Three amazing things to experience in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile!

I was in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile for a brief stopover between the salt flats of Bolivia and Salta, Argentina. Despite being a small tourist town in the middle of nowhere, San Pedro de Atacama offers amazing experiences – including some that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

In terms of the more practical aspects of visiting San Pedro de Atacama, not only are there are plenty of hostels/hotels to stay in, there are also many, many bars and restaurants to visit. Overall, it’s a great base from which to explore the natural beauty of the surrounding area. I’ll write about that another time though!

Here are my three top experiences in case you needed any further persuasion!

See some amazing lunar landscapes

Believe it or not there are two Valleys of the Moon – one in Bolivia, the other in Chile. I’ve only visited the Chilean Valle de la Luna, although various sources have told me that this is the better one of the two. Situated in the nearby Atacama desert, as you walk through winding tunnels and towering rock formations it really does feel like you could be on the moon.

Once you make your way to the top of the ridge the sights get even more jaw-dropping (the hike is not too strenuous I promise). With a canyon to one side and incredible rock mounds dusted with salt on the other it really does feel like you are on the top of the world.

The descent was a little trickier as I had to navigate an awkward situation with the tour guide who kept telling me I was beautiful and asking me if I was married or had a boyfriend. (The ‘boyfriend’ was ‘back home’ obviously).

Go stargazing in the Atacama desert

One thing that should not be missed if you’re in San Pedro de Atacama is the opportunity to go stargazing. There are a few observatories to visit, and you can find various shops along the main street offering tours.

San Pedro de Atacama is one of the best places in the world to go stargazing: it’s high, it’s dry, and it’s pitch black at night. I can’t recall which observatory we visited, but our guide (who used to work at NASA) gave an amazing talk. We saw constellations scattered across the night sky and examined galaxies through powerful telescopes. Afterwards, we sat in a darkened hut with some hot chocolate and asked our guide questions about his life and career. It was a very special experience indeed and is well deserving of one of my Golden Teabag awards, which I give to only the very best experiences I encounter throughout my travels.

Try sandboarding!

As with stargazing, there are plenty of places along the main street of San Pedro de Atacama offering sandboarding. It seems there are a few different types of sandboarding you can do – we did the snowboard-with-sand variety, which I prefer to the go-down-a-sand-dune-face-first option.

We were taken to a very forgiving sandbank, taught the basics and off we went. The first time down was terrifying and very slow going, the second a little less scary but still slow, and by the end of it I was whizzing down those dunes like a pro (well, I felt like one anyway). Turns out the hard part of sandboarding is actually crawling your way back up the dune!