Northern Chile
Northern Chile is among the driest parts of the world. It includes the regions of Arica-Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, Atacama and Coquimbo.| Tap on a place to explore it |
Photo: Francesco Mocellin, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Essential Destinations
Top destinations include Antofagasta and Arica.
Antofagasta
Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.5.
Antofagasta is a city in Northern Chile. The Atacama desert rises in the east and the Pacfic Ocean provides a western limit. This is an industrial centre in the region and is perhaps the least pleasant city in the north.
Arica
Photo: Till.niermann, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Arica is a seaside resort town of 223,000 in Northern Chile. It's quiet, relaxed and safe, with several nice beaches and sun virtually every day of the year.
La Serena
Photo: Arturo Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 3.0.
La Serena is a charming city of about 200,000 people in Northern Chile. Its historic center stands out with a beautiful and well-preserved neocolonial architecture characterized by its balconies, small squares and stone churches of several centuries old, its extensive beaches and for being one of the cities with the best quality of life in Chile.
Destinations to Discover
Explore places such as Iquique and San Pedro de Atacama.
Iquique
Iquique is a city of 191,000 people in the Northern Chile. The city is home to the Zofri duty-free zone, and a growing number of high-rise resort hotels along its beaches.
San Pedro de Atacama
Photo: Bpierreb, CC BY-SA 3.0.
San Pedro de Atacama is a town of 3,899 in Northern Chile. San Pedro is a very popular destination among Chilean tourists and international visitors looking for a desert experience and a stepping stone to the amazing landscapes around it.
Copiapó
Photo: Sfs90, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Copiapó is a town of 150,000 people in Northern Chile. It's a pleasant stop if passing by bus, overlooked by beautiful hills and surrounded by vineyards.
Coquimbo
Photo: Ale1898, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Coquimbo is a city of 257,000 people in Northern Chile. Coquimbo sits on a peninsula, triangular in shape; the old sector of the city is to the east of it, on an extension of land, long and narrow in a north-south direction, at about 10 m above sea level.
Calama
Photo: X20CrMoV121, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Calama is a city and commune in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It is the capital of El Loa Province, part of the Antofagasta Region. Calama is one of the driest cities in the world with average annual precipitation of just 5 mm.
Vicuña
Photo: LivingPrayer, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Vicuña, with a population of 25,000 in 2012, is the largest town in Valle de Elqui, Northern Chile. Vicuña is a major center for producing pisco, a brandy made in Chile and Peru. You can visit the nearby pisco distilleries.
Putre
Photo: Álvaro Orozco, CC BY 2.0.
Putre is a village in the Arica y Parinacota province of Chile. Putre is on the edge of the Lauca National Park, and is popular with visitors to the National Park wishing to acclimatize to the altitude.
Lauca National Park
Photo: Till.niermann, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Lauca National Park is an 1379 km² protected area in Northern Chile. It's in high Andes and is characterized by volcanic mountains, alpine tundra, and lakes and wetlands.
Caldera
Photo: Gerik20, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Caldera is a town of 16,000 people on the coast of Northern Chile. It has a pleasant main square and some beaches, but most people going to the beach head to nearby Bahía Inglesa.
Llullaillaco National Park
Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0 de.
Llullaillaco National Park, home to the Llullaillaco volcano, is one of the Atacama Desert's most iconic national parks and destinations of northern Chile. Llullaillaco is the second-highest volcano in the world, after Ojos del Salado on the Argentine border.
Northern Chile
- Type: region
- Location: Chile, South America
- View on OpenStreetMap
Latitude of center
-26° or 26° southLongitude of center
-69.4° or 69° 24′ westWikidata ID
Q93500093
This page is based on Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
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Satellite Map
Discover Northern Chile from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
In Other Languages
From French to Italian—“Northern Chile” goes by many names.
- French: “Nord du Chili”
- Greek: “Βόρεια Χιλή”
- Hebrew: “צפון צ’ילה”
- Italian: “Cile settentrionale”
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About Mapcarta. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “Northern Chile”. Photo: Francesco Mocellin, CC BY-SA 3.0.