Location information

PLEIAD is located on the engineering campus of the Universidad de Chile, more specifically on the third floor of the building at Blanco Encalada 2120, between Beaucheff and Club Hipico streets. The building as seen on Google Maps. To get in, use the phone placed next to the entrance doors that are furthest away from the elevator. Call the secretary named Francia (phone numbers are next to the phone) and inform her of who you are visiting, she will let you in.

The hotel we usually recommend (we have a small discount) is the hotel Conde Ansurez which is a 15-minute walk from the lab. It is located on Republica street, between O'Higgins (AKA the Alameda) and Salvador Sanfuentes. Close to the hotel, the Casa Bonita B&B has been well evaluated by our visitors as well.

See how to walk from the hotel to the DCC: walk south down Republica until you cannot go further. This is Blanco Encalada, the lab is one block to the east (i.e. left), on the south side of the street.

Alternatively, some visitors have had good experiences with renting furnished flats. Here is a general page for room/appartment rental. In 2012, we have had good feedback about The City Apart. Another good option is the furnished flats offered by this website. The location is quite convenient (esp. the ones in Santa Beatriz).

Another well located, recommended place in Providencia is De Blasis BnB.

And of course, Airbnb now has a lot of options in Santiago all over the city.

A list of places to eat in Santiago, annotated with why we think they are interesting

• El Huerto: Very good vegetarian food. Located in upscale Providencia. El Huerto, Orrego Luco 54, Providencia
• Restaurante Giratorio: Santiago's own rotating restaurant. Very pretty at night. Located in a tower building in upscale Providencia, close to Los Leones Metro Station.
• El Caramaño. Typical chilean food, in the bohemien district of Bellavista. Bring a whiteboard marker. El Caramano, Purisima 257, Recoleta
• Liguria Actually a chain of 3 or 4 bar/restaurants, serving typical chilean food. Mostly located in Providencia
• Metropolitan Park is a really nice place to visit. It has two nicer restaurant in the top of the San Cristobal Hill. Eat nice food with a nice view of Santiago!. (The cost to go up and down by Funicular and Aerial Tramway is near CLP$2.500)

Barrios where you easily find restaurants are around Plaza Brazil (just north of the Conde Ansurez hotel), Lastarria (to the east of Cerro Santa Lucia), Bellavista (at the foot of Cerro San Cristobal) and around Plaza Nunoa.

For transportation from and to the airport we recommend calling a radiotaxi. The company we usually employ can be called at +56 2 928 00 00 (spanish speaking only, sorry – contact us if you need assistance for that). For airport pickups you need to provide your flight number and arrival time. The ride from the airport should be around $17000, you will need to pay in cash.

Public transport within santiago consists of metro and buses, and is operated by the company Transantiago. You need to buy a contactless smartcard (a 'tarjeta bip') and charge it with money. One payment allows you to transfer up to three times between buses and metro within a 2 hour period (but not to leave and re-enter a metro station). More information about metro lines can be found in the wiki page

Taxis are plenty and cheap, just ensure the driver does not 'forget' to turn on the meter. Also a general idea of where you are going can be useful to avoid 'accidental' small detours.

For finding your way around Santiago we recommend using mapcity.com, planos.cl and of course google earth.

For weather forecast (5 days), see MeteoChile.

Check more information (in english!) about nice places to visit in Santiago

We are in 'Campus Poniente' also known as 'Beauchef Poniente', between Club Hipico and Beauchef streets.