From a desert full of stars to the blue ice of Patagonia
When to go
November-March
Trip length
14 days / 13 nights
Typical investmentPrice
from $17,025 pp
This 13-night journey puts Chile’s two most dramatic landscapes into one trip. After two days in Santiago, spend five nights in the Atacama Desert for private guiding, high-altitude landscapes and astronomy, then fly south for six nights in Torres del Paine. Longer stays at both ends mean fewer transfer days and more time with your own guide in each place.
Along the way
Ridges, ripples and dunes in the Atacama
A guided astronomy night under some of the world’s darkest skies
Hiking & discovery beneath the towers of Torres del Paine
A land of wild contrasts
Your route
A measured start in the capital
Arrive in Santiago and settle into your hotel. The afternoon is free. The city sits in a wide valley with the Andes rising sharply behind it, an early hint of the scale of landscape still ahead.
Explore a handful of neighborhoods, markets and viewpoints with a private guide, with the day left open ahead of tomorrow's flight north. Between the colonial core and the newer hillside neighborhoods, Santiago moves easily between centuries.
Salt, volcanoes & a ceiling of stars
Fly north and transfer to San Pedro de Atacama. Keep the first outing low-key while you adjust to the altitude and the dry air. This is the driest non-polar desert on Earth, and the light here has a clarity that photographs never quite capture.
Explore the desert's sculpted terrain, including Valle de la Luna's salt ridges and wind-carved stone, with a private guide who times each stop around the light. The valley earns its name from a landscape that looks lifted from another planet, and at sunset the rock shifts through pink, copper and violet.
Travel onto the altiplano for volcano views and mineral-colored lagoons, moving slowly at elevation as the landscape opens into wide, empty desert. Flamingos wade across water tinted turquoise and rust by mineral deposits, with volcanoes standing sentinel on every horizon.
Visit a local archaeological or cultural site with your guide, then return for spa time, a private lunch, or an afternoon by the pool. The Atacameño people have called this desert home for thousands of years, and their presence still shapes the villages and rituals of the region today.
Choose a final desert excursion built around your own interests, whether that's a pre-dawn visit to a geyser field or another look at the altiplano, then close the day with a guided astronomy session if the sky cooperates. Some of the world's most powerful observatories are built here for a reason: this is one of the clearest, darkest skies on the planet.
Glacial lakes, steppe & granite peaks
Fly south and continue by private transfer into Torres del Paine, trading the Atacama's dry plateaus for wind-swept grassland and glacial lakes in the space of an afternoon. Few places on Earth let you trade one extreme landscape for its complete opposite in a single day.
Explore with your lodge's private guide, combining short walks, wildlife areas and scenic drives to get your bearings in the park. The park's granite towers rise straight out of the steppe, a silhouette that defines Patagonia in the popular imagination.
Take on a longer guided trail or a full-day excursion into a less-visited sector of the park. These are the corners of Torres del Paine most visitors never reach, where the wildlife is bolder and the silence is complete.
Travel toward one of the park's glacier viewpoints or a boat-access area, with the plan set around wind and conditions on the day. Grey Glacier calves directly into turquoise water, its ice fed by one of the largest ice fields outside Antarctica and Greenland.
Spend the day with a naturalist or specialist guide focused on guanacos, birdlife and the scale of the open steppe. Herds of guanaco move freely across the grassland while condors ride the wind overhead, wings barely moving against the sky.
Keep the last full day open for another excursion, spa time, or watching Patagonia change outside the lodge windows. The light here never sits still, and an afternoon spent simply watching it move across the mountains is its own kind of entertainment.
Transfer out of the park for onward travel. The towers stay in view for miles, a last look at the landscape that makes this corner of the world unlike anywhere else.
Let's discover your next adventure
Our top picks
The Singular Santiago places 62 rooms in Lastarria beside Parque Forestal and the city’s museum district. A seasonal rooftop pool, full spa, rooftop bar, and restaurant give the hotel more facilities than most of Santiago’s historic-center boutiques.
Hotel Magnolia places 40 rooms inside a restored 1929 building beside Cerro Santa Lucía. Original stone, stained glass, a dramatic central stair, rooftop terrace, and contemporary Chilean restaurant create a design-led alternative to Santiago’s larger luxury hotels.
Mandarin Oriental, Santiago places 299 rooms within 25,000 square meters of gardens in Las Condes. A lagoon-style seasonal pool, several restaurants, spa, family suites, and broad public spaces create the capital’s most resort-like luxury stay.
Tierra Atacama places 28 rooms and suites outside San Pedro with direct views toward Licancabur Volcano. Included small-group excursions, indoor and outdoor pools, spa, desert gardens, and scheduled airport transfers create a comfortable expedition base without the scale of Explora.
Awasi Atacama places 12 circular adobe suites around a private courtyard in central San Pedro. Every suite receives a private guide and four-wheel-drive vehicle, allowing desert days to be planned entirely around individual interests, pace, and altitude.
Explora Atacama places 50 rooms on a 17-hectare desert estate near San Pedro. More than 40 guided explorations, four outdoor pools, a spa, stables, observatory, meals, drinks, and scheduled airport transfers are included in its full expedition format.
Nayara Alto Atacama places 42 rooms and suites inside the red-rock Catarpe Valley outside San Pedro. Six pool areas, a full spa, onsite observatory, two restaurants, gardens, and breakfast-only or fully inclusive excursion plans make it the region’s most resort-like desert lodge.
Our Habitas Atacama places 51 low-rise rooms around gardens, a pool, wellness spaces, restaurant, and gathering areas near central San Pedro. Daily programming, music, yoga, bicycles, and an à la carte structure create a more social alternative to the region’s expedition lodges.
Tierra Patagonia places 40 rooms along the shore of Lake Sarmiento facing the Paine Massif. Every room receives the same mountain view, while included excursions, an indoor infinity pool, full spa, open bar, and low curved architecture support a balanced Patagonia stay.
Awasi Patagonia places 13 private one-bedroom villas and one two-suite Master Villa on a reserve overlooking Torres del Paine. Each booking receives a private guide and four-wheel-drive vehicle, allowing every day to follow its own route, pace, and wildlife priorities.
Explora Torres del Paine places 50 rooms directly above Lake Pehoé inside the national park. More than 40 guided explorations, meals, drinks, transfers, entrance fees, stables, indoor pool, sauna, and outdoor hot tubs are included in the full expedition rate.
Patagonia Camp places 20 yurts in native forest above Lake Toro outside Torres del Paine. Four yurt categories, private decks, lake views, outdoor hot tubs in most categories, included excursions, and wooden walkways create a sheltered glamping alternative to the park’s larger hotels.
Keep exploring
Let’s start planning
Tell us a little about your plans. We’ll be in touch to talk through this trip with you.
