Budget to travel to Chile

We travelled to Chile from October 30th to December 29th. We rented a van for 2 weeks in Patagonia where the accomodation and food are really expensive (I’ve split the rental fee in two: accommodation + transportation). We’ve also spent one month in a friend place in Atacama, waiting for the borders to open.

Note: We are a couple travelling for 1 year and we’ve already spent half of our time and budget and time (20000€ total fir the year). The prices mentioned in this post are PER PERSON, except for the taxis and accommodation (usually private double rooms).

Food

A main course in a restaurant is about 10000/15000clp but you can find lunch for 5000clp with starter and main course.

Chorillana + Beer 75cl: 17000clp
Completo + Beer 75cl: 10000clp
Sandwich in the street: 1000clp

Drinks

Water: 1500clp 2l
Ice: 800clp
Juice: 1100clp in the street
Wine: around 3500clp a bottle
Cocktails: Pisco sour 3000clp, Terremoto 3300clp

Transportation

Taxi: in Santiago Iber works pretty well and is cheaper than a taxi.
Bus: I advise you to book in advance on recorrido.cl. We have been from Santiago to Valparaiso (Turbus 4000clp), to Pucon (nightbus 18000clp), to Temuco (4000clp), to Santiago (nightbus 10000clp) to Calama (55000clp) and to San Pedro de Atacama (3500clp).
From Calama we had a bus cancelation and had to take a bus to La Serena (46000clp) and an other one to Santiago (20000clp).
We crossed the border taking a bus Santiago – Mendoza (40000clp).

Accomodation

Country	Minimum	Maximum	Average
Chile	20.000clp	38.000clp	31.455clp
€	21€	40€	33€

Activities

We’ve spent 12% of our budget in:

Patagonia: Ventisquero colgante 8500clp, Termas 20000clp, San Rafael glaciar 150000clp, exploradores 80000clp, Marmol 15000clp.
> Check the detail in the dedicated post
Atacama: Lago Tebenquiche 5000clp, Garganta del diablo 3000clp.
> Check the detail in the dedicated post
Santiago: Parque Aguas de Ramon 3000clp.
> Check the detail in the dedicated post

Extras

General

Phone: Entel chip 1000clp, and spent a total of 13000clp in data (buy it in small stores in cash and they send you a sms)
Laundry: 7000clp full bag / 11000clp
Withdraw fees: around 5000clp

Visit Atacama during CoVid

We are staying in this beautiful region waiting for the borders to open. As the main sites are currently closed, we found great alternatives and discovered new amazing places! I’ve already visited and described the main sites in a previous post, but I wanted to share here the info up to date.

Van trip in Patagonia

We rented a van in Pucón for 16 days to discover the amazing Chilean Patagonia and its famous Carretera Austral. I’m sharing here all the good tips and what you need to know to do the same or better than us!

Rapa Nui / Eastern Island

To celebrate my 30 years old I was on this mysterious island, one of the most isolated, with my mom. In 4 days we achieved to visit the majority of the sites. It’s one of my favorite trip and defintly my best birthday ever!

Atacama all alone

Atacama is a region situated in north of Chile, less than 2 hours flight from Santiago, I’ve been there various time and always prefered to rent a car instead of taking a tour.

What to do in Santiago

I lived almost 3 years in this city so I know it pretty well, and lived my best years there! Between Europe and Latin America, you can find everything in this modern city, but for a tourist I would just recommend few days there, as Chile is very different from its capital!