I am planning a trip to Chile for this October for my wife and I. We have traveled extensively to Europe and some to Japan and SE Asia, but never to South America, so are looking forward to the adventure.
My original plan was to use Santiago as a base for about a week, seeing some sights in the city and also renting a car and doing day trips for hiking and wine tasting, then driving over to Valparaíso and spending a few days there and seeing the coast. Then, return the car and fly to Patagonia for a week. We like bird watching, so we were planning to visit several parks and natural areas.
However, I discovered today that both the British and US goverments downgraded their safety rating for Chile this summer, especially Santiago and Valparaíso. Apparently, there has been a significant increase in violent crime against tourists, including mugging, carjackings of rental cars, and armed robbery. One of the web sites I was using for planning, by the author of the Moon guide to Chile, even recommended avoiding Valparaíso completely until further notice. We are fairly savvy people, having avoided any problems in US cities with bad reputations for crime like New Orleans, but also don't want too much risk (which is of course a relative term!).
If you've been to those places recently or live there, can you comment on the current safety situation? Should we delay our trip, or skip Santiago and just do Patagonia and maybe someplace like the Atacama Desert?
Submitted August 14, 2023 at 01:06PM by mikescha https://ift.tt/7GyIwqR
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