Visit the best landscapes of Coquimbo in a tourist package of 4 days. We will go to the Elqui Valley, famous for its vineyards and fruit plantations, sail to isla Damas to see the Humboldt penguins.
Day 1: La Serena - Coquimbo
Transfer: Airport Hotel in La Serena
City tour la Serena and Coquimbo
- Departure: 15:00
- Duration: 4 hours
- Pickup / Dropoff: Hotel in la Serena
City tour to see the most attractive places of La Serena and Coquimbo. You can visit La Recova market, La Herradura beach and the main port of the IV Region.
We will pick you up at your hotel to start the city tour with a walk through La Serena, observing the neocolonial architecture of its buildings and beaches. Then we will visit the Archaeological Museum, a sample of its pre-columbian past and the evolution of the city. Later on we will go to La Recova market, where we can buy typical handicrafts from the area.
We will continue our tour at the University of La Serena. From its lookout point we will have a spectacular view of Coquimbo Bay. Then we will visit the Monumental Lighthouse and the Avenida del Mar.
Transport to Coquimbo:
In Coquimbo we will get to know the intense maritime activity that takes place in the port through a tour of the Costanera. We will continue with a walk through the center of the city and finish the visit in La Herradura, a beautiful beach spa located in the bay of Guayacán, former pirate den.
After the tour, we will return to your hotel.
- CulturalMedium
- NatureVery low
- NightlifeMedium
Day 2: Pingüino de Humboldt National Reserve - La Serena
Excursión through Pingüino de Humboldt National Reserva
- Departure: 08:30
- Duration: 10 hours
- Includes: Lunch
- Pickup / Dropoff: Hotel in La Serena
We will visit Damas Island, one of the three islands that form part of the Penguin National Reserve of Humboldt. With white sand and emerald green waters, is perfect for snorkeling and diving.
We will leave from your hotel in La Serena at approximately 9:00am and we will take the Panamericana where we will cross a semidesert area with little vegetation dominated by cactus. The route continues by a slope, from where we can appreciate numerous perspectives of the rocky coast.
From the route, we will have the opportunity to observe in the coast sector a permanent and dense fog characteristic of the sector, denominated "camanchaca", that originates in the ocean by the proximity of the cold current of Humboldt in contact with the warm continental mass, which rises to the peak of the coastal hills. Humidity favors a microclimate and the existence of trees and bushes in an essentially semi-desert zone.
If we are lucky, we will be able to see the "flowery desert" (which only blooms some months of the year) because it needs rain to germinate wildflowers.
After traveling 120 kilometers, we will arrive at Caleta Los Choros, where you will be able to observe the Gaviota Islands, Choros and Damas Island. This sector is part of the National Penguin Reserve of Humboldt administered by the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF).
We will embark on a boat and during the navigation to Damas Island, we will have the opportunity to circumnavigate through the Gaviota and Choros Islands where we will observe sea lions, penguins, pelicans, seagulls and a great variety of birds. Maybe you can see colonies of bottlenose dolphins that jumps and pirouettes.
We will land to Damas Island for about 30 minutes, where we will see it's beautiful white - sand beaches and emerald green waters. Then we will return to the coast to have a delicious lunch in a typical restaurant based on seafood and fish.
17:00 hours: We will be back at your hotel.
- CulturalMedium
- NatureVery high
Day 3: Elqui Valley - La Serena
Elqui Valley Tour
- Departure: 08:00
- Duration: 10 hours
- Includes: Lunch
- Pickup / Dropoff: Hotel in La Serena
The Elqui Valley stands out for the production of wine and pisco. It is a green valley surrounded by mountains and traditional villages that mix the local culture and tourism.
We will leave from your hotel at approximately 9:00 am to know the Elqui Valley.
The first stop will be in a large gardening crop and then we will continue to visit plantations of chirimoyas, papayas, lúcumas and olive trees. But the most important of the area are the vineyards that give rise to pisco, which is the main product of the area.
This tour includes a visit to a pisquera plant where we will know the process of elaboration from the fermentation to the distillation, passing through the guard room and culminating with an exquisite tasting.
Our tour will continue in the village Vicuña, where we will meet the Bauer Tower, its church and the Armas square.
13:30 hours: lunch at delights of the Sun which is a restaurant that is cooked with solar energy and is very visited by national and international tourists.
Later we will visit the tomb of Gabriela Mistral in Montegrande. She was a Chilean poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. We will also go to the School House (free access) where she lived all her childhood and today functions as a museum.
19.00: We will be back at your hotel.
- CulturalMedium
- NatureVery low
Day 4: Farewell of the city of the Serena
Transfer: Hotel Airport in La Serena
- Transfer in from the airport to a hotel in La Serena.
- City tour La Serena.
- Isla Damas y Pingüino Humboldt excursion with lunch at local restaurant (4 persons).
- Route of the Stars and Elqui Valley excursion with lunch.
- Transfer out from hotel to La Serena airport.
- All tours and transfers in shared service with bilingual tour guide (spanish-english).
- Airline ticket
- Accommodation
- All not mentioned in itinerary.
Recommendations
- Go Chile assumes no responsibility for unpredictable events that may affect the schedule or order of travel programs, such as those caused by weather conditions, road closures or safety measures established by public authorities.