What is it?

The Atacama is a 1,000-kilometre ribbon of desert pressed between the Pacific and the Andes, so arid that some weather stations have never recorded a drop of rain and NASA tests Mars rovers on its cracked, mineral-crusted plains. Yet 'empty' is the last word for it: flamingos wade through turquoise lagoons rimmed with salt crystals, the Tatio geyser field roars steam into -10°C dawns, and the Valle de la Luna dissolves into violet and copper as the sun drops behind the Domeyko range. Volcanoes over 5,000 metres tall line the horizon like sentinels, and at night the sky — the clearest on the planet — becomes a river of stars, which is why the world's most powerful telescopes are built here. Human history runs deep too: the Atacameño people have farmed these oases for millennia, and the desert's dryness preserved the Chinchorro mummies, older than those of Egypt. Days are spent bouncing along gravel roads between altiplano lakes, hot springs and ghostly nitrate towns; evenings smell of woodsmoke and taste of pisco sour in adobe courtyards in San Pedro de Atacama.

Where is it?

The Atacama spans northern Chile, with the traveller's hub being San Pedro de Atacama, a dusty adobe village at 2,400 metres, reached by a two-hour drive from Calama airport (a two-hour flight from Santiago). Key sights fan out from there: the Salar de Atacama, Valle de la Luna, El Tatio geysers, the Altiplanic Lagoons and the Piedras Rojas; further afield lie Iquique, Humberstone's abandoned nitrate works and the observatories near La Serena. Visit anytime — it's dry year-round — but September to November and March to May offer mild temperatures and thinner crowds, while January–February brings the 'Bolivian winter' with occasional afternoon storms and greener altiplano.

What makes it worth it?

Few landscapes rearrange your sense of scale like this one. Standing on a salt crust at 4,300 metres with no sound at all — no birds, no insects, no wind — people describe a silence so complete they can hear their own heartbeat. Then comes the night sky: visitors routinely say the first sight of the Milky Way over the Atacama made them cry, and stargazing guides here often joke that they've handed out more tissues than telescopes. Watching sunrise ignite the steam columns of El Tatio, or floating weightless in the hypersaline Laguna Cejar, becomes the kind of memory you replay for decades. It's a place that manages to feel both alien and deeply human — a desert where people have thrived for 10,000 years, and where you leave feeling very small in the best possible way.

How accessible is it?

It's surprisingly easy: San Pedro de Atacama receives hundreds of thousands of visitors a year and is packed with agencies selling half- and full-day tours from around US$25–90 each, no experience required. The real challenges are altitude and climate — many excursions climb above 4,000 metres, so allow a day or two to acclimatise, drink plenty of water, and skip alcohol on arrival days. Temperature swings are brutal (30°C by day, below freezing at dawn), so pack layers, a warm hat, high-factor sunscreen, sunglasses, lip balm and sturdy shoes. Budget roughly US$80–150 a day for hostels and group tours, or US$400+ for boutique all-inclusive lodges like Tierra or Explora; renting a 4x4 (from about US$70/day) gives freedom but fuel is expensive and distances are long. Book accommodation and specialist astronomy tours well ahead for the January–February and July high seasons, and note that stargazing tours are suspended around the full moon.