Having a relaxing start to a holiday is quite a rare treat for us. Normally it's a dash after work to the airport, or travel down to London for the last Eurostar departure of the day from St Pancras.

Having no alarm set for the Friday there was plenty of time to get to Birmingham airport for our flight at 17.10 to Paris, so much time that we could enjoy a leisurely lunch before getting to the bag drop.

Our flight to Santiago de Chile (SCL) was booked through Air France, although with the wonders on interline agreements we boarded Flybe BE3009 from Birmingham (BHX) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG). The flight was delayed by just under an hour departing BHX, but we had plenty of time to make our connection at CDG so there was no panic.

We were set to meet up with four friends who were travelling with us on the same flight to Santiago de Chile but they were flying from London Heathrow (LHR) to CDG. Chris, Gail, Simon and Linda's Air France flight from the UK was about an hour and a half late departing LHR, but they too still had plenty of time for the connection into the overnight flight to Chile.

Air France AF406 the 23.40 from CDG to SCL however pushed back on time. Heather and I were at the rear of the plane in the cheap seats (although in a bay of two), but our four travelling companions were enjoying a bit of Business Class luxury around 55 metres ahead of us on board the Boeing 777-300 aircraft. Air France seemed to offer a decent service even for us in Economy Class - Champagne was served, then a decent meal with wine (French of course), followed by coffee and a Cognac.

We both got some reasonable sleep during the thirteen and a half hour journey to Chile, I partly watched two films (but seeing pretty much just the start and end of both!) before breakfast was served flying over the Andes mountains. We descended into SCL thirty minutes ahead of schedule at 09.35 local time. Well done Air France!

Once through passport control and customs we all had a coffee and a catch up - learned about the different experiences of travel on Air France (Business Class seemed a bit overrated if honest) and then we said goodbye to Chris, Gail, Simon and Linda. They headed into the capital city, and we collected a hire car to drive south into the Colchagua Valley wine region, a two and a half hour trip on the Pan American Highway.

Our hotel was about 10 km from Santa Cruz the main town in the Colchagua Valley wine region and a base to visit some wineries (of course) but also as a retreat for a bit of rest and relaxation (or at least our style of R&R) ahead of travelling to the southern extremity of Chile on Monday afternoon.

We visited the Santa Cruz Winery on the Saturday afternoon after checking in at the hotel - just to have a look around and of course make a purchase, before heading back to the hotel.

The Boutique Hotel Bellavista was a good choice, a fairly simple but comfortable place and even though they didn't have a restaurant they did muster up some light meals and salads to accompany the locally produced wine that was for sale.

On Sunday morning we were collected by taxi and headed to the Montes Winery (about 15 km from the hotel) to do a full tour/tasting experience and then followed that with lunch at their restaurant . . . with more wine of course.

The tour at Montes Winery was very good as was the food in the restaurant that was built out into the vineyards. This area seems to be fairly low key when it comes to tourism which is really nice. Our tour had only ten people on it, the restaurant was pleasantly busy and service was not too rushed. It was a lovely experience.

We were dropped back at the hotel at around 4pm for a late afternoon nap!

We now head to Punta Arenas, at the southern tip of Chile which is a four hour (plus) flight from Santiago. Chile might only be around 100 miles wide (East to West), but it is over 2,600 miles long from North to South and travelling by plane is the only way to reach the far South of the country.