The Atacama desert in Winter.
 

Looking for opinions regarding visiting in winter ( August), I know it will be cold but are there any other negatives?

Contemplating staying at Atacama Alto.

The days will be sunny and mainly warm and the nights cold, but the nights in the desert are always cold.

Weather in the Atacama can change at any time. However, rains only come in January, February and March. Nights are cold due to the altitude of the area 2,000m – 4,000m. San Pedro is a small, dusty oasis town in an extraordinary location. You will find that the pace of life up here is somewhat slow. Getting around is easy enough as everything is within walking distance. Alternatively, your hotel should have bikes for guests’ use. My advice therefore is to have a guide with you to show you round the Atacama. For a more independent experience, there are lots of small tour operators on the high street of San Pedro so you can wander along, compare prices and sign up for a day trip.

The Atacama is a popular destination with a well-worn checklist of excursions. In my opinion, it’s better to be outside in the fresh air with a few people than travelling in a crowd. So here are my recommendations to avoid the crowd ;) :

Sunset in the desert - the usual way is to drive out of town to the rim of the Valley of the Moon, then walk just to the edge from where you watch the sun setting over the desert. On a busy day there can be over a hundred people sitting in a long line.
I then recommend you to drive out of town to the rim of a valley; walk down across a sand dune; over a short stretch of salt flat and into a narrow gorge in the salt mountains. As you follow the gorge, the air cools and the rocks crackle, with bats and owls flying overhead. Emerge into a natural amphitheatre hidden away in the middle of the hills, from where you watch the sunset.

The salt flats and lagoons - in general, people use to drive a dirt road to the large lagoons in the heart of the salt flats; have time to wander, take in the scenery and watch the large colony of flamingoes before returning by vehicle.
So the best thing to do is to ride bikes straight from your hotel to a series of small lagoons towards the northern edge of the salt flats, close to San Pedro where you have time to wander, swim and watch a smaller colony of flamingoes.

Tatio geysers is spectacular place, and you can see from photos the sort of visitor numbers numbers you can expect!

Hope this help!

Laurent

Thanks for the assistance.
much appreciated.

You're very welcome Marko, do not hesitate to ask for more info ;)

Be aware that Pura Adventre is a tour operator / agent and that the above post largely quotes from their website. I always believed Fodors did not allow advertising on these forums??

We are just helping with good content and advises. As you can see, we never leave a link back to our website so never advertising.

Our aim is providing true and complete information to people that are seeking it, that's it.

Looking forward to helping you all with more tips!

Laurent

The weather will be lovely during the day, and in this years winter we migh get another flowering desert!