Travel Tips: Ten More of My Favourite Beach Destinations

I still have a few more free days before starting my new job, and I don't have much planned, so I want to use the time to write my first Travel Tips blog post in a while!

This one is going to be a sort of sequel to a post I wrote in May 2021 about my 10 favourite beaches. At the time I wrote that post, I was living at home with my parents, the UK was still under some lockdown restrictions, and I was unsure when I would ever be able to move back to Chile (something I'd planned to do in 2020), as there were still very strict restrictions out there. During this extremely challenging period, my blog was a source of escapism for me, where I could reminisce about past travels and dream about future ones. The beach post was definitely one of my favourite ones to write, as it brought back some great memories, from childhood holidays to more recent trips.

At the end of the post, I wrote a list of the beach destinations I planned to visit once I was living in Chile, which were as follows:

- Zapallar (Chile)

- Bahía Inglesa (Chile)

- Iquique (Chile)

- Arica (Chile)

- Cartagena (Colombia)

- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Fortunately, in early 2022, I was finally able to get out to Chile and have my year and a bit living there with my partner, Claudio. During that time, we managed to visit four out of those six destinations - it would have been five, but unfortunately we both came down with Covid just before our planned trip to Bahía Inglesa, so that remains on our list for future travels in South America, as does Cartagena. 

After my time in Chile, I spent three months of this year working in Malta, so had the opportunity to visit even more fabulous beaches.

And now my previous list of favourite beaches is in serious need of updating! So here's a new list of ten of my faves, but made up entirely of beaches I visited in the 18 months between February 2022 and August this year...

Las Cujas, Chile

This is a beach not too far from Santiago that Claudio found out about on TikTok. The video he saw made it seem like a kind of secluded, "secret" place, which turned out to be far from the truth! But although it was very busy when we visited during the height of summer in February 2022, it was still a great experience to visit this picture-perfect beach with sparkling blue water, surrounded by vibrant green vegetation. We actually went there during my first week back in the country, and it felt like the perfect start to a year of amazing travels!

Read more here!

Iquique, Chile

Our first big trip of last year was to the city of Iquique, in the far north of Chile. This was the first beach destination located in the tropics that I ever visited, but it's not exactly a "tropical beach" per se - it's located on the edge of the Atacama Desert and has a dry, desert climate. That's not to say that the beaches there aren't great places to visit though - quite the opposite! The city has several beautiful beaches, which are ideal for surfing - the most famous being Playa Cavancha, a huge stretch of sand dotted with skyscrapers and palm trees, which reminds me of photos I've seen of Miami.

Read more here!

Arica, Chile

Arica is the furthest north city in Chile, right next to the border with Peru. We went there in June 2022 for some winter sun, as the weather there is sunny and nice all year round, which is not the case for the beaches nearer Santiago. The city has a huge beach, Playa Chinchorro, with big waves for surfing, but one of its smaller beaches, Playa El Laucho (pictured above), is probably my favourite beach in the entire country, as it's so picturesque and also has gentle waves which make it perfect for swimming.

Read more here!

Zapallar, Chile

This beach town near Santiago gets crowded in the summer (it's where many upper-class people have their summer houses) but when we went in the middle of winter 2022, it was so tranquil and peaceful. It has various examples of European-style architecture to look at, as well as some interesting rock formations, and is definitely one of the prettiest beaches in central Chile.

Read more here!

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It was a dream of mine for many years to visit Rio de Janeiro, so going there with Claudio last December was really an incredible experience. Even though the weather was bad for most of our week there, we still enjoyed swimming and spending time at the city's beaches, of which there are many. Copacabana is a very lively beach and the perfect place to enjoy a caipirinha, but our favourite beach was Ipanema/Leblon. The view from Pedra do Arpoador of the beach and Morro Dois Irmãos is absolutely breathtaking.

Read more here!

Arraial do Cabo, Brazil

Our last day in Brazil was spent on a boat trip around the paradise that is Arraial do Cabo, a few hours away from the city of Rio. On this day, we were lucky to have sunshine at last! During the trip, we visited two beautiful white sand beaches, one on an island and one on the mainland, and we also jumped out of the boat at one particular spot to snorkel around a coral reef, where colourful fish were swimming. This was definitely one of my most special travel memories of all time!

Read more here!

Papudo, Chile

Our trip to Papudo in January was actually another one of my favourite travel memories. This beach town to the north of Zapallar has some stunning beaches (such as the one pictured above) as well as some incredible wildlife to spot. We took a rather extreme speed dinghy trip to a nearby island, where we were lucky enough to see some adorable penguins and sea lions! But most special of all, we saw a beautiful dolphin jumping in and out of the water.

Read more here!

Frutillar, Chile

This beach is somewhere a bit different to the others on the list. For one, it's not by the ocean or sea, but rather by a lake, specifically Lago Llanquihue, one of the largest natural lakes in South America. In addition, it's generally not a beach you'd visit for sunbathing and swimming, as it's located in the south of Chile, which is cold most of the year! But it's absolutely one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to - it has stunning views of the snowy Volcán Osorno across the water and is surrounded by lovely architecture.

Read more here!

Viña del Mar, Chile

Even though I'd visited Viña in both 2018 and 2020, it didn't make it on to my initial list of favourite beaches, for whatever reason. But anyway, it's going on this one! Viña del Mar is one of Chile's biggest and most popular beach destinations, and it's also one of its best. Not only does it have some beautiful beaches, such as Playa El Sol (pictured above), but it also has some fabulous architecture to check out, including several castles and palaces!

Read more here!

Ramla Beach, Gozo, Malta

Of course, I also have to include a beach from my months in Malta on this list. Although the island of Malta is very rocky and doesn't have many sandy beaches, its sister island Gozo has several. I had a great weekend in Gozo, which is a very beautiful and peaceful place, and especially enjoyed visiting Ramla Beach, which has some of the clearest water I've ever swum in.

Read more here!

It has been fun compiling this list of ten more of my favourite beaches! If I had to make an overall list of my favourite beach destinations from this list and my previous list, my top ten would probably be: Rio de Janeiro, Arraial do Cabo, Arica, Papudo, Algarrobo, Slano, Zapallar, Frutillar, Ramla Bay and La Serena. But I'll probably change my mind sooner or later, as I do about most of my Travel Tips lists, haha!

Hopefully, I'll be updating this list again in the future, because I plan to visit plenty of beach destinations within the next few years. Claudio and I want to do as much travelling as possible before having kids, including visiting Southeast Asia, Australia and Mexico. I'm hoping we can do at least one of these trips in 2024, which would be really exciting!

That's all for today, but I'll be blogging again next weekend, if I have the time. See you soon!

Check out the rest of my Travel Tips here!

Our Atacama Desert Road Trip

After spending our first day in Iquique exploring the sights of the city, we decided to make the most of the SUV we had rented, and take a trip deeper into the Atacama Desert on our second day. 

In general, people think of the Atacama Desert as being the area around San Pedro de Atacama (where we went in 2019), because that's the part most people visit, but in fact, the desert covers the whole of the far north of Chile, and by some definitions, the entire north of Chile, as well as parts of Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. So there's a lot to discover there!

One of the places in my guidebook that intrigued us the most was the Atacama Giant, or Tarapacá Giant, a prehistoric geoglyph drawn on a mountain. So that's where we decided to go first.

It took us about an hour to get there, first driving up the steep mountain roads of Iquique, and then through the vast, remote desert. When we finally arrived at Cerro Unitas, the mountain where the giant is located, we were disappointed at first - there was a sign giving information about the giant, but we could only see some random lines etched into the earth, rather than an actual figure. For a minute, we thought that perhaps that was all that could be seen of the giant from ground level, and we wondered why it was so different from the picture in the book.

But then we saw another car going round the corner, and we decided to follow it - and there we found the giant! Although it's hard to believe it's really 119 metres long (the largest prehistoric anthropomorphic figure in the world), as perspective makes it look a lot smaller, it was still incredible to see it. The part of the desert where it's located is completely silent - the most silent place I've ever been to - which added to the mysterious atmosphere. It was amazing to think that this figure was created so many thousands of years ago, and it was also amazing to be so many miles from England, but to still be reminded of places closer to home, like the Uffington White Horse and the Cerne Abbas Giant, which are somewhat similar despite being on the other side of the world.

Claudio and I both believed that the giant was a representation of some kind of alien because of its antennae. However, we found out later that it was actually an astronomical calendar, which I suppose is a more logical explanation!

The Atacama Giant is certainly not the most popular attraction in the Atacama Desert (only a couple of other cars arrived during the hour or so we were there) but I would highly recommend visiting it. Seeing it in person felt like a very special experience.

Next we went to visit another historical place, the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, which is one of only seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Chile. This is not such an ancient place as the Atacama Giant, as the mines were operational in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it gives you an interesting insight into what life was like for people living in this part of the world at that time.

Humberstone is like a ghost town, that has been preserved exactly how it was in the past. It was really a complete community, with a school, church and theatre, as well as houses. There you can find lots of artefacts, such as toys and tools used by the people who lived there.

Santa Laura is a few minutes away by car and receives much fewer visitors than Humberstone. It also looks far more derelict and abandoned.

Neither site is exactly beautiful, and it's a little hard to see why they have this UNESCO status, whereas places like San Pedro de Atacama, Torres del Paine, and some of the other stunning national parks in Chile do not. But I suppose they are significant because of the role they played in one of the most important industries in the history of the country. In any case, they're definitely worth a visit if you're travelling around the Iquique area.

Afterwards, it was time to return to the city, give back the SUV, and head for the airport. It had been a truly amazing couple of days, filled with even more adventures than we had expected to be able to fit in. I would say it was one of the best trips we've been on together, even better than our trip to San Pedro, because we could relax a bit more and take things at our own pace.

After such a brilliant time away, being back in Santiago has really felt like coming back down to earth with a bump. Although I love this city and am really happy living here, the last two weeks have been filled with bureaucracy and various little stresses.

So it's a good thing we've already got another trip booked - next week we're going to be visiting Parque Nacional Conguillío in the south of Chile. During my recent visits to Chile, we've seen quite a lot of the north of the country, so we feel like exploring some more of the south, which has completely different landscapes. I really loved my previous trip to the south in 2018, and the photos I've seen of Conguillío look incredible, so I'm sure that we're going to have a great time there. I'm looking forward to writing about it shortly!

Iquique

During the Easter long weekend, Claudio and I went on our first "big trip" of the year to the beautiful city of Iquique in the far north of Chile.

We were actually debating between going to Arica and Iquique, as we knew we wanted to spend the long weekend in one of the cities with tropical beaches, but in the end we chose Iquique, because the beach just looked so amazing in the pictures on the internet. To be honest, I was expecting the beach to be the main highlight of the weekend, but we ended up being surprised by how many other fantastic attractions we discovered in the city and the surrounding area. Overall, it was one of the most memorable and fun trips I've taken here in Chile.

The trip didn't get off to the greatest start - we arrived late in the evening, and then had to switch hotel room, because the bathroom door managed to lock itself from the inside. What made this especially annoying is that I'd already unpacked most of my backpack, so I then had to pack it all up again, and then unpack again in the new room! But we told ourselves that the next day would be a new day, and that it would be much better. And fortunately, it really did turn out to be much better!

We started Saturday morning having breakfast next to the hotel swimming pool, surrounded by palm trees. It was already nice and warm and sunny, so we knew it would be a great day for sightseeing and spending time at the beach.

The first place we went to see was Playa Brava, which was just across the road from our hotel (the Holiday Inn Express). It's quite a deserty-looking beach, surrounded by sandy-coloured mountains. I was pretty excited to be there, as it was actually my first time visiting a tropical beach! 

Next we walked round a peninsula to arrive at Iquique's most famous beach, Playa Cavancha. This is the place that appears at the top of Google Images when you search for Iquique, and it was what really convinced me we needed to go there, as it looked so much like Miami! It's a really long crescent of beach next to the city's main avenue, with tall buildings at both ends. 

One of the nice things about Playa Cavancha is that it has one of those big signs that are fun for taking pictures with, just like the ones we saw on our trip to Valle del Elqui.

We also saw some interesting buildings near the two beaches, including a Greek-looking building next to the hotel, and a couple of very traditional buildings by Playa Cavancha.

We had hired an SUV for the weekend, which turned out to be a great idea, as it made getting around the city and beyond really easy. So after our walk on the beaches, we got into the car and headed for the historic centre of the city. 

The most important part of the historic centre is Plaza Prat, and its focal point is Torre del Reloj (the clock tower).

There are various historic buildings in the square.

For us, the most impressive building was Casino Español, which is built in a kind-of Andalucían/North African style. The outside is pretty, but the interior is amazingly elaborate and beautiful.

Another important part of the city centre is Calle Baquedano, a street of historic buildings in a range of different colours. Claudio told me that in the past, Santiago had lots of these sorts of buildings too, but it's become so modernised over the years, whereas Iquique has stayed more traditional in terms of architecture.

Next we went to see some more history by visiting the ship, La Esmeralda. This is a place that actually isn't in my Chile guidebook, but Claudio told me it was very important to visit it, because of its role in the War of the Pacific in the 19th century. Iquique, along with Arica, actually used to be part of Peru, while Antofagasta was part of Bolivia, until all these territories were won by Chile during the war. The real Esmeralda was actually sunk in battle, but a true-to-life replica has been built as a museum. It was really interesting to look around the different parts of the ship, which have been recreated exactly as they were in the past. Being there was like taking a trip back into history.

On one side of La Esmeralda you can see mountains and desert, and on the other side you can see the ocean. We were fortunate to spot these three impressive pelicans right next to the ship!

Our next stop was Mall Zofri, part of the Zona Franca de Iquique, a big duty-free area and one of various reasons why Iquique is a popular holiday destination! In fact, it was a deciding factor in us choosing to go there, as Claudio is a big car fanatic and expert, and he wanted to see the tax-free cars on offer there. So after having lunch at the mall, we went to do some car sightseeing, but unfortunately a lot of the garages were closed due to the public holiday. However, we were still able to see a selection of cars when driving past, which was nice.

Then we drove up some very steep roads to the dunes that surround the city, which was a little bit scary! Once we'd found a place to park the car, we climbed up one of the dunes in order to see a panoramic view of the city and the Pacific Ocean. It required a bit of an effort to get to the top, but it was definitely worth it, as the views were incredible. Iquique is on the edge of the Atacama Desert, and from the dunes, you can see desert, mountains, city and sea, so it's quite a unique landscape.

No trip to the beach is complete without swimming in the sea, so that's exactly what we decided to do next. We went to leave our stuff in the hotel and then walked back to Playa Cavancha. It was about 5pm by the time we got in the water, and in hindsight it was probably a bit late to swim, as the water was starting to get quite cold. Although it was the first tropical beach I've swum at, it wasn't really the best beach for swimming that I've been to - there was a lot of seaweed, jellyfish, and tall waves. In fact, at one point, we got caught up in a huge wave, and I was submerged underwater for several seconds, which was pretty scary! But all the same, we had a really fun time!

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel. Claudio went out to a car meet near the hotel for a little while, but apart from that we had a relaxing evening. It had been a long day of walking, climbing, swimming and sightseeing!

We had already seen most of the sights of Iquique, so the following day we decided to make the most of the SUV and go on a road trip into the desert to see some of the sights there.

But before we left the city, we went to see Estadio Tierra de Campeones, Iquique's football stadium, which was a place Claudio particularly wanted to see.

Then after we came back from the desert, we went to see the cathedral. I's difficult to get a decent photo of it, because the street it's on is quite narrow, but it's very pretty and colourful.

To sum up, Iquique really is a city with a bit of everything - sunshine, beaches, history, architecture, shopping and desert. We both really loved our time there, and found it to be the perfect destination for our Easter vacation. We would definitely go back in the future!

Next I'll be writing about our trip into the desert, during which we discovered even more of Chile's interesting history...