Mendoza Trip Report #4 — Holiday Inn Santiago Airport
As soon as we landed we hoofed it to the payment desk to pay the $140 USD reciprocity fee required of all Americans entering Chile for the first time. A bit steep, but good for the life of your passport. So if you only have a year or two left ‘til your current one expires, think about renewing it before you go.
You can pay in cash or by credit card. We both used our Chase Sapphire Visas to avoid the foreign transaction fee and hopefully get double points for spend on travel.
There was no line at immigration, and with no checked bags, we went straight to customs. Chile has easy customs forms, if you consider it part of your luggage, you don’t have to declare it. We just ran our bags through the X-ray and headed out to find the Holiday Inn Santiago Airport.
After confusedly wandering around a little trying to get our bearings, we found a map, and discovered the Holiday Inn was directly in front of arrival doors 3 & 4. The minute you walk out, you can see it across the street.
I’d booked the hotel on $60 cash & 5,000 points, the equivalent of $100. We had a friendly reception at the desk and as a Priority Club Platinum I was given a room on the 6th (top) floor overlooking the departures level. The room was nice for a Holiday Inn and the bathroom was large and felt new. Amenities were Bath & Body Works coconut verbana, which left my hair a little rough and greasy.
We were a little hungry so we headed down to the hotel restaurant. The menu was basic, and probably expensive for Chile, but by American airport hotel restaurants it was reasonable. I had a shrimp bisque soup (mediocre) for $10 and my friend got the empanadas for $11, which were much better although a little doughy. The room service menu was the same as the restaurant with about a 20% mark up.
We got up the next morning at 5:30 to be ready to check in for our flight at 6:30. There was only one breakfast option, a buffet for $17USD, so we decided to skip it and grab something at the airport.
Check out was smooth, but they automatically converted the amount to US dollars, which I didn’t need since I was using my Chase Sapphire.
Next: Mendoza Trip Report #5 — SCL-MDZ
Previous Posts:
Mendoza Trip Report #1 — IAD-MIA
Mendoza Trip Report #2 — Element by Westin Miami Airport
Mendoza Trip Report #3 –MIA -(Caracas?)- SCL
