Nayara Alto Atacama

Nayara was for me and my wife a perfect place. We highly recommend it as one of the best, if not the best, in San Pedro de Atacama.

We had a wonderful stay at Nayara Alto Atacama and would absolutely recommend it to other families traveling to the Atacama desert. The setting of the resort is gorgeous and the staff were extremely friendly- especially Rosario, who helped us during our stay. We had two Catarpe rooms for our family of five and they were fine but not particularly luxurious. I have no doubt this is a luxury, 5 star hotel for being in the middle of the Atacama desert but don’t expect Four Seasons, Aman, etc. level accommodations and service. We hired our own guide and driver for excursions instead of using the hotel guides because we didn’t like the idea of having to wait until we arrived to figure out our itinerary. We contacted the hotel many months in advance of our trip asking whether we could book our excursions in advance. They absolutely refused to let us do so. Moreover, they told us that all excursions were group excursions and that we could not arrange for private excursions even though we were willing to pay more for private. Since we were traveling with our three kids, we knew we needed the flexibility of not being part of a group and being able to do the excursions at the times of our choosing rather than the set days and times the hotel offered them. Also, many of the excursions have minimum age requirements- these requirements are set by the hotel and felt very arbitrary. Since our youngest was 10 years old we would not have been able to do many of the excursions we wanted to do if we hadn’t hired our own guide from outside the resort. We had a wonderful time on all of the excursions we did (Hot springs, Céjar lagoon, moon valley, mars valley, altiplanic lagoons, etc.) including our 10 year old and it would have been a shame to miss out on those because of an arbitrary age requirement! The only thing that we did through the hotel was the star gazing experience which was amazing but it’s a good example of why we think it’s problematic to have to wait until you arrive at the hotel to book anything. We signed up for the star gazing as soon as we arrived and the first date that was available was on night 3 of our 4 night stay. When we arrived for the experience on night 3, we were told that it was too windy to use the telescope so the excursion was being canceled. While the weather conditions are certainly not within the hotel’s control, we were upset that it left us with only our final night to be able to do the experience. By that point the next night was fully booked and we were offered the latest time slot which was way too late for our kids. Thankfully Rosario came to our rescue but it was unnecessarily stressful when one of the biggest reasons we came to the Atacama desert was to have a guided star gazing experience! Speaking of which, for a location that prides itself on star gazing, we found it strange that there are very few spots around the property to stargaze at night. All of the rooms have private terraces but they are covered terraces so you don’t have a clear view when you look up at the sky. The outdoor lounge areas outside the bar and restaurant are also covered so you have the same problem when trying to star gaze. We asked about other spots to star gaze at night and were directed to two spots on the property with a small wooden bench that you could sit on but it would be much nicer if the resort invested in some couches and made some real seating areas to give guests the opportunity to star gaze more comfortably. I think with some small changes this resort could really elevate itself to a true 5 star rating but I would still not hesitate to recommend it (with the caveats mentioned above).

The food was excellent and the tours were fantastic. Marie Jesus and her team made sure we were able to see all parts of the Atacama and Maximsed our experiences. We only could not get to Cejar Lagoon which was disappointing, but she added another great trip to the cactus hike and a lovely sunset

This is a really nice hotel. The manager was a super friendly lady that was always hands on, always around, and organized and on top of everything. The rooms were really nice with really nice beds and bathrooms. Their tours were well organized but not always in comfortable vehicles. We organized a few different private tour that were extremely good to go along with the hotel tours. The breakfasts if you didn't go down when people were eating to go on the tours were always cold and cold eggs benedict does not taste good. If you had lunch or dinner on your own it was $40US flat rate EACH for a very light FRENCH portioned plate. Anything that you had that was previously frozen was always RAW in the center. I had a raw in the center piece of Salmon and a raw hamburger and mushy in the center french fries. When they brought Frozen into Argentina and Chile, they forgot to give them a meat thermometer and teach them how to cook frozen deep fried foods.

Overall a fantastic stay; we loved the lodge, our room (we had the basic one) and the excursions - definitely recommend!! It was cold while we were there so appreciated the heated floors in the bathroom! The outdoor area had fires every evening and blankets were available at reception, which were nice, particularly when going to the observatory, which was awesome! We did it twice and loved it both times. The service at the bar was outstanding, the drinks were great and we liked that area of the lodge to hang out and meet other guests. If you like excellent hamburgers, you’ll love the ones off the bar menu. We had them 3 times, a couple of times opting for them over eating in the restaurant. We chose to spend two nights without the all inclusive package to get acclimated, relax and enjoy the lodge and our last three nights all inclusive. That worked well for us and glad we did it, the only drawback is that I had to have to separate reservations, I wish that process had been a little more seamless.