2 Best Shopping in Valdivia, The Lake District

Affiliated with the restaurant of the same name next door, Entrelagos has been whipping up sinfully rich chocolates for decades and arranging them with great care in the storefront display windows. Most of what is sold here is actually made at Entrelagos's factory outside town, but a small army of chocolate makers is on-site to let you see, on a smaller scale, how it's done, and to carefully package your purchases for your plane ride home.

The city's 1918 Mercado Municipal barely survived the 1960 earthquake intact, but it thrives again after extensive remodeling and reinforcement as a shopping-dining complex. A few restaurants, mostly hole-in-the-wall seafood joints (but some quite nice) share the three-story building with artisan and souvenir vendors.