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We’d hazard a guess that the arid Atacama is pretty high-up on most Chilean bucket-lists – and we wouldn’t argue with that. The Martian-like terrain of one of the driest places on the planet is not only spectacularly scenic but also surprising, exciting and an excellent playground for adventurers, wildlife enthusiasts and anyone with a camera. First up, the landscape. It’s everything you would expect a desert to be – rusty vastness, glinting salt pans, craggy rocks and weird, layer-cake formations – and a little bit more. We’re talking spurting, hissing geysers, flocks of candy-pink flamingo, oases and cacti-studded ravines, and a cast of wildlife that includes llamas, alpacas, vizcacha and, if you’re lucky, vicuñas. So, how to see and do it all? Handily a crop of dreamy, desert-chic hotels has recently cropped up in the outpost of San Pedro, the jumping-off point for most travellers, offering 4WD drives, fat-biking and geyser-hiking, sunset picnics, sand-boarding experiences, wildlife walks, and even horse-back rides. All are designed for minimum environmental impact – yet maximum visuals! – keeping this ethereal landscape just the way it should be.
Because it's utterly, completely, ends-of-the-earth remote. This is the place that NASA uses to test its instruments going to Mars, and the scene of many a James Bond movie, after all. How cool?
It’s no secret but the thin, dry, desert air makes for skies that are as a clear-as-a-bell and out-of-this-world stargazing. If you can, visit the Ahlarkapin Observatory; you’ll be joined by a guide who will bring the celestial wonderland before you to life.
From Patagonia or even Santiago, the altitude difference is quite noticeable. Give yourself time to acclimatise to the effects of the height and the intense sunlight – and take a good moisturiser for skin, lips and noses!