How To Spend 24 Hours In South America’s Oasis: Huacachina, Peru

It was a cold and surprisingly damp, morning. You know how you the air gets right after a big thunderstorm? It felt similar to that…the only thing was, we were in a Peruvian Desert.

In an attempt to beat the sun, we had woken up around 5AM. You see, we were in a magical place and had to get the light just right in order to capture its beauty.

We were in Huacachina, Peru’s famous oasis town.

Peruvian legend says the oasis formed when a beautiful princess was caught bathing in the waters by a local hunter. In her shame, she dove deep into the water where she wept out of humiliation. Her tears make the oasis what it is today, but her humiliation has continued to curse the land, turning everything to sand. They say she still lives at the bottom of the oasis if any are brave enough to dive in.

Today, it serves as a tiny resort town for locals and tourists to frolic along the massive dunes.

To continue our story, the fog had rolled over the oasis during the night and remained as dawn broke. As we hiked to the top of the closest dune, we got the chills, not something you would imagine occurring in the desert. The sand on top was cold from the night air, but as your foot sank, the sand became much warmer. The wind off the backside of the dune was chilling, but it was also blowing the fog away, making its howl bittersweet.⠀
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When we reached the top of the giant dune, the fog hadn’t completely cleared. To avoid the wind, we did our best to dig ourselves into the sand. For roughly two hours, and way after sunrise, we watched waves of fog drift in and out of the oasis, over the dunes, and into oblivion. It was a chilling and calming experience.⠀
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Of course, the fog lifted and we snapped some great pictures, but I’m glad the mist was there. It made the experience more than just a “copy and paste” picture from Instagram, which has turned this little town into an internet legend.

Funny enough, it only took us about 2 minutes to run down the same dune that took us an hour to climb up!

As the sun warmed up this little oasis town, we spent the day doing what everyone who visits Huacachina should do: sandboarding and dune buggying.

I’m not a huge fan of roller coasters, but this was awesome!

Our driver picked us up in front of our hotel, where we were joined by others on the tour. The town is tiny, so walking from one side to the other takes less than 10 minutes. However, the city is packed with tour buses and dune buggies, so driving from one side to the other takes 20 minutes. Luckily, we were in the dunes pretty quickly, where all the fun began!

All the dune buggy drivers are complete pros. They do this five or six times every day, so they have the patterns and “trails” in the dunes all picked out for maximum excitement.

Once you are in the dunes, you’ll whip around, up, and down some small, large, and very steep dunes. There are a few photo spots where the drivers all meet up, and you can jump out and snap some pictures of the vast emptiness that makes up the desert. In the distance, you can see large desert mountains and the city of Ica.

After that, it’s off to the sandboarding spots! Unless you bring your gear, you’ll be handed fairly basic sandboards, which are essentially pieces of wood with wax on the bottom. So, don’t expect to carve up the side of these mountains.

It is still a blast, though! Lying on your stomach and going down these hills will give you quite the thrill. You start on small hills and then gradually get larger until you reach the biggest one, which has to be at least 30 stories tall. By this time, you’re pretty comfortable on the board and can genuinely enjoy the experience.

TIP: If you get scared riding down, just dig your feet into the sand to slow yourself down. I definitely had to do this a couple times!

Being a resort town, primarily known for its hostels, Huacachina is a place where people like to party.

Nearly every night, you’ll find some bar cranking out music until the wee hours of the night. For some, this is heaven; for others, this is horrible. If you want to get a whole night’s rest, I suggest finding a hotel that is a reasonable distance away from the bars surrounding the center of the oasis. If you want to party, most bars don’t really pick up until around 11 PM or so, but they go until about 4 AM, so bring your dancing shoes!

The restaurants around the oasis make some excellent food. From pizza and pasta to French toast and pancakes, they offer a variety of options. Most of them also tout a hefty happy hour menu, so if you want to sip on a Pina Colada, you won’t be the only one! This is one of the rare small Peruvian towns that accepts credit cards, so don’t spend your Soles here; swipe the plastic.

TIP: It does get cold at night, so be sure to wear a jacket and pants. We were running around in our shorts and t-shirts, and by 8 PM, we were freezing

During our time in Peru, Huacachina was the one place that truly took our breath away (other than struggling to breathe during the Inca Trail). The pictures you see online truly don’t capture the aura and beauty of this hidden gem.

While it isn’t close to either Lima or Cusco, it is worth the effort to see when in Peru. You will have a blast on the dune buggies and sandboarding experience during the day, eat well in the evening, and enjoy the nightlife surrounding this tourist town, no matter when you go.

However, if you go, you must, and I promise you that you will hike to the top of the dune closest to the town and enjoy the sunrise. It was as calming and relaxing as any island or serene beach I’ve ever seen.

TO SEE SOME OF THE DUNE BUGGY AND SAND BOARDING FUN IN HUACACHINA, CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO: