From salty desert top to glacier-crowded bottom, Chile is a gobsmacking reminder of nature's beauty and power. This narrow trickle of a country is jammed with enough geysers, mountains, beaches, forests and volcanoes to keep adventure nuts slavering for a lifetime.

Travelers are mostly drawn to this string-bean country because of its spectacular Pacific coastline and Andean highlands, as well as the adventure sports on offer. But if you're here for more than that, then Chile will have gastronomes going gaga over its good food and cracking wines.