Valparaíso

A UNESCO World Heritage port city of hills, funiculars, and street art

Valparaíso is Chile's historic main port, about 64 km up the coast from Algarrobo, its steep hills — cerros — tumbling down toward the Pacific in a jumble of brightly painted houses and narrow, winding streets. UNESCO named its historic quarter a World Heritage Site in 2003, recognizing a 19th-century townscape shaped by the wealth that passed through the port before the Panama Canal, when Valparaíso was one of the most important harbors on the Pacific coast of the Americas.

Getting around the hills still relies on a handful of funicular elevators — ascensores — some running since the 1880s, that haul residents and visitors up from the flat "Plan" below to hillside neighborhoods like Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción, where 19th-century mansions built by European merchant families now share the streets with galleries, cafés, and some of Latin America's best-known street art. On another hill sits La Sebastiana, the quirky, five-story house Pablo Neruda built as his Valparaíso retreat — one of his three house-museums, distinct from the one at Isla Negra further down the coast.

Things to do

✓Ride one or more of the historic ascensores — Concepción (1883) and El Peral (1902) are among the oldest, both national monuments
✓Wander the hillside streets, stairways, and viewpoints of Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción
✓Follow the murals of the Museo a Cielo Abierto, an open-air museum of large-scale street art on Cerro Bellavista
✓Tour La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's house-museum, for its harbor views and eccentric, ship-inspired design
✓Take in the working port and the bay from one of the hillside miradores
✓Linger over lunch or dinner at a hillside bistro overlooking the water

Gastronomy

Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepción are dense with small, chef-driven restaurants and cafés — a mix of creative Chilean cooking, Peruvian and Italian influences, and fresh seafood pulled straight from the port below; reservations are worth making at the better-known spots on weekends.

How to get there

About 64 km north of Algarrobo — roughly an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes by car — via the inland route through Casablanca and Ruta 68, or the slower, more scenic coast road through Quintay. There's also regular bus service between Valparaíso and the coastal towns south of it, including Algarrobo.

Practical info

From Santiago: ~110 km (about 1h30 via Ruta 68)
From Algarrobo: ~64 km (about 1 hour to 1h15 by car)
Best time to visit: Year-round — the historic quarter, ascensores, and La Sebastiana all operate every season. Go on a weekday morning if you can, to beat cruise-ship crowds, and stick to the well-traveled parts of Cerro Alegre, Cerro Concepción, and Bellavista rather than wandering the quieter hills after dark.

Photo: Gabrielinfante92 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)