual fee.

Cost of visiting Patagonia

Cost is a big part of any trip and most people want to have an idea of what it costs to visit a country. I’m going to highlight my cost of visiting Patagonia and discuss what I did and what increased cost. My initial assumption about Chile was that it’s a relatively cheap country to visit and that’s true to some extent, but some things are really expensive in Chile while others are cheap. The cheap things are transportation. This includes Uber, bus transport, Airbnb and coffee. Everything else is actually really expensive and this sentiment is coming from someone that lives in Monterey, California. My biggest categories were restaurants and the rental cars.

Discussing rental cars is boring so I’ll move to restaurants. There are two primary categories of restaurants in Chile: picadas and traditional restaurants. Picadas are a cheaper way to eat and the food is generally good. However, while picadas serve traditional food, it tends to be fried or things like sandwiches. The friends that came with me on this trip work in the restaurant industry and we opted for more traditional restaurants. The cost is high, every bill in Chile was around $150 USD but the food, along with the wine was incredible.

To give context to our restaurant bills, I want to reveal how our orders typically looked like to give an idea of what made a bill that high. We would typically start dinner with three beers, two appetizers, a bottle of wine, two or three main course, an additional bottle of wine and a pastry. After the pastry, we would typically add around 6 pisco sours to the bill. The amount is high, but our orders were typically large orders as well.