Viña del Mar ( Viña del Mar or just Vina ) is the most likely city in Chile, South America to give Panama a run for its money with Expats and Foreigners looking to escape the top of the real estate market bubble in Central America. The comparison of Vina del Mar to Panama or Coast Rica stops about there however, especially as far as scorpions, malaria, and unfriendly natives go. We take a look in this article at Vina del Mar as an alternative Expat destination in Chile, the general real estate market, and Vina del Mars development trajectory over the last few years and in the years to come.

Santa Cruz has become rather famous in the last few years through international promotion of the wine tours. They are hoping to directly take on California Wine country as the South American version of the Napa Valley and Sonoma valley wine tours. They have even added a train. We would like to show you the way to do a budget wine tour of the Colchagua Valley, that you may find far more enjoyable than the prepackaged options.

The problem with Chile is that all roads lead to Rome, or at least the Capital Santiago. Visitors get left with the impression that Santiago is Chile. This not by accident. Many Chileans that live in Santiago, under light interrogation will admit that they have never seen much of the rest of Chile. We are not speaking about deep Southern Chile and Patagonia, but places in the Central region. We have also spoken with many foreigners that have lived in Chile for years and have never ventured much further than Santiago and a few of the more famous Central region attractions such as Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. Here we want to make a few suggestions for things and places you might miss in Central Chile if you simply take the advice of your Santiago travel agency.