A desert oasis set in the Ica department is truly a sight to behold. It is very picturesque and like nothing I had ever seen before. Only 10 minutes from the city of Ica, Huachachina is a brilliant place to visit and must do as part of any trip around Peru.
Huacachina Travel Guide
Huacachina is a small little village based around a desert oasis lake which is then surrounded by imposing sand dunes. Below are some of the top things to do when visiting Peru’s desert oasis.
Watch Sunset
Head up one of the dunes for sunset. It’s beautiful watching the skies change colour over the sand. It’s a nice place to relax and reflect and also to take cool pictures. Its also completely free!
Sandboarding and Dune Buggies
The most popular thing to do in Huacachina is the sandboard and dune buggy tour. For 3 hours of fun in the sand it includes 3 chances to board down some dunes ranging in height. Our first one was great, second was more of an after thought but the third was so high that the journey down was a mixture of fun, speed, I’m going too fast, bumps, I’m going to die, scared for my life, will it ever end type of feelings. I hurt my foot in the last one as I was trying to brake to prevent myself from being launched from the board.
Afterwards there was some more driving around in the dune buggy, we were screaming to go even faster, but to no avail.
We got the obligatory photo on top of the dune buggy, watched the sunset and stopped for a look over the lake with the other hundreds of tourists.
Overall it was good fun, all for 35 soles. You can definitely get it for cheaper, after we had paid some guy on the street offered a tour for 20\25 soles! We booked through our hostel, which is the most common thing to do.
Chill Out
There are some nice restaurants to eat and chill out for the evening. They were a bit pricier than what we were used to but we didn’t mind. It felt as if we were in holiday, so a little splurge was okay!
Menu del Dia can be found for 15-20 soles. Dinners were about 30-50 soles.
Other things to do in Huachachina
- Winery Tour including Pisco tasting.
- Go for a boat trip on the small lake.
- Visit Paracas National Reserve.
- Party if you find it!!
Where we stayed
We stayed in Hostel Mayo. It was cheap and basic but it did the job. We stayed 2 nights and arrived from Lima.
[…] as you will know if you have been following the blog, we love a good hike. However, when we were sandboarding in Huacachina Aoife got a bit scared going down the big sand dune and planted her foot into the ground to slow […]