Building a 3 week Chile itinerary and I keep going back and forth on Santiago. Every blog post basically says “fly in, spend a night, fly to Torres del Paine.” But I’ve also talked to a couple people who said Santiago surprised them and they wished they’d spent more time there.
Is it a real destination with good food and interesting neighborhoods, or is it honestly just a big city that you endure before getting to the nature stuff? We have maybe 2 to 3 days to play with. Worth it or should I add those days to Atacama instead?