TRAVEL AGENCY AND TOUR OPERATOR DESTINATIONS IN NORTHERN CHILE

  Cette agence nous a organisé un circuit de 2 semaines Chili-Bolivie-Chili et passage en Argentine. Tout était parfait. Les chauffeurs très ponctuels, prudents, et sympathiques. les transferts entre... read more les pays se sont parfaitement déroulés sans aucun retard. Les hôtels agréables compte tenu de l'offre du lieu. Nous avons vraiment beaucoup apprécié et ne pouvons que recommander chaleureusement cette agence. Très disponible pour assurer toutes les demandes.

  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.

  Traveled with my wife for part of our honeymoon.

We took the 3 day tour and it was an adventure unlike any other. Lake Chungara, Salar De Surire, Hot... read more Springs, Putre, Parque Lauca

Our guide, Helmut, was terrific. He was experienced and knowledgeable about all facets of the area. The sites were simply incredible. The Altiplano is one of the most unique destinations we have ever experienced. The wildlife and scenery were unparalleled.

The altitude change is serious. You must drink a lot of water and not over-exert yourself. If you follow your guide's lead, you should be able to adjust.

  Excellent! Thank you so much Mayuru. I loved this trip. The service - from first emails to the tour guide & driver - was excellent. Everyone was friendly,... read more helpful, knowledgeable, professional and efficient. I have actually done this trip twice in 3 years because the the scenery is stunning and Mayuru make it possible to see all of its beauty without large crowds or coaches.
I am a female solo traveller and I felt totally safe and very well looked after the whole time. Thank you so much. It was the perfect trip, and I would do it all again without any hesitation.

  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.

  Precioso el tour y la agencia muy responsable, el conductor muy prudente para manejar y muy instruido en toda la historia que conlleva el recorrido. Lo recomiendo al 100%.

  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.

  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.

  Schon vor 5 Jahren war ich mit Mayuru Tours unterwegs.
Weil es mich so überzeugt hatte, habe ich auch dieses Mal dort gebucht.
Mayuru Tours ist für mich der perfekte... read more Reiseveranstalter im Norden Chiles. Und mit Francisco als Driverguide hat man den Besten Guide, den man sich wünschen kann. Er ist witzig, kompetent, fährt sehr gut und zuverlässig (und falls doch mal etwas passieren sollte (auf meinen Reisen ging immer alles reibungslos) dann ist er erst noch Automechaniker... :-)) (und so ganz nebenbei ist er der Chef von Mayuru Tours).
Preis/Leistung stimmen überein.
Ich werde auf jeden Fall wiederkommen und mit Mayuru Tours unterwegs sein 🙂
Herzlichen Dank Mayuru Tours und Francisco für die tolle Reise!!! 🙂

  We spent 3 days in Lauca National Park with Mayuru tours.
The service was perfect. They picj-up us at the border with Bolivia, and then we visited all the... read more best places of this area.
The driver was also a guide and he expained us a lot of things.
We had some problems at the beginning to organize the trip (the communication by email was hard ant tey took many days to give an answer) but at the end we figure out all the dtails and we had a really goo service.

  Zu dieser Jahreszeit gab es heftige Regenfälle und die Zufahrt zum Salar war auf der Hauptroute gesperrt. Es existierte jedoch eine Umgehung auf absolut passabler Allradpiste. Das einzige Fahrzeug was... read more auf der Route unterwegs war/ die Route kannte, bei wunderschönen trockenen Wetter und Sonnenschein war das moderne AllradFahrzeug von Mayuru. Francisco der Driverguide, der mit einem Pärchen unterwegs war, lud uns ein, ihm in unserem eigenen Fahrzeug zu folgen. Immer wieder stoppten wir und erhielten auch von ihm Abklärungen. Ein wunderschöner Tag in absoluter Abgeschiedenheit an diesem fantastischen Fleckchen Erde ohne weit und breit einen weiteren Touristen zu sehen!! Absolut empfehlenswert!

  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