You wouldn’t think of the Atacama Desert as being one of the coolest places on earth. With its dusky craters, salt-encrusted plains, and looming volcanoes, you could easily suspect you were on the moon. Is it all just desolate stretches of rock and sand? Where is the pool? you might wonder. The Atacama gets so little rain, in fact, that it’s famously the driest spot on the planet.
But its isolation and rare beauty are precisely why the Atacama attracts visitors from around the world. And why it’s become a mecca for a mix of travelers, from hikers and climbers to honeymooners and stargazers. Or people like the middle-aged couple from ever-bustling and rainy Paris, who came in search of a tranquil desert escape.
The wonderful thing about the Atacama is you won’t find crowds of tourists or anything in the way of development. It takes a certain tenacity—at least two plane hops and about an hour-long van ride—to reach this sprawling Chilean desert, planted, as it is, between the Pacific and the Andes, near the border of Bolivia. But once you arrive, you’ll discover plenty of remarkable scenery and adventure.
There are the glorious and breathtakingly clear night skies, for one. With its elevations of roughly 5,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level and absence of light pollution, the Atacama is one of the world’s best stargazing destinations. As such, it has a sprinkling of world-class observatories. Talk about romantic. You will never see the Milky Way, the Southern Cross, the Jewel Box cluster, and other constellations burning as brightly as they do in the Southern Hemisphere, blanketing the sky.
If you’re an astronomy geek, you’ll want to visit the ALMA Observatory, the most powerful ground-based radio telescope in the world. ALMA, which means soul in Spanish, is the perfect acronym for the scientific marvel. Built at a dizzying 16,400 feet above sea level, its 66 movable antennae allow international astronomers to observe stars being born and planets dying, and to peer at galaxies millions of years old. A visitor center recently opened, so you can get a tour of the facility and its wonders led by ALMA personnel.
The growth of astrotourism has brought a spurt of new small eco-friendly hotels to the region. In the town of San Pedro de Atacama, a hub for travelers, the accommodations range from hostels for backpackers to luxury boutique hotels for honeymooners. But if you’re truly seeking solitude, just about two miles away, in the Catarpe Valley, you’ll find the Alto Atacama Desert Lodge & Spa, a peaceful warren of cool adobe rooms with outdoor showers, a lush organic garden, a restaurant featuring regional ingredients, and multiple cold swimming pools. Nestled below a terra-cotta-color ridge in tune with its natural surroundings, the low-slung building almost seems a mirage. Besides a pen of llamas and alpacas, the lodge has a more modern attraction on the grounds: a small observatory, where you can clamber up stairs in the inky dark and peer through a telescope at billions of stars.
During the day, you’ll want to go biking in the uniquely beautiful valley in the Atacama. You might see a truck or two rumble along the highway, but the road is mostly deserted and flat and takes you past volcanoes and crystal-blue lagoons and across the glistening Atacama Salt Flat. A perfect spot to stop and savor the otherworldly view is Laguna Tebinquinche, a nature sanctuary and saltwater lagoon where you’ll find flamingoes traipsing about. If you arrive at sunset, you’ll see the wide horizon over the dark Andes turn vibrant shades of gold, orange, and pink as night descends.
The Atacama has its own Death Valley, called Valle de la Muerte, where you can hike down a steep canyon of volcanic boulders and rocks to enormous sand dunes. (Bring hiking shoes; you’ll need them.) The terrain, which astronauts say resembles Mars, was actually used to test out the intrepid Mars rovers. And if you’re game to try sandboarding, a version of snowboarding that is hugely popular here, this is the place to learn. But it’s fun to just barrel down the dunes, too, your feet plunging deeply in the soft, fine sand.
You have to rise early, pile on layers of clothes, and take a bus high into the Andes to get there, but you won’t want to miss the Tatio Geysers. It’s one of the largest geyser fields in the Southern Hemisphere, and they’re eerie and weird and spectacular. The huge streams of vapor erupt into the freezing dawn air, producing a ghostly atmosphere. (Be sure to snap a selfie in the mist.) There’s also a thermal pool you can take a dip in, if you’re brave enough to wear your swimsuit.
Another fantastic place to watch the sunset is the Valley of the Moon, or Valle de la Luna, a lunarlike nature reserve about eight miles from San Pedro. Many local hotels offer shuttles to the Moon (no pun intended), where you can stand on the cliffs and see a rainbow of colors light the mountains.
Finally, be sure to explore San Pedro, where you can wander through a flea market selling local handcrafts; enjoy a pisco sour—Chile’s popular cocktail—at one of the outdoor cafés; and visit the town’s pretty Catholic church, which was built during the colonial period and recently restored. If you arrive the last week in June, you’ll hit the annual festival celebrating the town’s namesake, St. Peter. As for dining, San Pedro has several good restaurants and bars, but Adobe, which serves international and Chilean cuisine, is a favorite with travelers. The atmosphere is friendly and open, with pottery and paintings from a local gallery everywhere and long wooden tables around a blazing fire pit.