Valpo in 1 day: Authentic + Famous! Semi-private walking tour & public transport
Seven hours on trains, trolleybuses and funiculars, through the markets and over both cerros.
From $80 per person
Check AvailabilityThings to Do in Valparaiso
The city is free to walk, so the question is not what a ticket buys but what to spend the hours on. Eight things below, ordered by how much of a day each one takes, with the guided options for each. The harbour launches are the one on this list that answers boat tour valparaiso.
Ride an ascensor
What it is: a wooden carriage on a slope, hauled up by cable, carrying people between the port and the hills since 1883. Fifteen were declared national monuments on 1 September 1998, and six are running now.
How long: about a minute each. What it costs: a few hundred pesos in cash, or nothing extra if your tour covers it. How: El Peral from Plaza Sotomayor, Reina Victoria from Elias, both 7am–9:30pm.
Walk the Museo a Cielo Abierto
What it is: an open-air museum on Cerro Bellavista, a route of murals by named Chilean artists set into the stairways and retaining walls. It is the planned half of the city's street art; the rest changes month by month.
How long: an hour on foot. What it costs: nothing. How: climb from Avenida Argentina, or arrive on a guided walk that reads the murals for you.
See La Sebastiana
What it is: Pablo Neruda's Valparaiso house at Ferrari 692, kept as he left it, with the bay filling every window and the poet's collections still in place.
How long: an hour. What it costs: CLP 11,000, or CLP 4,500 for students under 17, accredited students in Chile and residents over 60. How: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am–6pm, and to 7pm in January and February. Closed Mondays. No booking needed.
Palacio Baburizza and Paseo Yugoslavo
What it is: the city's fine arts museum in a 1916 mansion on the promenade, holding one of the four most important art collections in Chile, gathered since 1895.
How long: an hour, plus the promenade outside. What it costs: CLP 4,000 general, CLP 6,000 for foreign visitors, CLP 1,500 for students and over-65s, free under 12. How: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am–6pm.
Take a launch out into the harbour
What it is: a small boat trip from Muelle Prat that takes you out among the moored ships, the navy vessels and the sea lions. It is the one angle the walking routes cannot give you: the painted amphitheatre seen from the water it was built to face.
How long: about half an hour. What it costs: the boatmen set their own fare at the pier. How: at Muelle Prat beside Plaza Sotomayor, or as part of the ten-hour day trip from Santiago, which has a harbour boat tour inside the fare.
Eat at the markets
What it is: Mercado El Cardonal for produce and the cheap upstairs kitchens, Caleta Portales for fish landed that morning with the sea lions waiting alongside, and Mercado del Puerto down by the water.
How long: an hour, two with lunch. What it costs: lunch money, and it is the cheapest good meal in the city. How: mornings; the seven-hour walking tour builds all three in.
Watch the sea lions at Caleta Portales
What it is: a working fishing pier east of the centre where the boats land. The gulls and pelicans wait on the rail above you and the sea lions lie on the slipway for whatever comes off the boats.
How long: half an hour. What it costs: nothing. How: the metro along the bay, or as a stop on most of the day tours from Santiago.
Cross to Viña del Mar for the afternoon
What it is: the garden city twenty minutes along the bay from you, with the Reloj de Flores planted into the hillside, an Easter Island moai outside the Fonck Museum, Castillo Wulff on its rock and a long beach.
How long: half a day. What it costs: a metro fare. How: the metro from Puerto station, or on any of the day tours, which almost all include it.
Want somebody to handle the order of all this?
The guided days here sequence the lifts, the paseos and the markets so the climbing is done by cable rather than by you.
Which tours cover what
| What you want to do | The tours that include it | From |
|---|---|---|
| Ride the funiculars | The three-hour walk, the panoramic tour, the seven-hour day and several Santiago day trips | $40 |
| Street art with the stories | Both walking tours and the panoramic tour | $40 |
| A harbour boat tour | The ten-hour day trip from Santiago | $58 |
| The markets and the fish pier | The seven-hour walking day; most Santiago day trips stop at Caleta Portales | $56 |
| La Sebastiana from the outside | The private cruise-terminal day and the private shore excursion | $284 |
| Viña del Mar the same day | Every day trip from Santiago and every cruise-timed day | $56 |
| Casablanca Valley wine | The wine afternoon, the private wine day, the post-cruise day, all the Santiago days | $56 |
| Penguins and the coast road | The full-day coastal tour and the private Zapallar day | $250 |
Where to check these facts
Opening hours and admissions are the museums' own, and the lift hours come from the register that tracks which ascensores are running.
- Fundación Pablo Neruda — hours and admission
- Museo de Bellas Artes de Valparaiso, Palacio Baburizza
- Which ascensores are operating
- The city's own tourism portal
What is there to do in Valparaiso in the rain?
The two house museums, the naval museum on Cerro Artillería and the covered markets all work in the wet, and the funiculars keep running. A Casablanca Valley wine day is the weatherproof booking, because most of it happens indoors.
Can you swim in Valparaiso?
Not really in the city: the water at the port is working harbour and the shoreline is quay and rock. The beaches are along the bay at Viña del Mar and Reñaca, twenty minutes away, and most day tours include a stop at one of them.
How many funiculars can you ride in a day?
Two or three comfortably, which is what the guided walks build in. Six are running at the moment and they sit on different hills, so riding all of them would be a day spent on transport rather than on the city.
Tours that cover the most of this list
Santiago: Valparaiso, Viña del Mar & Casablanca Wine Tour
A small-group day from Santiago with a funicular ride and a Casablanca tasting included.
From $60 per person
Check Availability
Guided Panoramic Tour in Valparaíso
The lifts rather than the stairs: three and a half hours, and step-free by its operator.
From $40 per person
Check AvailabilityWhich hill each of these sits on is on the neighborhoods page, what it all costs on visiting Valparaiso, and every guided day on Valparaiso Tours.