Rainbow Valley, or Valle de Arcoíris, is a colorful mountain area located near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. It’s an easy and popular day trip and the stunning landscapes are typically combined with a visit to the nearby petroglyphs. For a day trip that just takes up a half day, it packs in a lot of incredible views. This is what helps to make it one of my favorite day trips from San Pedro de Atacama.
So, if you’re looking to take a day trip to Rainbow Valley from San Pedro de Atacama, here’s what to expect.
Day Trip to Rainbow Valley
This is all based on my experience. While there are several companies that offer a tour to Rainbow Valley, nearly every tour follows the exact same itinerary. They’ll make the same stops, typically in the exact same order, so it’s not unusual to see several identical looking tour vans at each stop.
The good news is that compared to my visit to the Tatio Geysers, there were less tour vans on this day trip, which is greatly appreciated.
Pick Up
Compared to my tour to Tatio Geysers, my tour for Rainbow Valley started late, but I wasn’t complaining. Pick up was at 7:00 am, which is still early, but significantly better than the 5:00 am for Tatio Geysers and the 6:00 am for my Uyuni Salt Flats Tour.
Still, it’s an early morning and please be ready. Be courteous to your driver, tour guide, and other travelers. Once you get picked up, you can go back to sleep since it’s an hour of driving to reach your first stop of the tour.
Visiting the Petroglyphs
We started our morning with a stop at the petroglyphs. If you’ve ever read any of my US National Park posts, you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of petroglyphs. They are fine, but I just don’t find them as interesting as the natural beauty that typically surrounds them.
That said, our guide did a fantastic job trying to get us excited about the petroglyphs. Instead of just saying “here’s a llama” and “here’s a dog”, she talked about why these petroglyphs is so significant. The context helped to make the petroglyphs slightly more interesting to me.
The llamas are an important animal for the people of this region, even back hundreds of years ago. Llamas were used for food and clothing, and even their bones were used. The dogs are significant because they aren’t native to Chile, which means that this area had to be settled my nomadic people.
I’m still not a massive fan of petroglyphs, but I do thank our guide for the work she did to make them more interesting than they would have been otherwise.
Breakfast
After the petroglyphs, it’s time for breakfast. While it may not have been as scenic as the geyser fields the day before, it was still a pretty scenic breakfast. On the bright side, it was significantly warmer than at the geyser fields (though it’s still chilly in the morning).
Breakfast is the same across all tour companies and tours. There’s a pan of scrambled eggs, some kind of bread, a few cold cuts and cheese, and some cake. And of course there is hot drinks like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate which are greatly appreciated.
Get to know your fellow tourists and enjoy breakfast and the view before it’s time to move on.
Rainbow Valley (Valle de Arcoíris)
It’s now time for the main attraction and that’s Rainbow Valley. For me, this was the highlight of the tour because the views were incredible. You’ll be surrounded by multicolored mountains as you drive up to the valley, but it gets even better once you get out of the van and start walking.
We walked through a slot canyon and everyone got their chance to take a photo. Then we moved on and our group split into two. All of the tours in San Pedro de Atacama are multilingual (supposedly—my guide to Baltinache only spoke Spanish despite telling me he’d do everything in Spanish and then again in English). This means that the guides give all of the information twice. Some guides will do one sentence in Spanish then one in English and so on. Others will do the whole talk in Spanish and then repeat it in English. It all depends on your guide.
As mentioned, our guide decided to split us into two groups. I think this made a big difference and helped to make the explanation a bit more enjoyable. While she talked with one group, the other got to go and take photos.
The English group was first and our guide explained the four mountain ranges in Chile and the geology of the area. The minerals are what cause the rocks to be their different colors. While beautiful, it’s also concerning. One of those minerals is lithium which is in high demand for the batteries for all of our electronic devices. While Rainbow Valley looks incredible now, our guide fully admitted she doesn’t know what it will look like in the coming decades as the demand for lithium increases. That’s not to say that green energy isn’t a good thing, but rather, even the so called green energies come with a cost.
After the English talk, we got time to wander the area and take photos while our guide gave the exact same talk in Spanish. I took the opportunity to load up my camera and my phone with as many pictures as I could before we had to head back to the van.
Back to San Pedro de Atacama
Your tour is over and you’ll be driven back to San Pedro de Atacama. Rather than dropping everyone back at their hotels, the van makes one stop in the city center (near Caracoles street) and everyone gets out here. Grab some lunch before your afternoon adventure.
How Long is a Day Trip to Rainbow Valley from San Pedro de Atacama?
A day trip to Rainbow Valley is a half day. I was picked up around 7:00 am and returned to San Pedro de Atacama in time for lunch. While I didn’t do any afternoon activity that day, you will be back in time to do another tour.
Remember, these tour companies want to make money. They have scheduling down to a science so you can cram in as many tours as possible.
How to Book Your Day Trip to Rainbow Valley
You can find tour agencies on websites like GetYourGuide or Viator, but I’d be hesitant to use these sites. It’s definitely easy to do this, especially if you want to have everything booked before you arrive in San Pedro de Atacama, but I think it’s better to wait until you’re in town. If you meet with the tour agency in person, you’re likely to be able to work out a deal where you’ll get a discount if you book multiple tours (and if you’re taking one tour, it’s likely you’re going to take multiple).
Also keep in mind that the price you see advertised (either in town or online) is typically not the final price. Most of the sites include entrance fees that vary between Chilean nationals and everyone else. Therefore the entrance fees are excluded from the advertised price and added on at the end. I bring this up because these entrance fees can really add up in the end.
Do You Need to Take a Tour to Rainbow Valley?
Like with all tours from San Pedro de Atacama, it’s possible to visit Rainbow Valley on your own. The only thing to note is that you’ll need your own vehicle to reach Rainbow Valley. If you’re traveling as a small group (or even as a couple), it may make more financial sense to rent a car than to take individual tours.
As a solo traveler, I took tours both for the convenience and because it made more financial sense.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed my tour to Rainbow Valley and it was easily one of my favorite tours that I did in San Pedro de Atacama (I think it’s tied with my tour to Moon Valley). The scenery is incredible, and in my opinion, some of the best in the immediate area. So, if you have the time, I highly recommend this tour for its jaw dropping views.
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