Things to Do in Atacama Desert: 15 Experiences Worth the Trip

There are so many things to do in Atacama desert that I could never imagine before living in Chile. Before I moved to Antofagasta, the capital of the Atacama region, I had a very specific image of what living in a desert would look like. Endless brown, the occasional cactus, relentless sun, not much else. I was wrong in the best possible way.

I ended up spending nearly four years in the Atacama, exploring it on weekends, on long drives, on spontaneous detours and planned excursions that went sideways in interesting ways. What I found was a desert that keeps surprising you. White-sand beaches appearing out of nowhere. Lagoons so blue they look artificially coloured. A sky at night that makes you feel like the universe is performing just for you. Pink flamingos standing in the middle of what looks like the surface of another planet entirely.

San Pedro de Atacama gets most of the attention , and yes, you should go, it deserves it, but the Atacama is enormous and the best of it is spread across a region that takes days to properly explore. This post covers the experiences that stayed with me. Some are well known. Some you will not find on most itineraries. All of them are worth your time.

1. Watch the Geysers of El Tatio at Sunrise

Getting up at 4am is a hard sell. I understand. But El Tatio at sunrise is one of those experiences that genuinely justifies the alarm, the dark drive, and the very real discomfort of arriving somewhere at -10°C in the middle of the Atacama winter.

The geysers are located 90 km north of San Pedro at over 4,200 metres above sea level, one of the highest geyser fields in the world. They are most active in the early morning when the temperature difference between the steam and the freezing air is at its greatest. You arrive in the dark, you stand in the cold, and then the sun appears over the mountains and the whole field comes alive with columns of steam catching the light. It is genuinely spectacular in a way that photographs do not fully capture.

There are hot springs on site where you can warm up afterwards, which feels completely surreal and wonderful. Organised tours leave from San Pedro around 4:30am and handle the driving, which I recommend, because the road is rough, unpaved, and includes a river crossing with no bridge. The altitude is serious at El Tatio. Give yourself at least a day in San Pedro to acclimatise first.

2. Hike Valle de la Luna at Sunset

Moon Valley sits just outside San Pedro and it looks exactly like its name suggests , an alien landscape of salt formations, eroded rock and sand dunes that scientists say closely resembles the surface of the Moon. I have no way to verify that personally, but I believe it.

The mistake most people make is going in the middle of the day. Do not do that. The heat is brutal, the light is flat, and the experience is a fraction of what it could be. Go in the late afternoon, make sure you are inside before the 5pm gate closure, and stay for the sunset. The desert shifts through colours you would not believe: pinks, purples, dusty blues, and the whole landscape transforms. Give yourself at least two hours. Five would not be wasted.

You can reach Moon Valley by bicycle from San Pedro, which is actually my recommendation. There are many tours from San Pedro that you can join as well. The ride through the desert is part of the experience.

3. Sandboard Down Valle de la Muerte

Just next to Moon Valley, Valle de la Muerte has some of the best dunes in the region for sandboarding. My first ever attempt at sandboarding was in Morocco a few years before I moved to Atacama. I fell constantly, thought my snowboarding experience would help, and discovered very quickly that it does not. The sand cushioned every fall though, which made it more funny than painful.

In Atacama I tried again, this time at sunset with a group of friends, with the desert going orange around us and the Pacific glinting somewhere in the distance. Even if board sports have never interested you, try it once. The dunes are forgiving enough for complete beginners and the setting makes almost anything feel like an adventure.

4. Float in Laguna Cejar

Laguna Cejar is so salty that you cannot sink. You float effortlessly (same principle as the Dead Sea) in the middle of one of the driest places on Earth. It is one of those experiences that sounds gimmicky until you are actually lying on your back in the water, staring up at the Atacama sky, completely weightless.

The lagoon is a half-day trip from San Pedro and is usually combined with other nearby sites. There is an entrance fee and showers on site. Use the showers – dried salt on skin is deeply uncomfortable and the drive back to San Pedro is long enough to regret skipping them.

5. Watch Flamingos at Laguna Chaxa

The flamingos of the Atacama are shy. They let you watch from a distance, but move too quickly and they are gone. I always found that slightly endearing as they are completely unbothered by the landscape around them, wading through vivid pink mineral water on a salt flat at high altitude as if this is perfectly normal behaviour.

Laguna Chaxa sits inside the Salar de Atacama within the Los Flamencos National Reserve. The water turns pink from the minerals dissolved in it, the white salt crust stretches in every direction, and dark volcanic peaks frame the whole scene. Go in the morning for the best light and the calmest atmosphere.

6. Visit the Miscanti and Miñiques Lagoons

These two high-altitude lagoons at over 4,200 metres are the most visually striking place I visited in the entire Atacama region. Two mirror-still lakes flanked by ancient volcanoes, surrounded by complete silence. Photos do not do it justice; the scale and the stillness of the place is something you have to stand inside to understand.

If you only do one lagoon excursion from San Pedro, make it this one. Just give yourself at least a full day to acclimatise in San Pedro first as the altitude at Miscanti is serious and will floor you if you push too soon.

7. Stargaze Under the Clearest Sky on Earth

The Atacama is home to some of the most powerful observatories ever built, and the reason is simple: the altitude, the dry air, the almost total absence of light pollution, and atmospheric conditions that keep the sky clear for the vast majority of the year. From the southern hemisphere you can also see sections of the night sky that simply do not exist from Europe or North America.

In San Pedro, night tours run regularly with professional telescopes and astronomers who are genuinely good at making the science interesting — usually over a glass of wine. Book one. But do not make it the only stargazing you do. Spend your evenings outside lying on your back looking up. It costs nothing and it will stay with you long after everything else fades.

8. Visit the Paranal Observatory

If the night tour in San Pedro gets you curious about the science behind it, consider visiting Paranal — one of the most advanced astronomical observatories in the world, operated by the European Southern Observatory and located about 120 km south of Antofagasta.

Visits are open on weekends and free of charge, but you must book in advance. During the guided tour you walk through the facility, see the enormous telescopes up close, and watch the scientists at work. The scale of the technology is genuinely humbling and standing next to one of those telescopes makes you feel extraordinarily small in the best possible way. Note that visits only happen during the day as the equipment operates at night.

9. See La Mano del Desierto

In the middle of the Atacama desert, 75 km south of Antofagasta along Ruta 5 Norte, there is a giant human hand rising out of the ground. No context, no explanation, no town nearby. Just a massive sculpture by Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal emerging from the desert floor and pointing at the sky.

It is one of those things that you drive past and do a double take. Be prepared for strong wind, burning sun, and the slightly surreal experience of standing next to a giant hand in the middle of nowhere taking photographs. It is worth the stop. Bring water.

10. Discover the White-Sand Beaches of Pan de Azúcar

This one genuinely surprised me. After spending considerable time exploring the Chilean coast and finding beach after beach that was dramatic but not particularly swimmable, stumbling across the beaches of Pan de Azúcar National Park felt like finding something that had no business being there.

Wide, clean, white-sand beaches in the middle of the Atacama Desert, flanked by dramatic rock formations, with sea lions lounging nearby and pelicans diving for fish. When the tide is low the beach is so wide it takes a good 15 minutes to walk to the water. In winter you will likely have it entirely to yourself. Even in peak season the crowds are minimal as this park sits off the main tourist circuit and most people simply do not know it exists.

I went three times, mostly chasing the Humboldt penguins that live on a small island just offshore. The penguins and I have an ongoing disagreement about scheduling. The beaches made every trip worthwhile regardless.

11. Look for Penguins in Caleta Buena

Caleta Buena is a small fishing settlement near Tocopilla, about two hours north of Antofagasta along the coastal Ruta 1. It is not in the guidebooks, not on most tourist itineraries, and not set up for visitors in any formal sense. A Chilean friend took me there on a Sunday after I mentioned my ongoing failure to find penguins anywhere in Chile. According to her boyfriend, who grew up there, penguins visit the rocky shores regularly.

We did not find penguins. We found extraordinary coastal scenery, starfish thrown up by the waves, a boat trip around nearby islands, and some of the best empanadas I have eaten in Chile at a place called Normitas in Tocopilla, run by a woman named Norma who cooks like someone’s mother and has apparently fed Alexis Sánchez on more than one occasion.

The drive along Ruta 1 is worth doing for the scenery alone as the Atacama desert dropping straight into the Pacific is one of the more dramatic coastal landscapes I have seen anywhere. Add a stop at the ruins of Gatico, a ghost town built in the 19th century by the Bolivian government for saltpeter mine workers, and the cemetery nearby. It is a strange, quiet, fascinating place.

12. Watch the Desierto Florido

This one requires timing and a little luck, but if you happen to be in the right place at the right moment it is one of the most extraordinary things the Atacama can show you.

The flowering desert (Desierto Florido) happens when unusually heavy autumn rains trigger dormant seeds that have been waiting in the desert soil, sometimes for years. The normally grey-brown landscape around Copiapó and the surrounding region transforms into fields of pink, yellow and purple flowers that stretch as far as you can see. The air smells of them. It happens mainly in October and does not occur every year.

I was there for one of the years it happened and I still struggle to describe it accurately. A desert in bloom is something your brain genuinely cannot prepare for.

13. Explore the Salt Flats

Chile’s salt flats do not get the attention that Uyuni in Bolivia does (the Bolivian salt flat is larger and better known) but they are impressive in their own right and considerably less crowded. The vast flat expanses of white salt crust, the volcanic peaks in the background, the flamingos picking their way across the edges. It is surreal and beautiful and much easier to have to yourself than the more famous version across the border.

The Salar de Atacama near San Pedro is the largest, but Salar de Tara (further out and less visited) is worth the extra effort if you have the time and a reliable car.

15. Visit Machuca Village

Machuca is a tiny Andean village that makes a natural stop on the way back from El Tatio, a short detour that adds perhaps twenty minutes and is absolutely worth it. A handful of adobe houses, a small church, a couple of locals living quietly at altitude, and a woman frying empanadas fresh to order from a small outdoor stall.

I have eaten empanadas across Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. These are the best. Hot, fresh, handed to you at 4,000 metres with a volcano in the background. There is no better way to end a morning at the geysers.

Atacama has many surprises for the visitors. From the sunsets that change the colours of the mountains to hot springs to the most beautiful sky possible. It is a land of adventures and unforgettable memories. I hope you enjoyed this post and wish you many wonderful moments whenever you visit Atacama desert.

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