At your own pace
Self-guided walks in Santiago
Three walking routes designed to do on your own, without a guide and without paying for anything. Each one goes stop by stop and can be printed or saved as a PDF before you set out.
By Cesar Rodriguez · updated
You do not need to book a guided tour to make sense of Santiago. The old town is small — the whole of it fits on the map of central Santiago — it is well signposted, and most of what is worth seeing can be covered on foot without hurrying. These three walks split the city by what you are after: architecture and squares, views, or a quiet couple of hours, with children or without. Each one tells you how long it takes, how much climbing is involved and what to look at from every stop.
None of them costs anything. If you would rather carry the route on paper than check your phone in the street, every walk has a button to print it or save it as a PDF in a clean layout, with no menus and no extra photos. And if the day turns wet — which here is roughly half the year — they are better saved for another morning: the Santiago in the rain guide has plans that do not depend on the sky.
If you only have time for one, take the squares walk: it is the shortest, the flattest and the one that explains the rest of the city. The viewpoints walk is the one to do on a clear afternoon, and the green walk is the one that works with a pram.
Pick your walk
~1 hour · flat
The squares walk
Obradoiro, Praterías, Quintana and Inmaculada: the four squares around the Cathedral and what each one tells you.
~2 hours · climbs
The viewpoints walk
From the Alameda to Monte Pedroso: the best views of the Cathedral and of the whole city.
~1h30 · family
The green walk
Parks, a small river and an old convent cemetery: the quiet side of Santiago, fine with a pram.