San Pedro de Atacama · Backpacking

Hostales and residenciales are spread through the village grid and the nearest ayllus, with a few campsites; almost all are single-storey adobe around shared courtyards. Cold nights matter more than mattress quality here — ask about blankets and heating before you commit.

The fixed costs you cannot negotiate: Valle de la Luna entry is CLP 10,800 general and CLP 5,400 for students and over-60s, Lagunas Miscanti y Miñiques runs CLP 4,000–8,000 for foreign visitors and CLP 2,000–4,000 for Chileans, and the Museo del Meteorito is CLP 7,000. A shared tour sits on top of those, so a full sightseeing day costs several times a quiet one.

Almost everything is 20 to 100 km out with no public transport, so you are buying seats in vans; El Tatio, the altiplanic lagoons and Piedras Rojas are the long, costly ones. The same itinerary is sold at different prices along one street, so ask what park fees, food and group size are included before you compare numbers.

A bike gets you free to Pukará de Quitor, the Catarpe valley and the Quebrada del Diablo on your own schedule, which is the cheapest sightseeing here. Valle de la Luna is not one of them: CONAF requires vehicle entry there and tickets must be bought at least a day in advance.

Everything funnels through Calama, 100 km away: fly or take a long-distance bus there, then a shorter bus for the last leg of about an hour and a half. Turbus and the other national operators sell the northern routes online; the direct overnight from Santiago is a run of more than 20 hours.