The Atacama is the driest desert on earth, high in the north of Chile, and San Pedro de Atacama is the oasis town of adobe streets and dust in the middle of it. Four nights here with children is one of the strangest and best weeks in South America, as long as the altitude is respected.
San Pedro sits at two thousand four hundred meters and the excursions go higher. Arrive, do nothing on day one but walk the town and drink water, and give the kids a day before the high tours. Headaches and poor sleep the first night are normal. Fly into Calama from Santiago, then an hour by road.
The Valley of the Moon is the first afternoon, a landscape of salt and rock that looks like another planet, and a sunset from the dune with the whole valley going red. Kids of any age. The Rainbow Valley with its colored hills is the second easy morning.
The salt flats, the lagoons and the geysers
The Atacama salt flat is a crust of salt with lagoons where flamingos feed. Laguna Chaxa for the birds, and the Cejar lagoon where the water is so salty the kids float without trying, which is the ride of the trip. The altiplanic lagoons at four thousand meters, blue against the volcanoes, are the higher day, for kids who have adjusted.
The Tatio geysers are the four in the morning start, a two hour drive in the dark to a field of steam at four thousand three hundred meters at dawn, freezing cold, and a hot spring to warm up in. Kids over ten. It is the hard day and the one they remember.
The stars are the reason. The Atacama has the clearest sky on earth and the observatories are here. A star tour with a telescope and a guide, an hour outside town, on a moonless night, for everyone. Then the pool at the hotel, because the days are hot.
Planning Chile with kids? Start with the full Chile family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.
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