Holidays to Chile

Can any other country match the geographical diversity offered by South America's most intriguing segment? Some 2,800 miles long from top to tail, Chile is a little of everything: sparse and striking where the northerly Atacama Desert keeps its cool under skies ideal for star-gazing; cosmopolitan in capital Santiago; alive with fine wine in the vineyards which frame said city; wild and raw in the grasslands and glaciers of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego; a lonely full-stop in wave-lashed Cape Horn. A continent in a single package.

Must see: 80 miles north-west of Santiago, Valparaiso is a lost soul – a port that was deprived of (much of) its livelihood by the Panama Canal in 1914. But stand, as I did, at the window of La Sebastiana – the former home of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda – you appreciate why this city of brightly painted homes and steep slopes has inspired so many.