Guest post by John Shaw
Tema and I visited central and northern Chile over a couple of weeks in January 2025. We de-jetlagged in Santiago. There the highlights were: Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, La Chascona (one of the homes of poet, Pablo Neruda), Pulperia Santa Elvira (a tiny restaurant with global accolades). In Valparaiso we enjoyed the street art that surrounded a beautiful hotel we were happy to just hang out in. We also flew to Calama for stargazing (disappointing – you can see as many stars in the Rockies) and to check out the high altitude flora, fauna, and vistas of the Atacama Desert (impressive). Santa Cruz, a town among the vines in the Colchagua Valley southwest of Santiago, was our hub for two days of wining and dining by bike.
Chile is developing as a cycling destination. There are options for mountain, gravel, and/or road cyclists from the Atacama Desert in the north to Patagonia in the south. The Colchagua Valley, with a focus on wine and gastronomy, is just one option. It targets foodies!
Is it safe to cycle in Chile?
The cycling infrastructure in Chile varies from posh to non-existent. There are elevated footrests for the convenience of cyclists at intersections along dedicated bike paths in Santiago. Meanwhile, intercity roadways commonly used by cyclists can have narrow lanes and no shoulders. Sporadic roadside signs of stylized images of cyclists are the only clues that cyclists are potentially present – a bit like free-range cattle signs. On such roads the speed limit is typically 60 KPH but no one drives them that slowly. Each time I drove at that speed, I quickly had a lineup of increasingly agitated drivers behind me. Small towns along these roads may have vestigial or nascent cycling infrastructure: Santa Cruz had both. As a cyclist you need to be prepared and to ride defensively!
Tema and John with our rental bikes; a not-to-scale map from Casa Suiza showing Santa Cruz and some of the local wineries
Rent a bike or bring your own?
For cycling in the Colchagua Valley, we rented hardtail mountain bikes (Tema’s had power assist), and we needed them. We rode pavement, gravel and even dirt between vine rows in vineyards on our way to and from wineries and restaurants. We are glad we chose Santa Cruz as our hub. There are lots of places to stay (from hostels to spas). Bike rental is straightforward.
There are a dozen wineries and many fine dining options to explore within 30 km. It is easy to create or improvise routes, or to follow suggested ones that are mostly on quiet roads. Make sure to bring a map, like the one from Casa Suiza (shown above), indicating wineries of potential interest. How to choose a route? Well, how far do you wish to cycle? What are your favorite wines from Chile? What wines have you yet to try? What foods would you like to try? The wineries and restaurants among the vines, that serve dishes with wines from the vines around them, are happy to have you show up in spandex or dressed casually. Be prepared to pay: tastings and winery tours are about $CDN 25/person. Book ahead if you can. Tours or tastings in English, Spanish or Portuguese are only offered at specific times and can be two hours long. High-quality art-on-a-plate lunches start at $CDN 50/person (including wine and tip).
I recommend cycling to build your appetite (and thirst) during the morning. Tipple at one tasting. Choose a spot for a late lunch on your way back, not too far from where you are staying. That way a siesta poolside or in a hammock in a shaded garden during the heat of a summertime afternoon is next on your agenda. Eat at an in-town restaurant for dinner. Toro Mata is an excellent choice. The evening we arrived we shared a salad, BBQed beef ribs and a bottle of Tiny Blocks Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 on their terrace at sunset with a vineyard and mountain vista. If you are not hungry enough for dinner enjoy artisanal ice cream, or something light from a market! Repeat daily for as many days as you’ve made available. We had two cycling days in the Colchagua Valley and pedalled at a companiable and leisurely pace.
Our first morning we rode out of town to the east on “The Wine Route”. The cycling itself was easy – 35 km and more or less flat. The scenery wasn’t exciting but our interactions with people along the way, with farm workers, at wineries and restaurants were. We learned about the diversity of fruit crops grown in the valley and the massive scale of production. We toured vine rows and an herb garden at Neyen and then sampled 2018 and 2019 vintages of Neyen Espiritu de Apalta. We spent time in their herb garden comprising more than a dozen mint and mint-like plants and discussed the differences and similarities of their flavours – apple mint vs spearmint vs peppermint, etc. Our guide challenged us to describe their flavours and to imagine the flavours of blends – an analogue to the challenges faced by vintners. He then showed us how variable the taste of different vintages of the same wine can be. While I enjoyed the tour (in Spanish), at nearly 2 hours it was too long.
After the tour we rode back toward Santa Cruz. It was almost 14:30 when we stopped at Montes Winery for lunch at Fuegos de Apalta. The restaurant is an enormous glass box with open kitchens, and shaded outdoor terraces set spectacularly among vine rows on a hillside. We shared a peach salad to start. I had lamb stew, and Tema had potato encrusted chicken. Her main was gargantuan, and mine generous. We each had a glass of Montes Sparkling with the salad. I had a glass of Montes Syrah 2022 with the lamb. There was no hope for dessert. We pedalled back to our hotel, had a well-deserved dip in the pool, and lounged for a couple of hours. By then it was after 19:00. Neither of us wanted dinner.
Our second morning we headed northwest on another 35 km loop to and through the vines. The area had fewer options for sampling. The winery we were aiming for, Vina Mongras, had received too many visitors by the time we arrived, so we were turned away. We’d not thought to make a reservation!
We pedalled on and before closing our loop we stopped at Casa Colchagua, an independent restaurant on Viña Laura Hertwig. Tema and I contrasted glasses of Sauvignon Blanc from that winery with one from Viu Marent – a few kilometres away. I liked the latter better while Tema preferred the former! We shared another salad, Tema had lamb cutlets with whole potato fries, I had salmon with risotto. We shared a chocolate fondant with ice cream dessert.
Then we dropped off the bikes and walked back to our hotel for a swim and to lounge by the pool. We finished the day with scoops of lucuma (a new fruit for me) and maracuya ice cream at Heladeria Baruch.
Our verdict on the Colchagua Valley … it should be on the Chilean itinerary of foodie cyclists. Even so, two or three days at a leisurely pace and with a gastronomy focus would satisfy most visitors. Then move on, perhaps as we did to a wild Pacific beach!
