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The Best of Camping in the San Pedro de Atacama Desert, Chile

08/10/2016 by Kristin Addis 34 Comments

The San Pedro de Atacama desert in Northern Chile is famous for a few good reasons: It’s the driest desert in the world, has some of the best viewing for stars in the night sky, and it’s full of otherworldly-looking canyons, lakes, and landmarks.

Though there are tours to all of the major sites, they lack the kind of flexibility that I wanted for star-gazing and watching sunrises and sunsets from out in the wilderness. It seemed the best option to really get to know the desert was to go camping there.

I couldn’t find any kind of itinerary or help on the web prior to planning my trip, so I figured that I’d make the resource! Here’s everything you need to know about where to go and how to get ready for camping in the San Pedro de Atacama Desert:

First: The Vehicle

camping san pedro de atacama
my wicked camper van

The best way to get around is in some kind of camper van or 4×4 car with a roof tent, or a pickup truck that you can stash your own tent in (I don’t believe there are tent rentals available in San Pedro). I chose a Wicked camper van because it offered me everything I didn’t have already: Wheels, cooking equipment, a place to sleep, and comfort in the cold desert.

If you go this route, double check everything when you pick up the van, particularly that everything you need is there in case you get a flat tire. My van was missing a few things and I’m so glad that the friend I was renting with and I checked first. Once I was on the road, I didn’t have any problems at all.

*Note that almost all of the vehicles will be manual rather than automatic.

Costs

A camper van or rental is not a super budget option. However, a rental can be as cheap as a mid-range private room and tours would be, especially if you opt for a larger car and share it with several people. Wicked’s 3-person rental would be really cramped with three people, though, so just keep in mind that the more people who join the group, the less sleeping space you’ll have. Buy and cook your own food instead of eating in town and that will help as well.

Each of the natural areas has an entrance fee. They can run anywhere from 2000 to 15000 Pesos per person. Whether you’re on a tour or independent, you’ll have to pay these.

It’s also always wise to have travel insurance. It’s the desert, after all.

Where do you camp?

camping san pedro de atacama desert
You can camp pretty close to here!

In the San Pedro de Atacama desert, most people free camp. In a lot of places I’ve visited that’s not allowed but out there in the desert, it’s totally fine.

The park entrance at the Valle de la Luna allows campers (more on that below), and there are plenty of places where you can simply follow car tracks off the road and find a nice, totally secluded spot for the night. It’s how I found some amazing sunset spots.

A word of caution: Sometimes the ground is soft and it’s easy to get stuck, so only pull off if it’s clearly safe to do so and you can see that the land has been flattened and/or there are clear tire tracks.

Does it get cold?

camping san pedro de atacama
Stay warm, folks!

It’s hot during the day but pretty cold at night out there. Sometimes the camper van companies offer blankets, and sometimes they don’t. Luckily, there are tons of Alpaca products all over the region and blankets always make a nice gift, so if you have to buy some, you can. It’s wise to bring a hat and gloves as well, as the desert gets really cold at night.

Stock up on plenty of water in town before you go, since you can’t exactly refill easily in the driest desert on earth. I also suggest plotting your points as labeled GPS coordinates in an offline map, like maps.me, as cell signal can also be hard to come by out there.

Home Base: San Pedro 

This little town looks like it’s straight out of an old western movie, and it’s the only place in the vicinity where you can fill up your gas tank, so keep that in mind when out exploring.

Chances are good that you’ll fly into Calama, the nearest airport, or bus into this town and spend at least your first night here before heading out on your camping trip. It’s a good place to stock up on groceries and get acclimated to the altitude. Since your camper van has a sink, cooler box, and stove, I suggest buying enough food for at least two days at a time each time you pass back through the town to fill up your gas tank.

The town did have some redeeming qualities, but you’re better off getting out and exploring as soon as you can. It’s better out there!

Find all ranges of accommodation in town here.

Valle de la Luna

camping san pedro de atacama
Named after the moon, and I can see why!

Wind and water have carved the Valle de la Luna, or moon valley, into jagged peaks and valleys all throughout the park. There are giant sand dunes all around as well, and a very salty ground that somehow looks like snow even in the driest desert on earth.

camping san pedro de atacama camping san pedro de atacama

camping san pedro de atacama

This is THE place to watch the sunset. There are plenty of tours running through, but by being able to go when you want to, you can catch the whole sunset without having to worry about making it back to your bus. That’s priceless.

Lagunas Altiplanicas (inc. Laguna Miscanti and Miñiques)

camping san pedro de atacama
Hey there, Guanaco!

Laguna Miscanti is a heart-shaped, dark blue lake that sits above 4000 meters. If you’re trying to level up in altitude, this is at a lower elevation than much of the other attractions, believe it or not, so it’s a good spot for your second day.

camping san pedro de atacama

The drive out from San Pedro takes several hours along mostly-uninhabited desert with a few settlements here and there. The grasses that grow all along the way glow a bright yellow and though it sounds desolate, it’s absolutely gorgeous to watch as the landscape changes.

Piedras Rojas

camping san pedro de atacama
by Diego Delso, used under creative commons

If you turn towards Aguas Calientes after visiting the lakes, you’ll see a famous site called Piedras Rojas.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the intel before I went and had no idea this was there until I came back to town towards the end of my trip and started looking at the advertisements in the tourist agencies. It looks amazing and it’s nearby. Please don’t make the same mistake that I did! Go there!

Laguna Chaxa

camping san pedro de atacama
Golden hour at Laguna Chaxa

For sunset in the area, you can’t beat Laguna Chaxa in the salt flats. This is where the flamingoes come to perform their nightly ritual of feeding in one lake and flying over to the other as it gets dark. It’s quite a display.

This is actually a series of a few lakes with a lovely trail running through the salty, jagged soil. It’s surprisingly soft and with the sunset colors, a real treat.

camping san pedro de atacama

camping san pedro de atacama
You can camp pretty close to here!

I was able to find a place to camp right at the turnoff for the lake where some trucks had been moving the earth around. The milky way that night was the clearest and most magnificent I’ve ever seen.

camping san pedro de atacama
The milky way over a salt pan in the San Pedro de Atacama Desert

There are a few other lakes over there such as the Laguna Cejar, which you can swim in. It’s so salty, you’ll float just like the dead sea. The entrance is the equivalent of $20 US, however, so I decided to bypass that for something that sounded more relaxing, the hot springs.

Termas Banos de Puritama

camping san pedro de atacama

The Puritama hot springs are expensive as well, at 15,000 CLP (USD $25). If you go after 2pm, the fee drops by half, but the wind will be stronger than it would be in the morning.

The baths aren’t scalding hot, but rather lukewarm, and as you move farther from the top/the source, they cool off more and more.

Still, if you’ve been in a camper van, it’s a nice hippie shower and the pampas grass growing all along the pools is so mystical and lovely.

Geysers del Tatio

camping san pedro de atacamacamping san pedro de atacama

Most people take a tour up to the geysers for sunrise, when they’re the most active.

I headed up just after sunrise and missed the crowds, while also enjoying the animal sightings along the way. The geysers are still bubbling after the sun rises, and at 4,200 meters in altitude, it’s really darn cold up there while it’s still dark.

camping san pedro de atacama camping san pedro de atacama

Bonus, there are also hot springs at the geysers, and if you can brave the cold long enough to change and jump in (and more devastatingly, back out again all wet), the pool isn’t very crowded and the water is much hotter than at the Puritama hot springs.

camping san pedro de atacama
On the drive back to town from the Geyers

*Note: If you drive a normal, non 4×4 car from the hot springs to the geysers, you cannot stay on the same road. You’ll need to go back to the fork in the road and turn right towards the geysers.

Valle del Arcoiris

camping san pedro de atacama
Go for a hike here

The Rainbow valley (in English) isn’t very high on the tourist radar, so it’s easy to get this all to yourself and it’s not too far from the town of San Pedro, either.

There are a few dirt roads running through the valley, which has red, black, white, and green mountains running all through it.

If you do see a tour car there, I suggest following them to see what they’re checking out. You can find plenty of rewards by climbing through the rocks and caves!

camping san pedro de atacama camping san pedro de atacama

Sunset at Valle de la Luna

camping san pedro de atacama

There are two ways to see the Valle de la Luna. The method mentioned earlier in the post, and this one, which is just off of the main road before you get back into town. There’s no entrance fee and all you need to do is pull off to the shoulder to catch the sunset. This was night four of my four-day camper van rental and, though with more time and a 4×4 there was definitely more to see, this was a great sampling of the San Pedro de Atacama desert, a place I can’t imagine experiencing any way other than by camping.

The roads have hardly any other cars, the landscape is beautiful and it’s a definite advantage to be able to pull off whenever you want and to have the solitude under those stars that camping affords you.

The map below has all of the points plotted out on it. As I mentioned before, it’s best to plot these by coordinates then save on an offline map since signal isn’t always available out there:

Happy camping!

*This post was brought to you in collaboration with Wicked South America. Opinions shared of the van are my own – your trust always comes first!

Here is how to prepare, when to go, all the best spots and how to reach them, and where to sleep when camping in the San Pedro de Atacama desert in Chile
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About Kristin Addis

Kristin Addis is the founder and CEO of Be My Travel Muse, a resource for female travelers all around the world since 2012. She's traveled solo to over 65 countries and has brought over 150 women on her all-female adventure tours from Botswana to the Alaskan tundra.

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Comments

  1. Ylvalie says

    08/11/2016 at 1:41 am

    I have commented a few times before, but i think it’s time to say – you really are the coolest! I love your travels and that you always go independently. Your photography is also top notch and i always love readying about it and looking at the pics. I didn’t take part in your surveys cos it wasn’t possible on the computer i was on, but i really do appreciate your site! 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      09/24/2016 at 8:58 am

      Aw thank you so much for coming here to say that!

      Reply
  2. Rebecca says

    08/17/2016 at 4:03 pm

    Oh this is so cool! I was looking at hiring a Wicked camper van to travel through Chile. How many days was this trip, to give me an idea of how much time we’d need?

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      08/20/2016 at 9:38 am

      I did 4 nights 🙂

      Reply
  3. Sallie says

    08/29/2016 at 7:00 pm

    Hi – this is great. Been looking everywhere for info on this!!
    We’re headed there in two days and were considering this option. I have a few questions – would you mind helping us out?
    Do we definitely need a 4×4 drive up there? Or could we get away with a small, manual car?
    How hard is it to fuel the car up there?
    Were you worried at all about land mines off the main roads?
    And Are there any actual camping sites in the region?
    Thanks so much for your help!!
    Sallie 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      09/07/2016 at 2:59 pm

      I was too and realized there wasn’t any info, so I’m so glad that you were looking and you found this. It worked! 🙂
      I didn’t have a 4×4 though sometimes I wished I had to access the more remote areas
      You can only fill up in the town of San Pedro which wasn’t a problem for me
      I didn’t even know there were land mines. You mean mining? I wouldn’t advise off roading much on that soft land anyways.
      I didn’t find an actual camping site. Free camp!

      Reply
  4. Leonardo says

    10/01/2016 at 1:31 pm

    This is actually the most helpful info I’ve encounter so far after looking in many official sites, I’m going to San Pedro as an amateur photographer and regular tours are so restrictive that it would be impossible to take photos of night skies, sunrises and sunsets. This fits perfectly to my purpose, thank you so much!

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      10/06/2016 at 9:43 am

      Awesome! I ran into the same issue. Have fun!

      Reply
  5. Natasha says

    10/24/2016 at 2:34 pm

    Hey, this is sweet, thanks for the info! I was wondering if wicked camper van requires an international drivers license or if they accept the license from your country? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      10/24/2016 at 11:38 pm

      They accepted ours from South Africa and the US, no problem

      Reply
  6. Beth says

    01/16/2017 at 9:27 pm

    So helpful, thanks! Headed to Chile in March for two weeks and hoping to save most of my time for Patagonia. Do we think it would be crazy to try to see the desert in two days/two nights? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      01/16/2017 at 9:29 pm

      You’ll have to pick one day trip and maybe one star gazing night and it’ll feel like you’re missing out on a lot, but then again at least you’ll get to see what it’s like!

      Reply
  7. Touring Mama says

    04/02/2017 at 1:07 pm

    Thanks for this info. It was very helpful and I’ve decided definitely not to book a room/campsite in advance here and see what we can come across for free.

    Reply
  8. Shannon says

    04/08/2017 at 7:47 am

    What time of year did you go?

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      04/08/2017 at 11:09 am

      Right at this time last year – April

      Reply
  9. Jake says

    05/05/2017 at 2:57 pm

    Appreciate all the info! And great shots!

    I’m going to rent a van in august – curious if you can get in near laguna chaxa at night to take pics? Or the other lagunas?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      05/06/2017 at 1:44 am

      Hi Jake, I didn’t attempt, as they’re protected areas that close at night, at least officially. It could be possible, though I think it would be a sneaking in type of situation which isn’t something I wanted to promote.

      Reply
  10. Edward says

    07/25/2017 at 5:25 pm

    HI Kristin,

    Thank you for the great post.

    Did you rent the camper and returned in San Pedro? Or you did a one way trip?

    I am planning also a few days camper trip right after we come out of Bolivia. Do you think it’s convenience and safe for traveling with children 7 and 12 years old?

    Also where do you take a shower or use the toilet?

    I hope to do a similar trip like yours.

    Thank you

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      07/25/2017 at 8:46 pm

      I didn’t shower to be honest. I used ‘bush toilets’

      You rent and return to San Pedro, and I didn’t see any other people so I felt safe but that’s totally your call!

      Reply
  11. Caroline says

    07/31/2017 at 3:44 am

    Hello Kristin !
    Your trip in Atacama desert is so amazing !
    In few days, we’re going to SP to rent a van too, with my husband.
    We want to see Vallee de la Luna, Tebinquiche, Chaxa, Geyser El Tatio and Lagunas Altiplanicas and Piedras Rojas.
    How many days we need ? We plan to spend 4 days and 3 nights. Is it to short ?

    Do You have a sleeping bag with you ? or can we buy it in SP ?

    Do you have more advices ?

    Thank you
    Caroline

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      07/31/2017 at 8:03 am

      That’s how long I spent! I would bring a sleeping bag, yes.

      Reply
  12. lohli says

    08/28/2017 at 2:25 am

    Wow! Thanks for this post! 🙂
    I am going soon to San Pedro de Atacama. I will rent a car and bring my tent!
    Do you think we can really do free camping where we want? Are there restricted areas?
    Do you have (more precisly) specific spots you loved while camping?

    Thanks in advance for your reply! And thanks again for your blog! 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      09/04/2017 at 8:27 pm

      I didn’t find any restricted areas and I just camped where I thought looked good by looking for little roads off of the main roads.

      Reply
  13. Phil says

    10/25/2017 at 1:32 am

    Hey Kristin,

    thank you very much! we are going to be in san pedro for a few days in november and we will try to camp as well.

    to be sure: the black/white dots on the maps are the places where you slept?

    Thanks again for the great information!

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      10/25/2017 at 3:47 am

      No that’s where each of the attractions is, but I usually slept somewhere around there on an unmarked road.

      Reply
  14. Matze says

    11/01/2017 at 6:15 am

    Great article! Do you remember how long the ride from San Pedro to Laguna Chaxa was?
    We only have 2WD camper and are wondering if the roads are good enough for a 2WD.

    Best
    Matthias

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      11/01/2017 at 12:48 pm

      Not too long, maybe a couple of hours but the thing is I stopped a lot. I had the same type of vehicle, no 4×4

      Reply
  15. KLAUS DENECKE RABELLO says

    12/03/2017 at 9:23 am

    Hi, thanks for the infos!

    I am here in San Pedro with my 4×4 with tent on its roof and after being in a very nice hostel/camping while fixing stuff that suffered the way from Rio de Janeiro to SPAtacama I am getting ready for the wildness.

    ‘thus I was thinking: where did you sleep while heading to the Geysers? It can be down to -10 Celsius there. The camper is warmer as the tent, but anyway…

    Could you help me out with night temperatures at your sleeping spots? 😉

    Thanks in advance,

    Klaus

    BTW: you and your posts are awesome.

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      12/03/2017 at 1:18 pm

      I remember being okay but I had a nice warm sleeping bag from Patagonia. Do you have sleeping bags?

      Reply
  16. Vee says

    01/11/2018 at 6:56 pm

    Hey I am going n a week! I would love to camp but I am a female and Alone do you feel its safe? Or I should go to where campsites are and stay with other people. Or anywhere I kind of feel like resting just sleep there? First time doing a solo trip there and would like to fall asleep put there. And any popular you may recommend?

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      01/11/2018 at 11:25 pm

      I never saw any other people, or campsites really, so free camping was the option. You could stay at a hostel for a few days in town and see if you meet people who want to come along, might be easier than you think!

      Reply
  17. Steve Putnam says

    11/03/2018 at 3:42 pm

    Hey! Great entry! So is there a reason why you didn’t go to the Salar de Tara?

    Reply
    • Kristin says

      11/04/2018 at 12:32 pm

      Haven’t heard of it!

      Reply

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