During the past two decades Chile, the long, thin country hugging South America’s Pacific coastline, quietly transformed from a politically unstable provincial backwater into the shining star of Latin America’s free-market, pro-business economy.

Chile’s 472-year-old capital, Santiago, the country’s vibrant economic and cultural center, has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in South America, affordable real estate and dozens of multinational firms occupying new glass office towers that overlook the snow-covered Cordillera Range of the Andes Mountains. The 68-story Gran Torre Santiago will be the tallest building in South America when it opens in late 2013 or early 2014, and Google will open its first Latin American data center this year in the Santiago suburb of Quilicura at a cost of $150 million.

The number of international business and leisure travelers flying into Santiago steadily increased year to year (by almost 20 percent in 2012), leading to 13 new hotel development projects and terminal expansion at the city’s international airport. In 2011, The New York Times ranked Santiago No. 1 on its list of the 42 Best Places to Visit, and the city’s restaurant venues moved far beyond the ubiquitous street vendors selling baked empanada to include fashionable rooftop restaurants where fresh octopus and artisanal swordfish glisten with droplets of sea water.

A power breakfast, so common in American corporate culture, is not unknown here, but since the midday meal is often a large and lengthy event, breakfast meetings tend to be less elaborate. However, at the W Santiago, opened in 2009 in the ultramodern Las Condes district, the stylish NoSo restaurant offers a large American/Chilean-style buffet breakfast with fresh salmon, omelets, fruit, pastries, pancakes and a popular mimosa and Bloody Mary station.

Also located in Las Condes, the district with the greatest concentration of wealth and close to the Financial District, is the 5-star Ritz-Carlton, Santiago, where the day starts early with a morning swim at the glass cupola-covered, rooftop pool and a massage at the spa, followed by a healthy breakfast at Estro, a popular all-day eatery with comfortable indoor dining and a street-level outdoor patio. Several meeting rooms are available for a post-breakfast client appointment.

Santiago’s phenomenal growth increased hotel room demand, especially with the influx of Brazilian business travelers, who enjoy the relaxed, relatively crime-free environment of the city. Investors and startup companies from Brazil are not alone in seizing the moment. With Standard & Poor’s awarding Chile an A+ for investment in 2012 and the World Bank and Moody’s naming Chile the easiest country to do business with in South America, foreign investors, including many Americans, arrive in this sunny capital every day. Often, it is to deliver proposals under the Start-Up Chile program, developed three years ago by a Chilean businessman.

The government-run program selects promising young firms and entrepreneurs from Chile and other countries — to date, more than 500 companies and 900 entrepreneurs from 37 countries — and provides them with $40,000 and a one-year work visa to develop their ideas. So many are software-related firms that participants call Santiago and its suburbs Chilecon Valley.

The venture benefits Santiago’s meetings and hospitality industry, with participants holding almost 380 meetings and 1,000 workshops and conferences between 2010 and 2012. “In Santiago, the numbers of business events, meetings and seminars have grown 7 to 10 percent each year,” said Luz Maria Ross, public relations coordinator for Starwood Hotels Chile. “The number of business travelers in Santiago is growing at a similar rate, which translates into Santiago being a city of business and new buildings and infrastructure that has to satisfy the demands of our visitors.”

Visitors who golf might enjoy a midday or weekend business excursion to one of the many golf courses that operate year-round in the stunning countryside surrounding Santiago, where Chilean corporate managers often gather. These well-designed courses at the foothills of the Andes are comparable to the finest American courses, and the clubhouses are often used for friendly business lunches. Most top hotels, as well as your business associates, can secure passes to private golf clubs. Santiago’s public course, Club de Golf Mapocho, six miles from downtown, is quite accessible with a rental car.

For lunch in town, head to Zully in the Concha y Toro area, housed in a lovely four-story mansion with a peaceful interior garden once owned by the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro. Known for its French-Asian-Chilean fusion cuisine, it is a perfect venue for meeting clients or colleagues, with private rooms for larger groups. The seared Easter Island tuna with rice noodles and the seafood risotto, along with a bottle of Chilean wine, are ideal for the long, late Chilean lunch break, usually 1–4 p.m.

Another good lunch choice is in Providencia, a colorful, upscale district with a good mix of corporate headquarters, expensive residential housing and trendy shops. Infante 51 is a popular restaurant with whitewashed walls and minimalist décor. The fresh fish and seafood, all caught along the Chilean coast, includes grilled breca, white tuna and octopus ceviche prepared by Basque chef Xabier Zabala. The outdoor patio and extensive wine list encourage a leisurely business lunch in a serene environment.

Take clients for a late-afternoon drink at Bar Liguria (the one on Luis Thayer Ojeda Street), where you’ll find a crowd of local actors, writers and businesspeople talking noisily at the bar. With red-and-white-checked tablecloths, floor-to-ceiling artwork and bow-tied waiters happy to provide tasty snacks with your beer or wine, it is a great place to unwind after a day of meetings.

Indulge in that late-day pisco sour with business associates at one of the best rooftop bars in the world, the Tramonto Bar & Terrace at the new, strikingly modern Noi Vitacura hotel, which opened in 2011. With 360-degree views of the city and the Andes, the bar is a relaxing and quiet oasis after a full day. The upscale Tramonto offers a new menu designed by noted Chilean chef Matias Palomo, excellent cocktails and warming fire pits built into the tables on the outdoor terrace.

In the heart of the city, at Plaza de Armas, trees, fountains and monuments provide a picturesque background for the traditional paseo, an early-evening stroll taken when the day becomes cooler, often with ice cream or tapas, which make good appetizers before the usual late dinner.

Getting around Santiago is easy, with numerous taxis plying the streets and a modern, efficient metro system ($1.41 per ticket), indispensable during traffic-congested rush hours. By the time you read the full name of Santiago’s airport — Aeropuerto Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport — you can almost drive the 10 miles from airport to downtown. Taxis are your best bet into the city; figure 25–45 minutes, at $20–25 one way.