Hotel pickup and transport for stargazing tours in San Pedro de Atacama

Is transport included?

Yes, in both directions. The tour price covers being collected in San Pedro de Atacama, driven to the observatory and brought back. There is no separate transfer to buy, and no arrangement you have to make yourself once you are here.

Where do we collect you?

At your accommodation, or at an assigned meeting point that is usually a short walk from it. There is no single depot you have to reach on your own from the other side of town.

Which of the two applies to you depends on whether the van can reach the door of where you are staying. When it cannot, we assign a meeting point on the route and give it to you together with your pickup time, so it is settled before the night starts rather than during it.

What time is the pickup?

When we confirm your booking we give you a pickup time. That time is the start of a window, not the exact minute the van will be at the door.

The window opens 40 minutes before your tour's shift start time and closes 10 minutes before that same time. It lasts half an hour at most. In practice: be ready from your pickup time onwards, and the van comes through within that window.

The end of the window is the part that is fixed. It closes ten minutes before your shift begins, because the vehicle then has to leave town to reach the observatory on time. If you are not at the agreed point when the van comes through, the route continues and the tour departs.

Why is pickup a window instead of a fixed time?

Because one van carries passengers from several places to stay. The route is built each night around collecting the whole group along one path, and the order depends on where everyone is staying. Promising an exact minute would be promising something that only holds if you are the only passenger on board.

If you are comparing operators, this is worth reading carefully: an operator who quotes you a single precise pickup minute for a shared transfer is quoting you a number they cannot control. We would rather hand you the real range.

What if my accommodation is not on the route?

We assign you a meeting point. It is normally close to where you are staying — walking distance — and you get it in advance, together with your pickup time, not on the night itself.

That assigned point is part of the service rather than an awkward exception. In a town of narrow streets, with places to stay a full-size van simply cannot enter, it is how pickup keeps working without holding up everyone else on board.

Which area does the transport cover?

San Pedro de Atacama and its immediate surroundings. It does not run as a fixed circuit of stops: each night's route is organised around the direction the van leaves town in, toward the observatory your tour is going to, and passengers are collected along that path.

This map shows the places to stay in and around San Pedro de Atacama by how pickup works for each one (its labels are in Spanish):

• Green: we collect you at the entrance of your accommodation.
• Orange: we collect you at a nearby meeting point. Tap the accommodation to see which one.
• Blue stars: the meeting points.

We built it from our reservation system's data, but it is a guide: if your accommodation is not on it, or your booking confirmation says something different, what we confirm when you book is what counts.

How do I confirm my accommodation is covered?

When you book. Every place to stay is flagged as pickup-eligible or not in our reservation system, which is where that information is kept current.

That is why the map above is a guide and not the final word: a place can change status, and yours may not be marked. The correct answer for your accommodation on the night of your tour is the one we give you when you book.

Confirm your accommodation when you book and we will tell you straight away whether pickup is at the door or at an assigned meeting point, with your time included.

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