Last year, while on business in Santiago, a friend and I stayed at the Hotel Plaza San Francisco during its annual Vinos de Chile 2003 – three nights of wine tastings offered by over 40 Chilean wineries in a tent set up adjacent to the hotel. A unique event.

We also took a half-day city tour one day and half-day tour that included a trip to the Concha y Toro Winery that stopped at the Santa Rita Winery for lunch another day. The rest of our free time we spent on our own – seafood lunch at the Mercado, shopping at the Los Dominicos craft village and walking, walking, walking…

When we got back home everyone we told about our trip expressed an interest in attending this year’s wine event. I asked a good friend who’s a travel wholesaler to plan a tour I could escort so we could take a group back this year.

She came back with this itinerary:
Chile wine tour preliminary itinerary

None of the people who originally expressed an interest in the tour are interested in this tour -- some because of the price and others because of the length of the trip. My travel agent friend feels if people travel this far they want to spend as much time there and do as many things as possible during that time.

How do you feel? If you had the money and the time, would this itinerary interest you? Would you be more likely to take a tour with a shorter itinerary that included the wine festival and points of interest around Santiago if the price was right. If you could visit Chile for Vinos de Chile 2004, (9/28-10/1) how many days would you like to spend in Chile and what would you expect to pay?

I would like to put together a tour that would introduce people to what may be my favorite Latin country and its wine and wineries and do it at a reasonable price. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks very much,
Jane
jane@latintravel.com