How to visit San Pedro de Atacama on a budget

San Pedro de Atacama, know as the driest desert on earth in the North of Chile is also renowned for being the most expensive place in Chile. This is widely known even amongst Chileans. Its northern chile’s number one tourist attraction. The scenery around it is spectacular, including the world’s largest salt flats, volcanos, geysers and rock formations that make you feel you’re in another world. San Pedro Town itself is not much more than a picturesque plaza lined with trees and a few streets clustered with artasen shops, eateries and tour agencies. Despite the hoards of tourists, there a very chill and calm atmosphere here perfect for relaxing in a hammock with a good book in one of the many hostel courtyards.

Getting there

The nearest airport and big city is Calama, 106 km away. Domestic flights between Santiago and Calama are pretty cheap and sometimes work out cheaper than the 30 hour bus from Santiago.

Another popular way of getting here is coming from Bolivia’s via the Salar de Uyuni. I finished up a 3 day tour with a transfer to San Pedro de Atacama.

Where to stay

There are plenty of hostel options, they get a bit cheaper out of the main town and there are also a couple of camping options. Somewhere you have your own tent.
Aji Verde Hostel about a 10 min walk from the main plaza has tent and dorm options, with the tents being cheaper obviously.
It’s a nice hostel with some space outside to chill out and relax in the day time sun. It’s freezing though at night, inside and outside the hostel but in the dorms you might as well be outside with the piss poor insulation and back door leading to the outdoor showers and toilets. It has an eco friendly vibe and staff are helpful. Good but neat communal kitchen and it’s BYOB. There’s no restaurant or bar on sight. €12 a night seemed steep for an 8 bed dorm with no breakfast included (I got the genius discount on Booking.com , would have been €15 otherwise) but welcome to Chile!

Getting to San pedro you’ll be overwhelmed by the number of tour operators lining the streets and the amount of tours being offered. Tours in San Pedro are very expensive! They are not backpacker friendly prices and those coming from Bolivia may need resuscitating. But there are ways to do some of the main attractions without a tour. Due to their remote location, you’ll need a car to get to most of them so if you have a car or have enough people to make renting one affordable, this is the best way to see all the attractions and just pay for the entrances.

However, I didn’t have the luxury of having mates who wanted to drive or fork out for a car hire so I made do with a bike.

1. Hire a bike.

The cheapest bike hire I found was on the main street for 3000 Chilean Pesos (CP) for 6 hours and 6000 for 12 hours. These bikes had no suspension on them and the roads aren’t all smooth tarmacadam so your ass will be knifed off you and your teeth might crack with the chattering. I’d probably pay the extra bit for suspension to make the journey a bit more comfortable.

Valle de la Luna (moon valley), named after its lunar like landforms is a must see. Its 16 km outside San Pedro and can be explored without a tour. The entrance for it is 3000 pesos (€3.80) or 2000 (€2.50) if you’re a student (a photo of your mates/sisters/cousins student card will do and knock of 1000 pesos). If you go before 9 am you can just cycle around the barrier and get in without paying the entrance fee. It takes about 4 hours to cycle from the town to the end of the valley and back, including stopping off at each of the attractions along the way. The scenery is so dramatic and other worldly.

Most of the tours go for sunset so if you go earlier in the day you’ll miss the throngs of people. If you do want to go for sunset though you’ll have to go before 1.30 pm and wait. After this time only tours are allowed in. It’s hot during the day and there’s no shade or anywhere to buy water so take sun scream and water.

Valle de Marte (death valley) also known as Valle de la Muerte.
The entrance fee is 2500 pesos (€3.15) for adults and 2000 pesos (€2.50) if you have a student card. Luckily I’m still passing for the photo of my 21 year old sisters student card. This is a bit closer than Valle de la Luna and is a shorter walk or bike ride to the view point at the end. It lies 7km from San Pedro and for me the scenery here was more dramatic and spectacular than valle de la Luna. The views from the top are worth the climb. It looks like someone went mad with a stippling brush to create the lifeless jagged rock formations below.

This can be done on the same day as valle de la Luna after if you leave early enough. Most of the bike rental places open at 8.30 am. My ass was still recovering from what felt like a 4 hour bike ride the day before on razor blades so I walked the following day. Round trip from the town it took 4 hours also. You can rent sand boards and do sand boarding down the sand dune at the end of the valley.

2. Cook and drink in your hostel

Eating out in San Pedro is expensive and groceries in the small mini marta are even worse so the first night I cooked it actually cost me more to cook then it would have to eat a menu of the day in one of the more reasonable restaurants. A menu del dia which usually includes 2 courses and a drink can set you back anywhere from 5000-9000 pesos (€6.30 – 11.40) here but I did see a few places for 5000 (€6.30), Ahura and Lanka.
The next day I was a bit smarter and bought groceries in the market. I can’t even call this a market really. There’s a few stalls set up a 5 min walk from the main street in a car park near where the bus dropped us off. There there is lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, pasta, sauces and tinned food. I managed to get enough for 3 meals here making each meal work out at 1200 pesos (€1.50). Wine is the one thing that’s really cheap here so buying a bottle to have in the hostel makes enjoying dinner and drinks on a budget doable.

3. Shop around for tour prices and don’t book online.

If you decide to do a tour, book in person rather than online. The prices online are widely inflated. The one tour I went on was a star gazing tour. The cheapest price I found was 20,000 (€25) and there’s no entrance fees. All the other tours don’t usually include the entrance fees so beware. The tour included a photo, wine, hot drinks and snacks. They picked me up and dropped me off at my hostel and it lasts about 3 hours in total. You can see the stars and the milky way yourself if you have a clue what to look for. San Pedro is one of the best places in the world to stargaze. I thought the tour was worthwhile but bloody freezing at night.

4. Bring cash (dollars) and change it in an exchange.

Taking money out in San Pedro is expensive. The ATM fees are unavoidable, it costs about €5 every time to withdraw money so if you’ve to do it, do a lump sum at once or take dollars with you and find the best rate to change them. Some Bolivian ATMs give free USD withdrawals so I took cash with me and changed it.

Where to eat:

I mainly cooked but did eat in Salon de Té on the main street. They have a nice terrace out the back and the sandwiches and burgers are good value.

La Estrella Negra is a veggie restaurant that does a good menu del dia for 4000 pesos (€5).
If you want to sit and order only a drink, you can’t. For some reason they aren’t allowed to sell only booze. Everywhere we went for a drink you had to order food so we ordered a portion of chips to share with our drinks.

There is so much to do from San pedro you could easily spend a week or more doing  excursions and being busy every day but for me 3 nights was plenty to see the town, cycle around and do an evening tour. If you could easily fill another day cycling to a few of the other nearby attractions or combine valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte on the same day leaving you with another day free to cycle to Devil’s Throat and Pukará de Quitor archaeological site.