10-Day Chile Trip Itinerary to the Atacama Desert and Easter Island

Chile had been on my bucket list for quite awhile. I hadn’t been to South America for several years and so it started to move up my list quickly. After doing some research, I decided to focus my Chile trip itinerary to two areas: the Atacama Desert and Easter Island.

Chile is a little bit of a challenge to visit if you want to see a lot of things. The country is very long and narrow, and some of the best things to see are very far apart from each other.

The capital, Santiago, is conveniently located towards the middle of the country. But the three main places to visit aren’t nearby at all.

If you want to visit the Chilean side of Patagonia, you can head to Torres del Paine National Park. From Santiago, it’s a little over a 3-hour flight. The Atacama Desert is a 2-hour flight + 1.5-hour transfer. And Easter Island is a nearly 6-hour flight to the middle of the Pacific.

Chile Trip Itinerary

This 10-day itinerary for Chile is mostly for visiting the Atacama Desert and Easter Island. There are of course many, many other places to visit in Chile but these were my two main destinations. I definitely maximized my time but I didn’t add in much else and mostly used Santiago as a touch base point.

And because the two places I really wanted to see are further to get to, I tried to only focus on them. And the amount of time you have in the desert and on Easter Island will entirely depend on when your flight schedule is. Mine happened to be a 6:50am arrival and a 10:55pm departure from Santiago so I really got to optimize my first and last days.

This was a busy trip for me and I saw a lot. You can adjust the following itinerary as needed to do less tours in the desert and take your time getting to San Pedro to have a more relaxing trip.

Day 1 Arrival

The best way to get to the Atacama Desert is to fly from Santiago to Calama and then get a transfer to San Pedro. Because my flight into Santiago arrived so early, I decided to just hop on another flight straight away and head up to the desert.

If your Santiago flight gets in early, I definitely recommend trying to get to the desert in the first day. Then you don’t waste two days in transit–arriving, getting to a hotel, getting back to the airport the next day and the transfer to San Pedro.

The flight to Calama is around 2 hours and from there, you’ll be heading to San Pedro, the main town in the Atacama Desert. You can either rent a car yourself from Calama or get a private transfer. This will largely depend on if you would rather explore the desert on your own, or take tours instead.

Since I was traveling Chile solo, I decided to go the tour route. They pick you up at your accommodation in San Pedro, drive you around to points of interest, feed you, and drop you back off. I’m also notoriously bad with directions and GPS’s can lead you astray in remote areas. I definitely didn’t want to end up stranded in the desert alone if I were to have car problems.

You’ll arrive in San Pedro sometime in the afternoon and you can check into your hotel, walk the main street: Caracoles Street, and grab some dinner at one of the restaurants.

Day 2 Atacama Desert

I had actually pre-booked all of my tours from a local company before getting there, but you can easily book while you’re there. Though, some of the tours for stargazing and sand boarding were sold out.

There’s a lot of different things to do in the Atacama Desert so it will depend on what you want to see the most. I started off with Valle del Arcoiris or Rainbow Valley. The tour takes you through some multi-color rocks and to some petroglyphs.

I was back in San Pedro for lunch before being picked up on an evening tour to Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna). We hiked up sand dunes and saw the desert covered in salt.

Moon Valley was definitely a highlight as you will see some incredible landscape that looks otherworldly. The tours are done in the evening so you can end up at a viewpoint for sunset.

Day 3 Atacama Desert

The earliest tour you can do in the desert is to the Tatio Geysers. The tour starts with a 4:30am pickup so you can get to the geysers before sunrise.

The reason is that the geysers don’t have a lot of water spouting up, they have steam pillars and the steam is best seen in the early morning hours. It’s a cool attraction to see but it was definitely an early morning and you can’t exactly sleep on the way there because of how bumpy the road is.

The good news is that you’re back before lunch time and can get a nap in. I was still exhausted but decided to do another evening tour and go sand boarding in the desert. There’s a popular place for boarding called Death Valley which has some tall sand dunes.

You have to hike up a giant dune each time but the views were great!

Day 4 Atacama Desert

My absolute must-see attraction for your Chile trip itinerary is Piedras Rojas, the red stones of Chile. It’s a full day tour and takes you to several locations. You’ll see the Chaxa Lagoon (where the flamingos are), the town of Socaire and the Miscanti and Miñiques Altiplanic Lagoons.

But the giant red stones were my favorite spot. You’ll be up in the mountains with a beautiful reflection view at the water where the stones are.

Day 5 Travel Day

My flights were timed pretty well on this trip so that I could maximize my days. My flight back to Santiago wasn’t until almost 9pm so I actually jumped on another morning tour (I know I know…the amount of tours I did but there’s a lot to see here!).

I ended up going to the Hidden Lagoons of Baltinache which are pretty close to San Pedro apart from a long, straight, bumpy road. The boardwalk at the lagoons takes you through salt flats that are reminiscent of Death Valley in California. It’s a pretty interesting place and most of the lagoons are a beautiful turquoise.

I had quite a bit of time in the afternoon to hang out before my airport transfer and ended up just relaxing at my accommodation until then. I have a more detailed guide for an Atacama Desert itinerary which also has options if you want to shorten your time here.

Day 6 Travel to Easter Island

Most people don’t include Easter Island on their Chile trip itinerary and that’s because it’s 1) Expensive to get there, and 2) One of the most remote places on Earth. But seeing the Moai statues were on my bucket list.

The flights to Easter Island are between 5-6 hours but with an early flight, I landed in the early afternoon. The town of Rapa Nui is small and walkable. So for the afternoon, you can relax, walk around and see your first Moai statue along the coast!

I ate at one of the restaurants along the water and then walked to Tahai for sunset. Tahai is where you can see several statues lined up along the water, plus a Moai statues with eyes. It’s a great place to sit in the grass and watch the sun go down.

Day 7 Easter Island

Rapa Nui National Park covers about 40% of Easter Island (which has some of the most famous spots to see Moai statues). To tour the park, you have to be accompanied by a guide, so it’s smart to book this ahead of time. I booked a 2.5 day tour for the island which took me all over.

The first day was where we saw a lot of the main highlights. Rano Raraku is the hillside of faces at a volcanic crater. The path takes you through numerous sculptures and it’s one of the most famous spots.

Ahu Tongariki is another famous shot of 15 Moai statues along the ocean. It can be seen from the hillside of Rano Raraku. And we went to many other highlights for the first day like Ahu Rau Rau which are statues at the beach.

Day 8 Easter Island

The second day takes you to a different part of the island where you see some of the other statues. We went to Ahu Akivi where there are 7 facing the sea, Ahu Vinapu where there are ancestral platforms, and several others.

There are a lot of different statues to see around the island–some on a hill, some lying down, some with hats and eyes, some by the coast. I found it absolutely fascinating.

By night, you can explore the town and hang out at one of the restaurants in town.

Day 9 Easter Island

The half day of the tour took us back to Ahu Tongariki for sunrise–the 15 Moai by the sea. While it was a little stormy when we went, it was still nice to see again since it’s one of the main locations.

It felt like a short amount of time on the island and I definitely could have stayed longer. I feel like Easter Island may not draw everyone but I love a good unsolved mystery and this one is just so intriguing.

Most of the flights back to Santiago are in the afternoon. I arrived back just after 9pm and stayed at the airport hotel again out of convenience.

Day 10 Santiago + Travel Day

Depending on your flight schedule, you’ll be heading back home at some point. If your flight is a little later, you can explore Santiago a little bit or if you’re crazy like me, you can go on another adventure.

I ended up going to Termas de Colina (hot springs) for the day since my flight was an overnight flight that left at about 11pm. The tour took us up into the mountains outside of Chile. Since it was Fall, the scenery was very beautiful. We stopped at some scenic places along the way before reaching the hot springs.

It might have been absolutely insane to get on another tour after a very whirlwind, tour-laden trip, but my theory was to relax at the hot springs in the mountains on my last day to recover. And it was relaxing.

Again, this is a very jam-packed trip because of how much there is to see. You will need a tour for Easter Island but you can adjust your Chile trip itinerary for the desert so it’s not so busy. I will say that San Pedro is a very small town though and there’s not much else to do if you don’t have a tour booked.

Things to Know

• The Atacama Desert is at an elevation and a lot of the attractions have high altitudes–come prepared.
• Because of how long the country is, you’ll want to make sure you pack accordingly for the different areas you visit.
• The main language is Spanish and there were definitely times where I struggled communicating.
• Pack for all different kinds of weather. I was hot, cold and rained on during my trip.
• You may want to book some tours in advance to ensure you have a spot.

PIN IT FOR LATER