Day-by-day programme of this 8-day itinerary across Santiago, Valparaiso and the Atacama desert.
Day 1 — Arrival in Santiago
Landing in Santiago de Chile, a modern capital at the foot of the snowy Andes. A first stroll in the historic centre and up the San Cristobal hill.
- ✈️ Santiago — Aeroporto di Santiago (SCL)
- 📍 Cerro San Cristobal — A funicular climbs the Cerro San Cristobal, the green hill that dominates Santiago: from the top, beside the large white statue of the Virgin, the view sweeps over the metropolis and the snowy wall of the Andes that closes it on the horizon. You then go down into the lively bohemian Bellavista district, full of murals and restaurants, and into the historic centre with the Plaza de Armas and the Palacio de la Moneda. In the evening, a pisco sour. Tomorrow the very colourful Valparaiso.
- 🏨 Hotel Cumbres Lastarria — Centro / Lastarria, Santiago
Day 2 — Valparaiso and the coast
A trip to Valparaiso, a UNESCO port city climbing colourful hills, among funiculars, murals and poetry, with a stop on the coast at Vina del Mar.
- 📍 Valparaiso — Valparaiso, an hour and a half from Santiago, is a maze of hills (cerros) covered with tin houses painted in every colour, connected by steep historic funiculars (ascensores) and stairways. On the walls, some of the most beautiful street art in the world turns every corner into an open-air gallery. The UNESCO port city inspired the poet Pablo Neruda (his house-museum, La Sebastiana, is here). You lunch on fish. In the afternoon, fashionable Vina del Mar.
- 📍 Vina del Mar — Next to Valparaiso, Vina del Mar is the 'garden city', an elegant seaside resort with long beaches, palms, a casino and the famous flower clock. It is the worldly, orderly counterpoint to the chaotic beauty of Valparaiso. A walk on the seafront and a last look at the Pacific Ocean close the day, before returning to Santiago. Tomorrow you fly north, into the most arid desert in the world: the Atacama.
Day 3 — San Pedro de Atacama and the Moon Valley
A flight to the north and arrival in San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis in the most arid desert on the planet, with the surreal sunset over the Moon Valley.
- ✈️ Santiago → San Pedro de Atacama — Aeroporto di Calama (CJC)
- 📍 Valle de la Luna — The Valle de la Luna is a lunar landscape of dunes, salt ridges and wind-sculpted rock formations, where NASA tested the rovers for Mars. At sunset the rocks and mountains light up red, orange and purple in an unforgettable display of colour, while the snowy volcanoes stand out in the background. You toast with a pisco sour before the colours of the desert. You return to San Pedro for the night. Tomorrow a dawn start for the Tatio geysers.
- 🏨 Hotel La Casa de Don Tomás — San Pedro de Atacama, Cile
Day 4 — The Tatio Geysers
Waking in the heart of the night to reach the Tatio geysers at dawn, the highest geothermal field in the world, where the steam erupts in the cold of the plateau.
- 🎯 El Tatio Geysers — You set off in the dark before dawn (with very heavy clothing: it reaches -10 degrees) to reach the Tatio geothermal field, at 4,320 metres, the highest in the world. At dawn, with the first rays, dozens of fumaroles and geysers erupt in columns of steam standing out against the mountains, in a surreal, icy atmosphere. You warm up in a natural thermal pool and have breakfast among the steam. On the way back you cross Andean villages like Machuca, with llamas and alpacas. An afternoon's rest in San Pedro.
Day 5 — Andean lagoons and Salar de Atacama
The altiplano lagoons Miscanti and Miniques, the Piedras Rojas and the Salar de Atacama, where pink flamingos are reflected in the salt pools at the foot of the volcanoes.
- 📍 Miscanti and Miniques Lagoons — You climb onto the Andean plateau at over 4,000 metres, where the Miscanti and Miniques lagoons open up: mirrors of deep blue water, motionless, framed by volcanoes and the desolate puna, where vicunas graze. You continue to the Piedras Rojas, red rock formations along a turquoise lagoon: one of the most spectacular landscapes of the plateau. The air is thin and the colours unreal. In the afternoon you descend to the great salar.
- 📍 Laguna Chaxa — In the heart of the Salar de Atacama, the boundless expanse of salt, the Laguna Chaxa hosts colonies of pink flamingos that filter the brackish water with their beaks, against the backdrop of the Licancabur and Lascar volcanoes. At sunset, the golden light on the salar and the flamingos reflected in the water create a magical spectacle. It is one of the symbolic places of the Atacama. You return to San Pedro for the night. Tomorrow the salt lagoons where you can float.
Day 6 — Salt lagoons and last desert
The Cejar salt lagoons, where you float on the salt-dense water, and a last day in the desert, with the clearest starry skies on the planet.
- 🎯 Laguna Cejar — The Laguna Cejar is a pool in the salar with water so rich in salt that you float effortlessly, as in the Dead Sea, with the volcanoes in the background: a surreal and fun dip (then you rinse off under showers). Nearby, the Ojos del Salar (two twin freshwater pools) and the Tebinquiche lagoon for sunset, with its mirror reflections. In the evening, Atacama offers one of the clearest skies in the world: an astronomy tour shows the Milky Way and the galaxies as never seen. Tomorrow you return to Santiago.
Day 7 — Back to Santiago and the wine valley
Flight back to Santiago and an afternoon in the Maipo valley, the heart of Chilean wine, among vineyards and wineries at the foot of the Andes.
- ✈️ San Pedro de Atacama → Santiago — Aeroporto di Santiago (SCL)
- 🏨 Hotel Cumbres Lastarria — Centro / Lastarria, Santiago
Day 8 — Departure from Santiago
Return flight from Santiago. The end of a journey in northern Chile, between the capital, colourful Valparaiso and the Martian landscapes of the Atacama desert.
- ✈️ Santiago — Aeroporto di Milano Malpensa (MXP)
