San Pedro de Atacama is one of the most popular places to visit in Chile. The landscape around this small town is absolutely stunning and super diverse, so it’s not surprising there are lots of things to do in San Pedro de Atacama. From floating in salt lakes to visiting steaming geysers and from cycling through moonlike landscapes to visiting lakes full of vicuñas and flamingos. But San Pedro de Atacama is most famous for its amazing night sky. And the best thing is: All these places can be visited by tours from town!
The choice can be a little overwhelming though, so in this travel guide to San Pedro de Atacama, you will find all the best San Pedro de Atacama tours amongst other things to do, and helpful tips for your trip to this magical town in Chile.
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Table of Contents - The best San Pedro de Atacama tours
- Where is San Pedro de Atacama
- How to get to San Pedro de Atacama
- When to visit San Pedro de Atacama
- Where to stay in San Pedro de Atacama
- Where to eat in San Pedro de Atacama
- How to get around San Pedro de Atacama
- San Pedro de Atacama top tours
- Other San Pedro de Atacama Tours
- Other things to do in San Pedro
Where is San Pedro de Atacama
San Pedro is a small town in the North of Chile, very close to both the Bolivian and Argentinian borders. It’s on a former commercial route between distinct indigenous tribes and it’s said that tribes from the coast to the rainforest joined here to exchange goods. This town was established here as it’s an oasis in an otherwise very dry desert. Did you know that the Atacama Desert is the driest in the world?
How to get to San Pedro de Atacama
Being such a touristic town, there are many ways to get to San Pedro de Atacama. If you want to fly in, you will have to fly to the nearby city of Calama. Here you can rent a car, or hop on a bus to San Pedro de Atacama. There are also domestic buses from as far south as Santiago and from Arica in the north. You’ll likely need to change buses in Calama, but some buses do go directly to San Pedro de Atacama. Changing in Calama will often be cheaper though.
If you’re coming from Argentina, you can take a direct bus to San Pedro de Atacama from Salta or San Salvador de Jujuy. If you’re coming from Bolivia, the best way to get here is with a 3-day Uyuni tour.
When to visit San Pedro de Atacama
San Pedro can be visited year-round. Winter days are cool and it can get cold at night this time of year. During summer it can get very hot, and in February days can be a little cloudy. While most things to do in San Pedro de Atacama are not affected by this, it does affect the stargazing tours. But, starting from February you can see the mirror effect in Salar de Uyuni. Since the Uyuni tour is an absolute must, February – March is the best time of year to visit this area in my opinion. The Uyuni Salt Flats are always impressive, but the mirror effect is just out of this world and a very unique experience. And it’s unlikely all nights are cloudy during your stay in San Pedro, even in February.
Where to stay in San Pedro de Atacama
Since there is no public transport in San Pedro de Atacama, I recommend staying in the town itself. You’ll find cheaper accommodation outside of town, but unless you have rented a car in Calama, staying outside of town will make things quite complicated.
Where to eat in San Pedro de Atacama
Los Carritos is hands down the best place to eat in San Pedro for budget travelers. These are simple restaurants, almost more like stalls. Here you can find daily menus with a starter and main dish for 7.000 CLP, or a main dish only for 5.000 CLP (at the time of writing). It’s by far the cheapest place to eat in San Pedro, it will often work out cheaper than cooking for yourself. There is a wide choice of different meals every day, incl. some vegetarian options. I usually went to El Regalon, because they have the traditional Bolivian Peanut Soup as a starter which is a must. Their stuffed zucchini is also delicious!
For Europeans who miss good bread in South America, bakery Franchuteria has amazing (but pricey) bread.
How to get around San Pedro de Atacama
The easiest way to explore the best that San Pedro has to offer is by joining tours. Tours have gotten quite expensive though, and some of them are a little rushed. So another option is to get a group together and rent a 4×4 in Calama. It’s not possible to rent a car in San Pedro (yet).
In this guide, I will group the sights around San Pedro de Atacama together per tour as they are offered, but you can easily mix and match the places if you want to visit them on your own. Some tours, like the Valle del Arcoiris, combine two places with separate entrance fees. So if you’re visiting independently, you can opt for only one sight if you’re not interested in the other.
The best San Pedro de Atacama tours
With so many options, it can be hard to choose what to do in San Pedro de Atacama. Which is the reason why I wrote this guide for you. The below tours are the best tours on offer in San Pedro de Atacama in my opinion. If you have limited time (or a limited budget, San Pedro is not cheap), these are the tours you want to do!
Calle Caracoles is the main street where all the tourist agencies are located. Shop around, as there are no fixed prices in San Pedro. Some agencies offer certain tours cheaper than others and the other way around. Package deals might include different tours at different agencies as well.
It’s also good to know that agencies mix and swap around their passengers to fill up vans. So going with a more expensive agency because of recommendations does unfortunately not guarantee you will also go with them. And if you don’t like the sound of joining a tour at all, you can also rent a car in Calama and visit these places on your own.
Astronomical Tour
San Pedro de Atacama is known as the best place in the world for stargazing. The combination of the altitude, the little to no light pollution, and the dry climate with clear skies most of the days, make it the perfect place for stargazing. So you can’t leave San Pedro without spending some time stargazing.
This is the one activity for which I do recommend joining a tour. The sky becomes even more amazing with somebody explaining what you’re looking at and the guides will have telescopes as well.
Note that the best conditions for observing the night sky are a clear sky and no moon. The more moonlight there is, the fewer stars you will see. Up to a quarter moon is good, but more than that will definitely affect the amount of stars you can see. When it’s a full moon you won’t see nearly as many stars and you can’t see the Milky Way. If your visit to San Pedro de Atacama coincides with the full moon, try to plan your Astronomical Tour on a day the moon rises late or sets early, so it won’t interfere.
Tatio Geyser
The Tatio Geyser is amazing, this is one of my favorite places to visit around San Pedro de Atacama. The best time to visit is around sunrise. The air is so cold this time of day, it’s incredible how much steam comes out of the craters. Do dress warm, because they are located at an altitude of about 4.000 m and it gets COLD here, even in summer.
Cejar or Baltinache Lakes
Both of these places are salt lakes. They contain so much salt that you can float. I visited Baltinache because many people told me they are prettier and less crowded than Cejar and I was not disappointed.
The lakes of Baltinache (formally called Lagunas Escondidas or Hidden Lakes in English) are indeed very pretty. While they do get crowded as well, Cejar gets more crowded. Agencies tend to sell Laguna Cejar before Baltinache since the road to Baltinache is not great, so it takes a while to get here. But it’s worth the trip!
Uyuni
If you’re only doing one tour in San Pedro, do the Uyuni tour. During this tour, you will visit incredible landscapes, beautiful lakes, and impressive rock formations, see a bunch of flamingos, vicuñas, and lamas, soak in hot springs with the best views, visit a geyser, and visit the biggest salt flats in the world. It is an experience that you absolutely cannot miss.
You can choose to do this tour in 3 days and finish in the town of Uyuni in Bolivia. It’s also possible to opt for 4 days and return to San Pedro. If you’re visiting Bolivia before Chile, you can also take this same tour from Uyuni and finish in San Pedro de Atacama instead. Since these tours are operated by Bolivian agencies, it’s slightly cheaper to join these tours in Bolivia. Chilean agencies offering the tour in San Pedro de Atacama can only bring you to the border and need to contract a Bolivian agency for the rest of the tour.
Other San Pedro de Atacama Tours
Besides the above-mentioned top tours, there are many other tours offered in San Pedro de Atacama. If you have more days in San Pedro and want to explore more of what this area has to offer, check out the tours below. If you’re renting a car, some of these places are on the way to the above-mentioned top tours, so you could add some spots from here on the way.
Valle de la Luna
Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) is a valley with moon-like landscapes and rock formations. While it’s one of the highlights of San Pedro for many visitors, I did not think it was as special or impressive as the above-mentioned tours. But if you are going to pick one tour from this section to add to your itinerary, I recommend this one. It is one of the most iconic places in San Pedro.
If you want to visit La Valle de la Luna, I recommend renting a bicycle and exploring the valley on your own instead of with a tour. It’s not only cheaper, it’s also more fun! Do bring plenty of water and sunscreen. There is almost no shade in the valley.
Valle del Arcoiris
Valle del Arcoiris (Rainbow Valley) is famous for its colored rocks. It’s not as impressive as the colored mountains in Jujuy and Salta in Argentina, but the formations and color patterns are very different. The tour also includes a visit to El Cañon de Yerbas Buenas, where you can find rock carvings. Yerbas Buenas was the highlight of the tour for me. If you want to see the carvings, I do recommend going with a tour. Some are hard to find and the explanations of a guide are very helpful here. This place is (even) better with some context.
Ruta Salares
This tour goes in the direction of Paso Jama, where the bus from Salta and Jujuy in Argentina passes to Chile. This means that if you came from here, it’s quite easy to decide if this tour is worth it for you. It will stop at some lakes where you will often find flamingos and vicuñas, and a viewpoint of one of San Pedro’s most beautiful volcanoes, which you would have seen from the bus. Besides these, the tour will also visit a salt flat and a rocky valley.
Pucará de Quitor
Pucará de Quitor is what’s left of a pre-incan fortress. While it’s not allowed to enter the ruins anymore, you can walk along the lower border and hike up a hill to observe the structure from the outside. At the top of the hill, there is a cross and a monument to the Atacameños who defended their lands against the invaders. From here you have beautiful views over Catarpe and the Death Valley. There is also a rest area with shade and toilets and a small museum onsite with artifacts and traditional clothes, and there are a few signs that explain a little bit more about the history of this place. The information in the museum is only in Spanish, but the signs along the path are in both Spanish and English.
While I wouldn’t say it’s an absolute must, it’s a cool place to go if you have (half) a day to spare. Since Pucará de Quitor is only about 3 km from the center of San Pedro, it doesn’t require a car or a tour. The entrance fee is also cheaper than most other places: 5700 CLP (card payments only, price accurate at the time of writing).
If you’ve rented a bike, you can continue to Catarpe, walking this is quite far. You can also visit the Mars/Death Valley before or after Pucará de Quitor, it’s on the way. Do note that all these places have separate entrance fees. Also, bring enough water and sunscreen. As with most places in this area there is little to no shade.
Puritama Hot Springs
Since I visited in summer. I was generally looking for ways to cool down in San Pedro de Atacama. So I didn’t visit the hot springs. But if you’re visiting during a cooler time of the year, you might be interested in visiting the Puritama Hot Springs. Note that they have limited capacity and fill up quickly so make sure to book your spot in advance, whether you’re going with your own transport or with a tour.
These hot springs are quite expensive, so if you’re looking for a cheaper place to swim, there is the “Puri Libre” tour. This tour visits the Puritama River at a spot open to the public. This means there is no entrance fee. The water is not as hot as in the hot springs though, it’s lukewarm.
Vallecito
The Vallecito Tour brings you to an abandoned bus in a valley, which used to be a place to go for the stargazing tour. From what I gathered from some locals, it’s more of a tour that has been added to offer more options than a place that cannot be missed. Other stops during the tour are also not that different from what you will see during other tours. But I haven’t been myself, so if it calls to your attention and you have enough time to add another tour to your itinerary check it out! Or, if you have your own transport and want to do some night sky photography it could be a good spot for this. Just search for the “Magic Bus Atacama” on Google Maps and you’ll find it.
Piedras Rojas & Lagunas Altiplánicas
This tour sounds really cool and I was tempted to go. But it’s expensive and I wasn’t sure it would be worth the money. Locals said it’s beautiful, but the landscapes you’ll see during the Uyuni Tour are much more beautiful. You’ll see a lot more flamingos in Bolivia as well. So I decided to take their advice and wait for Uyuni. If I had my own transport, I would have gone though!
If you do want to go, note that entrance tickets need to be booked in advance, whether you’re going by tour or independently. Tour agencies will take care of the ticket (unless they tell you otherwise), but they might not have space when you want to go. Especially in the high season. If you have your own transport, you can book your time slot here. If you want to visit both, make sure to book the combo for a discount. The order in which you can visit these places is based on the combo you bought: Lagoons + Piedras Rojas, or Piedras Rojas + Lagoons.
Other things to do in San Pedro
Being such a small town, there is not much to do in San Pedro itself. Its attractions are outside of town. There are two museums you can visit though: Museo R. P. Gustavo Le Paige Museum and the Meteorite Museum.
The R. P. Gustavo Le Paiges museum displays pre-incan artifacts and clothes that were found by Museo R. P. Gustavo Le Paige. He dedicated most of his life to these archaeological findings. The museum is cool if you have some time to spare, but if you’re not super interested, you’re not missing out by skipping it.
The Meteorite Museum I loved though! I had never seen meteorites before, and quite frankly knew basically nothing about them. So I really enjoyed my visit to this small museum.
They give you an audio guide at the start with lots of different language options. Once you’ve completed the loop, a staff member will come and guide you through the interactive part of the museum.
This was: the best San Pedro de Atacama tours
Enjoy your stay!
