Getting around in a new country or city can be really difficult, especially if you don’t speak the language. Here is the low down on public transportation in Santiago. In a separate entry, I will touch on how to get from city to city within Chile.
If you are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of Santiago’s metro system, you’re in luck! When you’re choosing a hostel or hotel, one of the first things you should ask is how close the location is to the metro. The metro has it’s positives and negatives. On one hand, it’s ugly and cramped and a bit more prone to petty theft ever since the implementation of TranSantiago, the new transportation system for the city. On the other hand, it runs smoothly, it covers a wide area of the city, especially the touristy places, and it’s very easy to use and understand.
This is a map of the metro system; click the thumbnail to enlarge it. These maps are plastered all over every metro station too, so if you can’t find a small version to carry around with you, don’t worry.
Alright, now that you’ve looked it over, let’s talk. The red line that you see on the map crosses Santiago from West to East. The station furthest West is called San Pablo. Whenever you need to get to a station to the west of you, go down to the nearest metro station and follow signs that say, “Direccion San Pablo.” The station furthest East is Escuela Militar. When you need to go a station to the East of you, just follow the “Direccion Escuela Militar,” signs. You probably won’t use the yellow, green, dark blue, and light blue lines as much as the red line. But just in case you need to travel from North to South, you just hop on the red line and take it towards one of the connecting stations. Estacion Baquedano will connect you to the green line. To go South on the green line take it in “Direccion Bellavista La Florida.” To go North on the green line head towards, “Direccion Quinta Normal.” Fun hint: If you get off at the Quinta Normal station there is a HUGE park. It’s a great place to relax on weekends and there’s so much green you’ll almost feel like you’re not in Santiago anymore. I won’t go into anymore detail on using the other lines because if you probably won’t use them. If you do have a question feel free to leave a comment on this post or email me (email addy can be found in the About section of the website).
Also, if you feel lost, go ahead and ask a metro guard. They wear blue-ish grey uniforms, or neon yellow, depending on which part of the metro station they work in. Metro guards are seriously some of the most helpful competent people you will find in all of Chile. I love them and I’m not ashamed to admit it. They have provided me with explicit instructions on how to get from one place to another many, many times.
You can pay for your metro ride in any station. There are “boleterias,” that you will not be able to miss. They’re characterized by long lines of angry, cranky Chileans at peak hours. Go to a boleteria, and be fierce. People will try to cut in front of you. This is a Chilean eat foreigner world. If somebody tries to sneak in line ahead of you, tap them on the shoulder, look mean, and say, “PERDON?!?” in your loudest possible voice. If there’s one thing Chileans don’t like, it’s making a scene. Said line cutter will probably look sheepish, mumble something about not seeing you, and give you back your place in line. Anyways, once you make it to the cashier you can either buy a ticket or a Bip! card and put money on it. If you’re planning on staying in Santiago for more than a couple of days, I reccommend buying the Bip! card. It costs $2,000 pesos, or about $4.00 USD, but when you use the Bip! card instead of a ticket you are given a discounted rate to ride the metro. The biggest plus is that you can charge it with a couple bucks and not have to stand in line at the boleteria until the money on your card runs out. You’ll also need to have a charged Bip! card if you plan on riding the buses at any given time.
You are now ready to become part of the glorious metro riding masses of Santiago.
So our next lesson is tackling the mighty bus system that is TranSantiago. First let’s start with the basics: a bus is called a “micro,” in Chilean Spanish. Honestly, I’d say avoid buses/micros if you can. The lines are long, they are crowded, and depending on where you’re going they can be more dangerous than using the metro. My best advice for you to figure the system out is to use this page. Put in the address, or better yet the two intersecting streets of your starting destination on side, and on the other put in the address of your final destination. After entering your information in the blanks, for #4, choose “Menos Transbordos,” which means fewer transfers from one bus to another. Or you can select “Menos Tiempo,” which means less time. “Menos Transbordos,” significantly reduces your risk of getting on the wrong bus, trust me on this one. Then click on the green button the says, “Planifica tu Viaje,” and another page will come up telling which bus number you need to take from which corners and where you need to get off to transfer.
You must have $$$ on your Bip! card charged from the metro stations or you will not be able to pay for your bus ride. There aren’t many places outside of the metro where you can put money on your Bip! Of course almost 30% of all Santiago avoids paying just by entering through the backdoors of the buses or flat out refusing to pay and not taking no for an answer from the bus drivers who cannot do much to resist. I’m like Honest Abe, so I pay every time.
When you’re planning on taking the bus somewhere, try to find out about easy to spot landmarks near where you are going. If you know there’s a plaza in front of a gas station with a yellow sign near where you are going, it will be easier to spot that than to look for the address of where you are going on street signs are the bus is flying by. When you see your landmark, press the buttons located near the doors of the buses and the driver will stop and let you off.
If all these metro/micro options are too overwhelming for you and you happen to have a money tree sprouting 100 dollar bills in your back yard, you can always take a taxi. Taxis are a pretty expensive option. Make sure they put their meter on (”taximetro,” in Spanish). If the cab driver refuses to put the meter on, get out while you still can because he’s about to take you for all you’re worth! Also, ask a Chilean or somebody wise (like me 
) about how much your taxi ride should be from point A to point B so that you can be sure you’re not being overcharged. As I previously stated in the tipping section, you don’t need to tip your taxi driver and you should make sure to pay in small bills and change or you can expect to be told that your cabbie will happily accept $10,000 pesos (about $20 USD) for a $2,000 pesos ($4 USD) cab ride but he’s sorry, he can’t break a bill that big. One last quick taxi FYI: There is a law in Chile that says no more than 4 people can ride in a taxi at once. Sometimes drivers will be willing to break the law, sometimes they won’t. So if you’re traveling in a larger group, don’t plan on trying to cram all 6 of you in one taxi so you can split the cost.
Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions!
