Self-driving guide for the Atacama Desert in northern Chile (4WD recommended)
The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the driest place on Earth, with scorching midday heat and significant temperature drops in the evening. Be sure to prepare clothes that are thin inside and thick outside for easy layering.
📍Moon Valley Valle de la Luna
Recommended visiting time: 15:30-20:00, tickets should be purchased one day in advance.
Huge sand dunes, rock formations, and ravines make this the closest place on Earth to Mars. It’s suggested to visit Moon Valley together with Death Valley (Mars Valley). Make sure to stay until sunset 🌄, as the sun sets, the entire sky and land will be painted with a riot of colors.
📍Stargazing Tour 🔭🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Highly recommended!
Stargazing time: 20:00-23:00. We joined a stargazing tour from the town of San Pedro. Different tours have different departure times, but all start after dark. A teacher will introduce knowledge about the Milky Way and starry sky (in English and Spanish). There are telescopes 🔭 to view star clusters, snacks, photo opportunities, etc. The visible stars will remind you of the night skies from your childhood [Cute R]
📍Laguna Chaxa Park
Salt lakes and flamingos 🦩. The tour should be “rutas de los salares,” where you’ll see some salt lakes and small animals along the way; the scenery is fantastic.
📍La Piedra Roja
😅 Left too late, and it was almost closing by the time we got there, so we went to two lakes (Lagunas Miscanti y Miñiques), see pictures 7, 8, and 9 for the beautiful scenery along the way. For self-driving, it’s recommended to buy tickets in advance as there may be no internet inside.
📍Laguna Baltinache
There are several salt lakes here. In the past, you could float in the lake, but when we went, floating was prohibited due to pollution of the water’s pH level, supposedly from too much sunscreen. But the road to get there 🤯 is so bumpy, it makes you question life!
📍Geysers del Tatio
Tours usually depart at 4-5 AM. Although it’s dark when you leave, the sunrise is very beautiful. The geysers are most active between 6-7 AM. We left with our children at 6 AM, and it takes 1.5 hours to reach the site from the town, but we still saw active geysers. They start to decrease after 8 AM.
The altitude is around 4200 meters, and children may experience a little altitude sickness. It’s extremely cold in the morning while driving through the mountains [Facepalm R][Facepalm R][Facepalm R].
🍲About restaurants: Many people recommend Adobe, and it was indeed delicious. We also ate at La Cason, which was good too [Smirk R][Smirk R]. Actually, just open Google Maps and search for “restaurants” to find many local options with pictures and menus to choose from.
