Chile South - Accom becoming difficult to find
 

Does anyone know of a good hotel, B&B, in Antofagasto at all. We're not able to see anything under $100 US....the hostals, B&Bs are either full or really bad reviews online.. Ideas?

For anyones info... Iquique last weekend.. not one hotel or hostal had rooms. We ended up spending US$120 for the last room in a hotel that we went back too which was way over budget.. and a little scary if this is what is to come heading forward. Realise its holiday season, but what is everyone else doing. forward booking I assume.

Cheers
Bunny

Um, I hope it does not stay that way as I am heading south, what about the Auto Hotels, any of them around, they should be cheaper?

Cheers
TS

Hmmmm. Not good news at all. Is it your impression that there really are no available rooms, or do you mean there are no rooms at widely-recommended hostels, hostales, hotels, etc.? And are you phoning ahead, or arriving late, or what?

I'm asking in part because I tend to roll up late in the day and grab the first place I see, for better or worse. I want to know whether I need to adjust my habitual opposition to advance planning.

Thanks much,

Mark

(In Loja, Ecuador following a fun ride uphill from the Amazon basin)

HI TS and Mark

We used to do that, as we hate prebooking, roll up around 3-5pm and we have had to change it. In Central America it was fine but with holiday season we are now prebooking from online searches.

In Iquique we tried every hostal on the ground, B&B, hotel along the whole stretch of the beach and inland 3 blocks.....it was diabolical and most had been booked for ages. Two or three we had just missed their last room, in hostals that actually were really horrible, but beggars cant be choosers... it was maybe just bad timing, but from a mate off HUBB he said the same thing that he has sent off emails for South Chile, etc and has been returned 8 or 9 full already.

We havent found that the case South Argentina though yet and are booking our Xmas and New Year accom at Bariloche or El Calafate and there is availability still.


Cheers
Jules

OK, so you are following the coast route, what about camping?

Thanks for the heads up

I have no plans on pre booking as I have no idea where I will be at any time, which may turn into problems, but there you go. The main issue for me is bike security.

Cheers
TS

Goods places in Chile
 

Same goods places for bikers in Chile: (from North to south)

San Pedro de Atacama
Bahia Inglesa
La Serena
Viña del mar
Santiago
Lonquimay
Pucon
Valdivia
Puerto Varas
Coihaique
Chile Chico
Puerto Natales

Best Regards And Welcome

Thanks for the alert. It's not something I would have expected, and I can easily imagine myself rolling in late as usual and being forced by exhaustion into a four star suite....then doing it again in the next town before I caught on.

I'm going to play it by ear, but might end up concentrating a bit harder on Argentina until the return northwards. Or breaking out my camping gear, which hasn't been seeing a lot of use lately. Or something.

If I could resist some of this zigging and zagging I'd be in Ushuaia by now. Instead: Huaraz, Peru following a somewhat harrowing 4 hour uphill ride in the dark due to a construction closure: they opened the road at 6:00 pm, immediately after considerately soaking the (single lane dirt) surface with water to keep the dust down. I had my first and only drop since leaving home 10k miles ago, which made me quite skittish for the next 3.5 hours.

enjoy,

Mark

We've done just that - crossed into Argentina and we are having a ball - what a beautiful country and lots to see and do and accom everywhere.

Cheers
Bunny