What To Do In Santiago, Chile In 48 Hours: Our Top Picks

View of Santiago, Chile famous building Costanera Center. Knowmad Adventures advice - What to do in Santiago, Chile in 48 hours.

Whether you are heading to hike the base of Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, exploring the Martian-like landscape of the Atacama, or basking in the glow of wine country, Santiago is an inevitable entry or exit point for your adventure. So what should a traveler do in Santiago, Chile in 48 hours?

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Combining Relaxation & Adventure in Colombia’s Coffee Region and Caribbean Coast

Colorful alleyway and description of Barichara during Knowmad traveler's adventure in Colombia

Colombia is filled with diverse regions, and packed with opportunities for adventure and experiencing incredible natural and cultural wonders. When work brought two friends to Medellin, they decided to extend their trip and have their husbands join them to uncover more of the country’s gems and create their very own adventure in Colombia.

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What If We…Go to Antarctica? Knowmad Travelers Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary with Antarctica and Patagonia Exploration

Raft floats through cave in Antarctica on an Antarctica and Patagonia exploration.

 

As with most beginnings to an amazing adventure, this custom Antarctica and Patagonia exploration for two couples began with that tantalizing question: “What if we…?” After having to postpone their trip during Covid, Joe, Bev, Mike, and Claudia wrote to their Knowmad Operations Specialist with the email subject line starting out with “What If,” and ending in them asking what it would take to re-book their Patagonia trip to include Antarctica as well.

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Just Back From South America – Stories from Knowmad Travelers

We here at Knowmad Adventures pride ourselves on crafting awe-inspiring South American adventures, helping folks be travelers rather than tourists. Our team of knowledgeable Trip Specialists make creating your own authentic and innovative trip stress-free, using your tastes and interests as a compass to create a unique, custom itinerary.

And as the new year begins to take hold, we’d like to take a moment and look back at some of those incredible adventures Knowmad travelers experienced in 2023; from island hopping in the Galapagos to hiking into the heart of Patagonia, and everything in between. See what our returning travelers have to say about their trips, and reach out to one of our Trip Specialists today to plan your own South American adventure!

Knowmad travelers pose for a family picture while horseback riding in Argentina

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Jordan Harvey Named Travel & Leisure’s A-List Travel Advisor

Travel and Leisure Winner Travel and Leisure Knowmad Adventures

A huge congratulations to our Founder, Jordan Harvey, for being named one of Travel & Leisure’s A-List Travel Advisors for the 12th year in a row! It wasn’t just last year’s adventures that got Jordan this honor, but years of perfecting travel in South America alongside an incredible team. Without our core group of knowledgeable and helpful Travel Specialists, it wouldn’t have been possible, and of course, collaborating with our amazing travelers always leads us to craft better and better trips. Check out his feature from Travel & Leisure here, and reach out to one of our amazing Trip Specialists today to plan your own South American adventure!

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SIMPLY THE BEST: 2023 KNOWMAD PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

Award winning photos and travel quotes

It’s time for everyone’s favorite newsletter of the year, the Knowmad Annual Photo Contest! So many travelers have returned from their 2023 custom adventures in South America with incredible stories and photos to share and inspire. We’ve categorized the photos into a wide variety of topics to give you a little taste of it all. From breathtaking landscapes, to heartwarming and hilarious traveler portraits, to jaw dropping encounters with local fauna, Knowmad travelers have experienced it all this year. All category winners will receive Knowmad gear and the overall Knowmad Adventures Grand Prize Winner will win a three day stay at Hacienda Zuleta.

Scroll down to see the results and ignite your wanderlust…

 

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Top Ten Unique Things to Do in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is one of the most charming cities in South America and is home to incredible architecture, art, culture, wines, and food. While the “highlights” are essential to understanding this vast city, there are so many other special experiences and things to do in Buenos Aires to get an in-depth view of the city. Here are ten ideas for unique things to do in Buenos Aires, all recommendations from the experts on our Knowmad team.

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Extend Your Argentina Trip With An Exploration of Uruguay

Three photo layout of best places to visit in Uruguay including Colonia, Uruguay, horseback riding and the coast.

Just thirty miles away from Buenos Aires, Uruguay is a country that often gets overlooked by travelers heading to South America. Without the name recognition of sites like Machu Picchu, the Galapagos, or Patagonia, the country ends up as a hazy gray spot on the map, perhaps known to exist but any other information about it still shrouded in mystery. Here at Knowmad Adventures, we strive to fill in those spots on the map for you and create lifelong memories in amazing destinations, even ones you may not know much about yet. Uruguay, being so close to the world-renowned metropolitan city of Buenos Aires, works wonderfully as an extension to a trip to Argentina, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks long.

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Condé Nast Traveler Top Specialists

Knowmad team members working together to create an itinerary, pointing at a map, with a Condé Nast Traveler 2023 seal on the lower left.

Not one, but two Knowmad Trip Specialists have earned a spot on the Condé Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialists list! A big congrats to Jordan Harvey and Renee Davies for their continued excellence. See their travel planning profiles to find out why Knowmad travelers describe our Trip Specialists like this, “I’m not sure which metaphor to use to describe your travel knowledge – you are like a chef or a magician or an artist in the way your mind works.”

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Clos Apalta Residence: Hidden Gem of Chilean Vineyards

Clos Apalta Residence in Chilean Wine Country

A relaxing, enjoyable stay in Chilean vineyards can turn an excellent trip into something extraordinary. In my 20 years in Chile – many spent working in the travel industry – I’ve had the opportunity to explore vineyards from north to south, and one winery hotel truly stands apart: The Clos Apalta Residence.

What makes Apalta’s Residence stand out is how it combines the beauty of the Chilean countryside with excellence in winemaking and cuisine as well as its spacious, comfortable, and well-thought-out accommodations, which, altogether, make for an unforgettable experience. It’s not the first result that Google pulls up, but if you are coming to Chile and love great food and wine, you have to consider it.

At Knowmad, we’ve been including stays in the original casitas at this winery hotel for years. But with the addition of six spacious villas to build on its offer, on my recent visit, I set out with the mission to experience these new spaces and to update our understanding of how to work this into our custom trips to Chile.

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Where To Go In Colombia

Colorful buildings on a street in Bogotá, Colombia.

WHY VISIT COLOMBIA?

An up-and-coming destination in South America, Colombia is still relatively unknown and unexplored by international travelers. That being said, it has so much to offer visitors:

  • A huge variety of landscapes and wildlife that make Colombia one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.
  • An incredibly rich history and melting pot of cultures, with different indigenous groups in the mountains & jungles contrasting the African diaspora on the coast, and the remnants of the Spanish colonial period in towns across the country.
  • Opportunities for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and more which make it a destination for adventurers.
  • Destinations that are little-visited by international travelers and off the beaten path.
  • One of the fastest-growing tourism regions in South America, which has helped to shed its image of instability and complex social issues.

Connect here with a Knowmad Adventures Trip Specialist to help you create a custom travel experience throughout Colombia that is as unique and authentic as you are.

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KNOWMAD 2024 PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

Knowmad Adventures 2024 Contest Winners

 

The Knowmad 2024 Photo Contest Winners are in! This past year was full of incredible stories and images from our Knowmad travelers. The pictures and comments that were sent in inspire us to keep exploring. Thanks to all who shared their impressive pictures throughout the last year.

To give you a little taste of it all, the winners have been broken down into 7 different categories; adventure, culture, landscape, cityscape, portrait, flora, and fauna. All category winners will receive Knowmad gear, and the overall Knowmad Adventures Grand Prize Winner gets a 2-night/ 3-day stay at Hacienda Zuleta in Ecuador. Scroll down to see inspiring Knowmad traveler stories, from connecting with locals to jaw-dropping wildlife encounters, and find inspiration for your next South American adventure below.

 

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