Altiplanic Lagoons & Piedras Rojas Tour From San Pedro De Atacama

We decided to go by car, on our own, and it was the best decision! I went to the Tourist Information agency in San Pedro de Atacama, across from the Plaza de San Pedro de Atacama church, and they gave me all the needed information, including that we needed to book the time on the website and arrive at Socaire's ticket booth 1 hour earlier to retrieve the ticket.

We are lucky to have Pedro as our guide. He is funny and knowledgeable. I loved the stories he shared, the ideas he has for great photos shots, and the music he put on during the trip too!

Had the best time enjoyed it thoroughly. The driver was very good at what he did, and the tour guide was extremely knowledgeable. Fun and courteous would recommend to anyone must do.

Albeit this is a long day with much driving, it is well worth it. The lagoons are beautiful but the red rocks asnd surrounding coloured mountains are spectacular!

It was a pleasant day with Jay. The Lagoons are beautiful with flamingos, colors and mountains. The Antiplanic part is at an elevation of about 14000 feet so you may have some breathing issues and a slight headache on the walk/hikes. They provided both a light breakfast and lunch. They drop you off at the beginning of Caracoles Street and not the hotel at the end!

Very good tour, got a bit of altitude sickness after a couple of hours above 4200 metres but returned to normal when coming back down to less extreme altitude. Good breakfast though didn't feel like eating too much. Lunch was a bit ordinary.

Pedro Rohas was an outstanding guide; communicative, informative, amusing, and helpful. Favi was a great driver, fully in command of the vehicle at all times. The tour covered a lot of ground but was one of the most beautiful landscapes and natural beauty I’ve ever experienced.

Our guide, Victor, was the best! Very knowledgeable, kind, and attentive to every need. The tour shows you many sides of the Atacama desert and keeps you in awe at every turn. Would gladly do this tour again!

Not worth the money... 1 Yeah, the places that are visited are amazing 2 The guide we had wasn't really explaining much, only when asked. She was nice ofc but I didn't feel she's doing the same explaining as other guides I heard with other groups... 3 At the end they left everyone at their hotels but I had to walk cause it was too far. It left a bad impression overall. Compared to other trips I had in Chile this one is expensive compared to what you get from it.

The tour does do a good job of tickboxing the key places in Atacama but it does feel it needs better planning. We arrived at the wetlands to view flamingos at 1pm. The sun was beating down and was super hot and pretty much everyone wanted to do anything but be in the open heat. Even the salt Lake tour could be better with some history explained. The only good part was that lunch was done well. The tour ended at 3 (drop to hotel) which itself tells you how got it was. Overall would recommend shorter half day tour in the day.

Great tour. Our guide, Abe, was outstanding. She even took time to take candid photos of the group. We spotted a lot of wildlife

Our tour guide Daniel was great! The places we visited were very beautiful. I found Piedras Rojas tough to walk to and from, especially with all the wind, but it's really pretty and nice and worth it. I would recommend this tour!

The views and the stories that the guide told were the absolute highlights of the tour. I felt looked after all the way.

That was a long tour that allowed us to visit several locations: a very brief stop in Socaire, the two lagunas with wild birds, a small hike on the Piedras Rojas, the Chaxa laguna with its flamingos. Included breakfast and lunch in the middle of impressive landscapes. The guide was knowledgeable, describing everything in English and Spanish (the group was about half-half). There was a lot of driving around but the bus was comfortable enough.

This is an amazing experience to check out the near by attractions! We had tour guide Carla and she was fantastic! She spoke a lot about the history and science behind the landscapes! Plenty of stops and the places won’t disappoint you!

we went higher than I have ever been before and walked amongst some of the most unique and stunning scenery I have ever experienced. this is a full day with plenty of wild remote locations to explore. However be prepared for the high altitude and early start. keep off the booze and don't overeat or stay up late the night before. take warm clothes as you will be on the roof of the world.

Guide was good. Great scenery. Nice guests on the trip lunch good Bad points-pick up - had to wait outside for almost an hr in the cold. Bus was full -little space for guests.

This was one of the 3 tours we had, all guided by Javier. All of them were truly amazing and unique life experiences. The places were absolutely stunning, pictures cannot describe it. We expected beautiful nature, but what we didn’t expect was that there will be so much of wildlife, so few tourists and such a great service. This tour includes breakfast and lunch, so we expected some sandwiches or so. But especially the breakfast was really a great surprise. We got a buffet with fresh scrambled eggs and avocado prepared directly by our guide and served in beautiful nature. It was so nice and delicious! Big thanks to Javier, who made our tours very special. He was very friendly, helpful and professional. Thanks to him we could be sure that we always get the best spots for photos and enjoy the most of of Atacama!

Overall this was a very good tour. The guide Carla was knowledgeable and had good English. The scenery we saw was beautiful. Negative: bus arrived 20 minutes later than we had been advised to pick us up. Not much leg room in the bus. Lunch was a picnic provided by the tour company rather than a restaurant meal as advertised, but the food we were provided with was excellent and tasty. We were given scrambled eggs, bread, avocado, cake for breakfast; and we were given a mixed salad with chicken, cabbage, carrot, lettuce, sweetcorn etc for lunch.

This was a really awesome tour. Our guide was knowledgeable, her english was great, and she was very personable. She kept us energized and made sure we stayed on schedule. I had a great time!

We had a wonderful day on a group tour with Ivan as our guide. He made our experience so memorable, fun and educational. From a delicious breakfast with a freshly baked French baguette and nutritious lunch, a surprise visit from a baby Ilama, showing us where exactly we were going on a map, taking amazing and hilarious pictures, and bringing extra jackets and hats to showing us the breathtaking places on this tour, Ivan and his crew did an exceptional job. I highly recommend the tour and guide.

The host was great, we had fun and we saw some amazing places. The roads are bumpy, so be prepared, but that's the norm around here.

This was a full day tour at the salt flats with unique and diverse landscapes to visualize. To cover this much ground would be difficult to do on your own regardless of how well researched you were. The guide was very good, spoke English well and the lunch was very tasty and plentiful. Pick up was prompt in a comfortable vehicle. There was a lot of wildlife to see-llamas, vicunas, ostriches and flamingos. A worthwhile excursion!

Before you take this tour, ask yourself a question. In an ideal world, what would you do with 8 hours of your hard earned vacation time? What type of day do you want in Atacama? If you’re looking for 80% of your day to be in a bus that doesn’t have effective air conditioning, a dysfunctional speaker for the tour guide, and literally breaks down on the tour...look no further. I actually couldn’t think of a more fitting tour for you. You’ll love it. But you might be wondering. What about the sights? And the information from the tour guide? I’ll answer my question with another question. Do you enjoy not discernibly knowing where you are or why what you’re looking at is important? I found myself over the course of the tour realizing I’d effectively learned nothing as well as can’t recall anywhere I went because it had been poorly communicated and/or changed the day before (The flamingo area was closed due to flooding). While the sites were beautiful, we would basically drive for an hour, hop out and take a picture, and hop back in. Would’ve been so much better if we could have had some time to explore and then meet back at the bus. I want to wrap up with the food. After 8 hours, we stopped by a restaurant—that we had stopped by earlier to place our order—we had perhaps one of the most underwhelming meals that side of the Tropic de Capricorn. I couldn’t tell what I was eating except for the green apple jello as dessert.

Great scenes. Saw llamas, vicunas, jagoons, bird life, flamingos. Don't be surprised if you cant get to close to the lagoons, they are very protected from tourists. Our driver and guide were very good. Only negative is the road conditions which they have no control over, so expect a very bumpy ride. Bring water. Lunch was at a little family stop in Socaire and was good. Nice trip.

Beautiful lagoons, fantastic views and scenery. Good, knowledgeable guide Ignazio who spoke excellent English. The only disappointing thing was lunch - soup that had no flavour, cold pasta and a stuffed marrow type vegetable which again lacked flavour and appeal and green jelly. The restaurant had no atmosphere what so ever, the tour group were their only customers and there was no menu or choice.

You were supposed to travel in a minivan, instead you travel in a very old rickety bus with about 30 People

This is a full day tour with a lot of driving (most of it on good roads). You will climb to high elevations and one person on our tour suffered and got sick from altitude sickness. At the highest elevation it was quite cool (around 40 degrees F) and can be quite windy. The sights were very interesting, there was a fair amount of wildlife sightings. Our lunch at a small town on the way back was good.

Service was as promised. Pick up prompt and comfortable coach. Shared trip with 18 plus guide and driver. Informative english speaking guide and great driver ; Sebastian, who didn’t prolong the trip by driving slowly. There are some longish legs on the trip and without Sebastian would have been an hour longer. Fabulous scenery, well organised, lunch was “basic” but ok. Don’t think the final leg almost into Bolivia was necessary. But a good day

This was a great tour for seeing really unique landscapes. We loved seeing the flamingos at Laguna Chaxa! Miniques and Miscante were beautiful, but unfortunately, it was very cloudy when we went. Bring warm clothes for the high altitude stops. The view of piedras Rojas was also amazing. We saw lots of wildlife throughout this trip, including llama, vicuña, donkeys, ostriches, and of course the flamingos and other birds. The lunch was the only disappointing part of this trip. The food was not very good. The trip did not take the full 10 hours; we got back to town around 4pm.

Enjoyed this daytrip to the Lagoons and Salt Flats. The scenery is amazing. Glad to see that the guides take the protection of the natural habitat seriously. This is a long day so take plenty of water and snacks.

I really enjoyed the tour. The bus was comfortable enough and our guide was very knowledgeable about the area and had loads of patience with people's questions. Only thing I didnt like that much was the lunch. Overall, Ibwould recommend it.

The views and nature were amazing. Max was our tour guide. He is one the best professionals I've ever met. Excellent customer service, good sense of humor. Max talked to every one personally multiple times during and was very helpful. I could get an answer to any questions. My appreciation to you Max. The company should give Max some bonus. He is really good. I enjoyed my trip.

This day trip was an amazing tour of all the ecosystems in the Atacama desert. Seeing the flamingos was one of the best parts, but you also get to see the mountains, volcanoes, and lagoon. Lunch was also included in one of the villages which was nice. Overall it's a pretty low intensity day in terms of walking. It's a far drive out and back over the course of the day and the roads in Atacama are SUPER bumpy, so come prepared if you get car sick/motion sickness.

The places we were taken were simply incredible and worth the money. Our lunch however was simply awful, worst food we have had in any tour, whilst our ‘guide’ mostly slept during the transit. friendly yes, but not much of a guide.

I would not recommend booking through Gray line. The actual tour was with Turis tour bus and when you look at prices direct through them you pay half the price of what Grayline charge you for the tour, for 3 tours we are out of pocket by around £65. However tour was amazing, well worth it. Quite a bit of driving but that can't be helped. Seeing the flamingos a definite highlight.

The guide was really nice and always made sure to take the time to make sure everyone was ok and translated so that everyone could understand. Thank you!

It was a long trip, it started on time. Our guide was cheerful and eager to tell us as much possible about what we saw on the road. We visited all the places mentioned in the description, we had enough time to take pictures and enjoy the views. The salt lake is an amazing and we got to see many flamingos. Also the blue blue water of the lakes we saw at 4200 m above the sea level were stunning, as well as the fantastic views on the roads that led us across the desert. The ride felt absolutely safe. Dinner included was at the perfect time and it was delicious. It was a day full of attractions and things to admire. Highly recommended!

I booked this tour at the last minute because I had trouble finding a salt flat tour in town on a tight schedule. I requested an English tour and when we boarded the bus on the edge of town (after a hotel pick up in a van that was on time) I was surprised to learn I was the only English speaker. I understand I was in a Spanish-speaking country and I am not sure how often this happens, but I did feel like getting the tour in English was an afterthought. The guide would talk for twenty minutes in Spanish and I would get a short five minute summary in English. The guide was very friendly--I was a solo traveler and he even walked with me for a time around the salt flats, but I think some training about speaking equally in English and Spanish would be helpful. Lunch was not great but edible. We had watery vegetable, soup, one small drumstick with rice and jello for dessert. However like I said, the guide was friendly and the sights are beautiful with adequate time to explore. Be aware this is a big tour bus and not a small boutique tour. There were a few times we went several hours without a bathroom break, but the guide always informed us when that would be--there is no bathroom on the bus so keep that in mind. Bring lots of water with you, at least two bottles, none is supplied. Bus was modern, clean and comfortable and we were able to leave coats, water bottles, etc on bus while touring.

I visited the salt flats to see the pools surrounded by high mountains and the wading birds. Three varieties of flamingos are to be found there but I saw only two. I also saw numerous Avocets and that was a treat. Be sure to have a wide brim hat and water.

Our tour was absolutely fantastic, and one of our favorite trips in San Pedro. Truly showcases Chile’s vast topography, and above all we had a fantastic guide - Juan Pablo - who kept things exciting and was incredibly knowledgeable! I highly recommend this tour and if you can ask for Juan a Pablo please do!

-Our 3rd tour was Atacama salt flat (Chaxa Lagoon) & Los Flamencos National Reserves & Socaire village were extra special because of our tour guide Jennifer Puca & drivers Ariel Romero. We booked our excursion through Hotel cumbres. Jennifer Puca was very knowledgeable about the history of the areas. Jennifer spoke great English and was very sweet. We were here right before sunset and it was beautiful. The salt Flat was incredible have to be there to see it. Flamingoes were the highlight.

The ultimate sceneries for a photographer seeking vivid colors. It is a surreal experience in the desert with the Salt Flats and the snow-clad mountains.

Roberto was our guide through this Salt Flat and geological adventure. The colors and wildlife in this stark environment made this a must see trip. The stark beauty of the Altiplano landscape was impressive. It was a long day but worth every minute.

I would not recommend this tour, especially if you do not speak Spanish. It was not clear when we booked online but this tour is primarily in Spanish. We were forced to wait until the guide (Christopher?) had explained everything in Spanish, so that he could give us the ‘coles notes’ version in English. At the first site we almost completelyy missed out on exploring the area because we were waiting for our turn to get some information. The guide was also rude and very pushy in general. The sites are worth seeing but I would not recommend booking with this company unless the guide changes/there is a tour offered in English. Everything else was fine (driving, food etc.).

An amazing site! Lots of flamingos in this exotic location - fabulous! We arrived here by tour van and then walked around some lagoons. The birds were fabulous. Exact image of the photo.

<p>The scenery was amazing! Every place we visited was breathtaking. Max was an excellent tour guide. He was very knowledgeable. Max was also a great photographer and took lots of photos for us as well as others on the tour. I want to echo the advice from a previous reviewer, bring snacks because lunch is not served until around 2:00 pm. Also, there is a large chunk of time when there are no bathrooms. This would hold true regardless of which tour company you used. I would highly recommend this trip.</p>

<p>Amazing day trip! Our guide Gustavo was really kind, professional and nice. Highly recommended.</p>

<p>Great tour! Knowledgeable guide, well organized--my only negative comment is that we needed more time at the last stop--the flamingos! I could have done with less lagoon in order to make that happen-but overall, this is a wonderful tour where you will see beautiful, humbling sites. The bus was comfortable, the tour guide's English was exceptional, and lunch was very good.</p>