Living in Santiago (Chile) - city review
Most important information for expats and digital nomads based on personal experience
Basic information
Santiago is the capital of Chile and one of the largest cities in Latin America. It has a booming economy, a strong currency, and easy visa regulations. It is also home to the regional headquarters of many multinational corporations.
Sitting in the middle of the country it’s nearby to the beautiful Andes mountain range and the Pacific coast so it offers great access to nature, besides lucrative career opportunities.
👥 Population: 6,31 million (similar to Madrid/San Francisco/Toronto)
📐 Size: 984 km2 (roughly the size of Rome/Barcelona/Lima)
🏘️ Best neighborhoods: Providencia, Bellas Artes, Barrio Italia, Lastarria, Las Condes
Climate
When you land here you will notice quickly that Santiago has significant differences between day-time and night-time temperatures, because of its cool, semi-arid climate.
Summers (October to March) are warm and dry with temperatures reaching up to 35 °C. Winters (April to September) are cool and humid, with cool to cold mornings. Basically, the seasons are inverse to most of the U.S and European cities so you can escape to the summer in the middle of your winter or make your snowboarding season longer. :)
Just take into consideration that apartments in Santiago, like in the rest of Latin America don’t have good insulation, so the very warm and very cold days will be felt more strongly than for example in Europe. Central heating is also not common, people usually use small electric/gas heaters and it is not uncommon for Chileans to sit at home in a jacket during the coldest temperatures.
The great thing about Santiago's climate, in general, is that it is very sunny year-round and it doesn’t rain often. But in the summer it can get quite hot and in the winter you might need to stay in the jacket inside the apartment.
👍 Sunny
👎 Can get cold in the winter months
Rating: 7/10
Prices
Santiago is one of the most expensive cities in Latin America, but the prices of things vary a lot. For example accommodation, public transport and taxi/Uber prices are low but supermarkets, restaurants, and bars have prices that are on par with Canada and Western Europe. Also, tipping is mandatory here and it’s 10% (sometimes included in the final bill).
While Santiago is a great city, it’s definitely not the best deal on the continent in terms of return on investment. While your basic needs will be affordable, going out and recreation will be very expensive in contrast.
The average total monthly cost of living for a digital nomad is $1,635/month, while for an expat it is $914/month (according to data from Nomadlist in 2019). It’s more expensive than Lima, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Medellin, and Mexico City. It’s cheaper than Montevideo and Panama.
👍 Low accommodation and transportation costs
👎 High food and drinks costs
Rating: 5/10
People
People in Santiago are hard-working but they still have a Latino approach to life. So you can find very good nightlife even during the week until the early hours and the next day locals will wake up early for work. It’s definitely not a sleepy city but during the week people focus a lot on their work and spend quite some time on commuting.
What impresses me about Chileans is how stable and safe country they managed to create on a continent which has a good amount of problems in almost every other country. Also as in most of the countries in Latin America, Chileans are friendly and you won’t have any issues making friends here.
While Santiago 10 years ago was mainly populated by Chileans, recently it has attracted many immigrants from around the continent, since its the most stable economy in South America. These days you can find many Venezuelans, Colombians, Argentinians, Peruvians, Haitians, Brazilians and Spanish people around the city, and especially in the historic center. The city definitely has a very cosmopolitan vibe.
One thing to notice here is that most of the people are not very health-conscious. American fast-food brands are wide-spread, obesity is common and there are many tobacco smokers. During the day you will see people busy as there is a strong working culture here. But people are very educated and it’s a very democratic city where people have great freedom of speech and a decent quality of education.
If you don’t speak Spanish yet, Chile might not be the best country to learn it from zero as the Chilean accent has a reputation for being fast-spoken and hard to understand.
👍 Educated, hard-working and multicultural
👎 Not as friendly as Mexicans or Colombians for example
Rating: 7/10
Things to do and walkability
Santiago is one of the most walkable cities in Latin America. It feels more like a hybrid of Spain and Canada than a typical Latin American city. It’s a big city and most of it is consisting of suburbs but there is a great variety of very nice, walkable and charming neighborhoods too.
Santiago has many beautiful parks, monuments, and hilltops all inside the city. Chilean food will not impress you but the quality of ingredients is very good and there are plenty of international restaurants too. The city isn’t as chaotic as other Latin American capitals and in under 2 hours, you can be on the Pacific coast taking a swim or in the Andes, skiing.
👍 A very walkable city with great access to nature
👎 It doesn't have a beach and it’s not Paris-level nice :D
Rating: 9/10
Traffic and pollution
Santiago is a big city and has a lot of traffic, but it’s not as bad as for example Lima, Bogota, Mexico City or Sao Paolo. In the 2018 TomTom report about cities with the most traffic, it’s ranked as 28th out of 400 cities. But traffic here, in general, is comparable to other big cities around the world and Santiago doesn’t have pronounced traffic issues like many other Latin American cities.
There are a lot of cars on the road in Santiago but the main reason why air pollution is aggravated in Santiago is due to inversion caused by the surrounding mountains. Because of this the pollutants get trapped and stay in the air longer than usual. So, Santiago is famous for being one of the cities with the most polluted air. Even with having very good public transport, unfortunately, the air quality statistics don’t play in its favor because of the geographical circumstances. In AirVisual 2018 World Air Quality Report Santiago is ranked as 20th most air-polluted city out of 62 world cities and as the most air-polluted capital city in Latin America. Generally, the air is much more polluted in the winter months while in the summer, the air quality is decent.
👍 Decent public transport
👎 Very polluted air
Rating: 4/10
Safety
Now, one thing that Santiago and Chile do really well is safety. Chile is the safest country in South America and Santiago doesn’t do much worse than the whole country. This means that there is no much violence that exists in other Latin American countries.
Now, it does have its share of local scams and robberies so in very transient areas you need to keep aware of your phone and wallet. But it would be petty theft only as the gun laws are strict here, so violent crime isn’t really a thing. Also, walking to an unknown neighborhood at night would not be recommended.
So, while generally, it’s not as safe as Europe for example, Chile is probably the safest country on the continent.
In terms of natural hazards, it’s important to mention that Chile is known to have many earthquakes but the buildings are built to handle that.
👍 Reasonably safe
👎 Some pickpocketing
Rating: 7/10
Infrastructure
The internet speeds are not too bad... probably it’s because it has the strongest broadband connection in South America. :) The average speeds are 10 Mb/s so most probably the internet in your apartment or a coffee shop will be good enough even for video conferences. The access to wifi is easy as there are many coffee shops and co-working spaces. One of the cool things about Santiago is that its startup culture is booming (the country supports startups via its Startup Chile program).
Santiago is a very big city by area size and has many differences depending on the neighborhood. Until the end of 80-s, most of the housing was low rise and mainly consisted of houses. But since the economic boom of 90-s, tall buildings that are prone to earthquakes common in Santiago have increasingly become popular and now there is a lot of modern high-rise building in the city too. It’s nice that all of the centric neighborhoods are very walkable and clean. Still, even though there is a metro here, people who live in less centric neighborhoods opt for moving around with a car.
Chile is a thin and long country, so its cities are not easily accessible by bus, in Santiago on the other hand, it’s very easy to go around because of its efficient and modern metro system. Actually, Santiago’s metro is also the biggest rapid transit system in South America. Besides that, there are many lines of public buses and plenty of car/bicycle/scooter sharing apps.
Healthcare here is considered average and good hospitals are pricey. Best to make sure you are covered with health insurance while living here but no need to have any specific health concerns when living here.
The tap water is said to be safe to drink in Santiago, but in reality, a lot of people buy bottled water as in most other cities in Latin America. The people who drink it from the tap usually use a water filter before use.
Santiago is considered to be the smartest city in Latin America by several online sources, because of its track record of being innovative and efficient.
👍 Awesome metro system and decent internet speeds
👎 Neglected neighborhoods exist in the city
Rating: 8/10
Conclusion
A great city to base yourself more long-term if you are working remotely or if you are looking for an onsite job in South America.
It’s a great starting point for discovering other cities in Latin America as it’s one of the most developed and safest cities in the region. Still, there are definitely cities that are cheaper or have a warmer climate in neighboring countries, depending on what you are looking for.
But definitely recommend giving Santiago a try too!
I live in Santiago working remotely as a product designer. Find more info about me by clicking here.
