Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tours
Pretty much all the hotels can organize dune buggy rides. A handful of others run trips to
Paracas, Islas Ballestras and Nazca. An excellent option is
Pelican Travel & Service
(
22-5211; Perotti)
which has an office next to El Huacachinero Hotel and another one in
Ica.
Sleeping & Eating
HOTEL
Hotel El Huacachinero $$
( 21-7435;
www.elhuacachinero.com
;
Perotti; s/d/tr incl breakfast S100/110/
140; )
Recently upgraded, the Huacachinero logs the finest restaurant in the oasis
(by a stretch), a relaxing pool area (no blaring music), and immediate dune access via the
back gate if you're up for a 45° one-step-forward-two-steps-back climb to the sunset of
your dreams. Agreeably rustic rooms have super-comfortable beds but no TVs - then
again, who needs them?
Hotel Mossone $$$
( 21-3630; Balneario de Huacachina; s/d/ste S200/260/315; )
There's a
wonderfully neglected air about this once posh balneario that was formerly the only hotel
to grace Huacachina's fertile oasis. Rooms are huge - in fact you get two of them, a sala
and a high-ceiling bedroom - and there's a private pool across the road. The atmospheric
central courtyard with its chipped paving stones and wire-mesh aviary looks like
something out of Fidel Castro's time-warped Cuba.
HISTORIC HOTEL
Hostería Suiza $$
( 23-8762;
www.hosteriasuiza.com.pe
; Balneario de Huacachina; d S172-215;
)
The oasis' top end hotel has a Swiss air of cleanliness about it meaning the amply
furnished suites are popular with families and older travelers. Positioned strategically at
the far end of the lagoon it remains out of earshot of Huacachina's rowdiest bars - a bless-
ing for some.
HOTEL
Desert Nights $
( 22-8458; Blvd de Huacachina; dm from S15; )
The menu might have been
ripped off from Ko Samui or anywhere else on the banana pancake trail, but this interna-
tional hostel with a decent and very popular cafe out front is somewhere you're guaran-
HOSTEL, INTERNATIONAL
