Santiago-Valparaiso tours, Aboutchile or Southexcursions?

Has anyone used either Aboutchile or SouthExcursions recently? I have quotes from both companies for our pre-cruise stay in March for a half-day Santiago city tour, and a full day Valparaiso/Vina del Mar tour the next day.

SouthExcursions includes the hotels and transfers to the ship, but seems expensive ($510 US pp), Aboutchile doesn't. Aboutchile also requires a credit card # to be emailed or faxed to hold the reservation--no online booking, which makes me a bit hesitant. Both companies will stop at the airport on the Valparaiso tour to pick up another couple joining our party, but there is a substantial difference in cost between the two companies (SouthExcursions $165 pp vs $71 pp Aboutchile for the additional couple for the day tour). Tripadvisor has mixed reviews on South Excursions, and great reviews for Aboutchile, but nothing recent for either company. I'm looking for any personal experiences to help me make my decision!

We have used SouthExcursions on two cruises, the last being Around the Horn last January.

We were pleased with them for their tours and transport.

I would recommend them, but make my own hotel reservations. On both our cruises, we tried to check in our Santiago hotels, but SE had switched to another hotel at the last minute. Our hotels were still nice, but we didn't like the stress of the switch.

Also, be sure you do the winery tour on your trip between port and Santiago.

Here are my reviews of both cruises.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=248878

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=94024

I can suggest an alternative to both companies: When we were in South America last year, we booked a hotel ourselves and used http://www.chilegetaway.cl/ to take us from the airport to our hotel ( in Vina del Mar/Valparaiso). We can recommend Andres and his comfortable Mercedes-Van: We got a good and reasonable price because he found another couple to share the van (picked them up at a hotel in Santiago) after he had waited for us behind customs at the airport. He had monitored the flight and so was punctual even if we had made a mistake in regard to our landing time.

He then took us on a day tour through Santiago, to a winery to have an excellent lunch, up the coast to view the scenery and see sea-lions basking on the shore. He even bought all of us ice-cream at one of his favourite shops. We had a great day and would use him again in a heartbeat if we didn't have a hotel/transfer package from the cruise line for our next cruise in March.

Last time i was in Chile i took a transfer tour with Michael at winetoursvalparaiso.cl. michael@winetoursvalparaiso. He was very good and is a Brit from London and a sommelier. Great if you want a winetour transfer.

Other than that i do know of others like Uncorked, Santiago Adventures and Chilean Winelovers all doing the same thing.

I am very much into wine and enjoyed our full day tour in the Casablanca valley which is right in between Valparaiso and Santiago. So i would recommend that you try one of these expert winetour companies for a wine tour transfer.

We very much enjoyed the Case del Bosque winery.

We very much enjoyed the Case del Bosque winery.

We are doing a 19 day land and cruise with Princess in South America in three weeks. I read your wonderful review of your cruise on Celebrity. If you are willing, I would love to visit with you regarding Rio, Buenos Aires, and Santiago. You can contact me at pattiemc1953@gmail.com.

Pattie

I have just returned from South America cruise Dec 24th and used SouthExcursions for a tour in Punta Arenas.

My experience with them and Stephanie was less than stellar.

Booking the tour was not a problem. We received information that we out tour to Otaway Penguins was about 5 to 5.5 hours.

We had an email that said this name would be with their guide. The first indication should have been someones name not on the tour (who booked last minute and we had no idea was on the tour) was on the card. We spent time asking around in the port.

Once we had the right group it was down to a case of waiting for 2 people to show up. 15 minutes goes by then 30 minutes and still no show and our guide calls the office and Stephanie says we must wait for the people. 45 minutes now and many in the group are now not happy because this is cutting into our time when we return to visit the market.

Once again a call is made and one of the group gives Stephanie an ultimatum that if we don't leave now we will all cancel and expect a refund as this was not as described.

The tour itself wasn't bad but arriving back at the port area just over 3 hours had passed makes one wonder did I get what I paid for?

Phil

I have just returned from South America cruise Dec 24th and used SouthExcursions for a tour in Punta Arenas.

 

My experience with them and Stephanie was less than stellar.

 

Booking the tour was not a problem. We received information that we out tour to Otaway Penguins was about 5 to 5.5 hours.

We had an email that said this name would be with their guide. The first indication should have been someones name not on the tour (who booked last minute and we had no idea was on the tour) was on the card. We spent time asking around in the port.

Once we had the right group it was down to a case of waiting for 2 people to show up. 15 minutes goes by then 30 minutes and still no show and our guide calls the office and Stephanie says we must wait for the people. 45 minutes now and many in the group are now not happy because this is cutting into our time when we return to visit the market.

Once again a call is made and one of the group gives Stephanie an ultimatum that if we don't leave now we will all cancel and expect a refund as this was not as described.

 

The tour itself wasn't bad but arriving back at the port area just over 3 hours had passed makes one wonder did I get what I paid for?

 

Phil

Punta Arenas is a tender port and the tendering takes some time.

Our group organized on the ship and left on the same tender. Therefore, when we arrived in port, we were ready to go.

Punta Arenas is a tender port and the tendering takes some time.

Our group organized on the ship and left on the same tender. Therefore, when we arrived in port, we were ready to go.

Our group was there, it was the two people that were added to our group while we were on the cruise that didn't show.

Yes it is for the time being a tender port but at the time we got off the ship we were doing open tendering.

We used South Excursions twice on our recent SA cruise, once for tour/transfers from Santiago to Valparaiso and once for Otway Penguins in Punta Arenas. I can't say I was overjoyed with either trip.

The "guide" on our first tour barely said anything to the group. We were supposed to go to two wineries between Santiago and Valparaiso and also do a tour of Valparaiso. What we actually did was one winery and one large wine store where they were doing sampling. In Valparaiso we were taken down a street that reeked of urine and then up to the viewing point in the funicular. We were then dropped off at the port.

In Punta Arenas, we did have a more friendly and talkative guide, but she seemed rather uncomfortable leading a group. For a large portion of the trip the road was so rough that we couldn't hear anything she said, so she gave up trying. We also had an issue where the amount the guide had been told to collect from the group did not match the total of the balances people owed. She seemed very anxious about this, so I gave her the $10 difference, but this just added to my disappointment with this company.

I will say that they were where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there. Their pre-trip communication was very good. Ultimately, we felt we over-paid for what amounted to just transportation though.

I have mentioned in previous threads that we used AboutChile for 3 tours in Feb.-March 2013. We were happy with all 3 tours, which were by van with both a driver and a separate guide. (It was the same driver for all 3 tours, and two different guides.) The 3 tours were (1) an all-day transfer tour from Valpo to Santiago, spending most of the time touring Valpo and Vina-del-Mar before travelling to Santiago; (2) a half-day city tour of Santiago the next morning as an introduction to the city; (3) a 2/3rd day transfer tour from Santiago back to Valpo several days later, stopping at two wineries en route.

Part of our reason for booking with AboutChile in 2013 was that, in early 2010, during a previous B.A. to Valpo cruise, AboutChile treated us very well indeed when our tour plans for Valpo & Santiago were scrambled by the great Chilean earthquake of 27 Feb. 2010.

John

I have mentioned in previous threads that we used AboutChile for 3 tours in Feb.-March 2013. We were happy with all 3 tours, which were by van with both a driver and a separate guide. (It was the same driver for all 3 tours, and two different guides.) The 3 tours were (1) an all-day transfer tour from Valpo to Santiago, spending most of the time touring Valpo and Vina-del-Mar before travelling to Santiago; (2) a half-day city tour of Santiago the next morning as an introduction to the city; (3) a 2/3rd day transfer tour from Santiago back to Valpo several days later, stopping at two wineries en route.

 

Part of our reason for booking with AboutChile in 2013 was that, in early 2010, during a previous B.A. to Valpo cruise, AboutChile treated us very well indeed when our tour plans for Valpo & Santiago were scrambled by the great Chilean earthquake of 27 Feb. 2010.

 

John

When I put in aboutchile.com, I get a general info site. Do I look on that site for transportation and tour info?

There is some confusion in names. The firm we dealt with in both 2013 and 2010 sometimes referred to itself as "AboutChile", but its web address was http://www.chileabout.com . Their current website seems less complete than it used to be, but the tours described there are similar to those we booked. In both years we made arrangements via Vanessa at info@chileabout.com She was very thorough and clear in setting things up, and everything went as promised. Admittedly, our most recent dealings with them were 2.5 years ago.

John

Thank you