Chile's Wine Country and Easter Island

Three nights among the vineyards of the Millahue valley and two in Santiago, then a flight of five and a half hours out into the Pacific. A private tour of the VIK winery and its cooperage, the Concha y Toro cellar collection tasted in the family's 19th-century house, and on Easter Island, guided walks to the moai quarry, volcanic craters and lava tubes.

Length: Eight nights
Pace: Three stays
Style: Wine, walking, archaeology, island
Route: The Millahue Valley to Santiago to Easter Island

The Millahue ValleyThree nights
SantiagoTwo nights
Easter IslandThree nights

Small green vineyards in a dry valley at the foot of bare mountains.

Days 1 to 4 · three nights

The Millahue Valley

Two hours by road from Santiago. Riding through the vineyards, walks on trails busy with birds and native plants, and mountain biking, with tastings in the Colchagua valley, a private picnic and time in the wine spa. A private tour of the VIK winery takes in the cooperage, where barrels are assembled and toasted with oak fallen on the estate, and Vertical VIK pours different vintages of the estate's flagship wine side by side.

Where you stay

Vik Chile

Vik Chile sits on a hilltop in the Millahue valley, two hours from Santiago airport, under a roof of titanium and bronze inside a 4,450-hectare reserve. There are 22 rooms and 15 glass bungalows, an infinity pool, a spa, and Milla Milla restaurant beside the wine cellar.

A curved swimming pool with a waterfall, white parasols and palm trees in a hotel garden. — Photo: Mandarin Oriental, Santiago

Days 4 to 6 · two nights

Santiago

Back to the city, with a morning at Concha y Toro in Pirque: the Cellar Collection tour, for no more than seven guests, goes into the Casillero del Diablo cellar and the 19th-century gardens of the family's summer house and ends with a tasting at Casona Don Melchor. Plaza de Armas, La Moneda and the museums, Pablo Neruda's house La Chascona, and a private chef's kitchen session if you wish. In harvest season, a morning at Casas del Bosque in the Casablanca Valley can be arranged from 10:45 a.m., picking grapes by hand with a wine educator, sorting the harvest and following it through the winery from fermentation to labelling, with Pinot Noir and an empanada in the garden to finish.

Where you stay

Mandarin Oriental, Santiago

Mandarin Oriental, Santiago stands on Presidente Kennedy Avenue in Las Condes, with 310 rooms and suites and 25,000 square metres of grounds around a lagoon-style outdoor pool and gardens. Matsuri serves Nikkei food in private tatami rooms, Senso is Italian, and the AKO Wellness & Spa uses Mapuche techniques over three floors.

Two weathered moai heads half-buried in a grassy volcanic slope.

Days 6 to 9 · three nights

Easter Island

A business-class flight out from Santiago. Local guides choose from 30 explorations, among them the hike to the Rano Raraku moai quarry, volcanic craters and lava tubes, bike rides to ancient settlements and the coast by kayak. The platform at Tongariki and the north coast, a swim at Anakena and snorkelling at Ovahe, then the flight back to Santiago.

Where you stay

Explora Rapa Nui

In open countryside outside Hanga Roa, Explora Rapa Nui has four suites and 26 rooms finished in natural wood, looking over the ocean or the garden. Stays include guided explorations, all meals and drinks, park entrance fees and airport transfers, and there is a spa, outdoor pool and sauna.

Arranged on request

The VIK cooperage

A private tour of the VIK winery, including the cooperage where barrels are assembled and toasted with oak fallen on the estate.

Vertical VIK

A tasting of different vintages of VIK's flagship wine, with a tour of the winery.

The Concha y Toro Cellar Collection

For no more than seven guests: the Casillero del Diablo cellar, the gardens of the family's 19th-century summer house, a vineyard of 25 grape varieties and a tasting at Casona Don Melchor.

Rano Raraku on foot

A guided hike to the quarry where the moai were carved, one of 30 explorations from the lodge.

Harvest at Casas del Bosque

In harvest season, from 10:45 a.m., grapes picked by hand with a bilingual wine educator, Sauvignon Blanc tasted at a viewpoint, the harvest sorted and followed through the winery to labelling, then Pinot Noir and an empanada in the garden.

Subject to availability.

Ways to make it yours

A helicopter transfer to the vineyard.
A morning fishing with a local fisherman on Easter Island, and a fish barbecue on a private beach.
A gourmet picnic in the wine country.

This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.

Made around you

Most travel is bought. This is designed.

Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.

The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.