If you’re on the Peru tourist trail beyond just Cusco, chances are you’ve got a stop planned in Huacachina, Peru’s famous desert oasis about four hours south of Lima.
As someone who’s lived in Peru for over a year, I can honestly say Huacachina is my favourite place to visit here. I can go back time and time again and not get bored. That might be because I’m a desert girl at heart. But even so, it absolutely earns its spot on your itinerary.
Huacachina has a bit of a rep for being a party town, and you can definitely find that here. But there’s so much more to it – enough to keep you happily entertained for a few days. So here’s my honest guide to the best things to do in Huacachina that aren’t partying. Plus a bit on the partying, because… LIVE A LITTLE.
Also worth reading:
How to get to Huacachina
Huacachina sits about 10 minutes from Ica, the regional capital, and roughly four hours south of Lima. There’s no airport here, so the bus is your only real option.
Your least painful route is a direct bus from Lima. The direct service is just over four hours, though many stop in Paracas on the way, which stretches it to five-and-a-bit. I use Cruz del Sur and book an S/80–100 seat for the business-class 160 or 180 degree (VIP) experience. Pack LAYERS – the buses can be absolutely freezing.
When you reach Ica, you’ll need a taxi or tuktuk on to Huacachina. There are plenty of taxi touts outside the station, and Uber doesn’t really operate here. Expect to pay around S/15 for a cab or S/8–10 for a tuktuk. Take exact change – funnily enough, they “won’t have any change” the second you flash a big note.
Where to stay in Huacachina
For such a tiny place, Huacachina has an almost overwhelming number of places to stay. My top picks are Viajero (budget-friendly hostel, but with private-room options) and Hotel Suiza (nicer, quieter, a bit pricier). For the full rundown and a longer list, see my complete Huacachina accommodation guide.
The best things to do in Huacachina
Dune buggying and sandboarding
If you’ve come all the way to a desert oasis, this is non-negotiable. Don’t fight me on it. You’ve got a few ways to do it.
The dune buggy and sandboarding tour is my top pick. Several companies run big dune buggies on daytime or – my recommendation – sunset tours combining the ride with sandboarding. I used Rishie’s Tours (find them in Huacachina here). Note their online prices run a little higher than what they quote in person.
The sunset tour is S/50 (about $15) and leaves around 4:45pm. The buggy tears up into the dunes. Fast, bumpy, brilliant, and along the way you get flat boards to lie on and slide down three massive dunes on your belly. The driver scoops you up at the bottom each time and drives on. And he’ll happily take photos and mind your phone. Then you head deeper into the desert to watch the sun drop, before parking up above the oasis for an aerial view of Huacachina at sunset. The photos are unreal. It’s a two-hour tour, boards included, buggies have seatbelts, and it felt genuinely safe – excellent value all round.
Prefer to rent a sandboard?
You’ll find boards for rent all over town, usually around S/50 ($15). Most are the proper strap-in boards with boots attached – real pro kit. Honestly, only go down this route if you actually know how to sandboard. Because the odds of falling are high and Huacachina has no healthcare facilities to speak of…! If you’re in the clumsy gang (welcome), ask for a plain flat board you slide down on your belly instead. Way more fun, way less effort. Either way, you’ll be hauling your board up the dunes yourself and finding a clear patch to slide down without taking anyone out. Serious note – find somewhere safe, there are load of people flying around.
Or just walk the dunes.
If buggies and boards aren’t your thing, you can simply walk out and climb. Fair warning: climbing a dune is WAY harder than it looks, so if you fancy a workout, here it is. Don’t wander too far out – the desert is genuinely disorienting – but hiking up for a view over the oasis? Incredible.
Climbing a dune for sunset is one of the best free things to do in Huacachina. Start 45 minutes to an hour before the sun goes down (the soft sand makes it slow going). You’ll be rewarded with the oasis glowing gold below you as the lights flicker on. Bring water and a jumper – it gets chilly the moment the light goes.
Take a pedal boat out on the lagoon
The dream romantic activity, obviously. The lake in the middle of Huacachina is lined with pedal boats and rowing boats you can take out through the day for a small fee. It’s best at sunset, and it’s never so crowded that you’re dodging other boats. If you’ve got a few hours to kill in town, it’s a surprising amount of fun.
Nightlife: Huacachina’s party scene
As promised – the partying. Huacachina is famous for it, and Wild Rover is the notorious epicentre. The bar inside this hostel is packed every single night with beer pong, drinking games and free shots. Even if you’re a strictly-in-bed-by-10 type, it’s still a lively spot for an earlier-evening beer, since most other places are dead before 9pm. Viajero also has a solid party atmosphere but dialled down a notch, if Wild Rover feels like too much. And Rest Morón is an open-air, nightclub-style place right on the lake pumping dance music all evening – even when literally nobody has arrived yet. It’s a vibe.
(If there’s a big match on while you’re in town, I’ve got a separate guide to where to watch the World Cup in Huacachina too.)
Day trips from Huacachina
Paracas and the Ballestas Islands
Paracas is about 1.5 hours from Huacachina, and it makes a brilliant full-day trip. It’s a national reserve, and the star attraction is a boat trip out to the Islas Ballestas – a cluster of rocky islands with the most insane wildlife. You’ll see Humboldt penguins, sea lions lazing about on the rocks, pelicans, and thousands of squawking seabirds like Peruvian boobies and cormorants. On the way out, keep an eye on the hillside for the Candelabra. A giant mysterious geoglyph carved into the peninsula. If you visit between July and October you might even catch migrating whales or dolphins. It’s a photographer’s dream and a genuinely lovely wildlife morning.
You can book it in town the day before (subject to availability), usually around S/100. Or book the Paracas and Ballestas Islands tour online in advance here. It costs a bit more, but it’s locked in and you skip the tout lottery and availability hunt.
The Ica vineyards (wine and pisco)
You’re in Ica, the heart of Peru’s pisco country, so it would be a SIN not to tour the vineyards (and, obviously, do the complimentary tastings). The pisco vineyards of Pisco and Ica are on the tenatative UNESCO list. And there is wine too! Touts in town sell bog-standard S/70 tours – fine, but basic. If you’re in a group or willing to pay a little more, organise your own driver and go to a couple of the bigger, more professional vineyards like Tacama and La Caravedo instead. I’ve written a full post on exactly how to do the Ica vineyards yourself – which ones are worth it, what it costs, and what the experience is actually like.
The Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines are a set of enormous geoglyphs. Giant figures of animals, plants and geometric shapes scraped into the desert floor by the ancient Nazca people from around AD 500, by clearing the dark surface stones to expose the pale ground beneath. They’re so big they can really only be appreciated from above, nobody’s entirely sure why they were made, and they’re a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In short: properly mysterious, properly impressive.
“The” way to see them is a short scenic flight over the desert in a Cessna, which you do need to book ahead. There are options that include Huacachina pickup with your flight here.
Real talk, though. I did one of these (as part of a Peru Hop two-day trip) and, while seeing the lines from the air was very cool, I got incredibly travel sick. To let everyone see out of the windows, the pilots bank the plane hard – almost a full 90 degrees – from side to side, back and forth, for the entire flight. It’s nauseating, and the cabin is boiling. Consider your stomach carefully.
If scenic flights aren’t for you, the land option is surprisingly good
You can book the overland Nazca tour here. There are viewing towers along the Panamericana where you climb up for a surprisingly decent look at some of the figures, and the land route has the bonus of showing you more than just the lines. You’ll also typically see:
- The Cantalloc Aqueducts – an astonishing network of ancient underground irrigation channels with spiralling stone access holes, built by the Nazca and, incredibly, still watering crops today. A genuine masterclass in desert engineering, and very photogenic.
- Paredones – the adobe ruins of an Inca administrative centre that once controlled the route between the coast and the highlands. Fairly weathered, but atmospheric.
- Casa y Museo María Reiche – the former home-turned-museum of the German mathematician who devoted her life to mapping and protecting the lines (and is largely why they survived and got UNESCO status). Her tools, sketches and notes are all here.
One big caveat either way: Nazca is a time investment. It’s around two hours from Huacachina, and there’s a lot of waiting around – the planes only take five or six people, so you wait for your whole group to cycle through, plus a long lunch stop marooned in Nazca town, which… doesn’t have much going on. If you’re into mystery and archaeology, do it. If you’re on a tight schedule, be honest about whether it’s worth the day it’ll eat.
When to book ahead (and when not to)
For the basics – sandboarding, dune buggies, vineyard tours – there’s no need to book in advance. In fact, I’d actively discourage it, because you’ll pay well over the odds. The touts all over town can be stressful, but you don’t have to deal with them: there are legit tourism agencies with actual storefronts along the main street (between Viajero and Wild Rover), and that’s the easier, calmer way to sort it.
Paracas you can book ahead if you want to lock it in and guarantee a spot on limited time. You’ll pay a bit more but it’ll be sorted. There is a great option via GetYour Guide here. Or, just book it through one of the many town agencies the day before.
Nazca is the one to book in advance, especially if you’re set on a flight. Take either the flight option, or an overland tour with viewing platforms and additional Nazca sites.
Should you DIY it, or take a tour from Lima?
The first time I came to Huacachina, I actually did a two-day tour from Lima that looped Paracas, Huacachina and the Nazca Lines and back. I loved it as a no-brainer getaway from Lima where you don’t have to think about logistics. But it genuinely didn’t give me enough time in any one place. There was no wine or pisco tasting, the dune bashing was long and on a rigid schedule, and there was very little flexibility.
Now that I’ve been back and done it DIY, I’ve absolutely loved organising the activities in the order and priority I actually want. So, if you’re on a really tight schedule, an organised tour is a great way to hit the highlights fast. But if you have a few days, doing it yourself from a base in Huacachina wins every time.
FAQ
Is Huacachina worth visiting if I’m not a partier? Completely. The dunes, sunsets, dune buggying, day trips to Paracas, the vineyards and Nazca all have nothing to do with the party scene. You can very easily spend a couple of great days here and never set foot in Wild Rover.
How many days do you need in Huacachina? Two to three. One full day for the dunes and oasis itself, and one or two more if you want to add day trips to Paracas, the vineyards or Nazca.
What’s the best time to visit Huacachina? It’s dry and sunny more or less year-round, so there’s no bad time. Days are hot and evenings cool off quickly, so always pack a layer.
Do I need to book dune buggy and sandboarding tours in advance? No. Book in town on the day through a proper agency on the main strip. It’s cheaper than booking online, and availability is rarely an issue.
Can you see the Nazca Lines without flying? Yes. There are roadside viewing towers, and overland tours that pair the towers with the Cantalloc Aqueducts, Paredones and the María Reiche museum – a good option if flights (or motion sickness) aren’t for you.
Is Huacachina expensive? Not really. Across taxis, tours and activities you can do a lot on a modest budget – most of the headline activities sit around S/50–100.
This post contains affiliate links. If you book through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only ever recommend things I’ve actually done and would genuinely suggest.
