My husband and I were on a 3 week tour of South America and we made sure we went to Atacama desert as it blew us away! What an amazing location! It almost felt like we were on Mars or the Moon! What made this even more enjoyable was our stay at Lodge Altitud, a quaint collection of cottages run by husband-wife duo of Alvaro and Ana Maria. The lodge blends nicely into the adobe color of the desert and has great outdoor space where one can lounge during the day or star-gaze at night and take a swim in the pool during the summer months. Alvaro plans on building an observatory on the grounds very soon so we would love to go back when that's done. The only thing we wished was if the bathrooms could be bigger. The lodge is not exactly in "downtown" San Pedro de Atacama, but it's only a few mins walk from it, located on a large piece of land.

The best part was the personalized guided tour offered by Alvaro in his 4x4! We walked through Cari canyon, where usual tours don't take you, and admired the beauty of the salt formations all around. We enjoyed the view of the setting sun in Valle de la Luna while sipping Chilean wine, a surprise from Alvaro's backpack. The trip to see the Miscanti and Miniques lagoons or the Flamingo reserve were fantastic! Having only 1.5days in hand and so much to see, it would've been difficult to cover so much ground if not for Alvaro's dedicated guided tours. Ana Maria was great to communicate with while coordinating everything before our trip and was a warm and gracious hostess. We really enjoyed our stay at Lodge Altitud.

We stayed at this lodge because we could not get a room anywhere else in town for the 4 nights we needed. It is a 15 minute walk from town on dirt roads with no street lights so take a head light with you, also you have to cross a small river which is sometimes dried up but other times not. Elviro, the owner was not there to great us when we checked in but when he came to meet us later on in the day he was very friendly and offered to take us in to town and pick us up whenever we wanted - the only problem with this is that you have to find Elviro to arrange these lifts and he is never around (his house is down the drive from the lodge).
We stayed in one of the standard rooms (CP$48,000) on the first night and then moved to the larger room that is separate from the main block (CP$55,000 per night), they said they would move us but then came and told us our room was ready and waited while we helped the cleaner move all our gear. The rooms are nice and the beds are comfortable but they could do with some renovations (paint is chipping, showers are old and they look like they haven't been renovated since the lodge opened 6 years ago). Some of our towels had holes in them and bleach stains too. The baby bed that they gave us was filthy, they washed the sheets and blankets but never even wiped down the bed! I wiped the bed with a white towel and it came out brown with filth and dirt.
The pool was nice but way too cold - it is only heated by water running through black plastic tubes on the ground sitting under the sun - we could not swim in it because it was too cold, this was disappointing because the lodge advertises a heated pool.
The breakfast is average - cereal, yogurt, 1 type of chopped fruit (didn't always look fresh), juice (not real fruit juice), cowboy style coffee, tea, stale bread, cheese, jam. The breakfast room and reception area were filthy with dust and crap all over surfaces and the floor - the cleaner would be just sitting around waiting for people to show up for breakfast when she could have been cleaning!
Getting hot water is an issue and pressure in the showers too - we had to go and ask Elviro various times to get the showers to work (as did other guests). This is somewhat understandable when you are staying in the desert but when you are paying US$115 per night I expect more!
The lodge only takes cash which is a pain! so we got US cash out in order to pay them - we knew exactly how much cash we had (8 x US$100 bills) and one of the bills went missing from our room! Elviro seems shocked when we told him and said only 3 things had ever gone missing there (a bra, a sweater and our US$100) but then I saw on trip advisor that someone had their camera stolen too. I think that Elviro needs to fire the 1 staff member he has because it is obviously her that is stealing (he said she had been working for him for 1 year so she has probably got away with stealing quite a bit over that time). Elviro did offer to give us US$50 which was nice but we felt that it was more important that he reprimand the staff worker.
There is no internet/WIFI facilities at this lodge which is a shame.
There are no fridges in the rooms so it is hard to have a nice cold drink when you get home on a hot day!
My husband brought a bottle of wine home one night and Elviro gave us glasses and wine opener so that was nice service.
The tour company that Elviro recommends (he has brochures for) is the most expensive one in town so shop around and ask for a deal from another place - they will give you a discount if you do more that 1 tour because there are so many companies offering tours.
I would recommend this lodge if you want a quiet retreat out of town but don't go here if you don't want the walk or if you want any kind of luxury.
Elviro has a fantastic telescope and he did a free star viewing for the guests one night - we got to see craters on the moon and Saturn too! it was awesome.

Yes, it's probably 10-15 minutes walk to the centre of town, but it has nice clean rooms; good quality linen; a decent breakfast; good swimming pool; fantastic views and charming hosts. If you want the all in Explora type 4 - 5* luxury stay then this isn't it - but here you feel you're in San Pedro in the middle of the Atacama, and at a fraction of the cost.
The rooms are all adobe (including the beds) and charming, bathrooms (smallish) but adequate. Power and hot water is solar panelled so more reliable than in town.
There is no service organisation per se - no bar/restaurant/concierge/turndown service/minbar - other than breakfast, but you can buy your own essentials and keep them in the kitchen fridge
There's no wifi, but Alvaro might set up his monster telescope and you can spend the evening drinking wine and looking at stars - he'll organise any tours you might want to do (including having horses coming to the lodge to take you riding) and show you around town if you haven't been there before. If you want to tour on your own he'll help with recommendations and instructions. Titi, his wife is delightful.

We called to let them know that we had arrived, and immediately the owner came to pick us up in her car with her little son. They were really really nice, and took us to our hotel. We loved the whole environment and feel of the place. It is smaller, quaint and off the beaten path. There is a beautiful view of the mountains and the ruins of pukara de quitor. She let us move into the room early, and then drove us back into town and showed us all the best and cheapest places to eat (where the locals go to not get ripped off) as well as some good places to go hiking. They were very hospitable, and had a breakfast waiting for us in the morning. Even with all the driving around, the early check in and late check out, they stuck to the original price with no extra fees. I thought the price was more than resonable for the experience we had. The pool was a little dirty, but hey, its surrounded by the driest desert in the world, a little dust never hurt anyone anyway.