City & Desert

(8 Days - Departs Daily on a Private Basis)
Santiago, Atacama Desert

This tour combines Chile’s vibrant capital city with a stay in the breathtaking Atacama Desert. Begin in Santiago, one of our favorite cities in South America with its breathtaking location framed by the Andes mountains. The city offers wonderful museums, colorful colonial architecture, appealing day trips, and delicious food and wine. Tour the city’s highlights with your own private guide who will provide an insider’s perspective on the city’s most recommended attractions, neighborhoods and activities, including La Chascona (Pablo Neruda’s house), the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, our favorite neighborhoods filled with beautiful colonial architecture and well-preserved residences formerly occupied by Santiago’s aristocracy, bustling markets and exclusive shops, and much more. One day, take an excursion to Valparaiso, one of the most unique cities in South America and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Explore the steep, labyrinthine streets of the most interesting and colorful cerros (hills), visit one of Valparaiso’s notable museums, and perhaps take one of the many funicular elevators that the city is famous for.

Continue to the Atacama Desert, located in northern Chile and the driest desert in the world. This area is renowned for its otherworldly rock formations, lunar landscapes, salt flats, geysers, volcanoes and flamingo population. During flexible touring, visit the highlights of the area, such as traditional Andean villages, seeing the El Tatio geysers—64 geysers and over a hundred fumaroles steaming over the altiplano, surrounded by volcanoes—and the National Flamingo Reserve, which encompasses seven geographically distinct sectors and holds many of the area’s top attractions. Also choose from a variety of other tours according to what interests you most. Options include treks in canyons, visiting villages to learn more about the Atacama people, walking on ancient trails and learning to identify petroglyphs, bird watching, visiting ancient settlements surrounded by enormous cacti, hiking to picturesque remote villages along crop terraces, seeing pre-Columbian fortresses, high altitude mountain and volcano climbing, horseback riding, and biking.

Throughout the tour, sightseeing is very flexible and tailored to your interests, and accommodation is in top rooms at Chile’s leading luxury properties.