San Pedro de Atacama is one of those places on the Gringo trail – and while I think it’s deserving of the popularity, don’t forget that it is a highly popular, heavily touristic little town. The town sits around an oasis in the high-altitude Atacama desert, and its popularity stems from its proximity to many different natural vistas – colourful high alpine lakes and birds, Mars-like rock formations, geysers, star-gazing, salt-rich lagunas, canyons and pre-Colombian ruins. Many of these activities are day-long activities, either requiring a tour or a rental car – it’s a hive for excursions, and you could spend days making your way in and out of town.
But a concentration of tourists and activities makes one thing certain – nothing is free! Every new area that you enter, lagoon that you set eyes on, path to cycle down has a little price tag set against it – and while the communities need to (and should) make their margins off us Gringos that come through, it can be tough on budget travellers who might like to hike on their ‘saving-days’, but even that is costly.
Excuse the whining – read it instead as fair warning – because San Pedro does pack a punch in “things to do”. Although, our other observation is that many of them will require several hours driving and not a lot of walking – and our personal vibe is that there are only so many times you can pull over to take photos before it gets a bit hoha (tiresome), but many other reviews seem to have the opposite opinion.
Click here to take yourself to the short and sweet section for the main informative points from this post.
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Car Hire
We found the most efficient manner to explore San Pedro de Atacama was with our own rental car. Note: we did this with only two of us, and it was still substantially cheaper! The tour companies are sneaky and don’t include park entry in their ticket prices, so check on that. The crux of the matter lies in hiring the cheapest car possible, and I can imagine the mathematics may not apply in the peak-peak times. We hired a sweet little Suzuki Swift, which sounded like it would be a right nightmare, but just take it slow to avoid the potholes and let everyone overtake you. You should be enjoying the views while driving anyway, so just chill! There are certain tracks you can only take with a 4×4, which will nearly double the cost for car hire, but read on for more details & make a decision based on your vibes.
The descriptions below are itineraries we nicked from the tour agencies. Get them to give you a run down of the tour in person if anything is confusing below. I can’t comment properly, but because these are all sightseeing tours, we felt no need for a guide initially, nor did we feel as though we missed out on anything substantial without one.
Note: always have at least a half tank of gas (in our experience) and offline maps downloaded. You’ll go into quite remote places. We used nearly a whole tank of gas over two days – which was pretty efficient. We paid 100000CLP for the Swift for two days’ hire, and 37000CLP for fuel. There is only one gas station in town that is notorious for scamming tourists so please make sure you check your receipts and you bank app that the amount charged is correct!
Road Trip 1: Piedras Rojas (South) + Lagunas Piedra y Cejar + Ojos y Salar
This one is a long day of driving! Leave early towards the town of Socaire, where you can grab a feed if needed and you’ll have to pay for your ‘park’ entry – 15k CLP pp. Continue on to where the views begin. We drove all the way out to Laguna Tayajto before stopping for our first photo ops, then turned around to come back, but really you could go all the way to the Argentinian border if you love to drive.
Most of the viewpoints on the way back are clear & on the main road, and all involve a small amount of walking only. Don’t miss the turn off to Lagunas Miscanti and Miñiques – up a sandy road, a lil’ suss in the Swift but doable. There was heaps of birdlife at Miñiques, and we saw our first Flamingo!! So cool.
If you haven’t mucked around too much on the way out and want to squeeze everything in, turn off to Lagunas Piedras and Cedar on the way back (swimming), and the Salar & Ojos del Salar (photography). I do think you’d be pushed for time to get all of this in, so it’s probably easier to do another, shorter road trip to these spots – we missed them because of time, and because all three had additional charges that we didn’t want to budget in.
All in all, this road trip was cool, but driving to see sights is not something we rate highly. In saying this, the sights were worth the drive so we would recommend it.
Road Trip 2: Highest Geysers in the World (North East)
Another long day, but not as long. The best time to arrive at the geysers is while it’s still dark – which means a really early wakeup, and driving down a road full of potholes in the pitch black – not ideal. Nevertheless, it makes for an adventure, and one that is pretty sweet.
The coldness of the predawn makes the geysers the most impressive, both because they blow higher and because of the amount of steam they then generate. Let’s be real – you won’t be seeing 10m blasts – the average height is something like 133cm. While there are a range of different type of geysers to admire, check with the person who takes your ticket where the most active geysers are (they were the furthest ones when we were there) and listen into the tour groups to figure out which ones are likely to be popping off soon – we caught some cool movement luckily by doing so! It’s bloody freezing as you’re up nearly at 5000m, so definitely don’t forget to layer up. Your ticket (15k CLP pp) has no end time, so enjoy the different Geysers until the sun rises and you can warm up.
We had our breakfast (brought our camping stove for hot coffee, honestly amazing) on the small hill just outside the park – most of the tour groups eat there too, so going a bit later also assures some peace. One of the tour groups were finishing up their breakfast and offered us their fresh fruits and biscuits, which we kindly accepted!
Afterward, start back towards San Pedro with a few wonderful stops. This road is stunning, and you won’t have seen it yet! Appreciate the mountain views and straight roads. Spot Vicunas and Alpacas and birdlife (MORE FLAMINGOS) in the wetlands as you descend – there are a few miradores & clear places to stop. You can pause at Puri Libre (or Termas de Puritama & pay) for a thermal bath. If you feel like walking, take a wander through the Cañon de Guatin to spy some cool cactus.
This was definitely my preferred trip – the views were more impressive and the geysers were really interesting. We saw far more wildlife, though that’s mostly luck! It’s also less driving (or maybe we just started much earlier?), so we were back in town late afternoon as opposed to night time.
Road Trip 3: 4×4 Cerro Toco (East)
This one got away from us, as the tours were even pricier and the 4×4 hire was out of budget. The trailhead for this 5604m peak is only accessible on a rough road that a poor wee Swift can’t handle. Although it’s high-altitude, the climb is supposedly non-technical and easy to do without a guide – though double check this with a local before you set out as things are always changing, and triple check that you’re acclimatised, as this hike hits some real heights! We also don’t believe there is an entrance fee for this hike.
Night Road Trip: Stargazing
If you’ve got a car hired and you’re a star lover, why not find a spot out of town and away from street lights to enjoy the clarity of looking at the night sky in a high altitude desert. In winter, there is less rain and cloud, so the likelihood of getting a truly clear night is much higher. The higher altitudes generally have clearer skies and less pollution than at sea level, so you should be able to enjoy some sweet views! Of course, you can also take a tour if you’re so inclined, there are plenty of offers within town. There is a huge observatory close to San Pedro de Atacama – we were hyped to do a tour, learning about the kind of astronomy that they perform (and to look through some huge telescopes!). Unfortunately, most of the time the observatory doesn’t actually run tours, but also do an extra check.
Bicycle Hire
Another great way to explore San Pedro de Atacama is on two wheels. There are plenty of options for bike hire around the town, for either half or full day. You could probably do the two valleys below in a single day, though you’d be hooning around for a long while and the sun does get blistering in the middle of the day – so take plenty of water. We paid 7000CLP each for a half day of bike hire – a full day was 16000CLP.
Valley de La Luna
We hired bikes for half a day and cycled this route – you can easily get to the ticket office from the town, and while you have to cycle for a small while on the main highway, there are big shoulders that mean you will feel pretty safe even with the cars zooming past. At the ticket office they give you a map with all the different points of interest, which are all on an out-and-back road that runs into the desert. The suggested activities totals up to 2-3 of walking plus a couple of hours of cycling. Each of the stops is pretty cool, and it’s nice to switch between taking the landscape in on a bike and more slowly by foot. Entrance was 10800CLP.
The entrance ticket also includes a viewpoint on the top of the hill, which is a great spot to watch the sunset – however, it’s not very accessible by foot, as it’s quite far from the town. If you want to enjoy the evening sun from this spot, make sure you hire the bikes for the whole day, or have a car to travel there in the evening. You can also just purchase a ticket for the sunset view, if you want to return, though we’ve advised an alternative (free) sunset location below.
We both had incredibly sore butts by the end of the day, as the road is fairly bumpy! Fair warning if you’re not used to biking (like us) and plan to do more hours on the road.
Gargantua del Diablo
As we only hired bikes for half a day, we didn’t get to this location. There is also an entrance fee here, paid at the entrance to Valle de Catarpe (currently it appears to be 5000CLP pp). It’s supposedly a great ride with a completely different type of scenery to Valle de la Luna, and a little mirador at the end that you must walk to. It may also be comparatively quiet to other locations you visit in San Pedro, as it’s further down the main tour list at agencies.
Pukará de Quitor
If you’re feeling like delving into a little bit of history, visit Pukara de Quitor, a remnant of the indigenous Atacama people. You can arrive at this site by bike, as it’s close enough to the town, but you’ll need to explore the grounds on foot. There is an entrance fee, and we can’t comment on the worthiness of the site itself, as we didn’t visit.
Free Sunset spot at San Pedro De Atacama:
Watch the sunset at Mirador Likan-Antay
Keep it Short and Sweet
There is so much to do in San Pedro de Atacama, but all of it will be dry, hot, high-altitude (make sure you take time to acclimatize) and cost you a buck or ten.
Travel by: Hire car (instead of taking the same as a tour) and rental bike. We recommend hiring the car through West Rent a Car
Road Trips: Piedras Rojas (15000CLP pp), Geysers (15000CLP pp), Lagunas Piedra y Cejar + Ojos y Salar (unsure on cost)
Hiking Road Trip: Cerro Toco
Bike tours: Valle de la Luna, Gargantua del Diablo, Pukara de Quitor.
Tip: This list is not all inclusive! Check at the local tour agencies for all the activities that are available in San Pedro de Atacama, and don’t be afraid to use their itineraries as inspiration for your own self-guided journey.