Explora en Atacama - All Inclusive

Simply outstanding. The rooms were impeccable and the staff just outstanding. Especially the brilliant Diego! He was so cheerful and accomodating. Food was well thought out and beautiful. The cocktails were so good! Not cheap but seriously worth every cent! Excursions were great and well thought out. The care of the guests was paramount. Patagonia next!

This was probably the best trekking and lodge experience that I’ve had in my years of travel. I have visited over 55 countries that have not had an experience this class ever. I call it the four seasons or Ritz Carlton of South America. Extremely highly recommended as well as, accommodating to your needs

An extraordinary experience. Very interesting and well organized tours, with well informed guides. We learned a lot about the region, geology, history and local communities, Excellent food, very nice and helpful employees. 100% recommended.

My third Explora brings some mixed feelings. I still love the business model. Show up with some version of a wish list and they will sort things out with you. Daily excursions were great and spanned a variety of skill levels. Most trips are half-day (8-11a & 4-7p +/-) to avoid the midday heat. My favorite hikes were slot canyons (Domeyko), walking along the small river beds (Punta del Inca), and the White Volcano (with geysers). Elevation can be extreme and you should manage your trips to work up higher if you want. My last hike was ＞18,000’. The rooms are modern and spotless. Bed very comfortable. Humidifiers available on request. Explora doesn’t seem to attract a young party crowd, but they could still use more sound insulation. The lodge feels remote, but it is in the town with sometimes noisy neighbors. Staff was generally very friendly and helpful. Some clearly enjoy chatting with guests and/or showing off Atacama’s plants and wildlife. There were a few standouts that I hope to see at future Exploras, but also a few that seemed ready to move on. The food is mediocre. Good enough that I wasn’t compelled to leave the lodge … but I did consider it. Dinner was chronically under seasoned, the menu was repetitive, and there were execution errors. Lunch and breakfast are primarily a buffet. Food at Explora Peru was spectacular so the food here, from the same executive chef, really hit hard. Food pulls the overall rating down.

Our 8-night stay at Explora Atacama was truly memorable. The lodge accommodations were comfortable, the food and wine were excellent and the desert scenery was absolutely incredible. What really made the trip, however, were the guides - they were friendly, professional and knowledgeable, and also very enthusiastic! We'd like to recognize Carolina in particular, who was delightful on our full-day excursion to El Tatio and Volcan Blanco. On the management side, Maureen was tremendous, juggling a number of balls at once and attending meticulously to every detail.

OK. True - elephants don’t exist in South America but the one I’m going to now talk about does and it’s this ! This place just doesn’t represent good value for money. Period. And for context, I’m comparing similarly priced accommodations and experiences in the likes of Botswana, Tanzania and Namibia. For balance, there is lots to like about the Explora Atacama ‘adventure’. The natural environment excites, it rages, it inspires, it triggers intense emotions, it’s beautiful, it’s threatening. Some of the Guides are outstanding and up there with the very best, world wide. Mauritz is standout. He’s authentic, professional and passionate ; he knows how to tell a story and he has bags of emotional intelligence. He ‘connects’ with ease. Javier too is excellent and a ‘natural’. Paola is full of energy, she’s focused and she cares. Wonderful. Others were little more than rehearsed reciters of information ; friendly yes and very willing to take photos. But somehow disconnected. The Observatory - with its new telescope in the past couple of months, the second biggest in the region - is terrific. An absolute highlight ! Claudio as a Server is role model material. Boy, does that guy enthuse ! He’s ’on it’ and he delivers everything with confidence, an opinion and a massive smile. He energises. Stefanny is a delight, as is Diego Sepulveda. Both just want to be there for you and they don’t miss an opportunity to assist ! The massage was terrific. The rooms do their job and the beds are super comfortable. San Pedro de Atacama has character. The transfer from Calama airport was a fun experience ( safe too ! ) with an infectiously happy driver. Maureen is a very straightforward Manager who knows the ropes and you feel confident in her efforts to keep everything ticking. And so to the less than impressive, less than expected… The reservation process was tortuous. Seriously bad. Unresponsive. Ambiguous. Phone lines cutting out. Answer phones only in Spanish. Slow, slow, slow. And in all the confusion and ‘back & forthing’, I’m still waiting ( 36 hours after my email asking for this error to be corrected ) for a response to my payment being taken twice. The ‘Lodge’ is big with a 100 guest capacity. It has style and it’s comfortable but its size equates to there being a lack of intimacy and connection. There were less than 40 guests on this occasion. A likely positive in terms of ‘attention’ but there was a sense of rattling around in big open spaces. The inner courtyard ( around which are the bedrooms ) is ‘just’ a space. It feels soulless. There’s a lack of character generally. And the 4 pools are weirdly disconnected - and disconnecting. They feel unloved. Foodwise, it’s wrong to complain when so many in this world go starving. But as others have mentioned, the menu was somewhat repetitive and ( contrary to the marketing ), a little in creative, particularly at breakfast and lunch. Dinner was good but the over-presence of puréed vegetables wasn’t to my palette - ba