Santiago de Chile

Santiago rewards a slow walk more than its high-rise skyline suggests: a checkerboard of colonial blocks laid out by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia in 1541, hemmed in by the Andes on clear days and broken up by two green hills, Santa Lucía and San Cristóbal, that offer views over the whole valley. A free walking tour is the fastest way to connect the dots between the Spanish founding, the independence movement led by Bernardo O'Higgins, and the more recent political history still visible around La Moneda Palace.

Start around Plaza de Armas and the Metropolitan Cathedral, where the city's story begins, then let a local guide take you into the layers most visitors miss: the bohemian lanes of Barrio Lastarria, the immigrant heritage of Barrio Yungay, and the seafood counters of the Mercado Central. Each neighborhood reads like a different chapter of the same city.