‘Red-hot’ Chilean oasis home of new resort
51-room hotel Our Habitas Atacama tips hat to Natives
Glittering salt flats. Sky-high volcanoes. Teal lagoons painted pink with flamingos. These are the wonders that await guests traveling to the resort town of San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis amid the greater Atacama Desert of northern Chile, the driest (nonpolar) place on Earth.
The recently opened 51-room Our Habitas Atacama hotel is shaking things up in the area. “The timing for Habitas is bang-on because the Atacama is red-hot right now,” said Harry Hastings, founder of travel company Plan South America. It’s one of his bestselling destinations, he added.
What sets the property apart, Hastings said, is not just the design and culinary ambitions but something far simpler: With starting rates from $300 per night, it’s the only luxury hotel in the area that isn’t priced on an all-inclusive basis. It gives travelers rates far lower than those of such competitors as Awasi, Nayara and Explora, which can charge up to $1,000 nightly. Hastings said he’s been recommending the hotel to people who want the freedom to explore the desert at their own pace.
The Atacama outpost is the latest landing spot for Our Habitas, a company born out of Burning Man whose ethos revolves around sustainable design, cultural experiences and community empowerment. CEO Oliver Ripley said a notable aspect of the property, a conversion of the former Altiplanico Hotel, is how it preserves the sturdy adobe bones while upgrading its interiors — a combo that was intended to lower the carbon footprint (and
cost) of the new lodge.
When seeking expansion opportunities for Our Habitas, Ripley said, “There is always an emphasis on discovery, adventure (and) nature.” In the Atacama, he found them all, thanks to the destination’s strong Atacameño identity and otherworldly landscapes.
The hotel’s features include a sweat lodge, local cuisine and more.
Local design touches:
Setting foot inside any of the hotels’s 51 rooms is meant to feel like entering a traditional Atacama home, with walls made of adobe and grass roofs lined in brea, a native flowering plant. Pottery and wall tapestries come from Atacameño artisans who live in nearby ayllus — Indigenous-run communities — while the wood furnishings are made by Chilean craftspeople in the nation’s forested south.
Spa highlights Atacameño practices:
A unique
feature is the clay sweat lodge, or temazcal, which is common among Indigenous groups of the Americas. Users set their intentions for the experience as a guide from the Indigenous community of Collasuyo pours herbinfused water atop volcanic stones, heating the lodge with steam. The experience is meant to detoxify your body and remove stress in your mind. Additional wellness treatments inspired by Native practices include a Willka Kuti massage that uses energizing coca leaf oil, and maqui facials, which employ antioxidantrich maqui berries.
The onsite restaurant Almas (“souls” in Spanish) has an “earth-to-table” approach that shares the history of the Atacama through endemic ingredients. Several dishes feature native herbs, including a red quinoa risotto with salty cachiyuyo leaves or fresh razor clams from the
Dishes tell a story:
Atacama coast, sprinkled with minty and citrusy ricarica.
Adventures’ unearthly sights:
Our Habitas is rare among the town of San Pedro’s upmarket hotels in that it does not include guided adventures in its room rates. Guests choose among a lengthy list of excursions, including hikes and scenic drives up to the high-altitude plateau, or Altiplano, at the border with Bolivia and Argentina. At Los Flamencos National Reserve, tourists find flamingo-filled lakes, blinding-white salt flats and lagoons so saline that swimmers bob on the surface like human ice cubes. Farther north is the famed El Tatio complex: The largest geyser field in the Southern Hemisphere is filled with mud puddles, fountains and prismatic pools.
Free cultural experiences:
Although the hotel isn’t all-inclusive, some wellness
activities and most of the cultural programming come without charge. Sound baths and movement classes help visitors tune in to the environment and tune out noise. By night, the Atacama sky — studied by astronomers the world over due to its near lack of cloud cover, moisture and light pollution — offers a priceless spectacle. Local musicians regularly play Andean music (think panpipes and flutes) in the evenings. Workshops on ceramics or medicinal plants give guests a greater appreciation for traditional wisdom.
Village life and arresting vistas:
The hotel’s location on the edge of San Pedro (population 5,000) makes it easy to explore village museums, cafes and craft markets by foot — the main plaza is a short 12-minute walk down dusty roads — while also enjoying serene desert views. “I think you’ve got the best of both worlds,” Hastings said. “There’s easy access to town and easy access to get out of it.”
The grounds are meant for walking:
Outdoor pathways wind through the property past native vegetation, including spiky cacti, feathery foxtail grasses and an herb garden. This “encourages guests to wander around and take different daily routes to explore and discover new corners,” Ripley said. The ultimate goal, he added, is “total immersion into the natural world.” Still, plenty of space is designed for communing with fellow guests.
Kick back at the pool with drinks, views:
Guests kick back in poolside loungers under the scorching sun with pisco cocktails and sauvignon blancs or semillons from Chilean valleys such as Itata or Casablanca. Overlooking a tapestry of desert flora, the L-shaped pool offers a menu of light bites like ceviches or lamb empanadas.