Everything you need to plan a trip to San Pedro de Atacama and the Atacama Desert, from when to go and how to handle the altitude to where to stay, the tours worth booking and every guide I’ve written to the region.
I’ve been to the Atacama twice, and it’s the part of Chile I find hardest to stop talking about. The first time, I hired a campervan and spent a week driving around the high lagoons and salt flats, often with the busiest places to myself. The second time, in July, I came back in the depths of the southern winter, stayed at Nayara Alto Atacama with a private guide, watched the El Tatio geysers steam at -15°C and found the lake at Piedras Rojas frozen solid, before heading over the border to the Salar de Uyuni.
Both trips were based in and around San Pedro de Atacama, the small adobe oasis town at about 2,400 metres that is the hub for almost everything in the desert. This page brings together the essentials for planning your trip, with links to my detailed guides, and every Atacama article on the site is listed below.
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September to November is the best all-round time: warm days, chilly rather than freezing nights, and none of the summer crowds. December to February is the warmest and busiest, and storms can roll over the high Andes in January and February. June to August is clear, cold and the best time for stargazing, but snow can close El Tatio and the high lagoons for a day or two, so leave some slack in your plans. My guide to the best time to visit Chile goes month by month.
Stay in town to walk to dinner, or just outside in the valleys for silence and darker skies. I stayed at Nayara Alto Atacama, an all-inclusive lodge in the Catarpe valley with private excursions, six pools and its own observatory, and at Hotel Desertica, 12 circular rooms and a great restaurant in an old orchard on Caracoles. Tierra Atacama, south of town, is the one I’d book next time, and Jardín Atacama is simple, central and good value. My guide to the best hotels in the Atacama Desert has more at every budget.
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Unless you’re driving, tours are the easiest way to reach the high-altitude sights. These are three of the best, and my guide to the best Atacama Desert tours covers 20 of them, including stargazing.
San Pedro sits at about 2,400 metres, Piedras Rojas and the high lagoons at over 4,000 metres and El Tatio at about 4,300 metres. Spend your first day or two on the lower sights around town, drink plenty of water and save the highest trips for later in your stay. The advice I was given on my first trip still makes me smile: “Walk up like an old man and you’ll be able to come down like a young bull.”
Fly from Santiago to Calama (just over two hours), then take a shared shuttle, a private transfer or a hire car for the hour and a quarter to San Pedro. The town is small enough to walk everywhere. For the desert, you can drive yourself (fill up in San Pedro and download offline maps), book tours from the agencies on Caracoles, most of which pick you up from your hotel, or stay somewhere with its own guides, as I did in July.
Many of the big sights, including the Valle de la Luna, Laguna Cejar and Piedras Rojas, now sell tickets online only for a set date or time slot, so book ahead. El Tatio, Tebinquinche and Tulor still take cash at the gate, and the few cash machines in town can run dry in busy months, so arrive with some pesos.
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