Atacamaby private design
A tailor-made expedition through Chile's Atacama Desert, shaped entirely around you and travelled at your own pace.
Design your journeyPrivate Travel, Designed Around You
Eight days built for people who want to feel the desert, not just photograph it. Every hike, sunrise and transfer is yours alone, paced to your fitness and shaped around what moves you. Below is our signature route. Tell us your interests and we will tailor it.
Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama to the High Andes
Eight days, shaped entirely around you
Walk the high desert
From the folded red walls of the Devil's Gorge to the balcony trails of the Cornisas, you move through the Atacama on foot, quietly and at your own rhythm.
Stand above six thousand metres
The week builds toward two real Andean summits, Cerro Toco and the giant Sairecabur, earned slowly and savoured fully.
Return to one calm base
Every night ends at Tierra Atacama, so you unpack once and let the desert, the stars and the silence do the rest.
Your signature route
Arrive in Santiago
Settle into Chile's capital before the adventure begins, with a private welcome and an evening at your own pace. Unwind over a reserved dinner at one of Santiago's finest restaurants before an early flight north to the desert the following morning.
North to the Atacama and the Devil’s Gorge
Fly north from Santiago to Calama, where your private guide meets you for the short transfer to San Pedro de Atacama, a low adobe village ringed by volcanoes. After settling in, you ease straight into the desert with a gentle late afternoon walk through the Quebrada del Diablo. Its narrow red walls twist and fold around you, cool and quiet, the perfect first taste of the Atacama and a relaxed way to begin adjusting to the altitude. You time the return for sunset, when the whole valley turns to copper and rose.
The Cornisas Traverse
Your first real walk is the Cornisas, a ridgeline traverse chosen to open your lungs gently at altitude while rewarding you with the widest views of the trip so far. The trail runs along a series of natural balconies above the Valle de la Luna and the Salt Mountain Range, the ground beneath your boots crusted with salt and sculpted by wind. Ahead, the volcanoes line up like sentinels along the horizon.
The Guatin and Gatchi Canyon
Today the desert turns playful. A short drive brings you to the mouth of the Guatin canyon, where two rivers meet and their waters have coaxed an improbable ribbon of green from the rock. This is a hands on walk in the best sense: you hop between boulders, duck under overhangs and thread through a forest of giant cardon cacti, some centuries old and taller than a house. Guatin flows into the wilder Gatchi section, where the canyon narrows and the only sound is water over stone.
Machuca to Rio Grande
You drive out early to the tiny highland hamlet of Machuca, a scatter of whitewashed adobe and a hilltop chapel where llamas graze against an enormous sky. From here you set off on foot down toward the Rio Grande, following an old route between villages that few travellers ever see. The trail traces a green river valley cut deep into the altiplano, past terraces still worked by hand and canyon walls streaked with mineral colour. It is a walk into living Atacama culture as much as its landscape.
Cerro Toco, Your First High Summit
After days of steady acclimatising, today you climb a real Andean volcano. Cerro Toco rises above five thousand six hundred metres, yet a high trailhead means the ascent itself is short and non technical, a genuine summit within reach of any fit and well acclimatised walker. You start slowly, boots crunching on volcanic scree, the air thin and brilliantly clear. The reward at the top is staggering: the emerald Laguna Verde far below, salt flats shimmering to the horizon, and a wall of snow capped peaks marching toward Bolivia and Argentina.
Sairecabur, the Summit Above Six Thousand
This is the day the whole week has been building toward. Sairecabur is a giant on the Chile and Bolivia border, its summit standing near six thousand metres. You begin in the dark, headlamps tracing the slope, and climb steadily as the sky pales and the altiplano opens beneath you in every direction. The final stretch is slow and deliberate, one measured step after another, until there is simply nowhere higher to go and the whole spine of the Andes lies at your feet.
A Final Desert Dawn and Farewell
On your last morning the desert offers one final quiet gift, whether a slow sunrise, a last unhurried breakfast with the volcano in the window, or a gentle stroll near the lodge before you pack. When you are ready, your private guide transfers you back to Calama for your onward flight, the high peaks you stood upon shrinking in the rear window and the memory of them already settling in for good.
Tierra Atacama
For all six nights you settle into Tierra Atacama, a low, light filled lodge on the edge of San Pedro with the volcano Licancabur framed in the windows. It is the kind of place you look forward to returning to: an open fire, a quiet pool, unhurried dinners and a spa built for tired legs.
Because your trip is private, the rhythm of each day flexes around you. Start later, linger longer over breakfast, or swap a hike entirely. The lodge becomes your calm centre while the desert delivers the drama.
Learn MoreThe Singular
Your journey opens with an evening in Santiago at The Singular, a refined city base for settling in before the flight north to the desert.
Learn MoreWhat is included
- One night at The Singular, Santiago, and six nights at Tierra Atacama in your chosen room category
- Domestic flights between Santiago and Calama
- A dedicated private guide and vehicle throughout
- All hiking and excursions on your route, from the Devil's Gorge to Sairecabur
- All meals, selected drinks and desert picnics, including your welcome dinner in Santiago
- Private transfers throughout, including your Santiago airport transfer and every trailhead between Calama and San Pedro
- Park, reserve and access fees for the included activities
What is not included
- International flights into and out of Santiago, Chile. As a private trip your start date is flexible and chosen with you.
- Travel insurance, which we ask every traveller to arrange
- Personal spending, gratuities and any spa treatments beyond those included
- Optional experiences added to your bespoke itinerary
Good to know before you go
Design your private Atacama
This is our signature route. Tell us your dates, your pace and what moves you, and we will shape a version that is entirely your own.
Start planning