TRAVEL AND TOURS

Beaches and parks give tranquillity to its sunny mornings, exciting bohemian activities during its sparkling nights. Viņa del Mar: a gently enchanting city with suntanned bodies lying on beaches washed by the Pacific. Viņa del Mar: Chile's most important beach resort and one of the most important seaside resorts of South America.

Unending peace and quiet on its refreshing beaches and pleasant walks along streets surrounded by lovely greenery and flowers turns Viņa del Mar into a "Garden City" with dreamily places such as the Quinta Vergara, the Sausalito lake and the National Botanical Gardens.

A mixture of buildings of different styles, countless parks and gardens, beautiful mansions, luxurious hotels, and even a casino complete the urban landscape of this coastal city founded on December 29, 1874 by engineer Jose Francisco Vergara Echevers.

A destination not to be missed. A sure stop-off 9 km northeast of Valparaiso Viņa del Mar is a sunlit haven, a city and beach resort where the Pacific sea breeze wafts the unending sound of breakers.

BEACHES

Caleta Abarca Beach

This is the most vital and trendy beach in the city. It is a bay enclosed by Mt Recreo and, on the south side, by the Convent and Church of the Capuchins that seems to be perching precariously on the cliff. Mt Castillo shows its "back to the beach".

Miramar Beach or De los Artistas Beach ("Artists' Beach")

In the early 20th century, this was the only beach that received bathers and where Doctor Von Schoroeders' bathhouses became famous. In 1935 the beach began to be eaten away by changes in the undersea currents, caused by the building of the protecting pier (a massive dyke to deflect the ocean) in the port of Valparaiso.

Reņaca Resort

One of the most popular and developed beaches in Viņa del Mar: it originated in 1905, when the heir of the city's founder, Salvador Vergara, formed the Montemar real estate agency to develop Reņaca, although it was only completed in 1912. Later, the first houses were built along Vicuņa Mackenna and Balmaceda streets.

Sand dunes and a beautiful 1.3 km beach make this one of the main beaches of Viņa del Mar, with its hotels and motels, restaurants, coffeehouses, and numerous discotheques spicing up its evenings.