hi, how would I get to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile from Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

please let me know your suggestions by plain vs bus?

thanks

Well this depends how confortable and short you want your journey. By buses it would take days!

As far as I know, you must go to Santiago de Chile Airport to fly to Atacama, so from Rio Gallegos you will certainly need to fly first to Buenos Aires, then Santiago, then San Pedro de Atacama or probably better to go to Punta Arenas by bus (but be careful, there can be delays at the border) from Rio Gallegos, where you'll be able to take a direct flight to Santiago. Have a look at LAN and Aerolineas Argentinas for flight schedules and Buses Pacheco for bus schedules to Punta Arenas: http://www.busespacheco.com/rutas.htm

Laurent

Did you look at a map before you decided to do this? Its over 4,500 km by road. Don't you want to see somewhere on the way? There's some magnificent scenery you'd miss.

I agree with Thursdays it is a huge distance to travel in one go. We spent over a month traveling a slightly shorter distance from Peninsula Valdez to Salta stopping at many places along the way. I can't imagine giving up on all that spectacular scenery unless you have a particular need to travel quickly.

If cost and speed is an issue then buses are possible and, if you want to go that route than I would stay in Argentina as long as possible as the buses are arguably better than in Chile. And head up to Salta from where it is a short hop of around 8-10 hours to SPdeA (an amazing journey). That said, if you have longer then crossing over into Chile down South would provide even better scenery up through Chile as well as a more efficient airline system.

fly to Salta. there are buses to SPde Atacama by bus, Pullman service is all year round.
You can book as soon as you arrive.
Warm regards,
Flintstones.