Huacachina
The dunes were way bigger than I expected. They seemed to go on forever!
Why go to Huacachina?
Huacachina is the most unique and unexpected place I’ve been to in more than five years living in Peru. Peru’s coast holds some amazing sights that are often overlooked by international travelers, intent on bucket lists. However, it’s absolutely worth your time to spend a week in Ica to see the valley’s wineries and distilleries, the coastal Paracas National Reserve, the famous Nazca lines and the one experience you absolutely cannot miss is the sand dunes of Huacachina. These are all south of Lima. If you want to see the coast north of Lima go to Huanchaco.
I could have spent days, rather than hours, taking photos of the dunes in the changing light.
The Huacachina dunes are worth the trip!
I’ll admit I was skeptical at first. I’ve seen impressive sand dunes in Morocco, and I’ve also seen posts from influencers whose Huacachina experience looked like a crowded tourist trap. After going there, I can tell you that it’s 100% worth the trip. The dunes seem to go on forever and are much bigger than I expected.
Below me is Huacachina, and the city in the top right is Ica in the distance.
What is Huacachina?
Huacachina is a small oasis surrounded by sand dunes, but within sight of Ica. It’s only about a 20-minute drive from the center of Ica and the city has recently sprawled out almost to the edge of Huacachina. The oasis is a small lake/large pond that’s surrounded by palm trees and has little boats you can rent to paddle around. There’s only one road that circles the lake that’s lined with hotels and restaurants. Prices tend to be higher than Ica, so unless it’s really important to you to sleep by the dunes, I recommend staying in Ica.
The green below me and Alvaro, a race car driver, is Huacachina and in the distance is Ica.
What to do in Huacachina?
I rode out into the dunes with Go Adventure Ica, which has Polaris dune buggies that only hold a driver and up to three passengers. This experience is completely different from the “buggies” that hold up to a dozen people, go slower and are honestly less safe. Not only are you packed in with a lot of other tourists, but they are also much higher off the ground, making them more likely to tip over. There are periodic efforts to ban them or enforce stricter safety regulations, but when I was there, I saw dozens of them crowding around the same few spots.
I felt totally safe on the drive.
The Polaris vehicle I was in is smaller, faster, and was driven by a race car driver named Alvaro. We zoomed up and over dunes so fast I felt like I was flying and yet the vehicle is so low to the ground that I never thought we were in danger of tipping over. But just in case, they gave us helmets, goggles, and buffs to keep the sand out of our nose and mouth. I’m not usually a motor sport fan: I prefer skiing over snowmobiles and hiking over ATVs, but this truly was fun. I enjoyed it way more than I expected to.
That dune looked a lot steeper from the top - and I got up way more speed than I expected.
Sandboarding in Huacachina
Sandboarding was definitely my favorite part of the Huacachina experience. The boards we had were shaped like snowboards, but they have two loops at each end to hold on to. They’re not designed to be able to stand on. If I had had more time, I would have asked to board down more than one dune, and to also try one standing up. Some companies had real snowboards with bindings and boots so you can board standing, but I didn’t get to try that, which was my only regret about the experience.
I got a surprise picnic!
Destinos Ica surprised me with a picnic right at sunset, out in a part of the desert that only Go Adventure Ica goes to. When we arrived, I saw that they had set out blankets and pillows around a table as if we were in Morocco, but the patterns on the fabrics were 100% Peruvian. It was an impressive spread with fruit, cheese, crackers, meat, and sparkling wine. I would have eaten it all if we’d had time, but we had some driving to do to get back to Huacachina before dark.
Skip the crowds at Huacachina.
After a couple hours zooming around the dunes and not seeing any other people, I was surprised at how many people I saw when we got back to Huacachina. The big dune buggies had mostly come back and were all crowded around a flat area. Since they’re so big and top-heavy, they all drive on the same flat road through the dunes. Alvaro told me that the dunes are fairly stable, so the big vehicles all drive the same route every day. The Polaris was small and versatile enough that he can drive a different route every day, so people don’t see any tire tracks from the day before. In the winter (June – August) there is a lot more wind so tracks get erased every night.
How to get to Huacachina?
I took a bus from Lima to Ica and stayed at Hotel Viñas Queirolo, where Destinos Ica picked me up for my tours every day. If you don’t speak Spanish, I recommend booking a package with Destinos Ica that includes transportation from Lima.
