Chile · Región de Antofagasta
Where to Stay in Calama, Región de Antofagasta
Calama is a city of northern Chile in the Atacama desert, an oasis on the Loa river, the mining town of the world's greatest copper pit and the base for San Pedro de Atacama.
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Where to stay in Calama
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Calama turns on the town or the desert. The streets around the plaza keep the cathedral, the market, and the mining museum within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the city. Dry desert rings the town.
The Loa runs green nearby. Out toward San Pedro and the oases, the town gives way to the salt flats, the adobe villages, and the road to the Atacama wonders. A room out of town trades the streets for the desert light, the green oasis, and the far volcanoes.
Bare desert reaches to the far volcanoes. Stay downtown for the city, or out for the desert. The oasis town sits on the Loa in the Atacama.
About Calama
Calama is the copper city of the Atacama.
What is Calama known for?
On the Loa river in the driest desert on earth in northern Chile, it grew as an oasis and mining town, and it keeps the vast open pit of Chuquicamata to the north, the green thread of the Loa through the sand, the old adobe churches and hill-forts of the Atacameño country, and the road out to the wonders of San Pedro de Atacama. The bare desert runs to the hills. Copper trucks rumble through the town.
What are the main landmarks in Calama?
Chuquicamata is the pride of the Calama country. The vast open copper pit north of the town, one of the largest holes ever dug by man, is the emblem of the region, out of downtown. Old forts crown the hills.
The pre-Columbian pucará of Lasana stands in the Loa gorge nearby, while the adobe church of Chiu Chiu, the green oasis, and the road to San Pedro mark the country around Calama.
What is the history of Calama?
Calama began as an oasis on the Loa. For ages the Atacameño people farmed the green banks of the Loa in the desert and built hill-forts and adobe churches along the river. The desert held great riches.
In the mountains north of the town lay copper in vast amount, and Calama grew as the town of the miners who worked it. Copper made the modern city. The great pit of Chuquicamata, the largest open mine in the world, was dug in the hills, and Calama swelled with the workers and trade of the copper.
The desert drew travelers too. Beyond the town lay San Pedro de Atacama with its salt flats, geysers, and moon valleys, and Calama became the way out to them, so the town kept its river, its churches, and its mines. The copper still moves through the town.
Calama keeps its desert oasis on the Loa.
Where is Calama?
Calama lies in the north of Chile, on the Loa river in the high Atacama desert. The city sits on a desert plain over two thousand metres up, an oasis of green on the Loa amid bare rock and salt, with the Andes rising east to the volcanoes and the driest sands stretching away on every side. The river threads the dry plain.
Bare peaks ring the desert.
What is the climate of Calama?
Calama has a cold, dry desert climate. Warm days and cold nights cross the high desert, with clear skies almost all year and rain that scarcely ever falls. The sun blazes by day.
Frost bites the desert nights.
How do you get to Calama?
Calama lies in the Atacama of northern Chile, high in the desert. Flights land from Santiago across the desert, and the highway runs down to Antofagasta on the coast. Tour vans head to San Pedro.
Antofagasta lies west by the sea.
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More cities in Región de Antofagasta
Updated August 2026