Nuts and Bolts: Travel Tips for Visiting Huacachina, Peru
- Rand Blimes
- Jun 21
- 7 min read
Nuts and Bolts posts give you the practical information you need, but without stripping away the humor, mishaps, and little victories that make real travel what it is. These aren’t just guides. They’re how we actually did it—mistakes, triumphs, and all.
This page has some travel tips for visiting Huacachina to aid in planning your own trip. I travel mainly with my wife, and we love to simply wander and eat when we explore a new place. We were in Huacachina in July, 2024. If your trip to Huacachina is significantly longer/shorter/with a different focus, you may have a very different experience.
Huacachina is not just about the glorious sand dunes that surround it...
Um… no, wait…
Sorry. Yeah. Actually Huacachina is all about the glorious sand dunes that rise all around it.
This tiny town, hugging the edge of an adorable little lake fed by underground aquifers, is the classic oasis—surrounded by dry, unforgiving desert, it’s a little dot of blue, a ring of green… and then a ring of hotels, tour companies, and restaurants cashing in on the charm.
Whether you’re here to blast through the dunes in an open buggy, slog to the top of a sand mountain, or defy Snow Miser by strapping on a snowboard and carving your way down a sun-scorched slope, Huacachina is loud, fast, sandy fun.
But it is also a quiet slog up the dunes (two steps forward . . . 1.9 steps back) in the predawn darkness to watch one of the greatest sunrises I have ever seen.
Just know what you’re coming for. Huacachina is not the pace you go for cultural immersion. This is where you come to sweat, scream, and laugh your way through a dune-filled desert playground.
Travel Tips for Visiting Huacachina: Weather
One of Huacachina’s great strengths? The weather is almost boringly reliable. Located on the edge of the Ica desert, this oasis enjoys sunshine nearly year-round. Expect hot, dry days and cooler evenings, with virtually no rain. Seriously—this place averages just a few millimeters of rain per year, and some years see none at all. If you're the kind of traveler who checks the weather obsessively before packing... save yourself the stress. It’s going to be sunny.
That said, the desert does come with its quirks. Temperatures in the middle of the day can get blistering, especially from December to March (the Southern Hemisphere summer). Bring sunscreen, a hat, and whatever emotional armor you need to avoid becoming the human version of a roasted marshmallow.
Nights cool off quickly once the sun dips behind the dunes, so pack a light jacket or sweatshirt (or, if you are there in winter and you are acclimated to a tropical climate, a full on coat). And no matter the season, you’ll be getting sand everywhere—shoes, clothes, ears, soul. There’s no off-season for sand.
If you're hoping to avoid crowds, try visiting on a weekday. Peruvian families and local tourists love to escape to Huacachina on weekends, especially during holidays or school breaks. It’s not unbearable—but if your vibe is more “sunset serenity” than “buggy engine symphony,” timing your visit midweek can help. A little.
Getting to Huacachina
Let’s clear something up first: you don’t actually arrive in Huacachina. You arrive in the nearby city of Ica, and then you grab a short taxi or tuk-tuk ride (about 10–15 minutes) into the tiny oasis town itself. So no, the buses won’t drop you off at the edge of a dune while a camel greets you with mint tea. You’ve still got a few steps to go.
From Lima (which is where most people start), the easiest route is by bus. Several companies run the 4–5 hour route between Lima and Ica, with varying levels of comfort. The two most popular options are:
Cruz del Sur – reliable, comfortable, and often more expensive. Think reclining seats, air con, maybe even a snack. This is what we used.
Soyuz or Oltursa – cheaper, more local vibe. These may skip some of the frills, but they’ll still get you there.
Buy tickets online ahead of time if you're traveling in high season, or just show up at the bus terminal and catch the next one out if you're feeling spontaneous (and lucky).
From elsewhere in Peru, the same rule applies: aim for Ica. There are direct buses from places like Arequipa, Nazca, and Cusco (though Cusco is a bit of a haul—you’ll be on the road for 16+ hours). If you’re coming from Nazca, the ride is quick and easy—about 2–3 hours.
Once in Ica, grab a taxi or moto-taxi to Huacachina. It’s close, cheap, and easy to find—everyone knows where you’re going. If they try to overcharge you because you “look like a dune buggy enthusiast,” just smile, bargain a bit, and enjoy the ride. You’re almost there.
Getting Around Huacachina
This won’t take long—because Huacachina is tiny. Like, “I-blinked-and-was-at-the-other-end-of-town” tiny. The whole oasis is basically one loop around the little lagoon, with a handful of streets stretching a block or two in either direction. You don’t need taxis, maps, or even a sense of direction. You just need your feet. And maybe some sandals that don’t mind sand.
You’ll spend most of your time walking—between your hotel, a restaurant, the edge of the dunes, and back again. Everything you want is within five or ten minutes. If it’s not, you’ve probably left Huacachina and wandered back toward Ica.
The only exception is when you head into the dunes. For that, you’ll need a dune buggy tour or a sandboard—both of which come with pickup and drop-off right from town. In short: no need for wheels here unless they come with roll bars and scream through sand at 40 mph.
Where to Stay in Huacachina for the Budget Conscious Traveler
Let’s be clear—Huacachina is so small that the phrase “location, location, location” is basically irrelevant. No matter where you book, you’re within easy walking distance of everything: the dunes, the lagoon, the restaurants, and the tour operators trying to sell you a buggy ride while you’re still chewing your breakfast.
So don’t stress about proximity—just decide what kind of experience you want. Want a room with a view of the dunes? You can pay a bit more for that. Visiting in the summer months? A pool might be worth the splurge, especially if your tolerance for melting into a puddle is low. Otherwise, pick based on budget and vibe.
We stayed at Desert Nights Hostel, mostly because it had solid reviews and didn’t look like it was falling down. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was perfectly functional: a bed to sleep in, a shower to (futilely) try to rinse off a day's worth of sand, and a chill enough atmosphere for recovering between dune adventures. That was good enough for us.
What to eat in Huacachina
Given that Huacachina is essentially one big sandy cul-de-sac where all tourists are conveniently trapped, you might expect the food to be overpriced and underwhelming. And yet—surprise!—the food here is actually pretty good.
Most of our favorite restaurants clustered along the north side of the lagoon, and there’s enough variety to keep things interesting for a few days. If you’re looking for hearty local fare, the spicily named Huacafuckingchina Restaurant and Bar delivers solid Peruvian classics in a laid-back setting. (Bonus points for the name, which you'll have fun recommending to your grandparents.)
If you’re craving a break from Peruvian food, Wild Olive serves up surprisingly legit Italian—think proper pasta dishes, and pizza.
We also ate at the Desert Nights Hostel restaurant, which turned out to be a totally respectable place for a meal. The menu was nothing fancy, but the food was fresh and filling—ideal for recharging after faceplanting in a dune for the fifth time that day.
While you won’t find any Michelin stars in Huacachina, you will find solid meals, cold drinks, and more than one reason to sit lakeside and linger.
What To Do in Huacachina
My top recommendation in Huacachina isn’t what most people go there to do—but it was the best thing I did in town and easily one of my top five experiences in Peru:
Get up before dawn, haul yourself to the top of a dune, and watch the sunrise.The climb up is brutal. You’ll thrash and grind and question every life choice that brought you to a place where uphill hiking feels like stepping on a treadmill made of molasses and broken dreams. But then you reach the top, just as the first light spills over the dunes—and it’s magic. One of the most peaceful, surreal, and beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen.
Of course, most people don’t come to Huacachina for the 4am wake up call to spiritual awakening. They come to ride the dunes. If you’ve got a snowboard (or, if you're one of the rare sand-loving unicorns we saw, skis), you can hike up and sand-ski your way down. No lifts. No lines. Just sand in places you didn’t know sand could go.
For a more adrenaline-packed option that doesn’t involve carrying your gear uphill like a 19th-century mule, book a dune buggy tour. These are wild, bouncy rides that fling you across the desert like a pinball. Most tours include dune sledding, where you lie on your belly on a snowboard and go careening headfirst down the steepest sand hills they can find. It's bouncy. It's hilarious. It's glorious.
We booked a late afternoon tour that ended with a sunset perched high above town. It was beautiful—definitely worth it—but sunset is not in the same class as sunrise. Not even close.
You can even book an overnight tour and camp out in the dunes under the stars. If sleeping in sand-filled socks and brushing your teeth with bottled water sounds romantic to you, this might be the desert getaway of your dreams.
And finally, while the lagoon itself isn’t exactly inviting for a swim, you can rent a paddleboat and float lazily around the water’s edge, pretending you’re in the Sahara. It’s cheesy. It’s fun. It’s Huacachina.
Huacachina might be small, a little touristy, and surrounded by more sand than any rational person wants to deal with—but there’s something undeniably fun about it. It’s a place where grown adults become giggling kids again, clinging to dune buggies, belly-sledding down dunes, and getting up at 4 a.m. just to chase the perfect sunrise.
It’s not the most profound destination in Peru. It doesn’t pretend to be. But it knows how to deliver a good time wrapped in sun, sand, and just enough chaos to remind you that not everything about travel has to be life-changing to be worthwhile. —because travel isn’t always about transformation. Sometimes it’s just about grinning like a maniac on a sandboard.
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