Three Weeks of Chilean Summer

We spent exactly three weeks in total in South America, and I thought that would feel like a nice long time out there, but it really went by in a flash! The first week was filled with last-minute preparations for our wedding, followed by the wedding itself. In the second week, we had more free time, but also needed to spend some time getting Christmas presents. Then we went on our minimoon in Argentina for a couple of days, came back in time for Christmas, after which we only had a few days left. We both felt that another week there would have been nice!

During our time there, we rented an Airbnb in Providencia, which is one of our favourite areas of Santiago. The apartment was located right next to Parque Balmaceda and had great views straight across to Cerro San Cristóbal. We went out running a couple of times in Parque Balmaceda and then along the Mapocho River towards the Costanera Center and back, which was a really picturesque way to get a workout in. The building also had a rooftop terrace and pool, which we used nearly every day after getting back from our wedding, including on Christmas Day itself!

Of course, we also spent lots of time with Claudio's family in Maipú. This included going for walks with Jack the beagle and seeing all our old animal friends again!

And here are some of the other things we got up to around Santiago and beyond...

Viña del Mar/Reñaca

We actually went to Viña twice during our time in Chile. The first time was when I went for my hair and makeup trial a few days before the wedding. We took this opportunity to have a delicious and healthy lunch from Daily Dish (a vegan restaurant) and a walk along the beach.

The second time we went to Viña was on Boxing Day. (Definitely one of the most different and fun Boxing Days I've ever had!) There are other beaches we could have gone to, but we decided to go back to Viña, because last time we went, we wanted to visit Palacio Vergara and weren't able to, so promised ourselves that we'd visit next time we were in Chile. I love palaces and castles, and so I was really happy to finally see this beautiful and elaborate palace. You can actually go inside for free if you fill out a survey, which we did. We were hoping that the interior would be a kind of representation of what the palace would have looked like when people were living in it, but it was actually an art gallery with mostly modern art. It was still nice to be able to enter for free though.

The palace is located in Quinta Vergara, a very scenic park to walk around.

Afterwards we went to Reñaca Beach, one of my favourite beaches in the entire country. We were really lucky with the weather, as generally it's quite windy on the beach in Chile, which makes it feel much less warm than Santiago in summer, but this time it wasn't windy or cloudy at all, and the weather felt absolutely perfect. 

We wanted to have at least one swim in the sea during our time in Chile, but as Reñaca is more of a surfing beach than a swimming beach, and has really big waves, this was a bit difficult. But we were able to splash around in the waves, which was fun! After that, we had a really nice time just lying in the sun.

Biblioteca Nacional de Chile

We ended up spending quite a lot of time in the historic centre of Santiago during our trip. I lived there in 2018 and still have a fondness for the area, because there are so many beautiful and interesting buildings, streets and monuments there. However, it is not as well looked after as other historic centres around the world, and does have a reputation for criminal activity, particularly after dark. But I don't think you should let that put you off visiting, as there are so many things to discover there. One place neither of us had visited before was the National Library, and we had a lovely time exploring it. Not only is it free to enter, but it's a beautiful building and has all the literary vibes I love! When living in Chile, I did occasionally miss the cosy bookshops of the UK - I don't know why I never thought to come to this library before.

It also has a cute gift shop and a tranquil garden with orange and lime trees.

Santiago Centro

Some other highlights from the city centre included visiting various galerías, which are like shopping arcades. Each one has different kinds of shops, and there's even a wedding one, which was super useful for us! I loved finding this little French bookshop inside one of them.

When wedding shopping, we also discovered this café in one of the galerías called London Coffee, and knew we had to come back after the wedding! This was a really cute place and pretty good value for money too.

Other places we explored around the centre included this interesting street with bridges near Plaza de Armas, and the city's cathedral.

Museo Histórico Nacional

Another free place to visit in Santiago Centro is the Museum of National History of Chile. This has some really interesting artefacts, such as the flag that was used to declare independence, and outfits from throughout history. The building is also very beautiful.

MUT (Mercado Urbano Tobalaba)

Over on the other side of the city in Las Condes, one of the most affluent areas of Santiago, we went to visit a new mall that recently opened, called MUT (Mercado Urbano Tobalaba). Apparently its design is based on New York's Grand Central Station, and it's got some nice independent shops and restaurants, and a stunning rooftop garden to check out.

Casa Juliet

We saw this café in Providencia on YouTube, and it looked so nice that we had to visit. To be honest, it's definitely designed to be shown off on social media, and while the food was good, the coffee we had wasn't great. But it's so pretty!

It's also right next to a very tranquil park, Parque Augusto Errázuriz. We had a walk around it and then went and sat in the shade for a while at Plaza Rio de Janeiro.

Christmas in Santiago

The Southern Hemisphere Christmas is still something I can't quite get used to! Although I hate cold weather, I feel like Christmas has to be wintry and cosy. Besides, in December in Chile, everyone's already enjoying the summer, and Christmas seems a lot more in the background than it does in Europe. Having said that, it is nice to have a different experience of Christmas - our Christmases in the UK don't vary that much, and we'll probably appreciate our next one more because of the extra year's gap.

One of the things I enjoyed most was seeing the Christmas lights at Palacio Falabella on Christmas Eve before going round to Claudio's parents for dinner and present opening. It was quite magical!

It was also nice to see Paseo La Villa looking Christmassy.

Other Highlights

Among the other highlights of the trip of course included eating lots of tasty food, including Chilean sushi (I much prefer it to the kind we get in Europe!)...

...mote con huesillos in Parque Araucano (drinking/eating mote con huesillos in a sunny park is one of the definitive experiences of a Chilean summer to me)...

...and curry at Himalaya Indian Restaurant. This is a restaurant down the road from our old apartment in Ñuñoa, where we used to go on special occasions. We went there on the last weekend of our trip, and I felt a bit sad that we weren't going back to our little flat afterwards like we used to.

But instead we went to one of our favourite parks, Parque Bicenenario, to walk off the food, followed by a ride on an e-scooter, which was a lot of fun!

Those three weeks went by far too fast, mainly because they were filled with so many fun and happy moments. We celebrated one of the best days of our lives with our wedding, and then had a great time travelling, spending time with family and friends, and just enjoying life. At times, it felt like we were back in the life we had in 2022-2023, and I have to say, I do miss those days, and I felt really sad to leave, especially as we don't know when we'll next be back.

Coming home to freezing England, returning to my parents' house in the countryside, going back to work, and commuting to Bristol every week, has been a big contrast, and not necessarily in a positive way. But we've entered the new year as a married couple for the first time, and I know that this is going to be an exciting new chapter for us. I'm sure 2025 will bring its challenges, but hopefully there'll be plenty of adventures along the way! 

Minimoon in Mendoza, Argentina

I first heard of the term "minimoon" a few years ago, and I'm pretty sure it made me roll my eyes - yet another way that weddings are getting more and more ridiculously complex and making people part with even more money, I thought to myself.

However, a few years on, following my own wedding in December 2024, I in fact did end up having a minimoon myself, though kind of by accident!

Despite living in Chile for most of his life, my husband Claudio had actually never been to Argentina before, and seeing as we had a couple of weeks left in Chile after our wedding, we decided to take the opportunity to go on a little trip over the border to the city of Mendoza.

I got on to the task of booking a hotel on Hotels.com, and discovered that I had two promotions available to me: Member Prices reduced the price of most hotels by a large percentage, and I also had £73 of OneKeyCash built up that I could apply to my reservation. We had a think, and eventually decided that in order to celebrate our recent marriage, we should book the fanciest 5-star hotel in the city, the Park Hyatt Mendoza. This hotel would have been around £220 for a night, but with the two promotions applied, it worked out at less than £90 - still more than we'd generally spend on a hotel (we usually go for budget hotels, like Ibis), but an amazing deal for what we were getting. So that was how we ended up having a rather fancy minimoon!

We decided to go by car, as the journey between Santiago and Mendoza is really picturesque with several interesting sights to see along the way. I took this journey by bus in 2023, and enjoyed it a lot, though I wished I could stop, get out and look at some places more closely. Of course, in the car, we were able to do just that, starting with Laguna del Inca, a lagoon high up in the Chilean Andes, right next to the border with Argentina.

Interestingly, there is actually an Inca legend based around this lagoon. It is said that an Inca king's wife was buried there and that the colour of her eyes turned the water emerald green. Supposedly, you can occasionally still hear the king crying with grief at night...

Despite the spooky legend, the lagoon is a very beautiful place, and very peaceful at this time of year (it gets busier in winter when people come up there to ski). Apparently, you can go kayaking on the water - something we'd like to try in the future!

After crossing into Argentina, we arrived at Parque Provincial Aconcagua, where we could park the car, and walk for a few minutes to a viewpoint, in order to look at the tallest mountain in the western hemisphere, Mount Aconcagua. It's hard to appreciate how tall it is from this distance, but it's still incredible to know that you're looking at the highest point in the world outside of the Himalayas.

We then drove to the official border crossing, which was where we hit a problem. Though we ourselves passed through customs with no issues, the car was not allowed through, as it apparently had an unpaid motorway tax from 2017. We knew this was an error, as Claudio had recently paid all the car's taxes, and there certainly wasn't an outstanding one from 2017 - obviously, it hadn't been correctly cleared from the system at the time when it was paid. But as it was Sunday, we couldn't phone up to ask about the error, so there was nothing we could do. We were beginning to think that we would have to give up our trip, but then one of the customs officers told us we could leave the car at the border, and pay to go the rest of the way in a bus if there were any spare seats. Fortunately, there was a bus just about to leave which had two seats free, so we did get to Mendoza after all! Unfortunately, we couldn't stop at Puente del Inca or Potrerillos Dam as planned, but the important thing is that we got there.

Once we arrived at the bus station in Mendoza, the first thing we did was book our return tickets for the following night. Frustratingly, we had to pay a full price ticket, even though we were only going to be doing less than half of the journey, which did make the trip as a whole a lot more expensive than we were expecting.

But once we got to our hotel, all the stresses of the day melted away. The Park Hyatt Mendoza was definitely one of the most special places we've ever stayed in! It's located right in the heart of the city, in front of Plaza Independencia, and is an absolutely beautiful building.

Our room was also pretty special. It was so spacious (the bathroom was like three rooms in one!) and had all the nice extras you get in a posh hotel, like dressing gowns, fancy toiletries and a Nespresso machine. I think it was my fourth time staying in a 5-star hotel and Claudio's first, so it was really a cut above what we're used to, and we definitely made the most of it!

After settling into our room, we were pretty hungry, as all we'd had to eat all day were the road trip snacks we'd packed - we'd planned to buy a lunch from the vendors at the border, but couldn't in the end, as we'd had to quickly jump on the bus.

Fortunately, in Mendoza, there's a lot of good food to enjoy. As a country, Argentina has a lot of Italian food, as most people there have some Italian ancestry, so we decided to go to a nearby Italian place, Pizzaiolo, where I had pizza and Claudio had an Argentinian steak.

Afterwards, Claudio went for a walk around Plaza Independencia, but I had stomach pains from the long day of travelling, so went back to the hotel for a soak in the bath and a cup of tea in the big, comfy bed. A nice way to end the day!

Our bus back to the border was at 22:00, which meant that we had pretty much the entirety of the following day to enjoy the hotel and the city. We started off with a delicious breakfast at a café called Chiamo, where we had avocado and eggs on toast, freshly squeezed orange juice, Argentinian coffee and a medialuna.

Following a little walk around Plaza Chile, one of the city's squares, we went back to the hotel to pack up our things and check out. But luckily for us, even after checking out, we still had the rest of the day to use the hotel's facilities, including the swimming pool and spa! So we spent a few very happy hours making the most of that!

For lunch, Claudio wanted to try milanesa, a typical dish from Argentina. However, he didn't realise quite how massive the portion was going to be! I had cannelloni, which was also pretty huge but very nice!

We then spent the rest of the day exploring the city on foot, including its squares, avenues, train station and Parque General San Martín. Given that we walked many kilometres, of course we also had to stop for gelato at Famiglia Perin! 

I didn't take many photos, as it was my third time in Mendoza (I first went in 2018 and visited for a second time in 2023), so I could just enjoy the experience of being there. To be honest, I hadn't really enjoyed my first trip there that much; I went on a big coach tour in the middle of winter, and we spent a lot of the time being shuttled from one photo spot to the next (most of which, I didn't find that impressive) and getting on and off the bus. We also stayed in the most horrible hostel imaginable, which didn't help matters! 

The second time I went was a solo trip in order to renew my Chilean visa, and although I had a strange and slightly scary experience of being harassed by another guest in my hotel on my first night there, it was overall a much more pleasant trip. I realised that Mendoza is a city that is perfect for strolling around and relaxing, particularly in the warmer months. I think it's a city that grows on you over time; it's not somewhere with lots of famous landmarks or super Instagrammable streets, but it's a great place to have some good food and drink and take things a bit more slowly.

I actually felt quite sad when it was time to collect our luggage from the hotel and head for the bus station, as I didn't feel like leaving Mendoza just yet - though that probably had quite a lot to do with not wanting to leave the Park Hyatt!

In any case, the bus ride to the border may not have been a 5-star hotel, but it wasn't as far off as you might expect! The seats were huge and could be reclined 180 degrees (why they don't offer this on long-haul flights, I can't understand), and so we dozed off easily during the couple of hours' journey to the border.

We were woken up by the bus attendant around midnight and dropped off on the side of the road to go and collect the car. Fortunately the journey home was smooth sailing, and we arrived back in our Airbnb in Santiago in the early hours of Christmas Eve, tired but very happy!

Overall, I found it was a really nice idea to have a minimoon - it was great to have a (mostly!) relaxing time away together and to treat ourselves with a luxurious hotel stay for the special occasion. I also think it makes sense to have a smaller, lower key trip straight after the wedding and to have the big honeymoon later, which is what we're going to be doing. We did consider going straight from Chile to another destination after the wedding, but I'm glad we decided against it, as it would have been a pretty full-on itinerary. Plus, it's nice to spread out the festivities and have our honeymoon to look forward to for a couple of months! So maybe I'll take back my initial eye roll over the minimoon trend (though I'll still retain it for anyone who flies abroad for several days and calls that a "minimoon" - that's definitely a honeymoon in my book!)

Following our arrival back in Chile, we had another week left to enjoy the sunshine, as well as Christmas with Claudio's family. In total we spent three weeks in South America, and I plan to publish a write-up of what we got up to outside of our wedding and trip to Argentina, very soon, right here on this blog!