Valparaiso · Backpacking

Two departures a day, an off-the-beaten-track route at 10:00 and a highlights route at 15:00, and you decide at the end what it was worth. Check the meeting point on their site the night before, as it is not listed on the front page.

EFE runs the Limache–Puerto line in three zones — A from Puerto to El Salto, B from Valencia to Peñablanca, C for Limache — with peak pricing on weekdays 06:30–09:29 and 16:00–19:59 and the cheaper off-peak fare at all other times and all day at weekends. Buy the stored-value card if you are staying more than a couple of days.

Two of the best things in Valparaíso cost nothing. The natural history museum at Condell 1546 is free to everyone, Tuesday to Friday 10:00–18:00 and Saturday 11:00–16:00, closed Sunday and Monday. The Parque Cultural on Cerro Cárcel, Calle Cumming 590, opens Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–20:00 with its galleries entrada liberada and lawns you can sit on all afternoon.

One hill east of the guesthouse strip, the same views and the same murals cost noticeably less, and it is a ten-minute walk back over to Concepción for dinner. Over a week this is worth more than every other saving here combined.

The best free days are genuinely free: the natural history museum and the Parque Cultural galleries cost nothing and the walking tour is whatever you tip. If you cross to Viña, the national botanic garden is CLP 3,000 for adults, CLP 1,500 for 5–12s and over-60s, free under 5, plus CLP 3,000 to park. The bed is the variable that matters — a room on Cerro Alegre costs clearly more than the same room on Cerro Cárcel a ten-minute walk away — and a shared chorrillana turns dinner for three into one bill.