All about Huacachina Oasis – Peru

Huacachina Oasis is a natural desert oasis located in the Desert of Ica., which is situated just outside of Ica city, four hours south of Lima.

Huacachina is also one of Peru’s most famous and popular tourist destinations, at least after Peru’s big hitters of Machu Pichu, historic Cusco city and high-altitude Lake Titicaca.

Desert of Ica

The beautiful Desert of Ica is a vast area of tall undulating golden sand dunes. The desert’s eastern edge flows right down to Ica city limits (or maybe its more accurate to say that Ica city has expanded all the way out to the dunes).

The desert is a protected national reserve and the only development found there is at Huacachina Oasis.

Ica is known as Peru’s region of eternal sunshine. Indeed, clear blue skies and bright day-long sunshine are the norm at the desert, year round.

Ica Desert’s vast,slowly shifting dunes bask in hot sun and are blown about by ever-changing winds. The conditions created beautiful, curving dune forms and delicately-patterned sand surfaces.

Huacachina Oasis

The oasis is situated just within the eastern boundaries of the desert. It consists of a large, calm pond surrounded by palms, ecucalyptus trees, water reeds and other bright green vegetation.

Around the edge of the pond, there are two walking paths. A natural path of dirt and sand runs right beside the water’s edge, under tall shady palm trees. A few steps up, a wide cement sidewalk also rings the pond, passing various open-air restaurants, shops, kiosks and a large, stately historic-looking hotel.

At the southern end of the pond, a tall dune flows right down to the water’s edge, currently the oasis’s most naturally-intact area. Several tall palms and eucalyputs trees provide shade, though most of the sloping sand hillside is open to the bright, warm sun. It’s a great place to relax while admiring the oasis and tall golden dunes.

A small number of water birds make their home at the pond. They include ducks, herons and egrets. Smaller birds flit about the trees.

Tourism at Huacachina Oasis

Quite unfortunately, Huacachina Oasis is now a perfect example of tourism gone wrong.

Luckily, they have left the immediate edge of the pond and it’s pretty trees in tact.

But step away from the pond area and you land in the midst of an ugly, hideously-developed ghetto-like ‘town’ full of ugly cement buildings. They’re filled with over-priced souvenir shops, tour agents, restaurants, hotels & hostels, bars.

There are paved streets filled with traffic, blasting music, heaps of idscarded trash and plenty of pesky touts trying to sell adventure trips.

Nowadays, the main attractions at Huacachina Oasis (and the reason it’s become so popolar and over-develloped) are adventure desert activities. The include sand-boarding, riding ATVs in the dunes, hiking up to the peaks of the tall dunes and riding colorful paddleboats around the pond.

Visitors swarm to the oasis primarily for sand-boarding and ATV drives, spending very little time enjoying the beautiful oasis itself.

Enjoying Activities at Huacachina Oasis

Hiking up the dunes or out into the dsert is simple. Just start walking for as far and as long as you want. Be sure to take plenty of water and protect yourself from the sun.

From the tops of dunes you can enjoy stuning panoramic vistas over the sprawling desert and to a large mountain range located on the far side of Ica city. While trudging through sand, talk time to notice the gorgeous dune forms and the sand patterns created by the wind.

Sand-boaridng and ATV riding is super easy to do as well. You can book a trip online in advance or else choose one of Huacachina’s overly-abundant tour shops to organize your trip.

One full day at the Oasis is probably enogh for most visitors to stroll around the pond, admire the views and enjoy one or more activities on offer.

Travelers who love getting immersed in nature, though, might want to spend two or three days hiking out in the beautiful, silent desert, away from bustling tourism at the oasis.

Where to stay during a visit to Huacachina Oasis

Since the oaisis is located right on the edge of Ica city, it’s very easy to visit, no matter where you stay. There are a dozen or more small but over-priced hotels and hostels at the oasis itself.

A handful of hotels, guesthouses and hostels are also situated a few kms outside the oasis, on the outskirts of Ica. Then, in the city center, there are dozens more accomodations of all types.

Be warned that Ica is a big city full of noisy traffic, unattractive buildings, shopping malls and so on. Hucachina Oasis is smaller, but also unattractive, full of visitors and often over-run with tours, lound music and traffic.

Camping Sol y Dunas

When I visited Huacachina, I lucked out finding a wonderful rustic ‘camp’ situated all by itself, right on the dunes, far from the noisy traffic and crowds of the city and the oasis.

Called Camping Sol y Dunas, this is a fantastic place for independent budget travelers who enjoy a rustic place with basic private rooms and facilities or who have their own tent.

From the camp, you can walk across the dunes to Huacachina Oasis in about 30-40 minutes, thus maintaining a real nature immersive experience. You can alternately walk to the oasis via the physically easier but noisy, traffic-clogged roads in about the same time.

The camp is rather far from shops, restaurants and supermarkets. You’ll have to walk 20-30 minutes to reach them or take a cheap mototaxi. But the camp does have a useable kitchen, so once you’ve hauled in your groceries or meals, it’s easy to cook and feed yourself right there.

For nature lovers like me who would like to enjoy the desert and oasis without all the traffic, crowds and noise, this camp is a fantastic option.

Getting to Huacachina Oasis

As noted above, Ica city and Huacachina are located about four hours south of Lima.

Huacachina Oasis is also conveniently situated between two other major Peruvian tourist destinations: Paracas Natoinal Reserve and Nazca (famous for the ancient Nazca Lines). More specifically, Ica is located 1.5 hours by bus or car south of Paracas and 25-3 hours north of Nazca.

This makes getting to Ica and the Oasis is quite easy. Multiple daily buses run to/from Ica and Lima, Nazca, Paracas and other Peruvian cities. From the Ica bus station it’s easy to catch a taxi (expensive) or a 3-whheeler ‘mototaxi’ (cheap) to the oasis or your accommdation.

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