The Unforgettable Bolivia

Arrive in Santiago, where Chile’s cosmopolitan capital sits dramatically between the Andes and the coastal mountains. Settle into your hotel before beginning to absorb a city shaped by both European influences and a distinctly Chilean identity. From elegant historic architecture to energetic contemporary neighbourhoods, Santiago provides a sophisticated introduction to the contrasting landscapes ahead. Your private journey will ultimately connect the capital with the Atacama Desert, Bolivia’s immense Uyuni Salt Flats and remote Easter Island.

Spend the day delving deeper into Santiago, exploring the layers of history and culture that define the Chilean capital. Discover its grand civic architecture, atmospheric neighbourhoods and vibrant culinary scene while gaining a deeper understanding of modern Chilean life. The city’s position at the foot of the Andes provides an ever-present natural backdrop, creating a striking contrast between urban sophistication and the immense landscapes that characterise much of the country.

Leave Santiago and travel north towards the extraordinary Atacama Desert, where volcanic peaks, immense salt plains and sculpted rock formations create one of South America’s most distinctive environments. Arriving around San Pedro de Atacama, settle into your desert retreat and begin acclimatising to the region’s altitude and extreme landscape. As daylight softens, the surrounding terrain reveals an extraordinary spectrum of ochre, gold and rose beneath the distant Andes.

Spend a full day discovering the remarkable environments surrounding San Pedro de Atacama. Your programme can be shaped around the region’s varied landscapes, from vast salt flats and high-altitude lagoons to volcanic terrain and stark desert valleys. Flamingos and other specialised wildlife inhabit this seemingly inhospitable wilderness, while the immense openness creates exceptional opportunities for walking, photography and quiet exploration. After sunset, the Atacama’s dry climate and minimal light pollution reveal one of the world’s most spectacular night skies.

Venture beyond the Atacama and into the extraordinary high-altitude landscapes shared by Chile and Bolivia. Travelling across the Altiplano reveals an increasingly remote world of volcanoes, desert plains, sculpted rock formations and vividly coloured lagoons. The journey itself becomes part of the experience as settlements grow scarce and the immense Andean wilderness takes over. Continue towards Bolivia, entering a region renowned for flamingos, mineral-rich lakes and some of the most surreal scenery on the continent.

Continue through Bolivia’s remarkable southwestern wilderness, where brilliant lagoons appear unexpectedly amid desert and volcanic terrain. Watch for flamingos feeding in mineral-rich waters while vicuñas and other hardy wildlife roam the surrounding Altiplano. The combination of intense colour, extraordinary geological formations and near-total isolation makes this one of the journey’s most memorable stretches. Continue through this remote region towards the vast salt basin of Uyuni.

Enter the Salar de Uyuni, an immense expanse of brilliant salt stretching across Bolivia’s Altiplano. Travel by private 4WD into a landscape where conventional ideas of scale and distance seem to disappear. During the dry season, geometric salt patterns extend towards the horizon, while wetter conditions can transform the surface into an enormous natural mirror. Explore this extraordinary environment and pause amid its vast silence before witnessing the changing colours of sunset across one of South America’s defining natural landscapes.

Bid farewell to the vast landscapes of Uyuni and begin the journey back towards Chile. The transition provides time to reflect on the extraordinary contrast between the colourful volcanic wilderness of the Altiplano and the seemingly endless white horizons of the Salar. Return to Santiago, exchanging one of South America’s most remote environments for the sophisticated energy of the Chilean capital ahead of the final stage of your journey in the Pacific.

Fly west across the Pacific to Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands. Its volcanic landscapes are scattered with the monumental moai for which the island has become renowned, with around 900 statues forming an extraordinary archaeological legacy. On arrival, settle into your island accommodation and take in the profound sense of remoteness before beginning your exploration of Rapa Nui culture, archaeology and dramatic Pacific scenery.

Explore the extraordinary archaeological heritage of Rapa Nui alongside an expert guide. Discover ceremonial platforms and monumental moai that have watched over the island for centuries, learning about the communities that carved, transported and raised these immense figures. The volcanic quarry of Rano Raraku provides a particularly evocative insight, with statues remaining in different stages of completion across its slopes, while the restored figures of Ahu Tongariki form one of the island’s most iconic scenes.

Continue discovering the island beyond its famous stone figures. Explore volcanic terrain and archaeological sites that illuminate the traditions and beliefs of the Rapa Nui people, with opportunities to experience the island on foot and appreciate its dramatic relationship with the surrounding Pacific. From windswept grasslands and immense volcanic craters to isolated stretches of coastline, the day reveals the natural environment that shaped one of Polynesia’s most fascinating cultures.

Enjoy your final moments on Rapa Nui before transferring to the airport for the flight back to Santiago, bringing this remarkable South American journey to a close. Over twelve days, the route brings together an exceptional variety of environments: Santiago beneath the Andes, the stark wilderness of the Atacama, the colourful lagoons and vast salt horizons of Bolivia, and finally the volcanic landscapes and enigmatic archaeological heritage of Easter Island.