This natural park located just on the outskirts of Santiago. It is a great hiking area that follows…read morea long streaming river. In several areas rock formations fill up creating small natural pools to swim in. You can literally hike up into the mountains, or pick a natural pool to spend the day sunbathing and picnicking. This would be my personal get away spot if it wasn't for one big factor. Unfortunately Quebrada de Macul is one of the dirtiest natural parks I have ever visited. The actual terrain is so beautiful and it is really unfortunate that it's visitors leave all their trash behind. It is ridiculous the amount of plastic bags and used mini BBQ"s that are all over this place. I actually felt depressed on my hike back in just seeing all the dumping people did. This place needs a serious community clean up and fast / good hiker education on how to respect the environment.

What a great place to take your kid if you are in Santiago Chile. It is very safe as you and your…read morechild wear bracelets that are electronically linked and no one can leave with your child but you. There are also cameras, workers, and the people leading the activities to assist you and your child. The activities are wonderful, and build responsibility and self esteem. Plus kids learn to read write, and problem solve. You can fix cars, be a firefighter, a chocolatier and much more. Some jobs pay with play money, and some you have to pay for with play money. This teaches adding and subtracting, as well as money knowledge. You can also cash in for toys. There are one or two activities that you have to pay a few actual dollars more, but totally worth it. There's a real restaurant where adults serve you which is unusual as kids do most of the "jobs" in the city. It's a real self contained mini city. The price is right; it was about $50 for a child and adult and you got all the activities for 5 hours. Come on!

Signs in the park say this is the largest urban park in Latin America. I believe it, because it's…read moremassive! You could spend a day or two exploring the entire area. The park has so many trails, gardens, playgrounds and general amusements to keep you busy. There's even a zoo on the west side. Hiking all the way to the top for sunrise or sunset is magic. It'll take some time and effort but it's so worth it. Running or biking up will be your workout of the week. Bring lots of water and snacks because there's not much cover. Cars can't go up so plan for some effort!

We started our day taking the tram up to Cerro San Cristobal to explore the rest of Parque…read moreMetropolitano. It was inexpensive to do so and the wait wasn't too bad, considering I hear that it can get pretty busy. It only took about 15 minutes to go all the way to the top and it's a great way to catch an awesome view of the city skyline. Immediately after getting off, you have the option to begin exploring what's on the platform like The Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception and stop into souvenir shops and restaurants to grab a meal or snacks to eat along the way. We moved right onto the cable car to travel across the park from stop to stop. The cable cars were very well kept and offered a floor-to-ceiling window so that you could an amazing view of the city as you traveled across the park. My hubby and I were lucky that most of our ride across, you didn't have to share it with others. I think a helpful thing to keep in mind is that you can't backtrack with a round trip ticket, but you can get off at any stop along the way and hop back on as long as it continues to progress forward. So we kept the map with us so we could plan which stops were the most important for us to want to hit. It was a really great way to see the city and enjoy free activities throughout our day there. Would absolutely recommend it!