Atacama Desert

We are on a South America/Antarctica cruise next January (2019) and are thinking of spending a few days in the Atacama Desert before the cruise begins. For anyone who has been to San Pedro before, do you have recommendations for places to stay, highlights to see, and tour operators? Thanks for any assistance you can give us.

After our cruise and touring to Machu Pichu etc... We're going to be there for 2 nights after our Salt Flats Uyuni tour in late Feb this year, so if you would like to contact me after that I'll let you know what it's like. From my research for our up and coming trip there are lots of interesting places to see. labellebondi@gmail.com

Do it!

We did the tours with Whipala Expeditions and were really pleased. Guides fantastic. Every tour shows a somewhat different landscape. You'll want to do the ones at lower altitude first to acclimatise.

We thought the best ones were the Tatio Geothermic Field (geysers) and Altiplano Lagoons (both day trips to high altitude), and we loved our morning at Puritama Baths. The Rainbow Valley tour we also enjoyed. Laguna Cejar and Moon valley were OK but nothing great in our opinion.

We stayed at Cumbres San Pedro and for the money (expensive!) we were wholly unimpressed. Great concept; poor execution of how to run a hotel. We heard from other travellers that the 'Explora' was good, but I have no knowledge. The Cumbres experience was odd in that the property in Santiago was, in our mind, first class. The place in San Pedro was triple the price and poor.

Thanks for the great information, Shawnino. We will check out the places you recommended. Thanks also to Isabella8 - we will keep in touch.