Elqui Valley tour: Wine, pisco, Gabriela Mistral sites

The oldest pisco in Chile is still made in the mountains where it started.

A ten-hour guided tour of the Elqui Valley from La Serena covers the region's wine and pisco heritage, indigenous sites, colonial churches and haciendas, and the towns connected to Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral. The tour includes lunch cooked in solar ovens, tastings at a working distillery, and visits to viewpoints, a historic vineyard, and the mountain towns where Mistral lived and taught. A live guide in English or Spanish leads the group through ten stops across the valley's terraced agriculture, desert landscape and cultural landmarks.

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Elqui Valley cultural sites

• Tour foundational terraces and old town
• Observe indigenous sites and hacienda houses
• Visit water storage engineering viewpoint
• Stop at Falernia vineyard and papaya store
• Visit Gabriela Mistral's historic town
• Explore city with lively square and sculptures
• Lunch with solar oven cooked Chilean food
• Stop at scenic viewpoint of grape harvests
• Visit pisco distillery and taste muscatel alcohol
• See town where Gabriela Mistral grew up
• Walk historic town of old alcohol merchants

The experience

Ten hours means you start early and finish by evening, which is what makes it possible to move through the whole valley without backtracking. The tour opens in La Serena itself (the old town, its foundational terraces and main monuments), then heads into the coastal valley to see the first colonial churches and hacienda houses the Spanish conquest built, alongside the indigenous sites they displaced. From there the route climbs into the mountains proper, where the Elqui River runs through terraced vineyards and the air clears enough that the region became famous for astronomy.

The pisco distillery is the working kind, not a museum: you taste the muscatel grape alcohol at a Capel cooperative facility and learn how it is made and aged. Before that comes lunch in a town where women built solar ovens to cook with the sun's heat instead of fuel, a practical solution to scarcity that became a restaurant. The meal is typical mountain food: starter, main, dessert and soft drink, all cooked that way. The vineyard stop at Falernia and the papaya farm let you see what grows here and why the valley's mineral-rich soil and transparent atmosphere made it the birthplace of Chilean wine.

Gabriela Mistral, the first female Nobel Prize winner for literature in Latin America, grew up in two of the towns on this route. You visit her hometown, where her house, church and plaza are now a national monument together, and the mountain village where she studied and taught. The final stop is a historic town high in the valley where merchants once gathered to trade the region's famous sweet wines and pisco before sending caravans down to supply Potosí, the largest city in the world in the early 1600s. The air-conditioned vehicle moves between stops. The guide speaks English or Spanish and is included.

What’s included

• Air-conditioned vehicle with pickup from La Serena.
• live guide in English or Spanish.
• entry tickets to all sites.
• tastings at the pisco distillery and vineyard.
• lunch with starter, main, dessert and soft drink cooked in solar ovens.
• photographs at landscapes and historical sites.

Before you book

Days and timesTuesday to SundayDeparts at 08:30

Book up to20h before

AgesAdult (18 to 59 years) · Senior (60 and older) · Youth (13 to 17 years) · Child (4 to 12 years) · Infant (1 to 3 years)

GroupUp to 17

Live guideEnglish and Spanish

Meeting point and pickupHotel pickup included.You can choose from 26 pickup points.

Cancellation and refundsFree cancellation up to 24 h before the start. After that, no refund.It may be canceled due to bad weather or if the minimum number of travelers isn't reached. If that happens, you're offered another date or a refund.

Prices and times updated 12 days ago

Good to know

Low physical effortStroller-friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Tembeta

Is this one for you?The ten-hour commitment means you need a full day and will arrive back in La Serena by evening, which rules out a side trip elsewhere but lets you move through the whole valley and its wine, pisco and Mistral heritage without rushing any single stop.

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Top questions

What languages is the tour guided in?

Live guide in English and Spanish.

Can children come?

Yes. Ticket types: Youth (13 to 17 years); Child (4 to 12 years); Infant (1 to 3 years).

What happens if it rains?

It may be canceled due to bad weather. If that happens, you're offered another date or a refund. Free cancellation up to 24 h before the start.

What exactly is pisco and why is the Elqui Valley famous for it?

Pisco is a brandy distilled from muscatel grapes, and the Elqui Valley is where it originated in Chile. The region's transparent atmosphere, mineral-rich soil and the oldest wine and pisco cellars in the country made it the center of production. The tour visits a working distillery to see how it is made and taste it.

Who was Gabriela Mistral and why does the tour visit her towns?

Gabriela Mistral was the first female Nobel Prize winner for literature in Latin America and grew up in the Elqui Valley. The tour stops in two towns where she lived, studied and taught. Her house, church and plaza in one of them are now a national monument.

What is the solar-oven restaurant and what kind of lunch is served?

The restaurant is in a mountain town where women built solar ovens to cook using the sun's energy instead of fuel. Lunch is typical Chilean mountain food (starter, main course, dessert and soft drink) all prepared in the solar ovens.

How much time do you spend at the pisco distillery and vineyard?

The tour stops at a working pisco distillery where you taste the muscatel brandy and learn about production, and at the Falernia vineyard and Olivier papaya farm to see what grows in the valley. The exact time at each stop varies, but both are included as part of the ten-hour route.