Chile Forum

I have to say,we have zig and zagged across Chile, from Arica to Chiloe and spent in total, several months of vacation time and really didn't find the driving particularly bad. Santiago can be trying but so are most cities, I was recently on the beltway in the DC area and that scares me much worse than Chile.

jgb78uk wrote:I haven't driven in Italy or Australia yet, but that sounds like fun, too!

Driving in Australia in general is quite good and enjoyable (if driving can be enjoyable).. its just the small city of Perth in Western Australia that makes driving difficult due to aggressive drivers on the roads.. Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane were all nice cities to drive in.. so like here in Chile.. Santiastico maybe a nightmare to drive in but I have found the parts I have driven in to be ok and not as bad as you describe from your experience... but road conditions are something else.. pot holes everywhere.. and band aid solutions to road problems are quite common here... but thats Chile..

Ooh Tony, ex Sydney-sider putting my hand up. Sydney drivers are very aggressive, don't let you in, honk if you are .5 of a second late at taking off after the lights have turned green and I have personally witnesses physical road rage in Centennial park on a weekday morning, that is usually a morning for mummies and babies to go for strolls.

I love driving in Santiago compared to Sydney (except the f*cking round-abouts, what's with that?! They make no sense...), you hardly ever hear honks, I have not seen any incidences of hand gestures or any aggression, you get let in and if you stuff up (as you no doubt do when you're new at driving on the other side of the road), the atmosphere is very forgiving.

Other than the round-abouts, no real complaints from me.

I think just in Santiago the driving gets a little crazy. We drove from Antofagasta to San Pedro de Atacama and valle de luna all the the way back to Santiago and had no problems at all. We were doing 90 on cruise control no problems except when we would run into some sulfuric acid trucks on Route 5.....gotta watch out for those things otherwise there will be a cross on the side of the road for you.(hahha) Its crazy how many road-side memoriale there are on that road....every 50-100 feet theres another one. Another great thing about driving there is you don't get pulled over like here in the States. If the same kind of drive here we would have been pulled over at least 10 times.

Well I agree to some extent, we really don't think the driving in Chile is bad enough to write home about. BUT my husband gets pulled over every trip!!!!!He is the problem!

We live in Georgia. I obtained a driver's license here without even knowing how to drive. I was in my early 20's and only had to show the patrol officer I could manuever through a parking lot.

Ah, the point-and-shoot school of automotive conduction. More and more of its graduates about.

There is one driver on the 606 between Vina and Valpo that definitely missed his calling in life as a Formula 1 driver. Scares even the locals unfortunate enough to be on his bus.

I think I've ridden with him. Where are those seatbelts?

Lol, I think we had to bear that crazy driver too!

Chuck J 3.0 wrote:There is one driver on the 606 between Vina and Valpo that definitely missed his calling in life as a Formula 1 driver. Scares even the locals unfortunate enough to be on his bus.

We've been on a few of those, they get all the way down those hills without touching the brakes once. When those buses race each other thats when it gets interesting.

Santiago may be bad, but Cairo....

At least there are no hills in Cairo!