Experience in Santiago, Chile by Fernando

What is it like to live in Santiago? Would you recommend it? What is the city like?

I love it, but i live in the suburbs of Santiago. Is great that is forty minutes to the sky centers (in winter) and 1 hour and a half from the beach. The city is beautiful and shows more development in the constructions and in economics terms than all the other cities of the area.
I recommend it, but how the city is so big, the mobilization around the city is slow, and there are beautiful and safe places, (near also to party places) how also there are worse places, so i recommend to be careful in the search of where to stay.

What is the student lifestyle like in Santiago?

I think that depends of the university in which you stay, in mine (AUI)happens more that people make activities with friends in an independent way, and sometimes the university organize some activities like parties or others, but a few times per year.
In other universities people have more student life relationated with the same university. Anyway, in Santiago always are things to do and places to party.

How much does it cost to live in Santiago?

Is relatively expensive (compared with the zone). A apartment for one person can cost around $400 pesos. Universities are expensive. And I live with my parents so i can't say too much about the costs because i can be wrong.

What is the food like? What are your favourite dishes?

The food is very well. I like uncle fletch (burger restaurant located in bellavista)and "la burguesia". there are also massive markets with excellent fruit (la vega) and markets of sea food (mercado central) in both you can find ship food. There are also many good restaurants.

What places would you recommend visiting in Santiago?

In the night bellavista is the principal zone of clubs in Santiago.
For tourism in the center you can find many attractive places like cerro Santa lucia, la moneda, cerro san cristóbal, museums, etc. Costanera Center is the biggest shop mall we have.
Santiago is surrounded of mountains, so there are many trekkings and beautiful nature places to visit.

What advice would you give future students heading to Santiago?

Choose well the place to stay. Try to make some chilean friends that may help you in the places to visit, where to go in the night, etc. Go to the concerts and take advantage of traveling, see places out of Santiago (and maybe out of the region, Chile is very beautiful and have a lot of places to visit) and meet people of different places. The people here can be cozy.