Beyond the familiar Chile.
From the driest desert to the Pacific.
One of the ways I love experiencing Chile's Extreme North is not as a destination, but as a journey. I travelled it with my mother over five days, starting in San Pedro de Atacama and eventually reaching the Pacific at Arica. And the landscape never stopped changing.
Into the desert
The first day crosses some of the driest landscapes on Earth. Wind, dust, mirages at the end of the road and the remains of old mining settlements create a landscape that can feel strangely unsettling. There is very little here. And somehow, that emptiness becomes peaceful. Towards the end of the day, ancient geoglyphs appear in the desert — traces left by people who crossed these landscapes centuries before us.
Following the traces of people
At Humberstone, those traces become much more recent. The abandoned mining town feels almost like walking onto the set of a Western. But behind the empty buildings is the story of people who tried to build an entire life in the desert: work, homes, a theatre, a swimming pool. I'm not usually someone who travels for this kind of historical site. This one stayed with me.
Climbing into the Altiplano
Then the road begins to climb. Villages, canyons and extraordinary rock formations appear as the landscape rises towards the Altiplano. Around Isluga, water changes everything. Vegetation returns. Llamas, vicuñas and other animals gather around the river. Volcanoes dominate the horizon. And almost nobody else is there.
Surire
Then comes one of those places that explains the Extreme North perfectly. An immense salt flat. Volcanoes. Wildlife. And naturally heated water emerging from the earth. No elaborate wellness complex required. Just a sandwich, a swim and an extraordinary landscape around you.
Chungará
From Putre, the journey climbs once more towards Lake Chungará and Parinacota. For me, it's one of the three most beautiful landscapes I've seen in Chile. A near-perfect volcano capped with snow, reflected beside one of the world's highest lakes, surrounded by colours that seem almost too saturated to be real. After days of extraordinary landscapes, it can still stop you in your tracks.
And then you descend. From the high Altiplano towards the valleys and eventually Arica, the landscape transforms again. Along the way lies another extraordinary chapter of northern Chile: the Chinchorro culture and its ancient mummification traditions. Eventually, after days of desert, volcanoes, salt flats and high-altitude plains, you reach the ocean.
How should you travel?
There isn't only one way to experience the Extreme North. And here, that choice significantly changes the journey.
With a driver
This is how I first experienced the region. It allows us to build a remarkable overland journey from San Pedro de Atacama towards Arica, including some extremely remote sections of the Altiplano. Add a guide or interpreter if you want the journey to focus more deeply on history, culture and the communities along the way.
Self-drive
For independent travellers who genuinely love driving, a road trip can be extraordinary. But I don't simply hand you the same route and remove the driver. Some remote sections require local knowledge that I don't consider appropriate for an independent itinerary. Instead, I adapt the route. You can still experience places such as Surire, Putre and Chungará, but using roads and approaches better suited to independent travel.
Coming from Bolivia
The Extreme North can also work beautifully as a continuation of a journey through Bolivia. Rather than returning south after Uyuni, it may be possible to connect with the Chilean Altiplano and continue towards Putre and Arica.
Tailor-made doesn't only change what you visit. Sometimes it changes the road you take to get there.
The Altiplano isn't somewhere I send you without thinking about what came before it. Parts of this journey reach well above 4,000 metres, so acclimatisation needs to be built into the route. This is one reason combining the Extreme North after Atacama can work particularly well: you've already had time to gradually experience higher elevations before reaching the highest sections of the journey. If you're coming from somewhere else, I adapt the itinerary accordingly. Altitude isn't simply something to mention in the packing notes.
How long do you need?
In the Extreme North, the answer depends less on how much you want to see than on how you choose to travel.
5 days — The overland journey
With a driver, five days allows us to travel from San Pedro de Atacama towards Arica through some of the most remote landscapes of the Altiplano. The journey itself becomes the experience: desert, mining history, geoglyphs, high-altitude villages, salt flats, wildlife and finally the descent towards the Pacific.
5 days — Self-drive
For independent travellers, I design a different route. I like including Iquique and approaching the Altiplano using roads better suited to independent travel, while still leaving time for Putre, Surire and Chungará. You get the freedom of the road without simply recreating an itinerary designed for a professional driver.
3–4 days — Coming from Bolivia
If you're arriving from Bolivia, we can shorten the journey and concentrate on the northern Altiplano, Putre, Chungará and the descent towards Arica. It's an excellent way to connect Bolivia and Chile without unnecessarily returning south first.
7 days — Go even further
Have more time and genuinely enjoy remote places? Then we can look further north towards places such as Visviri, or add Suriplaza and other high-altitude landscapes. At this point, we're travelling well beyond the classic Chile itinerary. And that's precisely the idea.
Where do you sleep?
Part of travelling through the Extreme North is accepting that comfort changes with the landscape. And I think that's important to understand before leaving.
Pica
Warm, welcoming and surprisingly convivial after a day crossing the desert. This is the kind of stop where good hosts and a homemade meal can become as memorable as the accommodation itself.
Colchane
Here, expectations need to change. Accommodation is simple and choices are limited. You don't come this far into the Altiplano for the hotel. You sleep, recover, eat something warm — and wake up somewhere extraordinary.
Putre
A completely different atmosphere. A charming Andean village tucked between mountains, with comfortable options and enough character to make staying here part of the experience.
Iquique & Arica
Back towards the coast, everything changes again. More choice, more comfort, restaurants, modern hotels — and finally, the Pacific. After several days in the Altiplano, a comfortable room overlooking the ocean can feel particularly good.
Good to know
The Extreme North rewards adventurous travellers — but it's not a region I recommend improvising.
Take altitude seriously
Going from sea level in Arica directly to Putre isn't my preferred way to approach the Altiplano. Whenever possible, I build the journey so that you gain altitude progressively. Depending on the itinerary, we can include an intermediate stop such as Belén or arrive after spending time at altitude elsewhere in northern Chile. And if your journey continues towards the highest parts of the Altiplano, acclimatisation becomes part of the itinerary — not an afterthought.
Expect winding roads
The main paved roads are generally very good, but around Putre they can be extremely winding. If you're prone to motion sickness, come prepared. Away from the main roads, conditions change. Some Altiplano routes require good local knowledge, which is one of the reasons my self-drive itineraries don't necessarily follow the same roads as journeys with a professional driver.
Weather can change the plan
The Altiplano isn't somewhere where I insist on following an itinerary simply because we planned it months ago. Rain can make some unpaved routes inappropriate, and I wouldn't recommend attempting certain remote areas such as Surire after significant rainfall. Sometimes the best decision is simply to change the plan.
Prepare for extremes
The sun is extremely strong at altitude, so high-protection sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat are essentials. But don't let the sunshine fool you. Temperatures drop considerably after sunset, and during autumn and winter it can get genuinely cold — sometimes indoors too. Layers are your friend here.
Fill up when you can
Fuel is readily available in the larger cities and along the main Route 5 corridor. Once we head into more remote areas, I don't build the itinerary around the assumption that we'll simply find a petrol station when we need one.
Carry some cash
Cards are easy to use in the cities. In small villages and remote areas, cash remains important. The same applies to connectivity: don't expect your phone to work everywhere. That's part of travelling here.
Spanish helps — a lot
Outside the main cities, English isn't widely spoken. For Spanish speakers, that can be part of the adventure. If you don't speak Spanish and want to understand more than just the landscape, this is one of the regions where I particularly recommend travelling with a guide or interpreter.
Choose your season carefully
The Altiplano has its own climate. During the Altiplanic winter, roughly in the austral summer, rainfall and storms can affect high-altitude roads and change what is safely accessible. That doesn't necessarily mean the entire region is off limits. It means the itinerary needs to respect the conditions rather than fight them.
If I had one day in the Extreme North…
I'd wake up early in Putre. The day would begin high in the Andes, heading towards one of the landscapes that remains firmly in my personal top three in Chile. Lake Chungará. At this altitude, everything feels different. The air. The silence. The colours.
And then there is Parinacota: an almost perfectly shaped volcano, its summit covered in snow, rising behind the lake among shades of blue, green and ochre. I'd stay there for a while. Because some landscapes don't need an activity attached to them. Then I'd get back on the road. And this is where the day becomes extraordinary.
We begin to descend. The high-altitude plains gradually disappear, strange cacti begin to punctuate the landscape and the road leads towards the valleys below. I'd make time to discover the extraordinary history of the Chinchorro people and their ancient mummification traditions — a reminder that people have been adapting to these landscapes for thousands of years. And then I'd keep descending. Until eventually, after beginning the morning high in the Andes, I'd reach sea level.
I'd finish the day in Arica. Shoes off. Pacific in front of me. Sun going down over the water. That morning, I was standing beside a snow-capped volcano at more than 4,000 metres. Now I'm watching the sunset beside the ocean.
