Chile:

¡Bienvenidos a Santiago! Framed by the Andes, this sprawling metropolis is home to almost 6 million people. Greet our driver at the airport and settle in at our beautiful design boutique hotel in Bellas Artes neighborhood. As the sun sets, we’ll meet in the library for introductions and a pisco sour before heading out to dinner. Our destination tonight is a longstanding institution for elevated traditional Chilean food. Here, with our first sips of local wine, we’ll toast to our first of many unforgettable meals together.

Stay: Hotel Magnolia

Meals: Dinner

Drinks: Welcome cocktail and wine with dinner

Today we’ll be venturing into the beating heart of the city: its historic downtown. But first, it’s leisurely breakfast at the hotel before meeting our expert guide, a food and wine writer, for a walking tour of Centro Histórico, visiting landmarks like Plaza de Armas, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Pre-Columbian Museum, and La Moneda Palace, Chile’s equivalent to the White House. After all the walking, a well-deserved lunch. Since Chile is a country that loves sandwiches, we'll visit a longstanding fuente, a type of soda fountain, to try a completo, lomito, or churrasco, to name a few. The afternoon will be yours to rest or explore the city at your own pace. We’ll reconvene this evening for a wine paired seafood feast, including an impressive seafood platter and seabass confit in olive oil.

Stay: Hotel Magnolia

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Drinks: Beer with lunch & wine paired dinner

Our day will begin with Chilean comfort foods like empanadas and sopaipillas as we explore La Vega market, getting to know some of the local produce and ingredients, guided by Chef Pilar and our food and wine writer guide. We’ll then make our way to Bellavista neighborhood to visit La Chascona, former home of poet Pablo Neruda, now a museum. Learn about the famed poet and his eccentric home, and afterwards we’ll head to a wine paired lunch to what seems like an unassuming house, but don’t let the casual and homey feel of this restaurant fool you, as the Chef here is serving one of Chile’s most creative and delicious menus, using seasonal ingredients to reimagine traditional Chilean food. As this is usually a long and satisfying affair, the evening is all yours to relax, shop, or explore Santiago’s rich culinary landscape.

Stay: Hotel Magnolia

Meals: Breakfast & long lunch

Drinks: Wine paired lunch

Start your morning with breakfast at the hotel before we take a drive to the Pacific Coast to visit the colorful and bohemian port city of Valparaíso. Enjoy some time to wander around the steep hillside streets of Cerro Alegre and Concepción, which are full of panoramic viewpoints, galleries, shops, cafés, and street art. For lunch, located in a residential neighborhood, is a family owned restaurant that’s been serving locals since the 1960s, when the grandmother, who is still around supervising, started running the kitchen. This is Chilean home cooking at its finest, with dishes like carne mechada and a divine manjar, raspberry, and meringue layer cake. Afterwards, we’ll make our way back to Santiago to rest. We’ll reconvene again in the evening for dinner at the restaurant of a chef who’s been named Latin America’s Best Female Chef, with a menu that seamlessly fuses Chilean and French cuisines.

Stay: Hotel Magnolia

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Drinks: Beer or wine with lunch

Today will start with breakfast at your own pace at the hotel before we visit the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, an architecturally beautiful and deeply sobering space commemorating the victims of the 1973-1990 dictatorship. The scars and divisions that Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year military dictatorship left behind are still palpable today. Since we believe food exists within the cultural and political context of a place, no visit to Chile would be complete without an understanding of this painful part of their history, which affected their cultural and culinary development. Afterwards, we’ll head to lunch at a beautiful private home to enjoy some time with locals for a wine paired meal using seasonal products and ingredients. Back at the hotel, take some time to rest before our final dinner in Santiago. Tonight, we’ll enjoy a very special wine paired tasting menu at a celebrated restaurant (Worlds 50 Best) that will take us on a journey through the Chilean terrain, its produce and bounty, in a beautiful modern space.

Stay: Hotel Magnolia

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Drinks: Wine paired lunch & dinner

Sitting on the foothills of the Andes, Colchagua Valley is known for its fertile soil, a terroir that mixes volcanic and clay soils with the breeze and minerality from the nearby Pacific Ocean, making it a perfect spot for growing grapes. Begin your day with one last breakfast at the hotel in Santiago before making our way to the wine country, about a 2-hour ride. We’ll head straight to lunch at the incredible restaurant of an important winery, headed by an acclaimed Argentinian Chef, for open fire dishes like empanadas and cuts of beef paired with some amazing wines. We’ll then check-in at our hotel to enjoy the rest of the afternoon, perhaps relaxing by the pool, before we reconvene in the evening to visit an artisanal goat cheese shop in the town of Marchigüe, where we’ll meet both the goats and the producers to close our day with a cheese and wine tasting.

Stay: Vibo Wine Lodge (double occupancy & limited single occupancy), and Hotel Casa de Campo (single occupancy & two beds)

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Drinks: Wine paired lunch & dinner

One of our trip’s most anticipated days, today will be all about Chilean ingredients, getting to know local produce, herbs, spices and more, and how to work with them in your own kitchen. Our morning will begin with a full breakfast spread just for us at a little café in the town of Santa Cruz, which will include an array of local breads, cheeses, organic eggs, and Chilean sweets like alfajores and a milhojas cake. The setting for our cooking session with our celebrated Chef Ambassador of Chile and trip leader, Pilar Rodríguez, is a beautiful vineyard, where we’ll be cooking and eating outdoors. But first, a guided tour of the winery and a wine tasting followed by a visit to the garden to gather some ingredients. Pilar will then guide us through a local salt and olive oil tasting before we put our aprons on to prepare our lunch. We’ll lastly sit outside to enjoy our meal with a selection of wines from the vineyard chosen specifically for our menu. Once back at the hotel, the evening is yours to wander around the vines and gardens, take a dip in the pool, or maybe tour one of the many wineries in the area.

Stay: Vibo Wine Lodge (double occupancy & limited single occupancy), and Hotel Casa de Campo (single occupancy & two beds)

Meals: Breakfast & long lunch

Drinks: Wine tasting & wine paired lunch

Sleep in and enjoy some free time in the morning to grab breakfast at the hotel and relax before we kick off our last day with lunch in the town of Santa Cruz at a popular restaurant for classic Chilean home cooking with some Spanish touches. After lunch, we’ll head to Clos Apalta, a celebrated winery for a tasting of their fantastic wines and a tour of their beautiful grounds and innovative wine making facility. The rest of the afternoon is yours to rest, pack, or explore. As the sun sets, we’ll meet for an intimate final dinner at Chef Pilar’s Food & Wine Studio. We’ll have the beautiful and serene space to ourselves for a private, wine paired tasting menu that Pilar will guide us through as we toast to our wonderful time of exploring Chile, its culinary and wine traditions, and the new friends made along the way.

Stay: Vibo Wine Lodge (double occupancy & limited single occupancy), and Hotel Casa de Campo (single occupancy & two beds)

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Drinks: Wine with lunch, wine tasting & wine paired dinner

After nine days of adventure and eating your way through Chile, it’s time to head back home with some lovely new memories and perhaps a couple of bottles of Chilean wine. There are no scheduled activities today, so you may depart early in the morning or enjoy breakfast at the hotel before our driver takes you to the airport in Santiago.

Meals: Breakfast