This route runs from Santiago north along the coast and up into Chile's far north, taking in colonial port towns, wine country, and one of the most extreme landscapes on the continent. Along the way you'll spend time in Viña del Mar and Valparaíso before heading inland to the Atacama Desert and up to Arica.

It's a shared group journey for independent travellers, and the make-up of your group can change as you go — people join or move on at different points along the route, so the size of your group shifts from place to place.

The far north is the real draw here: the Atacama, the driest desert in the world, gives way to high-altitude lakes and archaeological sites that go back thousands of years.

What you'll do

• Wander the hillside streets of Valparaíso and the coast at Viña del Mar
• Taste wine in central Chile
• Cross the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world
• See the Chinchorro mummies in Arica, the oldest mummies known anywhere
• Visit Lago Chungara, sitting at 5,000 metres above sea level