TDP was amazingly beautiful but we also loved Atacama with its stark beauty.

Great holiday

I would suggest that the acclimitization required at Atacama is significant and, if altitude affects you, significantly limits what excursions you can do, especially in your early days. I was only mildly impacted but my husband was quite affected by it and many of the hiking excursions are over 10,000 feet, up to 14,000 feet, so sadly were not options for us. A few things re packing: Swoop offered excellent advice but I would tweak a few things: 1/ in addition to my significant backpack, I would recommend a smaller daypack for day hikes. 2/I wouldn't bother with binoculars as the guides have them on hand. 3/everyone gives you permanent water bottles so bringing your own just takes up lots of space in your luggage 4/Explora Atacama has pools and spa options so a coverall, bathing suit and flipflops are useful 5/ hats are essential, as are rainpants for the Lakes and TDP; 6/ Tips: we tipped (per Danny's suggestion) guides AND drivers plus transfer drivers after each excursion but the lodges suggest additional tips for wait staff and housekeeping. Those tips are optional and can be added with a credit card so dont' require cash. However, we were glad to have brought many crisp $5 and $20 bills. Nevertheless, you do need some Chilean dollars which are appreciated by local shops in San Pedro de Atacama for example and you even need 500 pesos to use the public toilets! 7/ Casual clothes and shoes are good for meals at the lodges and hotels. 8/Staff at lodges and hotels all spoke English well but transfer drivers often did not so be prepared. 9/ Some mention that you cannot flush paper in the toilets may be off-putting but is obviously very important to be prepared for, even in Santiago airport! 10/ Hiking boots AND sneakers are both needed as well as perhaps more light sunshirts in Atacama.

We learned a great deal about both sides of the political divides in Chile which was very interesting. The general feeling is that the population (even guides!) are 50/50 split on conservative/liberal views of the current situation so that was very interesting to hear both sides argued so passionately and definitively. Chile has many peculiarities because of its geography and also is a melting pot of folks from so many neighboring countries so we loved understanding more about the history and ongoing role played by indigenous populations which are a very important component of everyday life there.

You guys were great! Highly recommend you to anyone interested. In our first days, I was a bit confused about Swoop's relationship with the lodges until I realized that, in their eyes, you are simply a travel agent, among many. That isn't a bad thing, but once we were in Patagonia Camp or Explora Atacama, we were no longer in Swoop World and so our relationship was strictly with those lodges.

Very excited! And we were prepared pretty well, other than the points I made above. We had too much of some clothing and not enough of others. At the end of the trip, we were ready to go home and my only slightly negative impression of our experience was that we felt a bit overscheduled. You end up getting up at 6:30 or earlier many mornings and that becomes a bit tiring plus the altitude of Atacama means that sleeping can be a challenge. I'm not sure we would do this kind of trip again although we enjoyed every single excursion we did and realize that we probably won't be in Chile again so had to carpe diem.

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