14 Day Chile and Argentina Tour: Luxury Lodges & Beautiful Boutique Hotels

The morning sees you landing in gorgeous Chile in her proud and unforgettable capital of Santiago. After dropping your bags off at your darling boutique hotel in the heart of one Santiago’s plushest and most elegant neighborhoods, spend some time discovering the urban gems of this stunning metropolis. Reach the summit of Cerro San Cristobal for a breath-taking view of the city and its environs and the rising peaks of the Andes on the horizon. Or, engage in a little retail therapy at Nueva Costanera Avenue or Alonso de Cordova Street, where you can find the finest European fashion houses as well as the best examples of Chilean high fashion. The evenings can be spent at one of Santiago’s best restaurants—the best are found in Isabella Goyenechea—or music clubs, from jazz to pop to rock and roll.

After a hearty breakfast at your elegant hotel, hit the streets and see the sights of Santiago. Art lovers will want to visit the National Museum of Fine Arts or the Modern Art Museum in scenic Parque Forestal, a long stretch of city greenery that runs along the banks of the Mapocho River. Those intrigued by Chile’s literary heritage would enjoy a visit to La Chascona, one of the three homes of the unrivaled love poet Pablo Neruda. The home is set in the artsy neighborhood of Bellavista and holds a myriad of fascinating artifacts from the writer’s life, as well as pieces of art done by some of his notable acquaintances.

Great views and exquisite architecture can be found at Cerro Santa Lucia while more examples of Santiago’s spectacular edifices can be found at the Palacio Cousino.  This evening, search out one of Santiago’s famous jazz clubs: the Club de Jazz de Santiago in the northern section of the Nunoa neighborhood is regarded as the city’s best.

Your final day in this magical metropolis gives you a chance to see everything you might have missed. Visit the steps of the Iglesia y Museo de San Francisco—the capital’s oldest church. Enjoy the exhibits at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, one of the city’s newest museums, where you’ll find artifacts from various Native American cultures, from the colossal heads of the Olmec to Andean mummies that predate their Egyptian cousins by centuries. Walk the paths at Parque Bicentenario, one of the most beautiful in the city, or take in a play, dance or opera at the historic Teatro Municipal: even if the theater doesn’t interest you, the striking exterior and sumptuous concert halls are worth visiting.

Outdoor enthusiasts will find a number of activities dedicated to exploring Santiago’s numerous nearby peaks while oenophiles might want to spend the day trekking out to Chile’s burgeoning wine country, where they can learn more about Chilean viticulture and sample some of the best varietals and blends of the region.

Today, venture deep into the southern wilds of Chilean Patagonia, named by Magellan for the legendary race of giants—the Patagones—who allegedly roamed the area’s plains and plateaus. After landing in Punta Arenas, the regional capital and main jumping off point for exploring southern Chile, you’ll be taken to your unique and unforgettable lodgings in the breathtaking Torres del Paine National Park. You’ll be wowed by the gorgeous scenery, from the spectacular collision of snow-capped peaks and brilliant sky to the verdant hills surrounding azure lakes. The majestic grandeur of Torres del Paine is sure to make a nature-lover out of even the most die-hard urbanite, and the myriad activities and touring options will give you plenty of opportunities to experience the awesome power of nature to the fullest.

Today is a celebration of Mother Earth, dedicated to discovering some of her most fantastic and fascinating formations. Hike along the Rio Pongo where you’ll find an unforgettable series of waterfalls, or take a horseback ride through the park to the banks of Lake Pehoe at the feet of Los Cuernos, two of the area’s most spectacular peaks.  Make your way through one of the park’s many lakes to take in the beautiful power of the mountain glaciers that dot the landscape, from the opaque and mammoth face of the Serrano Glacier to the imposing Grey Glacier, which makes up nearly an entire edge of the Great Southern Ice Field. Shorter hikes will take you along the Margarita and Marco Antonio Lagoons while boat rides throughout the park offer fantastic new perspectives on the craggy peaks on the horizon.

Enjoy one final meal in the unmatched surroundings of Torres del Paine before returning to Punta Arenas, set to return to the city streets of Chile’s cosmopolitan capital. With one more night to spend in Santiago, you’ll want to live it up like a local. Enjoy a delicious meal of freshly caught seafood or perfectly prepared beef. Have a glass of delicious Chilean wine while enjoying the vibrant nightlife of Santiago’s poshest areas. Jazz clubs and upscale bars are everywhere to be found, and people of all ages are celebrating the coming of another evening and its attendant revelries.

Your final morning in Chile sees you off after breakfast, taking you to Santiago’s airport to fly to the gastronomic center of Argentina and the center of the largest wine producing region in Latin America: Mendoza. Upon your arrival in Mendoza, you’ll be escorted to your stunning boutique hotel, offering eye-opening views of the Andean foothills, tours of local vineyards, wine tastings, and an opulent spa.

You’ll want to get out and explore this fascinating city as soon as you check in. The city itself is an often over-looked gem unto itself, filled with gorgeous city parks like the Plaza Independencia and Plaza Espana, a number of high-quality museums, and vistas of the rising peaks that ring the city. Have dinner at any number of Mendoza’s excellent restaurants, but 1884 is generally regarded as offering the finest dining in the city.

Nowhere on Earth has experienced the explosion of enotourism quite like Mendoza, and today gives you the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of some of Argentina’s up-and-coming wineries and taste some of the region’s famous vintages, most notably the bold and juicy Malbecs that have made the area—and the country—one of the Great Capitals of Wine. Explore the Valle de Uco, one of the very best viticultural regions in the nation, or the higher and drier plains of Maipu, where perhaps the finest Malbec grapes in the world can be found. You’ll learn about the fascinating history of Argentina’s wine industry, the swift rise to chicness of Malbecs and South American blends, and the environmental factors that all converge to make this one of the most productive wine regions on the planet.

Set up a private tasting at one of the nearby wineries, plan an opulent lunch where each delicious course comes with a corresponding wine, or simply walk through the long lines of grapevines that spread seemingly endlessly across the land’s wide expanse.

Spend your final day in Mendoza encountering the unique architecture, beautiful parks and friendly people that make this city one of Argentina’s most popular tourist destinations. Tour the monuments to Mendoza’s absorbing past, from Cerro de la Gloria, a stolid mountain crowned by a captivating, dramatic sculpture commemorating the battalions of the Liberating Army of the Andes, to the gorgeous Basilica de San Francisco, built in the late 19th-century and containing a statue dedicated to la Virgen del Carmen de Cuyo and the walking stick of Jose de San Martin, the leader of the 19th-century Argentine resistance.

You can also stroll the grounds of General San Martin Park. From the brilliant blue lake and the rolling contours of the Mendoza Yacht Club to the serenity of the Rose Garden, the Mendoza Zoological Park, or the intricate and elegant wrought iron gates at the park’s entrance.

After a delicious breakfast in your Mendoza hotel, you’ll be taken to the airport for a flight to the northeast of Argentina and the wide and gleaming streets of her unmatched capital, Buenos Aires. Your accommodations while in Buenos Aires are a gorgeous and charming boutique hotel in the center of the Palermo Soho barrio, one of the city’s hippest neighborhoods, with wide tree-lined streets and innumerable restaurants, bars and boutiques.

After dropping off your bags, start reconnoitering this vast and action-packed metropolis, from the bright storefronts and apartments in La Boca to the understated elegance of Recoleta. You can start your explorations of Buenos Aires’s vibrant culinary scene on a guided tour of a number of parrillas, or just walk the streets of nearby Palermo Viejo where bookstores and small clothing stores line the winding cobblestone streets.

Today offers the chance to wake in the midst of this spectacular world capital and engage in some activities that might require the whole day. Daredevils will want to try to schedule a trip up into the clear sparkling blue of Buenos Aires’s skies and take in the cityscape while they plummet to Earth with one the city’s highly-rated skydiving companies. Do some shopping in Belgrano or on Florida Street in the Microcentro, or simply walk the dockyards of the renewed Puerto Madero, where nature lovers will find the excellent Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur. Theater-goers will certainly want to saunter around the Tribunales barrio, where they can find Avenida Corrientes (Buenos Aires’s answer to Broadway and London’s East End) and the imposing façade and unparalleled acoustics of Teatro Colon, the capital’s main opera house and one of the very best concert venues on the planet.

Nothing better expresses and encapsulates Buenos Aires’s storied past—its passionate history, the powerful influences of the immigrant population, the lower-class desires, and upper-class elegance—than the tango, one of the most famous dances in the world and the unquestionable artistic legacy of Argentina. Tango clubs and street demonstrations can be found throughout the city, but some barrios are better than others if you’re looking for the authentic artistry of this fiery dance, with Boedo standing as the preeminent tango neighborhood in the city.

You can learn the steps yourself from either a tango studio or with private lessons, where you’ll encounter not only the intricacies of this incredible art form but the cultural backgrounds of its main practitioners. In the evening you can take in dinner and a tango show at one of the numerous underground tango clubs throughout the city, or night owls can venture out to a milonga, a sort of tango club, where the evening sessions will last until four or five in the morning.

Your final full day in Latin America can be spent exploring wherever you might have missed in your first two days in Argentina’s capital. Learn about Argentina’s complex and sometimes troubling history at the steps of the Casa Rosada, the “Pink House” that serves as the executive mansion and office of the President of Argentina. Also, visit the nearby Plaza de Mayo, a hub of political life in Argentina built around the Piramide de Mayo, the oldest national monument in the city.

Then, head to the upscale neighborhood of Recoleta and its venerable cemetery. The cemetery is named one of the most beautiful in the world; it houses the remains of many of Argentina’s political, cultural and social elites, including Eva Peron, more than a dozen presidents of Argentina, and the first Latin American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Argentina tours aren't complete without a traditional Argentine breakfast. Enjoy a wonderful feast on your last morning and then prepare to leave fabulous South America behind. You will leave with lifelong memories and plans to return to this incredible region as soon as possible.