WHY ATACAMA DESERT?
Atacama Desert is located in Northern Part of Chile in South America and is known to be the driest place on earth. It is a vast land of desert sand under beautiful clear sky. NASA also conducts frequent researches in Atacama to see whether the life on the Moon would be possible as the climate is very similar to that. And you truly feel like you have stepped onto a new planet once you step a foot in Atacama.
I went to Atacama Desert on a work trip in September 2023 for only 3 days and hand on heart I fell in love with this place and it made me appreciate the beauty of Chile even more. I have been to Patagonia before and that is another region full of beautiful and unique nature.
Why Atacama? For unique and amazingly scenic nature - salt flats, geysers, flamingos.
Top Things to see - Moon Valley, El Tatio Geysers, Cejar Lagoon, Chaxa Lagoon, Piedras Rojas, Baltinache Lagoons, Tebinquinche Lagoon.
Best time to visit - Spring and Autumn.
Safety - Reasonably safe.
Costs - Reasonable.
FLIGHTS
To reach Atacama you would most likely first need to fly into Santiago de Chile (SCL) airport and then catch a domestic flight that takes 2 hours to Calama (CJC) airport.
CAR HIRE
From there you have two options - to rent a car or to take a shuttle bus to San Pedro de Atacama, which is the main 'hub' for seeing the place. I rented a car for 3 days and it cost £125 with full insurance through 'Salfa Rent'. Bare in mind that the staff most likely will only speak Spanish, so I had to use google translate. To rent a car is easy - as you walk out of arrival doors at Calama Airport there will be all the companies there in front of you. You can rent a car on the spot, however they do get booked up so reservation in advance would be recommended. I did chance it and was lucky to rent the last car available. Driving is pretty simple in Atacama - most roads are straight forward, however not all of them are paved. As the roads are dirty we did wash our car before returning to avoid any fees. We did it at “Clean Car Wash” in San Pedro De Atacama - lovely guy who worked 2 hours on the cleaning. The price was £18 (place closes at 18:00). Petrol and a car wash came to £100 for 3 days.
ROAD CONDITIONS, PETROL
Roads are very straight forward to main places. There are barely any turns, so you keep going straIght following road signs and maps. Road from CaLAMA Airport to San Pedro de Atacama is paved and it takes around 1h20min.
Road heading South to Piedras Rojas/Cejar Lagoon/Chaxa Lagoon/Tebinquinche Lagoon is paved. Road to Valle de La Luna is also paved. Road to El Tatio Geysers is bumpy, unpaved, mountain road. And one to Baltinache lagoons is also unpaved, straight road. Jeep is preferable due to road conditions.
The only petrol stations you will find are in Calama and San Pedro de Atacama 24/7, so before you leave for the day, ensure you fill up full petrol tank.
There are no cafes/coffee shops/food places/toilets anywhere outside of San Pedro de Atacama. You will find toilets at the entrances of sights but that is all - there will be no food/drinks to buy, so take snacks with you. We bought empanadas from a place called “Emporio Andino” in San Pedro de Atacama for £2.5- to take with us. They are delicious, there are vegan options too so I highly recommend.
ACCOMMODATION
You will only be able to find hostels for a price approx £30-50 per night. We stayed at “Hostal El Amigo Lucho” for £110 per 3 nights per room with private bathroom. Nothing bad to say. Staff speaks no English though. It is 8min walk from the main street. In general, I think they all are similar - have self catering kitchen, basic room. Walls are thin, rooms get hot during the day and chilly during the night, but they provide thick blankets. We opted for this hotel as it was relatively close to town centre and has parking.
2 DAY ITINERARY
• DAY 1 - 06:00 start. Set off South to drive to Piedras Rojas but once we got to Laguna Miscanti things had to change. We pulled up at the entrance and little house. There was noone there and a barrier. We decided to lift a barrier and drive in. We stopped, got out, checked for anyone at the house if we need to pay entrance fee, find any info but noone was there so we started driving towards the lake. A minute later a car was behind us with very angry local rangers shouting at spanish and saying we are not welcome here anymore, we cannot buy tickets to Piedras Rojas and we need to go back (clearly they were not happy about us entering like that, which is understandable, however when we looked for any signs of life noone was there). They did not care that we apologised and tried to explain why we did what we did. So we did not risk driving to Piedras Rojas and turned back. My tip is to book tickets online and be careful at entrances not breaking the local rules and you will be fine. We did not encounter anything like this elsewhere in Atacama.
On the way back we visited Chaxa Lagoon £5 entrance fee (to see flamingos) and Tebinquinche Lagoon £5 entrance fee to see salt flats. We tried to visit Laguna Cejar but it is only open to cars until 12noon. Both places were absolutely beautiful with layers of colours from white salt flats to blue lagoons and mountains in the background.
In the afternoon we had 30min rest in the hostel and headed out to Valle De La Luna (last entrance is at 17:00) however if you want to see all sights, you need 2-3 hours. It was a bit rushed for us and we only stopped at view points and did a small hike up to the Dunes. Then they give you a ticket for a place to watch sunset at 19:00. Entrance costs £10 for both. Top tip - as you will drive to the sunset place you will see just before it on the left side of the road cars have just parked up - it is a great alternative thats is completely free for another night to watch sunset.
• DAY 2 - 05:00 start. We headed to El Tatio Geysers for sunrise (which is around 07:00). The road is unpaved, narrow mountain roads in complete darkness. There are 2 or 3 signs and we just followed them and other cars heading that way. It is challenging to drive during the night as roads are not lit up. On the way back you will have an amazing scenery though. Drive took around 1.5hrs. Entrance cost £10. It is very cold at Geysers (-3C) but gets warmer as the sun comes out, so take layers. You may also get altitude sickness as it is high at 4300m. It was absolutely worth it! On the drive back we saw vicuñas (animals from lama family) and came across the only cafe outside of San Pedro - we had a coffee there with mountain views.
After having arriving back at San Pedro de Atacama and having 1 hour rest we headed to Baltinache Lagoons. Road is straight but unpaved. Takes around 1h20min. They only opened at 14:30 for cars so we had to wait 30min as we arrived early. Entrance cost £10, there are 7 lagoons - you can swim in the first one and only for 15min. You will float due to high salt concentration. After lagoons we had dinner in San Pedro de Atacama, washed car and headed out into the wild for stargazing around 21:00 - unfortunately the sky did not seem impressive and we did not feel safe parking car on the side of the road as they are not lit up so perhaps Stargazing tour is a better option.
CONSIDERARIONS
• A lot of places have different opening hours for private cars and the information is not easily available. There is a tourist office in San Pedro which can provide all this info.
• Take cash as most entrances are to be paid in cash
• If you are not a confident driver, you can take a shuttle bus from Calama airport to San Pedro de Atacama for around £30 return and book tours in one of many local travel agencies in the town. On average tours cost £40.
• Some places such as Piedras Rojas require reservation online before hand.
• This was an intensive itinerary, if you prefer more relaxed one I would suggest spending another day or two. It involved driving for approximately 10 hours a day.
TOTAL COSTS (based on 2 people travelling) £386
• Hostel 3 nights £110 (per room) • Car hire £125 (£62.50 each) • Petrol £90 (£45 each) • Car wash £20 (£10 each) • Entrances £45 (each per person)
• Food (I only spent £30 for snacks, empañadas, water and 1 dinner)
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