Things to do
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Ascensor Artillería
An 1893 lift running up Cerro Playa Ancha from the fish market end of the port to Paseo 21 de Mayo, where the naval museum stands and the whole bay opens below. The ride is longer than the central lifts and the terrace at the top is the standard view of the harbour.
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Ascensor Concepción
The oldest surviving funicular in the port, in service since 1883 and driven by steam until it was electrified, climbing from Calle Prat in the commercial quarter to Paseo Gervasoni in one short haul. It runs through the day and saves a staircase of well over a hundred steps.
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Cerro Alegre
One of the two hills carrying the UNESCO quarter, settled by British and German merchants in the nineteenth century and left with pastel mansions, alley staircases and murals on almost every retaining wall. Paseo Yugoslavo and Paseo Atkinson hold the open views, and the gradients are steep enough to be worth walking downhill.
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Cerro Concepción
The hill immediately east of Cerro Alegre, reached from the flat quarter by an 1883 funicular and holding the Anglican and Lutheran churches the merchant families built. Paseo Gervasoni runs along its edge above the bay, and the cobbled lanes behind it hold most of the port's small hotels.
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Hotel Casa Higueras
A 1920s house on Calle Higuera terraced down the slope of Cerro Alegre, so most rooms and the pool garden face the bay and the naval anchorage. The walk up from Plaza Sotomayor is steep, and the Ascensor Concepción does most of the climb for anyone arriving with luggage.
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La Sebastiana
Pablo Neruda's Valparaíso house on Cerro Florida, bought half built in 1959 and filled with carousel horses, ships in bottles and a bar he tended himself. Five floors climb to a study with a window over the whole port, the visit runs on an audio guide, and it closes on Mondays.
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Muelle Prat
The passenger pier on the seaward edge of Plaza Sotomayor, where launches leave for a half hour turn around the naval anchorage, past the container cranes and the sea lions on the buoys. Boats go once they fill, the swell makes it a rough ride in winter, and a craft market works the pier.
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Museo a Cielo Abierto
A route of twenty murals painted onto the walls and staircases of Cerro Bellavista between 1969 and 1973 by students of the Catholic University, with work by Roberto Matta among them. The circuit takes about an hour on foot, climbs the whole way, and several panels have been repainted after storm damage.
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Palacio Astoreca
A 1923 merchant mansion on Cerro Alegre converted into a small hotel, keeping the original staircase and panelling and cutting a heated pool into the lower floor. It stands two streets from Paseo Yugoslavo, and its restaurant is one of the few in the quarter that serves lunch to non residents.