Explore the Coast

Five small towns strung along the coast road south of Algarrobo — a poet's house, historic seaside architecture, fishing coves, and markets, all close enough for an easy afternoon out.

El Quisco

A working fishing town with the coast's liveliest artisan market

The most-visited beach town on this stretch of coast, El Quisco pairs a long sandy beach with one of the area's oldest fishing coves and a weekend artisan market that runs daily in summer. Playa Las Conchitas, right in the town center, was adapted as the coast's first fully inclusive beach in 2017.

✓Browse the weekend artisan fair for local crafts, jams, and liqueurs
✓Watch the catch come in at the fishermen's cove and buy straight off the boats
✓Swim at Playa Las Conchitas, the coast's first fully accessible beach
✓Look out over the offshore islet's colony of penguins and cormorants

About 25 minutes by car, roughly 21 km down the coast road

Isla Negra

Pablo Neruda's favorite house, now a museum on the rocks

A small seaside community within the El Quisco commune, Isla Negra is built around the house where Pablo Neruda lived from 1939 until his death in 1973. Shaped like a ship and packed with the figureheads, bottles, and shells he collected over a lifetime, the house is now a museum where the poet and his wife Matilde Urrutia are buried, facing the sea.

✓Tour Neruda's house-museum, still furnished as he left it
✓Walk the coastal path and browse the artisan stalls along the beach
✓Visit on July 12 for the poet's birthday — readings, music, and picnics on the beach
✓Stop for coffee at the on-site café before continuing down the coast

About 15 minutes by car — the closest of these towns to Algarrobo

El Tabo

Rocky coves, a clifftop lookout, and a string of quieter beaches

El Tabo strings together several beaches — Playa Canelo, El Tabito, and Punta de Tralca — along a rockier stretch of coast than its neighbors. Punta de Tralca's headland has a lookout over crashing surf and a sea cave at its foot, and the town has long drawn Chilean poets and artists, part of what's known locally as the Coast of Poets.

✓Hike out to the Cantalao lookout and the Pirate's Cave below it
✓Kayak or ride a banana boat off Punta de Tralca
✓Walk the fishing coves and buy the day's catch straight from the boats
✓Camp or picnic on the quieter sands of Playa Canelo

About 20 minutes by car, roughly 13 km down the coast road

Las Cruces

A turn-of-the-century beach resort frozen in wooden gables

Laid out in 1915 as an elegant retreat for Santiago's upper class, Las Cruces still keeps its early-1900s character in the wooden mansions of its Vaticano and Quirinal neighborhoods, now a protected heritage zone. Below the bluffs, Playa Chica and Playa Grande draw a quieter crowd than the bigger resort towns nearby.

✓Walk the heritage streets of the Vaticano and Quirinal neighborhoods
✓Catch the sunset from the Punta del Lacho lookout and interpretive trail
✓Swim or stroll at Playa Chica or Playa Grande
✓Browse the small fishing cove below Punta del Lacho

About 25 minutes by car

Cartagena

Chile's original beach resort, with a poet's grave in the hills

Cartagena was Chile's first fashionable beach resort, drawing Santiago's elite by rail from the 1850s until Viña del Mar took over that role. Its restored 1921 train station is a national monument, and the hills above town hold the quiet, wooded grave of poet Vicente Huidobro, one of Chile's four great poets alongside Neruda, de Rokha, and Mistral.

✓Walk the costanera, the classic evening gathering spot in summer
✓Visit Vicente Huidobro's grave and museum in the eucalyptus hills
✓Swim at Playa Chica or the wide sands of Playa Grande
✓Eat at the seafood cocinerías near the old train station

About 30–35 minutes by car — the furthest of these towns from Algarrobo