Because Santiago, Chile’s sprawling capital, is the gateway to some of the world’s greatest natural wonders — Patagonia, the Atacama Desert, Easter Island — many travelers understandably breeze through. It might not wow like Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires, but scratch the surface and the city is alive with music, art and nightlife, against the arresting backdrop of the Andes. Divisions still run deep, 50 years after Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s U.S.-backed coup d’etat ushered in a 17-year dictatorship. Just four years ago, Chile exploded into cathartic and, at times, violent unrest, as hundreds of thousands of Santiaguinos protested social inequalities. The scars are there for all to see. But if you’ve made it all this way, you should give Santiago a chance to impress.

Friday

7:30 p.m.Step to the rhythm

To the uninitiated, la cueca, which was declared Chile’s national dance by the Pinochet regime in 1979, can appear a bewildering whirl of handkerchiefs and heels. Get the basics at la Casa de la Cueca, a cheerful dance hall at the top of a narrow staircase in the up-and-coming neighborhood Matta Sur. On Fridays, the establishment hosts dance classes (3,000 Chilean pesos, or about $3.40) to a live soundtrack of local musicians. Maria Esther Zamora and her husband, Pepe Fuentes, opened the space in 1996, bedecking it with flags and photographs of the city. Sadly, Fuentes died in 2020 and the pandemic nearly forced the place’s closure, but the dance classes — and raucous three-course lunches on the first Sunday of each month (22,000 pesos, book in advance) — show that la Casa de la Cueca is back stronger than ever.

9 p.m.

Try re-imagined classics

La Pulperia Santa Elvira, a few blocks south, has only seen its reputation grow since opening in 2018. The place has a cozy, front-room feel, with family photos on the walls and squat jars of pickles, peppers and spices dotted around. You can sit outside in a courtyard on summer evenings. Chef Javier Aviles’ small menu, which changes often, remixes seasonal Chilean classics, including a creative bread basket that plays on “la once,” a traditional afternoon meal. Others play with textures, including a pumpkin puree served in its hard skin. Three courses and a glass of local wine come to about 35,000 pesos per person. Book in advance via WhatsApp or on the website.

Saturday

10 a.m.

Trace a coup’s scars

In a striking, containerlike building, the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos is sobering but essential. The museum walks visitors through Chile’s dictatorship, from Pinochet’s coup d’etat, on Sept. 11, 1973, which divided the country, to the nation’s return to democracy, in 1990. A wall displaying the faces of the more than 3,000 forcibly disappeared or executed men, women and children, best viewed from the second floor, is chilling. The museum takes about an hour to visit and is free, although voluntary donations are encouraged if you choose to take an audio guide (available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese). There is also an intuitive free smartphone app in Spanish or English. To book a guided tour for up to 15 people, email the museum in advance, and check the schedule for talks and events.

11:30 a.m.

Eat, and get a haircut

From the museum, head up Compania de Jesus, a colorful street bisecting Barrio Yungay, a gritty, low-rise neighborhood. (In 2022, leftist millennial President Gabriel Boric and his partner, Irina Karamanos, shunned recent precedent and made the neighborhood their new home, rather than a lavish uptown residence.) Enjoy the politically charged murals splashed across historic buildings, and look for the 155-year-old Peluqueria Francesa restaurant (where you can get good food and, strangely, a haircut). Peer down Pasaje Adriana Cousino, a beautiful passageway with checkerboard sidewalks and palm trees, where you’ll also find the Teteria Cleopatra, a feline tearoom. If you’d prefer coffee and no cats, then an americano and alfajor cookie at Cafe Cite, which has sleek metal furniture in a renovated historic building, will cost you 4,500 pesos.

1 p.m.

See singing servers

Take the metro down to Franklin, a booming commercial neighborhood full of surprises. There, in the Persa Victor Manuel flea market, you’ll find El Franchute del Barrio, a French-­inspired restaurant cooking onion soup, duck a l’orange, tagines and creme brulee. Every inch of wall space is adorned with art and photography, and shafts of light crisscross the beams supporting the roof. Every now and then, the restaurant falls into awe-struck silence when Carlos Diaz, a 31-year-old baritone-turned-waiter from rural Venezuela, bursts into song. It’s walk-in only, so put your name down and listen to the regular cast of musicians who swing by — it’s worth the wait. The three-course lunch deal, without drinks, comes to 17,000 pesos.

2 p.m.

Explore a market

After lunch, explore the Persa Víctor Manuel flea market, a former leather-­tanning works that is one of the few spaces where Santiaguinos of different socioeconomic backgrounds mix. Start at Galeria La Curtiembre, an art gallery where you can pick up stylized maps of the market, before venturing into the incense-infused alleyways with more than 1,200 stalls. Among the market’s characters are Carlos Escobar, who wears solderer’s goggles and sells old film cameras, and collector Roberto Avila, who has maps and monographs of Chile and elsewhere — some from the 1800s. For a post-lunch pickup, Kilig, next to El Mono’s stall, has the market’s best coffee.

3:30 p.m.

Chill in a courtyard

A couple of blocks east is Factoria Franklin, a new, labyrinthine arts and cultural space built in former pharmaceutical laboratories, and entered through a nondescript warehouse door. You’ll step into a courtyard with stalls and workshops offering kombucha, home-brewed beer and Destilados Quintal’s gin infused with native botanicals (a gin and tonic costs 5,500 pesos). Upstairs are the tiled workspaces of the Colombian coffee roaster Andariego and Bymaria’s pickle and salsa kitchen. Down the alleyway at the back is AFA Galeria, a modern art gallery, and a large warehouse, which hosts art fairs and sales.

7:30 p.m.

Try a completo

As far as national cuisines go, a hot dog drowned in mayonnaise, tomato and mashed avocado might not blow you away. Still, you must try a completo. As the story goes, in the 1920s, a young Chilean man named Eduardo Bahamondes returned from the United States to Santiago with a simple hot dog, inflaming passions by adding toppings and quickly establishing a new national obsession. At El Portal Ex Bahamondes, the brightly lit, mirror-lined diner he opened in 1928 in Santiago on Plaza de Armas, the most traditional combination is a vienesa italiana (named for the avocado-­mayonnaise-tomato layers that resemble Italy’s tricolor). A completo and a pint of Escudo lager cost 3,000 pesos each.

8:30 p.m.

Drink in an artsy bar

Stroll from the Plaza de Armas to Lastarria, one of Santiago’s liveliest areas. Start at El Bajo, a bar under the GAM, a distinctive arts center named for Chile’s first Nobel laureate, poet and educator Gabriela Mistral. After the presidential palace was bombed during the coup, the military junta ruled Chile from the tower above El Bajo until 1981. Order two pisco sours — one Peruvian (with egg white and lime) and one Chilean (sans egg, with lemon) — for 6,500 pesos each. Then head to Cafe Escondido, a plaza with tables beneath a gnarled ficus tree. In his youth, President Salvador Allende lived next door.

11:30 p.m.

Hit the dance floor

Take an Uber downtown to Blondie, an LGBTQ nightclub in a former movie theater, which provides for a wide range of ages and tastes. Enter through a neon-lit shopping arcade, pay your 10,000-peso cover and descend a series of Escheresque staircases with arcade games on the landings onto the dance floor. The room has a podium in the middle, disco balls and a giant ceiling fan revolving slowly beneath glowing cubes. Drinks cost about 4,000 to 8,000 pesos. There’s also a small but intense techno room upstairs beyond a low doorway. If it’s not your scene, head over the muddy trickle that was once the mighty Mapocho River to lively Bellavista, where thumping bass lines compete with blaring cumbia. There, Salsoteca Maestra Vida (8,000-peso entry) is a good bet for all-night salsa.

Sunday

10 a.m.

Hike a city-center hill

Clear a sore head with a sharp ascent up Cerro San Cristobal, a green islet of native trees and plants in the city center. At 10 a.m., the cable car opens, getting you to the top in under 10 minutes (a hop-on, hop-off day ticket costs 7,900 pesos and includes the funicular railway and shuttle buses within the 1,821-acre Parque Metropolitana). If you’d rather do the hourlong hike, start at the Pedro de Valdivia Norte entrance. As you climb, enjoy panoramic views of the city and mountains, incongruously punctured by the 980-foot, needlelike Gran Torre Santiago, South America’s tallest building. Your reward at the summit is a mote con huesillo (about 2,500 pesos), a refreshing, sweet juice containing a rehydrated peach and a handful of corn, available from the many stands at Estacion Cumbre. To descend, take the funicular down the far side, leaving you in Bellavista — and just a block from La Chascona, poet Pablo Neruda’s quirky home.

© 2023 The New York Times Company