Vina del Mar, just north of Valparaiso, is a combination of a garden city, a Pacific resort, and a cosmopolitan city with a spicy mix of beaches, lush gardens, and nightlife. It explodes in the summer, when thousands arrive to laze the day away on the beaches and crowd the expensive nightspots in the evening. It houses the Casino Municipal, South America's premier gambling house on the Pacific. Vina is a clean, attractive and progressive city.