I was staying in Arauco for about 3 weeks and very nice and quiet place. The people told me that the area here was hit pretty bad in 2010 by the tsunami. But it looks now pretty good again. Buildings are all clean now again and the park is nice too. Arauco is very close to the ocean and has a very mild climate.
I was probably staying in the best hotel in the whole city, at the Hotel El Arriero. The rooms are pretty nice but the service here is a bit different as I used to have it in other parts of the world.
The service for breakfast and dinner is very slow. You don’t get a breakfast buffet where you can choose. No you get told a couple of options and they will get it for you, but it takes a long time for them to preparing food and coffee. Looks almost only one person is working in the morning. The same is going on for dinner, it takes about 30 minutes after ordering your food until you get it. But personal is very friendly.
The weirdest thing was checking-in. My room was number 18 and all rooms are located upstairs. If you go upstairs you can only see room number up to 17, no 18 😉 But normally you guess right if you just follow the signs to 17…
But I changed later on because the WiFi was not working in my room. They have to Wifi-networks and the one with the capital “H” is the one with internet access, but you have to get rooms very very close to the reception. everything further down the hallway has nor more reception to this network only to the second one, but it doesn’t have any internet connectivity.
Arauco is a small city and after 9 pm it looks pretty dead outside. Nobody is anymore walking on the streets nothing. Just a few people left, but it was still bright outside… During the day the city center is very crowded with people. You have almost everything you need here: Banks, grocery store, supermarket, doctors, restaurants and many more things.
The Beach is about 15-20 minutes walking away from the hotel and is very clean. There is even a great restaurant right at the beach.
There is also a small mountain “Cerro Colo Colo” which you can hike up and enjoy a good view of the city and the ocean. If you got some time left, go up there and enjoy the time walking around and the view.
The best airport to fly into Arauco is Concepcion. It’s about a 1,5 hours drive from the airport to Arauco. You can rent a car or take the bus.
Peter has a passion for Traveling, Photography, and Geocaching. These are the best ingredients for amazing adventures all over the globe. “Traveling is fun, no matter if you stay in a luxury hotel or travel like a backpacker.” Peter shares his experiences on his Blog www.gatetoadventures.com
Some of Peter’s photos are published on corporate websites, in-flight magazines, travel guides, and much more.