San Pedro de Atacama

An adobe town in the driest desert on Earth, with sunsets at Moon Valley and Death Valley, sunrise at El Tatio geysers, floating in salt lagoons, red-rock altiplano lakes and world-class stargazing.

San Pedro de Atacama is the base for exploring Chile's Atacama Desert in the north: an oasis town at about 2,400 m (7,900 ft), with adobe houses, dirt streets and pepper trees surrounding a whitewashed church and the main square, and the perfectly conical Licancabur volcano (about 5,916 m) rising to the east. Parts of the Atacama Desert have gone decades without meaningful rain, making it the driest place on Earth outside the polar regions, and giving it some of the best night skies in the world. Lodging, tour agencies and restaurants are concentrated in town, and the surrounding sights radiate outward, nearly all reached by day or half-day trips: to the west, the Cordillera de la Sal has Moon Valley, Death Valley and the Coyote Rock viewpoint; to the south are floating at Laguna Cejar in the Salar de Atacama, Ojos del Salar and flamingos at Laguna Chaxa, and farther south via Toconao and Socaire you climb above 4,000 m to the Miscanti and Miñiques altiplano lakes and the Piedras Rojas; to the north, the early-morning tours to the El Tatio geysers at 4,320 m can stop on the way at the Puritama hot springs; to the east are the ALMA Observatory and the Salar de Tara. Climate: days are sunny and dry with huge day–night temperature swings, and the altiplano can drop to -10°C (14°F) at dawn; in Jan–Feb the occasional “Altiplanic winter” rains close roads; Mar–May and Sep–Nov are best, and stargazing is best around the new moon. Getting there: fly from Santiago to Calama in about 2 hours, then take a shuttle for about 1.5 hours to town; to the northeast there are 3-day 4WD cross-border routes to Bolivia's Eduardo Avaroa Reserve and the Uyuni Salt Flat. Plan on 4–5 days, starting with low-altitude Moon Valley and Laguna Cejar to acclimatize before going up to the altiplano. Notes: guard against altitude sickness, sun and cold; many sights are managed by Indigenous communities and charge separate fees, and Moon Valley, Puritama and others require advance online tickets; ATMs in town are few, so carry cash; in the desert, do not stray from the paths or take away rocks.

Top sights

• Valle de la Luna (Atacama) – Dunes, salt rock and canyons carved by wind and rain in the Cordillera de la Sal. At sunset the whole valley shifts from gold to red to pur…
• El Tatio Geysers – A geyser field at about 4,320 m, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. At dawn more than 80 vents send up columns of white steam at once…
• Miscanti & Miñiques Lagoons – Twin high-altitude lakes at about 4,120 m. Deep-blue water, white salt rims, golden grass and snowy peak reflections make up some of the mo…
• Piedras Rojas (Salar de Aguas Calientes) – On the shore of a salt lake at about 4,000 m, rust-red volcanic rock contrasts sharply with turquoise water, a white salt crust and snowy p…
• San Pedro de Atacama – A desert oasis town surrounded by adobe houses and pepper trees, where the white adobe church and the hilltop Quitor fortress recall the At…
• Laguna Cejar – A group of highly saline lakes on the northern edge of the salt flat, where you can float effortlessly in the lake like in the Dead Sea, wi…
• ALMA Observatory – One of the world’s largest ground-based astronomy projects, with 66 antennas spread across the Chajnantor Plateau at 5,000 meters. The oper…
• Rainbow Valley – A colorful canyon about 70 kilometers north of San Pedro, where mountains containing different minerals show layered bands of red, green, w…
• Laguna Chaxa – A shallow lake in the Salar de Atacama where three species of flamingos feed among the salt crust and reflections, one of the best places i…
• Valle de la Muerte (Valle de Marte) – A canyon on the western side of San Pedro, where red cliffs alternate with towering dunes. It is a popular spot for sandboarding and sunset…
• Termas de Puritama – Natural hot springs in a canyon at about 3,500 meters, with eight stepped pools connected by wooden walkways. The water temperature is abou…
• Pukará de Quitor – A stone fortress built by the Atacameño people on a hillside in the 12th century. It resisted Spanish conquistadors in 1540, and the hillto…
• Church of San Pedro de Atacama – A white adobe church beside the central square of the town, with a cactus-wood ceiling tied with llama-leather cords. It is a representativ…
• R. P. Gustavo Le Paige Archaeological Museum – An archaeology museum founded by the Belgian priest Gustavo Le Paige, presenting thousands of years of Atacama Indigenous history and excav…
• Aldea de Tulor – A village site of round mud-brick houses dating from about 800 BCE, one of the earliest settled villages in Atacama, partly buried in sand.
• Laguna Tebinquinche – A shallow salt lake in the northern part of the Salar de Atacama, where white salt crust on the shore and reflections on the water combine…
• Ojos del Salar – Two side-by-side round freshwater pools in the salt flat, set in the desert like a pair of eyes and reflecting the blue sky and volcanoes.
• Lagunas Escondidas de Baltinache – Seven highly saline lakes on the western side of the Cordillera de la Sal, with brilliant blue water and extreme salinity that lets you flo…
• Toconao – An oasis village built from white volcanic tuff, where the freestanding bell tower and the orchard gorge are common stops on the way to the…
• Socaire – A small Likanantai village of terraced fields at about 3,200 meters, and a lunch stop on the way to the Miscanti high-altitude lakes.
• Salar de Tara – A remote high-altitude salt lake at about 4,300 meters near the Argentine and Bolivian borders, with giant rock pillars known as the “Tara…
• Machuca – A small mountain village at about 4,000 meters with only a dozen or so adobe houses and a small white church, where tours often stop on the…
• Yerbas Buenas Petroglyphs – A rock art site on the road to Rainbow Valley, with hundreds of carvings of llamas, flamingos, monkeys, and human figures on the cliff wall…
• Piedra del Coyote (Mirador de Kari) – A rocky viewing platform jutting out over a cliff near the entrance to Moon Valley, a classic spot for photographing the sunset over the Co…

Where to eat

• Adobe – One of the town's veteran restaurants, with a bonfire in the central courtyard and live Andean music, making it the liv…
• Baltinache – Daily set menus built on local ingredients such as chañar and rica-rica, a small Indigenous fusion spot recommended by…
• Las Delicias de Carmen – A casual, no-frills place favored by guides and locals, known for generous portions, empanadas and the lunch set.
• La Casona – A large, lively home-style Chilean restaurant in a colonial-era house; its clay-pot corn pie is the signature, and it s…
• Ckunna – A quiet little spot around the corner from the main street, with a fire in the garden; its quinoa risotto and chañar-sa…

Itineraries

• Elqui Valley Stargazing & Atacama Desert Tour – Go stargazing and wine tasting in the Elqui Valley from La Serena, then fly north to explore salt flats, highland lagoo…
• Uyuni to Atacama via High-Altitude Lagoons – Cross the salt flats, Laguna Colorada, and Laguna Verde by off-road vehicle, and enter the Chilean desert via the Hito…
• Grand Chile North-to-South Classic – From deserts and port cities to the Lake District and Torres del Paine, covering the highlights of Chile with three dom…