Zaandam Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My wife and I flew from Sydney to Santiago.
Our flights aboard Latam were excellent. We have travelled with them during our past two visits to South America. This is a good airline with a fixed menu per destination for economy passengers. The food was tasty and satisfactory and the service was excellent. They served very good Chilean wines and Whisky ( indispensable for me to cope with turbulence!!) generously, when requested. Maria and I had the quietest and turbulent free flights ever on the way to Auckland, to Santiago and then from Buenos Aires to Santiago over the Andes (even though the Captain warned us of a bumpy ride as we approached the mountain ranges) and back via Auckland to Sydney. So Whisky was an excuse and I admit, I am not comfortable flying). The only discomfort was the rather heavy landing at Kingsford Smith. The space between rows was good but when the passenger seated in front decided to recline, getting out was rather tricky and difficult. That is, however, the problem with economy seating aboard all airlines.The Flight Attendants were very nice courteous and spoke English. I always spoke to them in my broken Spanish which was much appreciated.
We availed ourselves of public transport from Arturo Benetez Merino Airport to Pajaritos (a twenty minute drive from the Airport and then another TUR bus to Valparaiso (two and a half hour drive). It was so easy. The TUR bus is on the opposite side of Salida 6 on exiting the Airport. The trip from the airport to Valparaiso by taxi was $130. We spent about $15 for the entire journey. The bus was very comfortable with semi cama seats. We took a taxi from the Valparaiso Bus Station to the Hotel. We asked the same driver to meet us at the Hotel on the following day at 11 o'clock, which he did very punctually. The taxi was metered.
Cabin Review
Large Ocean-View Stateroom
Port Reviews
Punta Arenas
This was our second visit to Punta Arenas. Visiting a city during a cruise is limited because of the time factor. However, we revisited the Plaza des Armas and walked around the centre city area.
Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego)
This is a very beautiful city. Even during summer, the mountains around were snow capped. We visited the main street of Ushuaia and spend most of our time searching and buying souvenirs, mainly decorations for our Christmas Tree. Bargaining is fine and accepted if done with tact.
Stanley
The remoteness of these islands make it special. We were blessed with good weath which permitted us to use the Tender service and visit the city. We took a private tour of the penguin colony. The city is small but very interesting. I have written about the Falkland Islands in my main contribution.
Montevideo
This was a very nice experience. First and foremost because Maria and I had neve visited Uruguay. Monte Video is a pleasant city but all the shops were closed because it was a Sunday. That was a surprise because almost 1500 tourists poured into the city from the Ship. Main Square and the Theatre were interesting. The Restaurants with meat, meat, meat were everywhere and the smell, just delicious. Yes, we enjoyed being in Montevideo.
Buenos Aires
We had been to Buenos Aires twice before. We decided to remain on the ship until it was time for us to travel to the Airport. The description of that has already been provided in the main contribution.
Puerto Montt
We always make it a point to visit Ports of Call. Puerto Montt was not particularly interesting. It was cold, lots of breeze but the township, although small, is nice visiting. The place is geared for tourists, especially for those disembarking from a Cruise ship.
Santiago (Valparaiso)
We arrived in Valparaiso by public transport from the Santiago International Airport. It was very easy and so cheap. We have described our experience in our main contribution.