What should I avoid in Santiago?

The taxi hustle starts at Arturo Merino Benítez airport. Unofficial drivers work the arrivals hall, quoting CLP 40,000 to 50,000 for a ride into Providencia that costs CLP 18,000 on the meter. Some pad the fare with a longer route through Ruta 68. Use TransVip shared vans, around CLP 8,000 per person to most neighborhoods in Providencia or Las Condes, or book a Cabify before you leave baggage claim. Once in the city, avoid hailing street cabs near Plaza de Armas or along the Alameda after 10pm. Meters in Santiago taxis work, but drivers near tourist clusters claim theirs is broken. If that happens, get out. The Metro runs every 3 to 5 minutes on Line 1. A ride from Los Héroes to Baquedano costs CLP 800 and takes 8 minutes.

Patio Bellavista looks like the obvious dinner choice. The courtyard fills with string lights after sunset, the menus face the sidewalk in four languages, and someone stands at the entrance waving you in. That is the tell. A pisco sour here runs CLP 7,000 to 9,000. Walk 3 blocks north on Calle Dardignac and you'll pay CLP 3,500 for a better pour with less ice. The same markup applies at Mercado Central. The wrought-iron hall dates to 1872 and is worth a look for the architecture, but the white-tablecloth restaurants in the center charge tourist rates for reineta and congrio. Locals eat the same fish at Mercado Tirso de Molina, a 10-minute walk northeast along the Mapocho. To be fair, the perimeter counter stalls inside Mercado Central still serve honest CLP 6,000 plates, but you need to walk past the hostess stands to reach them.

Santiago scores 5.8/10 for solo-traveler safety (see /research/solo-safety/). The ketchup scam is the one every hostel in Barrio Brasil warns about. Someone squirts ketchup, mustard, or a mystery liquid on your jacket. A helpful stranger appears with napkins. A third person lifts your phone or wallet. It happens on Paseo Ahumada and around Metro Universidad de Chile during lunch hours. Keep your phone in a zipped front pocket, not in your hand. Near Cerro Santa Lucía, someone in a vest might ask to see your passport and wallet for verification. Real Carabineros wear olive-green uniforms and never ask to handle your cash. After dark, skip Barrio Meiggs and the blocks south of Estación Central. Barrio Yungay west of Matucana feels fine during the day but empties fast after sunset.

Santiago sits in a basin between the Andes and the Cordillera de la Costa. Between June and August, temperature inversions trap car exhaust and wood-burning smoke at street level. On bad mornings the air tastes metallic and the mountains disappear behind a grey-brown haze. The city is currently at 10.7°C with 98% humidity and light drizzle, typical for late August. Winter mornings feel raw and damp. If you have respiratory sensitivity, check PM2.5 readings before planning outdoor days in those months. Summer brings the opposite problem. January and February afternoons reach 33 to 35°C with almost no shade along the Alameda, and UV at Santiago's 520-meter elevation is aggressive. Pack SPF 50.