Arrive into Santiago’s International Airport where we will meet you and take you to your hotel. In the early afternoon you will take a city tour of Santiago, visiting all the key points of interest. Then we will enjoy a typical Chilean dinner over which we will discuss your trip.

Today we begin our tour by heading west to Chile’s coast, passing through the Curacavi and Casablanca Valleys. Then we will continue on to the legislative capitol of the country, the hillside port city of Valparaiso with its winding streets. While there we will visit the Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda’s last home, La Sebastiana, and then on to the beach resort city of Viña del Mar, visiting its casino and popular beaches.

After breakfast we head north, joining the Pan American highway (which could take us all the way to Alaska if we wanted!) and continue up the Pacific coast. We will take a detour off the main road to witness one of the few places where we can see both petroglyphs and pictographs in the Valle del Encanto. Then we enter a lush cloud forest with similar trees and vegetation to that found more than 1,200 kilometers south, seemingly in the middle of the desert, as we visit the Fray Jorge National Park. We then make the final leg of our drive today as we return to the coast at the unique Las Tacas beach resort, where we can discard our shoes and feel the sand between our toes.

This morning we don’t have to get up early since our destination for the night is just a few short kilometers north. Our day will be full, however, as we will first visit La Serena, Chile’s second oldest city, including visiting its archeological museum and having lunch in the handcraft market of La Recova, before heading east into the fertile Valley of the Elqui River. We’ll visit the town of Pisco Elqui and Monte Grande, the hometown of Gabriela Mistral, another Nobel Prize winner. In the evening we will take a trip for an out-of-this-world experience to an astronomical observatory, getting an unforgettable view of the southern skies, some of the clearest in the world. Overnight back in La Serena.

After breakfast we head back north, passing through Vallenar and Copiapo before reaching our beach destination for the next two nights of Bahia Inglesa, or English Bay, where we can take a dip in the Caribbean blue waters (though not quite as warm!).

Today you can relax in the beautiful surroundings, with numerous activities available, including 4X4 excursions, bike riding, sea kayaking, or simply hanging out on the white sand beaches.

This morning we will need to leave early as this is our longest drive of the trip. We continue up the coast, driving through the Pan de Azucar National Park, an area with a microclimate supporting varied flora and fauna, including many species of cacti, as well as sea lions, pelicans and guanacos. We might even be able to hire a local fisherman to take us around the Pan de Azucar Island to see the nesting site of around 2,000 Humboldt penguins. Then we return to the highway up to the city of Antofagasta where we will stay for the night. Before dinner we will drive outside of town to witness the unique rock formation called “La Portada” at sunset.

After breakfast we say goodbye to the coast for a few days and drive east into the driest desert in the world. First we will visit some abandoned nitrate mining towns, now only ghost towns which left behind a record of the way of life during the days of the mining boom. Afterward we make our way into San Pedro de Atacama, our staging point for numerous activities for the next couple of days. After checking into our hotel we will visit the Valley of the Moon for a wonderful sunset experience.

This morning we will leave very early (around 4:30 am) for a full day trip approximately 100 kilometers from San Pedro to visit the Geisers del Tatio. The trip there will be all in the dark, arriving before sunrise. We will have breakfast, then walk out to the Geothermic Field, where the view of the vapor columns and hundreds of boiling pools of water with the backdrop of high mountain peaks is truly amazing. You can take a thermal bath before heading back to San Pedro in the early afternoon, passing by the Tocorpuri and Sairecabur Volcanoes on the way. Remainder of the afternoon free in San Pedro de Atacama.

Today we will take a break from traveling and you will have a choice of two optional activities: (1) Let’s go and fly off the hill with a half-day Paragliding adventure, or (2) Take a full-day tour to the Pampa de Tamarugal National Reserve, including La Tirana, Matilla and Pica, where you can soak in the hot springs of Cocha de Resbaladero. On the return you will visit the Painted Geoglyphs, where you can witness 66 panels of around 400 figures of men, birds, animals and abstract drawings.

Today we head north through the Pampa del Tamarugal to the city of Arica, near the border with Peru. We will have lunch, then continue east through the Lluta River Valley where we will see numerous geoglyphs and the unusual Candelabro Cactus. Then we will stop at the eco-village of Ecotruly and take a tour and have a vegetarian lunch. As we continue our ascent we will make a stop to drink some coca tea to help our bodies become accustomed to the altitude. Then we will visit the Aymara farming village of Socoroma before making our way into Putre where we will have time to take it easy and acclimate ourselves to the high altitude (3,530 meters, or 11,580 feet).

Today we will continue driving east for a full day inside the Lauca National Park in the Altiplano, (a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve) where we will see llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos, as well as lesser rheas, flamencos and hopefully some condors as well. We will make a stop in the town of Parinacota before reaching the emerald green Lake Chungara, one of the world’s highest lakes at 4,500 meters (14,760 feet) above sea level, with the view of numerous snow-capped peaks, including volcanoes above 6,000 meters (19,700 ft.), such as the perfect cone-shaped Parinacota, and it’s brother Pomerape. Overnight back in Putre.

After breakfast we return to Arica, where on the way we can visit the archeolgical museum in the Azapa valley, then ascend the Morro in Arica for a great view at sunset. We will have a farewell dinner tonight.

Breakfast, then transfer to the airport just outside Arica for your flight to Santiago to catch your international connection home, or wherever else your travels take you.