Nayara Alto Atacama

I had always wanted to stay in San Pedro, but choosing Nayara Alto Atacama, just a short shuttle away, was absolutely the right call. The open spaces, the observatory, the great food, and the fantastic staff, from the guides to the gentleman who cares for the llamas, made our stay unforgettable. The bar was set very high on our first night. After 25 hours of travel, we were warmly welcomed by an outstanding waiter who knew our names, my allergies, and had impressive sommelier knowledge, easily comparing Australian and international varietals with the Chilean wines on offer. As Australians who are not used to tipping, we never felt pressured or upsold. We were offered all available menus (bar, pool and restaurant) at lunch and dinner with no expectation to order more. During our stay in Chile we followed a simple rule of thumb. If there were prices on the menu, tips would be added. If there were no prices, then no tips were added. After five days, our tips at checkout were about US$10 per day, with guides and drivers tipped separately. Just relax and enjoy, the Nayara Alto experience is exceptional.

Th Atacama area is a dreamscape come true. The key to unlocking it is having a great place to relax after long trek days and a guide who can taper the desert playground to your interest. Our interest was the geology of the area. The guide they paired us with for 5 days ,Rodolpho, was a perfect fit. He was knowledgable, personable and went out of his way, extending treks, explaining geologic processes and engaging on human levels as well. Hotel was the perfect retreat for food and wine as a reset at the end of each day. Can't recommend both the Hotel and rodolpho more highly.

Beautiful accommodation that blends with nature. A lot of options with excursions had researched beforehand so knew which ones suited our fitness levels. Guides were excellent. Blow the nearly full moon as didn't get to see the true night sky. Food was excellent wait staff varied but were rotated and we all have you learn. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in this very unique part of the world. Thankyou.

Hotel is amazing despite the constant asking for tips at every single meal, what is not expected in a high end all inclusive hotel

We had a lovely experience at Nayaro Alto Atacama recently for our honeymoon. The food is great, the excursions were fun, and the staff were very kind. A particular mention must go to Pia, who was excellent every time we encountered her. The option to order from a bar menu throughout the day — outside of mealtimes — is excellent, we loved the twice-weekly bbqs, and the provision of protein bars is a lovely touch. It was nice also to have a range of pools to choose from and the alpaca corral was a nice addition to the day. In terms of excursions, we hiked, visited lagoons, saw flamingoes, rode bikes, stargazed, and visited geysers, with a great experience across all experiences. The rainbow valley hike was probably our favourite: the lunch prepared by the guide (I think, Alex) and driver was simply exquisite. A close second was our cycle to the devil’s throat — a brilliant day. Some constructive feedback is that the hotel is lacking in slickness, based on the price point. During our stay, some walkways on site were cordoned off for works that weren’t actually happening — it was as if the work had been paused or postponed, with the site left looking slightly shabby. Similarly, the process for booking the hot tub seemed slightly flawed: one day, a woman was sat having a meal during the time we’d booked the hot tub, meaning we had to fetch someone to resolve the issue. Moreover, the cleaning of the rooms seemed to frequently occur at inconvenient times, whereas at other hotels, I know that cleaning occurs precisely during mealtimes. Moreover, the size of the place means there is a carousel of staff, so it’s hard to get the sense that the staff get to know you during your stay: the experience isn’t personalised in any way. An example of this was the fact that the hotel seemed unaware that we were honeymooners, despite it being mentioned to many members of waiting staff/tour guides — there’s clearly not a mechanism for passing information across teams. It’s not a problem that we weren’t made a fuss of; it’s simply different to other hotels we’ve stayed at for our honeymoon, where the experience was very personalised. Finally, and most importantly, the hotel insists on you signing a cheque — effectively requesting a tip — after every meal, even if you’ve paid for full board. This is both time-consuming and slightly irritating, and perhaps reflects that slight lack of slickness: the hotel should probably know the guests well enough to deduce who has paid for full board and who hasn’t. It’s fair enough to ask for gratuity, but this should be done after the stay and not after every meal (especially when the service isn’t particularly personalised anyway). In fact, when we checked out, the hotel had erroneously added gratuity from a couple of meals that we hadn’t actually included. We settled the balance anyway, as it was small, but nonetheless this was a good example of somewhere to improve. If you’re going to include a cumbersome mechanism that asks for gratuity after every meal, the mechanism should at least be accurate. We would absolutely be willing to stay at a Nayaro hotel in future because our overall stay was lovely and the above feedback points didn’t detract. However, in order to compete with similar hotel chains within the same price bracket, e.g. &Beyond (whose Vira Vira hotel is in a entirely different league), the service needs to be slicker/feel more personal.