Punta Arenas and La Serena?

Question

Has anyone been to those 2 cities. Opinions? I would also like to know if La Serena is desert like. I like the beach but not into desert beauty.

Answer 1

I have never been to Punta Arenas but the other answerer is right.

La Serena is not desert like in the way that it never gets too hot, but it is really dry. You have the beach quite close to town (about 10 min drive) and it's a 6 km beach. The long road parallel to the sea it's called "Avenida del Mar" (Sea Avenue), which starts where a lighthouse is and the avenue is lined with apartments and beach huts.

The liveliest place on the beach is called "Cuatro Esquinas", and it's pretty much halfway down the avenue. Towards the end there is a casino, but this is officially the next town, Coquimbo, as Avenida del Mar joins La Serena and Coquimbo.

East from La Serena, there is the "Valle del Elqui". Which is where a lot of the vineyards where we get the famous Chilean wine (and Pisco!) are. There's also an astronomical observatory (El Tololo) and there are places to camp and also huts. Valle del Elqui gets quite hot. I went camping at this beautiful place in the middle of nowhere, about 2 hrs from La Serena and the temp was about 37 degrees, whereas in La Serena it gets to about 25 degrees in the Summer.

Answer 2

Punta Arenas is way down the bottom of Chile and is the major city of the patagonian region. Its a reasonable sized town and has lots of cruise ships coming through. Most travellers us it as a base to get out to Torres del Paine - one of South Americas most stunning national parks, or alternatively to get out to the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas as there are no connections from Argentina. Its also a great place to start to head to Tierra Del Fuego, Ushuaia - the worlds most southerly town (if you ignore the military base at Puerto Williams) which is also a stunning region.

La Serena is really a large town 2 km from the coast in central chile. The town itself is nice enough and is quite well preserved but really most people use it as a stopover en route south to Santiago, or North to San Pedro de Atacama - which realy is in the desert and would be my top recommended place in North Chile if you want to see the desert. Other than that I would only use La Serena as a place to rest up from the long bus journeys you are likely to encounter in Chile.

Hope this helps