How we spent four days in San Pedro de Atacama
We spent four days in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, using the town as a base to explore the popular sights around it.
San Pedro is a remote desert town with a charming Wild West feel (without the shootouts — it’s perfectly safe!) We stayed in a local hostel and drove to many of the attractions in the desert that surround the town over four days.
Here’s everything you need to know about planning a trip to San Pedro de Atacama and the Atacama desert.
How to get to San Pedro de Atacama
To get to San Pedro de Atacama you need to fly to Calama. This is the closest airport which is about 1.5 hours drive away. There are regular internal flights to Calama, especially from Santiago. When we booked ours it cost about £85 each way.
At the airport you can catch a taxi or a bus, or hire a car to drive to the town of San Pedro de Atacama.
Where to stay in San Pedro de Atacama
While there are many hostels in San Pedro de Atacama, they are mostly fairly basic. Or on the other end of the spectrum there are very expensive hotels. There are very very few buildings in the town that are more than one storey high so you won’t find any big chain hotels here.
We stayed at Tulvak Hostal, which cost under £300 for four nights in April. We had a twin room but you can just push beds together as the twin and double rooms here are the same — two large single beds pushed together.
The owners are lovely and they provide a good breakfast (or a snack if you’re leaving before breakfast starts at 6:30am).
Tulvak is a 10-15 minute walk from the main strip of town, in a peaceful area that is still very accessible. It’s super easy to access the town on foot and you won’t need to drive around town to get to bars or restaurants.
How long to spend in San Pedro de Atacama?
We spent four days in San Pedro which was the perfect amount of time for us. We looked at planning a longer Atacama itinerary, but found that we weren’t really adding extra things to the list but instead slowing our days down. And since the days didn’t feel too packed anyway, more than 4 days weren't needed.
Do you need to hire a car in San Pedro de Atacama?
Ideally, yes. We hired a car from Econorent in Calama airport which was £170 for four nights/five days and was perfect. We rented a Subaru Crosstrek which was in perfect condition and was ideal for driving through the desert landscapes without feeling too large or difficult to handle.
If you can’t drive you can join group tours, which I would recommend over hiring taxis as that would get very expensive. There are numerous guided tours that tend to cover all of the most popular things to do in Atacama.
But if you’re able to, hiring a car is the best way to get around the desert as it gives you flexibility to set your own route and work through the sites at your own pace.
Many of the roads are unpaved but overall driving here is safe and easy and the roads are usually very quiet.
Is San Pedro de Atacama expensive?
San Pedro de Atacama isn’t that expensive but it’s not mega cheap either. You can easily get a main course for under £5 at dinner and drinks are fairly cheap.
Accommodation and car rental is a little cheaper than in the cities like Santiago and is much cheaper than other remote areas like Easter Island or Patagonia. But it’s a remote area that is largely funded by tourism so you do have to pay to enter most of the sites (£10-30 depending on where you go).
Do you need to know Spanish to travel in San Pedro de Atacama?
You could probably get by in San Pedro de Atacama with no Spanish, but if you can speak even a little (more than gracias!) you’ll find it very helpful. While lots of people who work in tourism do speak English, we also met many people who didn’t — including the owner of our hostel — and being able to speak with them in (intermediate, broken!) Spanish was a huge help.
Don’t let that put you off though. If you can’t speak Spanish you can probably get by with Google Translate… or you could use your trip as a great incentive to learn a new language.
The best things to do in San Pedro de Atacama
There are so many sights in the area around San Pedro de Atacama that it would take weeks to see all of them. But these are some of the most popular things to do near San Pedro, and were the highlights of our trip:
Valle del Arcoíris
Piedras Rojas
Mirador Piedras Rojas
Laguna Tayajto
Laguna Miscanti y Miñiques
Tropic of Capricorn
Star gazing tour
Self-guided star gazing (Valle de la muerte, Valle de la Luna, piedra de coyotes)
Tatio Geysers
Valle de la Luna
Valle de la Muerte
Puritama hot springs
Explore San Pedro de Atacama
Find out more about our favourite things to do in the Atacama here.
The best places to eat and drink in San Pedro de Atacama
For a small town there are so many great places to eat and drink in San Pedro. But these were our favourites:
SAN PEDRO Restaurant - A small restaurant serving delicious traditional food.
Ckunza Tilar - A bar with live music and a good menu of fresh and affordable food.
Adobe al Paso - A trendy cafe with delicious food to eat in or take away.
Caracol Bar - A large bar with an outdoor area
La Franchutería - A bohemian cafe with outdoor seating, huge sandwiches, and the best cafe in town.
ChelaCabur - One of the only places you can drink without ordering food in San Pedro (but you will need your passport or a photo of it, by law).
Karaván - A great place for dinner with delicious a la plancha dishes.
What to pack for four days in the Atacama desert
Clothing for days out in the desert:
A fleece jacket
One thermal long-sleeve top
A jumper
A plaid shirt
Three T-shirts
Two vest tops
Two sports bras
A pair of comfy trousers
Uniqlo Airism leggings
A pair of shorts
A pair of regular trainers
A pair of hiking trainers
A pair of sandals
A bikini
A cap
Sunglasses
Daily toiletries including plenty of SPF
A phone case with a strap
A bumbag/accessible bag
Water bottle and filter
Battery packs
A quick drying towel
A bag for laundry/worn clothes
Kindle
An EU plug adapter and relevant chargers
Find out more about our full day-by-day Atacama itinerary here.