SIB Viña Del Mar and Valparaiso Day Trip from Santiago

Great day trip, top sites - would have loved more time in Valaparaiso to explore, however were wheeled into a pre-determined, over priced lunch.

Patricio and Marco were amazing. We have learn so much about Chile!!! We highly recommend this tour.

Disappointing tour. We had only one shot to see Valparaiso due to our tight schedule so we booked the tour to ensure we were able to see everything we wanted to see. We booked through Viator but our hotel wasn't one of the hotels on the drop down. We manually put the hotel in but never received confirmation that we would be picked up from the hotel. The night before our tour we had to ask our hotel to call the tour's emergency number to confirm that we were actually going to be picked up. We were picked up on time from our hotel but were immediately told that eating wasn't allowed in the van during the long drive to Valparaiso. Understandable but disappointing as our hotel packed us a to go breakfast to eat during the car ride. Upon arrival to Valparaiso, we were ushered from point to point. My wife really wanted to see Valparaiso's famous piano stairs. She asked the tour guide if the stairs were something we would see. She also showed him a picture. His response was yes - we won't be seeing those exact stairs but we will be seeing similar stairs, which she understood as another set of piano stairs. Turns out the similar stairs he was referring to were just painted stairs. It wasn't until we reached Vina del Mar that my wife asked again for the piano stairs when the tour guide said oh, we already saw painted stairs. The tour was just us and one other couple so it was frustrating to feel like we just had to be rushed along. We were taken to Vina Del Mar where we were dropped off to eat lunch at one restaurant - we were not given the choice to eat anywhere else. The restaurant was very expensive and service was terrible. Lunch took us almost an hour and a half due to the terrible service. My wife and I picked two modest plates paella and a fish entree and had water to drink. Our bill was over 50 USD. We were taken to a few other sites in Vina Del Mar flower clock, Maoi statue. We were then taken to the botanical gardens but arrived to see the garden was closed due to a private event. Our tour guide said oh well that's too bad and hit the rode to take us back to Santiago. Due to this, we arrived back to Santiago an hour earlier than expected. The point of booking a tour like this is so that the tour company plans ahead for this type of thing to ensure the tour can run smoothly. Would not recommend this tour. If you're going to shell out money for a tour to Valparaiso, I would just go ahead and book a private tour to ensure you are spending time doing and seeing what you want to do. This tour could have also easily been done on your own. The train runs frequently enough to Valparaiso.

Our tour guide did an excellent job showing us around Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar. He provided a lot of interesting history and background on the tour as well.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommended this trip, it is not worth the cost of the ticket. The guide was not particularly knowledgable, easy to understand or engaging, it was basically an overpriced car service.

A beautiful view, and atmosphere Wish there was more time to enjoy some of the fine restaurants

We had a private tour, as there weren't any other guests signed up, and although that can be awkward all around in having to keep up conversation, guide Claudio and driver Angelica were friendly and patient and interested. 1st stop out of Santiago was Verramonte winery, which was a nice break on the drive before heading to Valparaiso. You get a good sense of Valparaiso, famous for street art and hills before Vina del Mar. I'd prefer to spend more time in Vina, but not sure how to cut it logistically. Lunch stop is at a good quality sit-down with a view of the sea.

This was a very pleasant outing. The weather was good, the guide and driver were great and sited were very interesting. We would be happy to recommend this tour to friends and family.

We had wonderful day. Our Tour Guide was very professional. His knowledge of the area was first class. Lots of relevant information and stories. Our driver was also excellent and made us feel very safe. Thanks for a good time.

Great tour - spend more time in Valparaiso then in Vina del Mar as it's far more interesting.