Going north up the Pacific coast

Leaving Santiago

The first stage of your journey takes you into the heart of Chile’s ‘Norte Chico’, or Little North, a kind of transition region between the fertile centre of the country and the incredibly arid Atacama desert. Fill up with petrol and take the ring road around the north of Santiago, until you reach the intersection with Ruta 5, otherwise known as the Panamerican Highway. This road will take you all the way to the border with Peru and, if you wish, beyond.

Heading north
Once you have cleared the area round the capital, the traffic starts moving more quickly on this broad road. Be ready, though, to stop at traffic lights – this isn’t a motorway. As you drive towards La Calera, the road takes you through attractive hilly regions and towards the coast: see the picture, taken after heavy rainfall in August.

Moving up the coast
You should be making good progress now, as the traffic thins to mostly long-distance vehicles, but try to find time to stop for some of the great views of the Pacific along the way. Perhaps stop for lunch in a seaside town such as Los Vilos. Further up you come to signs for the Fray Jorge National Park, with its amazing section of cloudforest. Definitely worth seeing, but outside the high season it’s best to check opening times in advance. If you are travelling at any time apart from the Chilean summer, you may want to find somewhere to stay next to one of the wonderful, empty beaches that line this part of the coast. Prices are low, and there are some excellent beach-side restaurants in towns such as Tongoy.

Coquimbo and La Serena
If you keep going, you’ll come to Coquimbo, with its marvellous steel church designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel. But don’t go any further, on your first day, than La Serena: it’s the last big city for quite some distance. It’s also quite an attractive place (the second-oldest city in Chile) and has a good range of accommodation. One word of warning: try to time your arrival so that you get there before the daily buses from Santiago (see online timetables). Otherwise, you may well find all the rooms have been taken by backpackers.

Car rental in Chile

Arriving in Santiago
There are regular scheduled flights to Chile from Europe, North America and elsewhere in the world, with most of them arriving at Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez Airport. It is a modern, efficiently-run airport located to the northwest of the capital, making it well situated for journeys up the Panamerican Highway towards the Atacama, Peru and Bolivia. All the well-known international car-hire firms such as Hertz, Avis and Budget have desks there, and although it is of course also possible to rent in the city, this means having to find your way out of an urban area of over five million people – hardly the most relaxing way to begin your vacations.

Car rental
The best deals can often be obtained ahead of your arrival, either by booking directly through the car-hire firm or via specialist travel sites like Expedia, although it is also possible to rent on the spot. However you choose to do so, you will need – as in other countries – to be 21 or over, hold a full driving licence and be able to pay by major credit card, for example Visa or American Express. Rental charges, though not particularly low, should not be much higher than in Europe. Check that the price quoted includes insurance, VAT (IVA in Spanish) and unlimited mileage – the distances in Chile can be enormous.

Preparing for your journey
No matter how shiny and new your hire car looks, it’s best to check that, too. So as soon as you’re clear of the airport, get off the road and have a good look at it. If you’re at all mechanically-minded, make sure it’s in good working order. At the very least, check that the tyres (including the spare) are in good condition and properly inflated, the lights work and that there are some basic tools – enough, at least, to change a wheel. If not, take it straight back to the car rental people.

Find yourself a big, out-of-town supermarket and stock up. Get into the habit of doing this: from here on, as elsewhere in this immense and sparsely-populated country, you may not have another chance to do for hundreds of miles. Essentials include tins and packets of food that will keep during your journey, plus lots and lots of bottled water. Especially if you’re travelling in summer (December-February), this could save your life.

Travels in South America

The series
This, the first in a number of basic guides to some of the most exciting long-distance drives in the world, focuses on the route north from Santiago, the capital of Chile, to the borders of Peru and Bolivia, returning via the High Andes and the heart of the Atacama Desert. For this magnificent journey, like others described in this series, travelling by private motor vehicle is the only practical option unless the traveller has unlimited time available.

The stages
Each posting on this blog will cover a different stage in the journey. For example, the next one will look at car rental in Santiago and preparations for the first section of the route up the Panamerican Highway. The following posting will cover the drive north to La Serena, the first major town on the Pacific coast, and so on. In each case, there will be suggestions on which things to take, where to stop, what to see, when to be careful - and much more.

The background
Chile, together with the countries bordering it, is a land of extremes, of superlatives. It has a large chunk of the world's longest and second-highest mountain range, the driest desert on Earth, some of the tallest volcanoes and highest roads anywhere. There are deep fjords and enormous glaciers in the south, massive forests and superb vineyards in the centre, and enormous salt flats and gushing geysers in the north. It extends from the tropics to Cape Horn (next stop: Antarctica), but with a population of just fifteen million there are huge, virtually uninhabited areas for the traveller to discover. And given that most European and North American visitors to the country first arrive at Santiago Airport, that is probably the best place to start your own journey of discovery and adventure.