Set in a desert oasis against a dramatic rocky landscape, Nayara Alto Atacama is one of Chile’s most unique hotels. Relish your stay in luxury accommodation where exceptional service reigns supreme.
Imagine golden hues and mesmerising yellow, red, and orange tints across 600 miles (north to south) of expansive land. This is the Atacama Desert.
Tucked away in this spectacular desert wonderland in northern Chile is a truly remarkable property: Nayara Alto Atacama.
I stayed at Alto Atacama in July, on my fourth trip to Chile, with a private guide and driver to take me up to the frozen lakes of the altiplano and the El Tatio geysers at sunrise. It was, quite frankly, an experience that stood out from the ordinary humdrum of standard hotel fare.
Thinking of doing the same? Here’s what you need to know about one of the most spectacular desert lodges in the Americas.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, if you decide to purchase through one of my recommended partners.
Nayara Alto Atacama: at a glance
Nayara Alto Atacama, also known as Alto Atacama Desert Lodge & Spa or Nayara Atacama, is a luxury desert retreat about 3km (just under two miles) from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. It took on the Nayara name in 2020, when it joined the Nayara Resorts collection, and in 2025 it was awarded two Michelin Keys.
Nestled in the Catarpe Valley, it’s a dream location for solo travellers, couples, families and friends alike. A stay at Nayara Atacama is about soaking in the pleasures of luxury comfort, paired with top-notch amenities and outstanding service.
- Rooms: 42, in three categories (Quitor, Catarpe and Tilo Suites)
- How it works: all-inclusive programmes with daily excursions, with a three-night minimum stay
- Best for: a hassle-free base for the altiplano, El Tatio and some of the best stargazing in the world
- Where I stayed: a Catarpe room, on the all-inclusive package with private tours
My full review
Location
Nayara Alto Atacama sits in the Atacama Desert, near San Pedro de Atacama, at about 2,500 metres above sea level. The dry climate, high altitudes and barren surroundings create an isolated milieu that makes for a rather spectacular location.
It’s in the Catarpe valley a few kilometres outside of San Pedro de Atacama, below the ruins of the Pukará de Quitor fortress, but the hotel runs shuttles into town at set times or guests can hop on one of the in-house bikes and cycle in at their leisure. Calama’s El Loa airport, where you’ll fly in from Santiago, is about an hour and a quarter away by road.
That is, if you end up spending time in San Pedro at all: between the spectacular destinations in the Atacama and the hotel’s selection of leisure activities, there’s a very good chance you’ll skip San Pedro altogether.
Style
Aesthetic-wise, Alto Atacama is all about pared-back desert chic. Muted colours of ochre, stone and terracotta are combined with natural materials like the stone floor to create rooms that are well-suited to the surroundings.
Sustainability sits at the heart of this design ethos: ensuring the hotel fits seamlessly with the desert surroundings. The colours, tones, and textures showcase Chilean culture, paying homage to the region’s history.
The outdoor areas are their own little haven, with airy decks and sun loungers strategically placed to offer serene areas for relaxation. The specially designed Andean garden is particularly impressive, with cactus gardens, desert shrubs and Andean plateau trees, plus the edible plants that end up on your plate in the restaurant. There’s even a llama corral.
Rooms
The 42 magnificent adobe-walled rooms are divided into three categories: Quitor, Catarpe, and Tilo. The Quitor and Catarpe rooms are both around 50 square metres, with the Catarpe rooms facing out over the valley and the Cordillera de Sal, and the ten Tilo Suites are larger, at about 70 square metres.
Like the decor throughout the rest of the hotel, rooms are decked out in calm and earthy tones with rustic details and locally crafted decor. The end result is understated but undeniably chic.
I stayed in one of the Catarpe rooms and can only say good things. They’re spacious, and the bed was one of the most comfortable I’ve ever slept on: an all-enveloping cloud of cool, crisp sheets I never wanted to leave.
The private terrace was another highlight: a peaceful enclave with vistas of the valley. It proved a prime spot for relaxing with a good book or an evening drink after a busy day of off-site adventures.
Other room highlights include dedicated wardrobe and study areas and a lavish en-suite bathroom. The Tilo Suites take it one step further, also sporting outdoor showers. The lodge has said it’s planning a refresh of its rooms during its low season, so expect a few changes to the decor.
Experience
The first and most notable thing at Nayara Atacama is the warm welcome. From the moment you step onto the property, a highly efficient team goes beyond the extra mile to deliver on their promise of “heartfelt hospitality”.
Whether it’s the service at reception, the restaurant staff, the guides, or the drivers, there really is an emphasis on helping you make the most out of your stay. This brings me to the packages on offer.
These days, stays are sold as all-inclusive programmes. The standard one, the Full Experience, covers all your meals, an open bar (premium wines, sparkling wines and premium spirits are extra), transfers from Calama airport, the shuttle into town, bikes, the spa’s wet facilities and one full-day or two half-day excursions for every night you stay, with guides and transport shared with other guests. The programme can also be booked with private excursions, which is what I did, and some agents also sell room-only and breakfast rates.
None of it is cheap. Rates move a lot with the seasons, but expect to pay from around US$1,300 a night for two on the all-inclusive programme in quieter months to well over US$2,500 at peak times, and more again for private excursions.
I opted for the private tour all inclusive option and it was an incredible way to explore the Atacama: my guide Rodolfo was a font of knowledge who grew up in nearby Calama.
There wasn’t anything he didn’t know about the region’s unique geography and culture. The driver, Eric, was also great, navigating around the difficult conditions with ease.
On the High Altiplano day, they took me up past Socaire to Piedras Rojas, where the lake was frozen and looked more like a piece of turquoise than water, and on to the Miscanti and Miñiques lagoons. For the El Tatio geysers, I left at 3am and reached the field well before sunrise, when it was -15°C. As the sun caught the fumaroles, the minerals lit up in colour, and Rodolfo called it nature’s fireworks. I can’t think of a better way of describing it. Rather than heading straight back to San Pedro, he drove me to a quiet river valley for a picnic breakfast with vicuñas and rheas for company, and nobody else in sight.
If you really want to explore the Atacama at your own pace and be able to venture to lesser-known places in a completely custom itinerary, I’d highly recommend doing this option.
It is expensive, but, given it includes all your meals, drinks (excluding a couple of premium options) and tours, it’s better value than booking all of the above separately.
Amenities
And then there are the amenities. How do an on-site gourmet restaurant and a designated outdoor barbecue pavilion (the “Quincho”) sound?
Pools and spa
What about six swimming pools and various herbal treatments at the Puri Spa?
Each pool is relatively small, with its own semi-private patio, so it’s easy to find a quiet corner to relax in. Two of them are heated, and you’ll want to stick to those in the winter months. In the spa itself, there’s a sauna, a steam room, a Scottish shower and an indoor hot tub.
The spa offers an extensive selection of treatments, grouped into different categories (Water, Fire, Earth and Air), all of which draw on local herbs and practices to offer unique treatments you won’t find elsewhere. Treatments aren’t part of the all-inclusive programme, so budget for them separately.
I had the 90-minute Ckautcha massage, a soothing treatment that combines a heated herbal poultice filled with Andean herbs with firm strokes from the masseuse. It was wonderful, the perfect end to a long day in the altiplano, and it cost me about £70.
Stargazing at the observatory
One of the reasons I chose Nayara Alto Atacama was because it has its own observatory.
When I stayed, the hotel ran two guided stargazing sessions each evening, and they were included in my package. You can see the stars up close and personal through the observatory’s telescope and chart the constellations as you lie down under a blanket on the reclined seats. The all-inclusive programme still includes a session of Andean astronomy at the observatory, though, as with any stargazing, it depends on the weather.
The astronomer was wonderful, pointing out southern hemisphere constellations such as the Southern Cross and teaching us how to find the south celestial pole using the cross, as well as colourful nebulae and old galaxies.
If you’re even remotely interested in the night skies, be sure to nab a spot. If you’re a photographer, wait until the session finishes and photograph the sky from there: I took some of my best photos of the Atacama skies at the observatory. For more on the best spots and seasons, read my guide to stargazing in the Atacama.
Depending on your chosen package, the lodge can arrange certain tours for you. These include hiking and cycling across the landscapes, exploring the caves and dunes and visiting the lagoons and geysers nearby. There are more than 15 excursions to choose from, from a float in Laguna Cejar and sunset at Ckamur to the Puritama hot springs, the Rainbow Valley and ancient rock art. The highest trips, such as El Tatio and the altiplano lagoons, are saved until you’ve had two days to acclimatise.
Food and drink
Chef Rodrigo Acuña Bravo is Nayara Atacama’s resident culinary master. This small, intimate lodge has one restaurant, Ckelar, plus two bars: the Ckelar Bar, with a terrace and fire pits, and the daytime Puri Bar for fresh juices. All of them craft superb, culturally-inspired creations.
From the kitchen, you’ll enjoy fresh, flavourful Chilean dishes made with local seasonal ingredients, most of the vegetables from the hotel’s own Andean garden. Some mouth-watering meals feature imaginative quinoa, corn, meat, and chañar fruit fusions. A couple of times a week, the Quincho hosts an Atacameño barbecue with a wine tasting.
When that desert thirst needs quenching, delight in a wide range of Chilean wines, pisco cocktails, and other popular spirits. The outdoor lounges and fire pits are perfect for starry evenings spent enjoying nightcaps and socialising with fellow guests.
I can’t write about the food and drink at Nayara Alto Atacama without mentioning the spectacular outdoor meals they prepared as part of my full-day tours. During my High Altiplano tour, I stopped on the way back from Piedras Rojas and the lakes for a beautiful picnic.
Alto really does put on a spread: Thai chicken curry, rice, quinoa, cauliflower soup with croutons along with drinks and desserts. It felt like the ultimate indulgence.
Luxury means different things to different people but to me, there’s no greater indulgence than eating a stellar-quality meal in the peace and quiet that only comes from being in the middle of nowhere.
It’s these kinds of experiences that elevated the hotel well above the norm, even for a five-star stay.
Practical tips for your stay
What to pack
The Atacama is a year-round destination, but whenever you go, the days are warm and the nights are cold. I went in July, in the southern winter, when the skies are at their clearest and the high lagoons at their most colourful, but nights at altitude drop well below freezing and heavy snow can close the highest sites for a day or two. January and February bring the altiplanic winter, with afternoon storms and cloud over the high Andes. Read more in my guide to the best time to visit Chile. Whatever the season, that means packing like a pro.
Opt for a layered holiday wardrobe with enough temperate items for your stay. Include the following, and you’re sorted:
- Warm jackets and fleece tops, plus a hat, gloves and a buff for early starts at altitude
- Comfortable walking sandals, hiking shoes, or trainers with thick soles, as the ground at El Tatio is freezing at dawn
- Swimwear, hat, sunglasses, sunscreen (for sunny days)
- Sleepwear
- Activewear
Getting there
Fly from Santiago to Calama: the flight takes about two hours, compared with roughly 23 hours on the bus, and mine cost about £100. The all-inclusive programme includes transfers from Calama airport, and the drive to the lodge takes about an hour and a quarter.
How long to stay
Book at least three nights to spend time exploring the surrounding Atacama and to spend time in the hotel itself. That’s the minimum stay anyway, and as the highest excursions wait until you’ve had two days to acclimatise, you’ll want at least four nights to fit in El Tatio or the altiplano lagoons. With a five-night stay, you’ll be able to discover the area’s highlights at your leisure. My Atacama Desert itinerary shows how to fit them together.
Booking your stay
Check rates and availability on Booking.com
Nayara Alto Atacama: map
Booked your stay at Nayara? Read these next
- The best things to do in the Atacama Desert
- 10 days in Chile: the perfect Chile itinerary
- Cerro Toco hike: how to summit a dormant volcano in the Atacama
- 3 days in the Atacama Desert: my perfect Atacama itinerary
- El Tatio geysers: how to see Chile’s great geyser field at sunrise
- Stargazing in the Atacama Desert: a guide to Chile’s dark skies
- The best hotels in the Atacama Desert
Love this? Save and share on Pinterest
Discover the top things to do, insider tips and hidden gems in our Chile Travel Guides.
Read the guides →
