Review: Hyatt Centric Las Condes A Fit In Santiago's 'Sanhattan'
Modern, stylish Santiago has emerged in recent years as a destination for both business and pleasure travelers. Situated at the foot of the Andes and surrounded by rich wine country, the city of roughly 7 million is both the focal point of Chile's prosperous economy and an aesthetically rich vacation destination.
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The Hyatt Centric Las Condes places guests squarely in the part of the city's northeast that has burgeoned as a business and retail center in recent decades, giving rise to the sobriquet "Sanhattan." We recently had the opportunity to visit at the invitation of the hotel.
Accommodations
The newly built 15-story full-service hotel — opened in May along with another Hyatt Centric in Lima — has a spacious, airy lobby, and a cozier lounge set just behind the elevator bank provides a comfortable place to work or relax. Most guests will probably prefer to spend any quiet time in their rooms, especially on the upper levels — the floor-to-ceiling windows in our ninth-floor room provided gorgeous views of the Andes peeking out between the neighborhood's other towers.
Each room offers the sorts of amenities that modern travelers expect: a Nespresso coffee maker, comfortable sheets and furniture, a spacious bathroom (and comfortable robe), a JBL Bluetooth speaker/alarm, and a versatile array of outlets and charge ports for electronics.
Guests also have access to the hotel's sparkling rooftop, which hosts an enclosed fitness center as well as an open-air pool; the entire area is ringed by glass panes, offering views of the skyline on all sides. A rooftop bar is slated to open in the coming months.
Las Condes, El Golf and environs
One feature of the Hyatt Centric brand is a focus on opening the neighborhood to hotel guests; the Las Condes location's excellent concierge staff is equally comfortable directing visitors toward wine country tours or outdoor activities as they are pointing out shopping and dining options on the neighboring blocks.
The hotel is in an exclusive area of Las Condes called El Golf, once a largely residential community housing the city's wealthiest residents but now home to a mix of contemporary commercial and residential development. The hotel is located along the district's main thoroughfare, Apoquindo Avenue, on the same block as the municipal hall and around the corner from the municipal theater and La Pastora, a tidy street whose sidewalks double as an open-air sculpture garden.
Within walking distance is the Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest building in South America at nearly 1,000 feet, featuring breathtaking views of the city and surrounding mountains from its 64th-floor Sky Costanera observation deck. Slightly more distant is the Cerro San Cristobal, a hilltop park crowned by a colossal statue of the Virgin Mary and served by a gondola lift that offers additional stunning views and a funicular railway that descends to the bohemian Bellavista neighborhood.
The Hyatt Centric is also just over one block from Santiago's tidy subway system, and the 1 line offers a convenient route to the city center for travelers comfortable navigating on their own; along the same line can be found cultural highlights like the presidential offices at La Moneda and numerous national museums.
Nearby and in-house dining
Santiago's northeast is home to highly regarded eateries that have helped establish Santiago as an emerging culinary center. Both Rodolfo Guzman's Boragó and Carolina Bazán's Ambrosia — Nos. 5 and 33, respectively, on the most recent version of the flawed but respected 50 Best Restaurants in Latin America ranking — are just outside Las Condes in the Vitacura district; the nearest part of Providencia, just on the other side of the Gran Torre from the Hyatt Centric, hosts other trendsetters like Restaurante 99 and Baco.
Even with such excellent options nearby, the full-service Hyatt Centric hosts an excellent in-house eatery, Talbó Brasserie, which draws from Chilean and French traditions. Chilean cuisine in general is strongly colored by the fact that no part of the country lies very far from the Pacific; fittingly, the selection of seafood dishes is particularly strong. An extensive wine list focuses on the rich viticulture of Chile and the Valle de Maipo region that surrounds the city, with only a smattering of international selections necessary.
The breakfast buffet is plentiful, with on-trend options like "detox" and "superfood" selections alongside cheeses and meats and fresh fruits like mango and prickly pear cactus. During our breakfast we also enjoyed particularly excellent table service, ready with juice and coffee and quick to deliver eggs made to order.
The windows of the back dining room face Apoquindo Avenue, and a view onto the street's weekday morning hustle and bustle is ideal preparation for a day spent exploring this flourishing part of Chile's capital.
The hotel stay that is the subject of this review was provided at no cost to the writer. Airfare and travel expenses were also provided.