If you’re travelling in Peru, chances are you’re probably wondering what on earth there is to do in a small desert oasis that attracts tens of thousands of tourists each year? With a permanent population of around 100 (most people in Huacachina are temporary workers or live in the nearby city of Ica), the Huacachina Oasis really is a unique stop on your Peru itinerary.
There are a few Huacachina tours that go beyond the usual, but it really all depends on how you want to plan your visit. So, below, I’ve listed all of the best tours you can do within and beyond Huacachina.
Huacachina is the only natural desert oasis in the whole of South America, and it’s worth visiting even on this merit alone. I visited Huacachina when I was travelling in South America this year. I spent three nights there and tried as many of the local activities as possible, from local restaurants and karaoke night to sandboarding in the sand dunes.
Visiting Huacachina on your hop-on-hop-off bus service with Peru Hop? Click here!
The Best Huacachina Tours in Huacachina
Dune Buggy Tour
The dune buggies that soar across the sand dunes in Peru are often marketed as “how you get to and from a sand dune tour in Huacachina” because it’s the only reasonable way to travel through the desert. However, with a professional driver taking you over some of the biggest sand dunes nearby, it quickly becomes an experience you won’t forget in a hurry! Most of these tours come with sandboarding included and I’d recommend giving it a go if you dare, but there were more faint-hearted people on our trip that only went for the dune buggy ride.
I am not a rollercoaster person so forgive me if I’m wrong, but I definitely got rollercoaster vibes as we tipped over the top of the incredible sand dunes in Huacachina on our tour. You generally can’t see what’s ahead of you so you have no idea if you’re about to turn down a small hill or a huge drop that gives you a butterfly-inducing stomach drop.
It’s a tour that’s well worth the experience, with or without the sandboarding included!
📍Book: Dune Buggy in Huacachina
🇵🇪 More on Peru: The Perfect 7-Day Peru Itinerary
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Sand Boarding Tour
Sandboarding tours are the typical tours that people take when they go to Huacachina, and they involve a buggy ride (or, several, as you travel from dune to dune to board down several different slopes).
If you’ve ever tried to walk up a huge sand dune before, you’ll probably be thrilled to know that, once you’ve sandboarded down, your guide will drive the buggy to the bottom and pick you up, so you don’t have to trudge back up again.
This will be useful for both your calves, and for saving time to make sure you get in as many slopes as possible before they take you to the final spot to catch one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. Most tours start at 4pm for this reason; it’s the best time of day to sandboard, when you’ve already passed the sweltering heat of midday, and just in time to catch the sunset from the top of the highest sand dune around.
In these tours (which you can book in advance online or book through your hostel or tour provider), you get a basic sandboard with hand-holds, and you go down head-first on your belly. If you’re into adventure sports, like snowboarding and skiing, you can do this as well, but it usually involves booking a slightly more expensive, private tour.
📍Book: Sandboarding Tour in Huacachina
Spend the Day in Ica
Huacachina is in the Ica region, not far from the city of Ica itself. In fact, if you’re taking the public bus through Peru, this is probably where you’ll get on and off (but it’s quick and cheap to get between Ica and Huacachina). I wrote more about this in my guide to planning a Peru Itinerary.
You do have the option to stay in Ica and visit Huacachina for the day if you’re more into city living, but I’d recommend doing it the other way around. Whilst there are a lot of museums and restaurants to visit in Ica, you can easily plan a one-day itinerary. Staying in Huacachina feels magical and you can easily travel between the two.
Most tours of Ica also include a visit to Huacachina, which isn’t ideal if that’s where you’re staying! I found the best variety of non-Huacachina visiting tours by searching “Ica city tour” on Tripadvisor.
📍Book: City Tour of Ica
🛏 Where I stayed in Huacachina: Viajero Kokopelli Huacachina Hostel
*By the way, I only include the hostel I stayed at if I liked it. If I don’t recommend a hostel for a location, it means I didn’t like where I stayed but I’m too nice to bad-mouth them 😉
The Best Day Trips and Tours from Huacachina
Paracas National Reserve
Paracas National Reserve is an incredible national park close to the pacific beach town of Paracas. I actually visited Paracas on my way to Huacachina, but it’s perfectly doable as a day trip from Huacachina as it’s around 1.5 hours drive. Paracas National Reserve boasts incredible views of sweeping sandstone cliffs and endless desert beaches. It’s often combined with a tour of Ballestas Islands (see below).
If you do Peru Hop’s hop-on-hop-off bus tour, a visit to Paracas National Reserve is actually included in your ticket.
📍Book: Tour of Paracas National Reserve
🇵🇪 More on Peru: 24 Unmissable Landmarks in Peru
Ballestas Islands Tour
The Ballestas Islands are often called “the Galapagos of Peru”. Now, whilst I haven’t actually been to the Galapagos, I can tell you this is likely an overstatement. With a few friends I’d met on a Wayki Bus transfer from Lima, I took this boat tour from Paracas town.
It was really cool to see sea lions up close and marvel at humboldt Penguins (admittedly, from quite a distance) in their natural habitat. We also got to see some cool carvings on the side of one of the islands, which seem to be related to the Nazca lines. It was a cool way to spend a morning, and I’d recommend it because it was really affordable, but the Galapagos? Surely not. Our tour guide was also quite funny, which helped!
A lot of my friends on the Wayki Bus had this tour included with their hop-on-hop-off ticket, but I paid extra because I’d only booked that one bus and not a tour. If you’re using Peru Hop, the Ballestas Islands boat trip is also an extra cost (around $10).
📍Book: Ballestas Islands Boat Trip
Visit Pisco
Pisco is both the key ingredient in Peru’s national drink (the pisco sour), a region, and a city. (The pisco sour is also the national drink of Chile, but in my opinion they were much better in Peru. Don’t tell anyone I said that.)
From Huacachina, or more likely Ica, you can take a Pisco vineyard tour to visit the Pisco vineyards, learn how pisco is made and, of course, sample the produce. You’ll get to try pisco on its own (bitter, not recommended) as well as the classic pisco sour (which became my absolute favourite drink while I was travelling in Peru.
📍Book: Pisco Vineyard Tour from Huacachina or Ica
Nazca Lines
The mysterious Nazca lines are often listed as one of the top tours in Peru. They are huge geoglyphs carved into the desert near Nazca, but nobody knows where they came from or why they’re there. Of course, they’re highly protected, but you can see two of them from a viewing platform nearby or take a short flight from Nazca.
If you have plenty of time it could be worth spending the night in Nazca to see the Nazca lines, but I did hear that there’s not a lot to do there. So, for me, the best option would be to take a day trip from Huacachina.
There are various options for tours from Nazca or Ica to visit the Nazca Lines from either the viewing tower or by plane, depending on your budget.
📍Book: Nazca Lines Tour (flight or viewing tower, it’s up to you!)
🇵🇪 More on Peru: How to Get from Lima Airport to Miraflores
Cañón de los Perdidos
Cañón de los Perdidos is a stunning rock formation less than two hours drive from Ica. As you might have gathered, it is a canyon that you can view both from the top of the cliffs and from the valley below. It looks incredible, but I didn’t actually do this trip myself. I did take a trip to a much smaller canyon (Quebrada de Culebrillas) which is a day trip from Arequipa, further south in Peru, and the scenery there made me wish I had had time to visit Cañón de los Perdidos.
You can book a full day tour to Cañón de los Perdidos from Ica, and either contact your tour provider to see if there’s an option to take the transfer from Huacachina, or get up early and take a taxi into Ica from Huacachina (around $5).
📍Book: Cañón de los Perdidos Tour