Chile · Atacama Desert

Awasi Atacama

Twelve circular rooms behind an old adobe wall in San Pedro, each with its own guide and a 4WD.

The lodge The rooms

The setting

Behind the wall, in town

Awasi sits inside San Pedro de Atacama, a short walk from the plaza, behind an adobe wall that once sheltered shepherds. The town is the oasis; the lodge is a quieter compound inside it — courtyards, thatch, a small pool, and the desert a few minutes beyond the last street.

That closeness is the point. You can walk out for the evening if you want. The explorations start from the door, not from a transfer into town. San Pedro sits at about 2,400 m (7,900 ft); the first day is usually kept shorter, closer in, while the altitude settles.

Adobe, stone and thatch · 2007

Round rooms on an old site

The lodge opened in 2007 on ground already marked by an adobe enclosure. It was built with local materials and techniques: adobe walls, stone, wood, and thatched circular roofs that keep the rooms cool in the day and hold heat at night.

The plan is small on purpose. Twelve rooms, Relais & Châteaux cooking for guests only, and no sense of a hotel wing. What you notice is the courtyard, the thatch overhead, and the quiet of a compound that still reads as part of the town.

Twelve rooms

Round Rooms and Superior Round Suites

There are twelve circular rooms of 50 to 65 m² (538–700 sq ft): two Round Rooms and ten Superior Round Suites. All have a large bathroom, a private patio, and the option of a king or twins. The suites add space, a sitting area, a bathtub as well as a shower, and an outdoor shower in a private solarium.

The rooms are meant for coming back to, not for spending the day in. Most of the stay happens in the desert, with the same guide, in the same vehicle.

The days

A guide and a 4WD for the room

Each room is assigned a private guide and a 4WD for the whole stay. Before arrival you fill in a questionnaire; the days are then planned with the guide and changed as the weather, the altitude and your interest shift. A full day out — salt flats, geysers, high lagoons — or two half-days, back for lunch at the lodge.

Dinner is Relais & Châteaux cooking for lodge guests only, built around ingredients from the Atacama and the north of Chile. The pool is there when you come back. Confirm what the rate includes with Awasi rather than treating this as a tariff.

Location

Inside San Pedro de Atacama, a short walk from the plaza, behind the old adobe wall. The lodge is a compound in town, not a resort outside it. San Pedro sits at about 2,400 m (7,900 ft).

The desert starts a few minutes beyond the last street. Valle de la Luna, the salt flat and the high lagoons are day trips; El Tatio is an early start.

The stay

Twelve rooms. Each is assigned a private guide and a 4WD. The usual programme includes meals, drinks and the private transfer from Calama airport. Awasi generally receives children from ten years old.

Confirm inclusions, languages and minimum nights with Awasi rather than treating this as a tariff. The lodge is small; dates go early in the southern winter high season and around the new moon if the night sky is the point of the trip.

Getting there

LATAM and SKY fly from Santiago to Calama in about two hours. An Awasi guide meets you and drives the private transfer to San Pedro, roughly an hour.

The first day is the altitude. Keep it shorter, drink water, and leave El Tatio and the high lagoons for later in the stay.

Who it suits

Travellers who want the desert privately, at their own pace, and to sleep in town. Couples and small families with older children fit the twelve-room plan.

If you would rather have a larger hotel, a spa wing and optional group excursions, a place such as Cumbres San Pedro de Atacama is the closer model. Awasi works when you give it several days and let one guide run them.