One of the most popular day trips from Santiago is a tour to El Cajon del Maipo. This trip takes you up into the mountains to the Maipo Canyon and to the beautiful blue lake that surrounds it. The views are spectacular, especially on a clear day. Many people will visit as part of a tour, which takes all of the planning out of the equation and allows you to just enjoy the mountain views. Plus, public transportation isn’t an option, so if you want to go on your own, you better have a car and some mountain driving experience.
When I booked this tour, I was excited, but I left it with mixed feelings. Here’s everything you need to know about a tour to El Cajon del Maipo.
Why Visit El Cajon del Maipo
The way I see it, there’s really only one reason to visit El Cajon del Maipo. Well, I guess there are technically two reasons. The first, and most popular reason is for the views. It’s absolutely spectacular. With the surrounding mountains and the unbelievable blue water, it’s a stunning vista.
The other, less popular reason, is if you want to hike. While there are hiking options around El Cajon del Maipo, I didn’t participate. When I looked at tours, a hiking tour was going to be more than double the price of the average El Cajon del Maipo tour.
So in short, most people are just visiting for the incredible scenery outside of Santiago.
Booking Your Tour
When you book your tour for El Cajon del Maipo, you have a few options. The first option is to wait until your in Chile to book it. You can contact a tourism agency or work with your hotel to book a tour.
The other option is to use a site like GetYourGuide or Viator. This is the route I went with, but I feel like there’s an important caveat to make here. When I booked my tour, I specifically looked for tours that had an English option and when I clicked “book”, I made sure to select English as my language preference. Despite that, I ended up on a tour where the guide only spoke Spanish.
I’ll be honest and say that part kind of sucked. Based on the reviews, other people didn’t have this problem so maybe it was just a fluke, but I want to be honest about my experience. Because I’ll be honest, it really did have a huge impact on my enjoyment of the day. It’s hard to enjoy the day when you only understand bits and pieces of what your guide is telling you.
What to Expect on a Tour of El Cajon del Maipo
Pick Up
Your pick up time will be early. “Early”, as in, it will probably still be dark outside when you get picked up for your tour.
On my reservation, it said that pick up would be at about 6:30 am, but I would be contacted the night before with a more exact time. The night before my tour, I got a message. Pick up was at 5:45 am. Oof. The organizer apologized and said it was so we could avoid traffic and maximize our time at our stops. I’m not sure if that’s true (as other tours showed a 5:30 am pick up time), but it’s what it was. At 5:45 am, I was down in the lobby waiting for my pick up.
An Hour Drive
Depending on who is in your group, you may spend a little time driving across Santiago to pick up other passengers. I was only the second person picked up, so the pick up process felt like it took awhile. It’s just luck based on where your hotel is and where the other tour participants are staying.
As a note, we also stopped to put in gas to the tour van, which is something that I thought should have been taken care of before we started the tour. But I digress.
Once everyone was picked up, we settled in for a one hour drive out of Santiago. It was still dark, with the faintest hints of sunrise, so myself and several others took the opportunity to grab a nap. You won’t miss that much scenery (and you’ll pass it all on the way back anyway).
Coffee and Rentals
The first stop of the day is your first opportunity to spend money. You’ll get several of these options throughout the day, but I think this is a necessary stop (at least for some people). We stopped at a small cafe where you could pick up coffee or muffins.
More importantly, they had an option to rent winter coats if you didn’t have one. If you do not have a jacket, I would strongly encourage renting one when you stop. I had a fleece and a wind/rain jacket and was still chilly for most of the morning.
Another Hour Drive
The day involves a lot of driving. For me, this is no big deal, but for other people, it can be a deal breaker. Make sure you are prepared. However, your next hour of driving is through the mountains to El Cajon del Maipo, so the drive is pretty scenic.
While I typically prefer to do day trips on my own, rather than joining a group, this was one instance where I’m glad I had a guide. The mountain roads were narrow, windy, and full of potholes. We swerved all over the road and our driver/tour guide made it look like nothing. As some who doesn’t typically mind driving windy mountain roads, these were roads I wouldn’t want to drive myself.
El Cajon del Maipo
Finally, about three hours after I was first picked up in Santiago, we arrived at our main stop. We piled out of the van and had about an hour to explore on our own. The views were great, the sun was shining, but it was still cold. Despite my layers and my added hat and gloves, any time we were in the shade, I was freezing. Make sure you are adequately dressed.
At El Cajon del Maipo, there’s a path you can walk along into the canyon. You’ll walk along the reservoir and while the views do change, I’m not convinced that they change that much between the first few views and the end. I think it’s a matter of diminishing returns. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still beautiful, but I found myself wondering if we needed as much time as we had there.
My advice is to bring your own snacks for a picnic. Many guided tours to El Cajon del Maipo advertise a picnic option, but you won’t be having the picnic here, despite the incredible view. So, rather than rely on your guide, do it yourself. Since you’ll have the time to spare, find a large rock to sit on, and enjoy some snacks with a view.
Half Hour Drive to a Waterfall
After we finally all made our way back to the van, we drove another half hour down the road to a waterfall. I wasn’t aware that we would be making this stop, but I wasn’t complaining. The waterfall was cool, but it was nothing compared to the views we just had at El Cajon del Maipo.
All of the Food Stops
After the waterfall, it seemed that our day of nice views was over. We started working our way back to Santiago, but we had a few stops to make along the way. This is the part of the tour I referred to as “an exercise in collecting the tourist dollar”.
Lunch Buffet
The first stop was an optional lunch buffet. It was a small cafe that offered a buffet for 17,000 pesos. Compared to other, made to order lunches that I had on other tours in Chile, this felt like a lot of money for not a great option. But you aren’t required to eat that lunch. Only a handful of people on my tour actually ate it.
They also have drinks, including beers, and a few desserts for purchase if you’re interested.
Keep in mind that if you book El Cajon del Maipo with a tour group, it will likely advertise a picnic option. This lunch buffet is not your picnic and costs extra.
Casa Chocolate
The next stop was at another, much busier stop called Casa Chocolate. Our guide did advise us to skip the big line in front and go to the back, where the line was much shorter. As the name suggests, you can buy chocolate here, but I opted for a scoop of ice cream. It was 3000 pesos and I’m never one to turn down ice cream. If you want to get a treat at one of the stops, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, this is the best place.
Souvenirs
The last stop of the “exercise in collecting the tourist dollar” was a souvenir store. It was a small little store that had a handful of local goods for sale. It was mostly food and drink options. Thankfully this was a quick stop, but I think a big part of that was most people in my group didn’t purchase anything.
Picnic
After all of that, it’s time to stop back at the very first stop of the day. For people who rented winter clothing, you can return it here. This is also where you’ll have the picnic. The picnic isn’t anything too special. There’s some cheese, crackers, some meat, and fruit. Wine and juice are also provided.
This wasn’t quite the picnic I had imagined. Many groups stop here and the owners of the cafe have turned this picnic into an assembly line. When we arrived, one group was finishing up and we walked to the next table that was already set up. As we enjoyed our picnic, the table next to us was cleaned and reset for the next group with a table that looked identical to ours.
So I guess my point is, yes you’ll get a little bit of food and drink at the picnic, but don’t rely on this for all of your sustenance for the day. It’s really not much.
Back to Santiago
After our picnic it was an hour drive back to Santiago. We were dropped off at our hotels and our day trip to El Cajon del Maipo was complete.
Is it Worth It?
This is a question I’m still struggling with. On the one hand, I absolutely loved the views as we drove into the mountains and the actual views of El Cajon del Maipo were stunning. The quick stop at the waterfall was just a bonus. But I was disappointed with the second half of the tour. It just felt like an exercise in trying to get us to spend money. I went on two other tours from Puerto Varas and neither of those tours had that same feel.
As a note, you don’t have to spend additional money. I actually only spent money at Casa Chocolate because I can’t say no to ice cream.
I’m also a little biased because of the language issue. I selected English when I booked the tour and there was no English spoken. Thankfully I speak just enough to understand how long we had at each stop and how long the drives were going to be, but I feel like I missed out on a lot of information.
So what’s my verdict? I think this tour can be worth it. If you can get a guide that speaks your language and you’re aware that the afternoon will be filled with stops where you’ll feel like you have to spend money. The views of El Cajon del Maipo may be enough to offset the negatives.
Continue Your Adventure
Santiago: Spend just one day in Santiago to experience the highlights of this city. Visit Plaza de Armas and ride to the top of San Cristobal Hill.
La Campana National Park: While it’s easier to reach from Valparaíso or Viña del Mar, La Campana National Park could technically be done as a long day trip from Santiago.
Osorno Volcano and Petrohué Falls: For amazing scenery in southern Chile where I felt the day tour was completely worth it, check out the Osorno Volcano and Petrohué Falls.
Chiloé Island: Another day trip from Puerto Varas that I loved was visiting the island of Chiloé.
Chile Itinerary: For first time visitors, I recommend my 9 Day Chile Itinerary. Visit the capital city of Santiago, the beaches in Viña del Mar, and head south to Puerto Varas.