Which Hotel in Santiago, Chile Should I Choose?
One of my favorite aspects of writing a blog is the community and advice that I can usually get! When I travel, I usually do quite a bit of research on hotels. I want to make sure I am getting a great deal whether it be with cash or points and that I’m staying in a nice location. This year, I spent five nights at the Park Hyatt Vienna in a suite and could not ask for anything better. On my upcoming trip to Argentina, we’re going to be staying at the Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires, again in a suite. I always enjoy a luxurious high end hotel in the center of the city, but if I’m going to be stopping somewhere quickly for a single night, I feel I may as well keep it simple.
So I thought this would be a great time to seek some advice from my readers!
We are going to bein Santiago, Chile for one night on a stopover on the way to Easter Island in December. There will be three of us. We’ll be getting in at 9 pm and flying out again at 8:30 am so, to be honest, I am just looking for a decent place to sleep. The Grand Hyatt Santiago seems like very good value at 8,000 points a night, but once you take into account the back and forth taxi and time spent getting there, that kind of kills it for me. I’m thinking the best bet is to just stay at the airport and keep it convenient.
I’m looking at the Holiday Inn Santiago Airport and the Hilton Garden Inn Santiago Airport. Whether I use hotel rewards points or pay with Barclaycard Arrival miles, the cost comes out nearly the same. I know it’s not a big decision, but I am not really sure which to choose. For the Hilton Garden Inn, I have Hilton Diamond status so we’ll probably get treated a little better and get a few extra perks because of it. On the other hand, the Holiday Inn seems to have slightly better reviews. It’s a toss-up.
Has anyone stayed at either property? Which one would you recommend? Or is there another hotel I happen to be overlooking that’s in a reasonable location?
HGI
Definitely not worth going to the Grand Hyatt. We stayed at the W in the same part of town, and it’s a good 20 minute drive if I remember correctly
The Hyatt is 20 minutes from SCL with no traffic on a Sunday morning. It is more like +1 Hr normally from SCL to the the Parque Arauco area (Hotels are right next to the mall). There is a Marriott full service and also a new Renaissance by Marriott in the same area next to the Hyatt (besides to Parque Arauco Mall). All hotels are very nice. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt one night on our way back to the States. Although nice, the hotel was built in the late eighties and has not been renovated (but is very well kept). If you go for the in town hotel option, ask for a room with a view of the Andes and you will enjoy it. We stayed in the concierge floor and the breakfast area/ options are very nice. There are also good dinner options at the mall nearby, local nice to upscale restaurants and some U.S. (PF Chang’s, etc.)
The airport hotels although conveniently located near the airport, are located either in an industrial park (Hilton Garden Inn), with NOTHING (I meant that very capitalized) nearby (No restaurants, shopping or anything else). Or right in front of the terminal (Holiday Inn). The Hilton Garden Inn has a shuttle to SCL while the Holiday Inn is 50 steps away from the terminal, literally. I hope this helps.
I’ve lived in Santiago for a while and I agree that with such a short stay, it is not worth going into town (and the GH is on the “far” side of town from the airport).
At the airport, the Garden Inn is a bit newer and nicer, but it is a shuttle ride away in the middle of nowhere. the Holiday Inn is directly across the street the terminal, so you can walk there easily, and even go back to the airport for food etc. if you like. the HI would be my choice.
The Hyatt is in one of the suburbs a fair distance from the airport and given the hours you would be there not worth the cost of cabs to/from. (Even for a city break, this location is really only convenient if you want to spend all your time at the mall adjacent to it.) The Holiday Inn is right across from the terminal so the closest and easiest to get to/from. Factoring in the shuttle time to get to/from the Garden Inn, you’d likely save 2-hours overall staying at the HI. (For city breaks I find the InterContinental or HIExpress nicely located (across from the American Embassy) and a 10-minute walk through a residential neighbourhood (albeit with several nice restaurants including Miguel Torres’) to the subway on which you can get just about anywhere a tourist is likely to want to get to. There’s also a new Radisson across from the IC. Otherwise, my other two favourites are the Four Points in Providencia and the Crowne Plaza on O’Higgins by the university and walkable across the river to several sites, or on the main subway line and key bus routes. Santiago’s a great city to walk around and see the sites, too bad you won’t have time on this trip.
The Holiday Inn is right outside of the terminal. Definitely a more convenient location!
wonder if Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires nights are sponsored by the sign on bonus from Chase Hyatt Credit cards?
the hotel is not that expensive in terms of Hyatt points or cash; however I used my free two nights there :) my classmate and her husband just got the best hotel experience in their life for 4 nights at Park Hyatt Paris on 2 Chase Hyatt sign on bonus
I am contemplating on visiting Argentina, Easter Island and hopefully Chile on Christmas break in 2015. Will you do a report on how you book your tickets, the airlines you fly with and how far ahead you booked them? I will look forward to your trip reports on where you will visit and stay as well as how to obtain entry visa, if you need it for Chile or Easter Island.
Globetrotter: Air tickets to Chile are easy to get, but Christmas time is dicey like everywhere else – Easter Island (IPC) is a territory of Chile, so is a domestic flight from Santiago. Is easy to get to Chile and many airlines serve SCL directly from major hubs (AA, LA, DL, AC, IB, QF, UA starts Dec 2014, etc.), although LAN is the only airline flying to IPC, Assuming that you carry a western country passport the only visa you’d need is to pay the reciprocity fee on arrival if you are Canadian, Australian or Mexican. Chile abolished the reciprocity fee to U.S. passport holders earlier this year as Chile entered the U.S. Visa waiver program. All European passports and some other get in visa free. It is a nice place and December gets really hot in Santiago. The central valley of Chile reminds me of Southern California, if ever been to the LA/ San Diego area.
I hope this helps.
My wife and I stayed at the Holiday Inn in March. It is very convenient–literally right across the street from the terminal entrance. Very new, very nice. We had no complaints. After two and a half months traveling in Chile and Argentina, we were happy just to relax on our last day, get up in the morning and walk across the street to the terminal, and get ion our plane.
Noise was not a problem for us at the hotel.
Holiday Inn, por supuesto.
Stayed at Holiday Inn in April prior to a cruise. The hotel is new and very nice. Our rooms weren’t ready, but they stored our bags so we could get into Santiago for the day. The front desk staff and bellmen were very pleasant and easy to work with. We ate one dinner and the breakfast buffet in the hotel and it was very good. It was very convenient to walk off the airplane and over to the hotel after the long flight and then the next morning walk back over to the airport to meet the cruise staff for the transfer to the port.