view of a hillside by the hotel

We arrived in San Antonio, Chile a couple days before embarking on Holland America Oosterdam for a cruise to Antartica. We really only needed to come to Chile one day ahead to get there in time for the cruise, but since flights sometimes get cancelled or delayed we figured better safe than sorry and booked one for an extra day ahead. This flight had no issues with both the first and connecting flights leaving right on time. We have in the past had flights that were delayed or cancelled though and once nearly missed a cruise because of a delayed flight. It’s also nice to have some extra time to visit the port city before the cruise.

view of the port from our hotel window

Money in Chile is the Chilean Peso. $1 USD is currently worth $929.31 CLP. A dollar was worth over a thousand Chilean pesos when we were there in January and has declined more just within the last week so that won’t likely be the correct amount for long. Although price tags looked high, due to the value of their money things there were actually pretty cheap. Temperatures in San Antonio average 42°F to 71°F and rarely fall below 35°F or climb above 75°F. Average annual rainfall is just under 33 inches.

Oosterdam coming into port in the dark

Some years back we took a cruise that went from Valparaiso, Chile to Sydney, Australia. That time we spent several days in Santiago which is where the airport is before going to Valparaiso. Since we had already done some tours from Santiago this time we just took a taxi straight to San Antonio from the airport – which is over an hour away. There is not an airport near the cruise ports in Chile. Luckily things in Chile are pretty inexpensive compared to a lot of other places, including long taxi rides. As it turned out there is a lot more for tourists to do in Santiago and Valparaiso than there is in San Antonio. There aren’t a lot of people who speak English in San Antonio. Even at the hotel there weren’t very many employees who did so anyone planning on spending much time there would benefit from learning to speak some Spanish before they go.

view of the hotel from the promenade

We stayed in a nice hotel called Enjoy San Antonio. The hotel part of the building is perched atop of a much larger building that houses a casino, parking garage, shops, and a couple restaurants. Hotel rooms start on floor 7, which is where ours was. The room was quite large and had ample storage space and a big bathroom. They did not supply washcloths, just towels. They did have separate body wash, shampoo, and conditioner for the shower as well as soap and hand lotion at the sink. The hotel provided a shuttle to the cruise ship for a small fee.

sea lions and dogs on the beach

From our hotel room we had a lovely view of the harbor. We could see sea lions on a beach. They had some time to rest peacefully in the morning until people with dogs showed up. Then the dogs and sea lions would bark at each other until the dogs eventually chased some of the sea lions into the water. A promenade along the shore had a lot of little booths selling things and some restaurants and a fish market. It was quite a busy harbor with a fishing fleet and harbor tour boats near shore.

view of boats and the hotel from the promenade

There was a whole flock of other boats too so some were probably pleasure boats. Between that and open water there’s a commercial port with different areas for loading or unloading container ships, car carrier ships, and the sort that carries grain. Some of the berths have enormous cranes for unloading the containers. The one for grain ships had a piping system that extends from shore to the ship. We saw our ship come in from the hotel window, though where it docked in the container port was behind another ship and some containers so not much of it was visible from the window after it docked.

dancers on the promenade

Other than walking along the promenade or the small beach and visiting the shops and restaurants there’s not a lot to do in San Antonio. There’s a dock on the promenade where you can walk down and get harbor tours on the spot, which only cost $4 per person at the time of our visit. The harbor tour just goes around the commercial harbor. All of the dialog is in Spanish. We saw a lot more sea lions on the tour than what we could see from the hotel. If you google things to do in San Antonio, Chili most of the tours take you to a different area. Some of them go to Valparaiso, which is more than 50 miles away.

view of the port from our hotel

The port in San Antonio is a commercial port rather than a cruise port. It has berths to unload multiple ships at a time and many giant cranes. There is a small terminal building which is where busses or shuttles take cruise ship passengers. On boarding day we saw a lot of busses going to and from the port all morning. They were dropping off new passengers coming straight from Santiago for the cruise and picking up disembarking passengers from the previous cruise to go back to Santiago for their flights home.

seagull by the promenade

Prior to the cruise we were sent an email from Holland America saying that there is nowhere to sit indoors at that port. Boarding was not to start before noon. Boarding times were assigned by deck and people warned not to show up before their assigned time. Since the assigned boarding times ranged from noon to 3pm that was not really feasible for most people. Anyone coming straight from the airport on one of the many busses gets there when the bus gets there. Coming from our hotel the shuttle times ranged from 9am to 1pm. Checkout time at that hotel was noon. Other hotels probably had similar schedules.

chairs in the terminal building

The information we were sent about the port was false. The port building did have some folding chairs set up for indoor seating. There was even a little coffee shop in the port building. Boarding likely started as soon as the prior group of passengers finished disembarking as is standard at most ports. We booked the noon shuttle from the hotel because our boarding passes said that our boarding time was noon even though our assigned deck was for 2pm. When we got there the line was pretty short. The chairs were empty. People were already boarding so any early arrivals from before boarding started had already been cleared out of the waiting area. Nobody checked what our assigned boarding time was or cared.

luggage drop

The first thing you get to after being dropped at the port is the luggage drop. Anything that is not small enough to carry easily should be dropped off as you will have to board a bus before going to the ship.

people walking to the terminal building

Important information we were not provided with prior to check-in was that they required the paper you are given at the airport in Santiago when you go through customs. The hotel required that as well. Nobody tells you that you will need that little slip of paper for anything when they hand it to you at the airport. Nobody tells you that you will need it when you book the hotel or cruise either. They also required a printed boarding pass. People who brought a printed one got through check-in faster as those who did not have it had to go through another line to get one printed before they could go through the line to check in for boarding. That is the first time we have seen printed copies required in years, but luckily we do always bring a printed copy as a backup just in case. Usually we don’t need it since the one in the app on phones is normally sufficient. Speaking of which it’s always a good idea to screenshot that boarding pass in the app so if there isn’t any internet at check-in you still have the photo. Not that it was of any use in San Antonio, Chile, but elsewhere it is.

google maps location of the terminal building

Assuming you have all of the required documents (which includes passports) check-in is pretty speedy. If you did it online you go to a kiosk and there is someone there to help you. If not you go to a desk where there are also people available to help. Once that is completed you go through security, which was very fast since we got there after the line of people who arrive before boarding time cleared. If you don’t like lines don’t arrive at cruise ships before boarding time or right when boarding starts because there are always long lines then. If you get there a bit later getting through the process is usually pretty quick.

snack bar inside the cruise terminal building

They took our passports at check-in and gave them back near the end of the cruise. Before the first Chilean port there is a form to fill out that is supposed to be brought to shore in all ports in Chile. The passport number is one of the things required on the form. The instructions sent to the cabin also said that a photocopy of the passport should be brought to shore, but there was no warning of that prior to the cruise and the front desk will not make you one. At least they didn’t on my cruise. They just contradicted the written instructions saying it wasn’t needed. They will give you your passport number to write on the form since they have the passport and you don’t. Nobody at any of the ports ever asked for either the form or copy of the passport.

busses waiting to take people to the ship

After going through security at the terminal people go outside of the building and are on their own to find the busses, which are just beyond the corner of the building. Several busses loaded at once and when one filled it left. There was a steady stream of busses going from the port terminal building to the ship.

busses at the gangway

The distance is not far, but it is a container port and people are not allowed to walk through container ports. The bus drops people right at the gangway. It also brings over some of the luggage. Luggage arrives fairly randomly to the room. Although we dropped 3 bags together, the one small bag came to the room within a couple hours of boarding, one suitcase came a couple hours later, and the other suitcase not until many hours later after we had gone to dinner. A lot of other people in the dining room line were saying they also had some of their luggage but not all of it so that seemed to be pretty standard.

Oosterdam leaving the dock

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