ATACAMA WUESTE TOURS REISEZIELE IM NORDEN VON CHILE

  I guided a 13 Day Atacama tour from March 4-15 this year. I contracted a van and driver for the tour to go from San Pedro to Putre, with... read more stops in 3 national reserves, the Vicunha NR, Flamingos NR and Lauca National Park and on to Arica, with 3 more full days.

Mario, our driver, and guide excelled in every way. He really knew all the areas we went to and knew people at every stop. I have been operating tours in South America and living in Brazil for 43 years, and have had a lot of drivers. I will now insist in having him drive all our tours from Arica!

  Gabriel Ramos organized 2 trips , one in the north 2014 : Arica, Putre, Atacama and one in the south 2015 : Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas, Torres del Paine. ... read more the support was highly appricated and helpful; the tours from Putre and Pedro de Atacama were well organized and the guides are friendly and professional. In the Patagonia tour it is important, that transfers and bookings are well done, because here the saison is short and quite crowded; also here everything worked perfectly. I really recommend Mayuru tours, if you want to visit Chile and the triangle Chile, Bolivia, Peru, . The tours from Putre and San Pedro de Atacama were outstanding !

  Sabíamos que nuestra fecha era complicada por el invierno altiplanico, así lo advirtió la agencia. De todos modos quisimos hacer el tour de Arica a Iquique a traves del altiplano,... read more y nuestro guía Francisco se esmeró por ponerle humor, darnos información interesante sobre cada lugar donde estábamos, visitar lo más posible. En sus palabras, "hay que ir y ver cómo está". Encontramos mucha fauna, un tour muy fotografiable. El guía también fue muy respetuoso de nuestros tiempos e intereses, logrando crear un entorno muy ameno. El vehículo y la conducción impecables. Un aspecto a mejorar: el hotel de Putre, no tiene calefacción y pasamos frio. Sacando eso, ¡Los volveríamos a elegir sin dudas!

  I experienced two amazing, very well organized tours in Chile (one in the north, one in patagonia).
Both tours included all the highlights I was looking forward to see and... read more all the guides were very competent, attentive and kind. I can totally recommend

  nous avons reserve une excursion de trois jours depuis Arica avec deux nuits a Putre.tout était parfaitement organisé , nous avons pu voir le salar de sourire , les hauts... read more plateaux andins , le lac chungara .tout était magnifique , le chauffeur tres attentionné avec beaucoup d explications interessantes ..deux nuits a Putre dans un hotel tout confort .tres satisfait du séjour et de tous ces paysages extraordinaires .merci Mayuru.

  Unsere Familie (3 Erwachsene) erlebte während einer Woche im November 2019 eine einzigartige Zeit während einer Reise von Calama über San Pedro de Atacama über Pica nach Colchane an die... read more bolivianische Grenze nach Putre ins chilenische Altiplano bis 4700m Höhe und hinüber nach Arica an die peruanische Grenze zusammen mit unseren Begleitern Helmut und Francisco von Mayurutours. Außerhalb jeglichen Massentourismus taucht man dank der Obhut des Driverguides in eine atemberaubende Natur der Pflanzen, Tiere, Berge, Vulkane und heißen Quellen der Anden dorthin ein, wo leider nur noch wenige Einheimische leben und sich keine Touristen bewegen. Helmut erklärte uns in fließender englischer Sprache alle Besonderheiten, sorgte für gute Verpflegung und beste Unterkünfte am jeweiligen Ort und erfüllte all unsere individuellen Wünsche oft bis zum Pisco sour um Mitternacht. Wir danken Helmut und Francisco für dieses grandiose Abenteuer in stets sicherer und familiärer Atmosphäre.

  Helmut was wonderful, his local knowledge of cultures and history was excellent
He involved us in the experience
Can’t rate Helmut more highly, he at all times made... read more certain we had what we needed and always went out of his way for us
We will be recommending this tour to our friends

  We booked this tour to see the Salr de Surire and the volcanoes en route, since we suspected that we did not have enough fuel to do this trip with... read more our rent-a-car (we did do Chungara on our own). Our Spanish is almost non-existent, as was our guide's English, but this was not a hindrance to having a great time - our guide stopped the van everytime we found something interesting. Volcán Guallatiri was smoking at the time, and we got some good photos of this, we stopped at various places around the Salar itself, including the Termas de Polloquere where we had our packed lunch. Lots of flamingoes (Andean and Puna), tinamou, rhea, vicuñas and vizcachas - a brilliant day out.

  Excelente tour altamente recomendado excelentes guías, muy informado y muy pacientes en explicar todas nuestras dudas. Altamente recomendado.

  My wife and I had a great time. The sites were amazing, and there was so much wildlife! Highly recommended. The food and lodging Mayuru tours provided was all great.... read more And our guide Mario was incredibly knowledgeable, a very safe driver, and just a really nice guy.

  Realicé visitas guiadas con Mayuru alrededor de Putre y en San Pedro de Atacama. En el primero con un tour prácticamente en solitario para mí y en el segundo como... read more parte de un grupo, y en ambos la organización del tour fue estupenda. Gabriel y Cecilia estubieron pendientes de que todo saliera a la perfección en todo momento.

Los guías fueron agradables, dinámicos y profesionales en cada una de las excursiones. Los paisajes espectaculares. En definitiva, muy recomendable.

  We had 8-day tour from Arica to San Pedro. The first 5 days were in a form of private tour with a driver/guide. This part was great: you get to... read more go to little visited places and experience the vastness of north Chile. Our driver was friendly and knowledgeable. We hardly ever got off the road, which I regretted a little, but we got to see a lot as it is. Accommodation and food was nothing more than basic, which is OK, and what you could expect from such remote places. When we got to Sand Pedro De Atacama for the last 2.5 days, we fared well from our guide and were set for 3 short excursions with one of the local operators. This part we enjoyed less: the excursions where in packed buses and I often felt like a member of a herd which is pushed from one meadow to the next. It seems like everyone in San Pedro takes the same excursions which have fixed routes at fixed times. So, everywhere we stopped we had 2-20 buses, of other operators, offloading their passengers together with us and departing together with us. We sometimes felt that we were given too short of a time to appreciate a location, while in at least one case we were not allowed to visit the destination... That's right, we drove a long way to Piedras Rojas, but the place is closed due to rehabilitation. You don't get to see it at all. The hotel which we were accommodated in was 10 min walk from the center of town and had only basic facilities (no wifi in the room, poor breakfast, etc.). The promised transport to the airport in the last day was again a seat in a bus with pre-set departure time which meant for us a long wait at the airport - we opted to pay for a private taxi instead (not that expensive) and get some more relaxing time in the town.
Overall the cost of this trip was high in any standard, yet we felt that, especially in the last three days, we didn't get our money's worth. If I did it again, I'd probably rent a car for the entire duration, or at least for the last part in San Pedro. I'm sure that we would have had a different experience in San Pedro had we drove our own car, or paid for a taxi to avoid the crowds, make better use of our time, and visit some spots off the beaten track.

  we did this tour in February which we had booked with you and operated by Maxim Expérience in San Pedro. We were very satisfied with the 2 full day... read more tours that we did with the driver / guide. The hotel la casa de Don Tomas was superb. Everyone was very efficient and Gabriel who helped us with the booking was was very professionnel. Thank you for making our expérience in the Attacama desert a mémorable one.

  Fui con mi esposo a San Pedro de Atacama a celebrar mi cumpleaños, y gracias a Mayuru Tours ha sido el mejor cumpleaños de mi vida. La atención, desde Gabriel,... read more los guías de los tours, el hotel, la gente del hotel, la atención de María Cecilia en San Pedro fue increíble. Repetiría mi viaje con ellos y los recomendaré a amigos y gente que quieran ir. ¡Gracias! ¡Fue simplemente asombroso!

  Mayuru Tour far exceeded our expectations, introducing us to the unforgettable landscapes around San Pedro de Atacama and in the Chilean Altiplano. Our guides were superb--translator/guide Maggie and driver/guide Mario... read more in the Altiplano, guides Felipe and Mauricio in San Pedro. They all introduced us to places we would never have encountered on our own. Highest recommendation to Mayuru Tour. They know the territory. With them, we got a real sense of what must be some of the most extraordinary places on earth.

  We used Mayuru Tours for a 5 day/4 night trip through the Chilean Altiplano from Arica to San Pedro de Atacama. Overall the private tour was well organized, the guide/... read more driver was courteous and professional and the Altiplano beautiful.

Preplanning – For our travels through the Chilean Altiplano I was looking for a company to get us from Arica in the very far north of Chile to the popular desert gateway of San Pedro de Atacama. Not many companies service this area and it was difficult to find a company that would answer my emails. Even the folks at Mayuru Tours would take more than a week to respond. With a little persistence, however, we were able to arrange a tour that met our needs. I should also mention that the tour was one of their set itineraries with very little deviation. On the plus side, they do have numerous options to choose from.

Guide – Francisco was extremely professional and courteous. He spoke only Spanish, but spoke slowly and clearly such that even Don who speaks very little Spanish, was able to understand most things he said without my translating them by the end of the trip.

Itinerary – This was a driving tour, so there were a lot of hours in the car. The landscape is beautiful, but it’s a lot of short stops. Many of the sights are not must-sees, but if you are interested in this area of Chile it is a good way to see it. They sent us a detailed itinerary, in English, with what we would see each day. Any minor deviations in this itinerary were discussed with us beforehand. Also beware that several days are at high altitude, so it is wise to acclimate before beginning this trip.

Food and Accommodations – This is not a high-end tour. Hotels and restaurants in this region are basic. I think they arranged the best that they could, but there just isn’t much to choose from. That said, rooms were generally clean and comfortable and the food fine.

Transportation – The vehicle was a 4x4 Toyota Hilux, comfortable, in good condition and able to handle the rough roads. We had no transportation difficulties. Francisco was an excellent driver. In fact he had driven trucks for the mining companies for many years before becoming a tour driver and had an intimate knowledge of the roads, hotels and restaurants along the route.

Cost and Payment – We paid 733USD/person. This covered most everything except for a few small entry fees and dinner in Pica. The same tour with an English speaking guide would have cost 956USD/person. No deposit was required. We paid in cash when we met our guide and driver on the first morning.

Final Thought – I would definitely use Mayuru Tours again and think that overall the trip was a good value for the money.