Chile Travel Destination: Arica

Arica, a Chile travel destination explained by a Chile travel expert at Chile For Less

Arica, Chile gets a lot of attention because it is the launching point for excursions to beautiful Lauca National Park, one of the absolute highlights to any Chile vacation. What is lesser known about Arica is its reputation as a major world surf destination. With the warm sea current and exhilarating surf breaks, it is visited by thousands of surfers every year from all over the world.
In addition to the tourists who come in to test the waves, the local community takes a lot of pride in their surfing skills, hitting the waters on a regular basis.

Surfing has become a favorite pastime for many Chileans and the industry has boomed over the years. Northern Chile is by far a more pleasant choice for taking to the water as the temperatures in the archipelago and even in central Chile can be absolutely frigid.

El Gringo and El Buey waves off Alacran Island are world-famous waves for size and difficulty.
El Buey can deliver rides of more than 600 feet and doesn’t even start to break until it’s already at 8 feet. It’s biggest between April and August and breaks in perfect barreling tubes. Needless to say, this wave is not for beginners.

Every August an international surfing competition is held at Alacran attracting all the big-wave surfers in South America. In 2007, Arica hosted the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour Contest bringing in the cream of the crop in the surfing world. 

If you’ve never surfed before and you just want to give it a go on some of the tamer stuff, there are lots of surfing schools on all the good surf beaches that will take care of you. You can rent a wetsuit for the day, it’s necessary most of the year because the waters can be pretty chilly. Ask the schools for if they have any bilingual instructors if you’re Spanish is a little rusty. Most of them do.

Like in any good surf destination, Arica is also a solid party destination. There are bars and nightclubs lining the beaches. There sitting there waiting for the surfers to come in after dark to kick it off. Some of the hippest nightlife is found in bars and discos strung along Playa Chinchorro. You’ll find a wide variety of DJ’s and it’s easy to catch live salsa or rockbands pretty much any night of the week. Drake’s and Soho are a side-by-side oceanfront bar and disco. They alternate nights they are open to keep everyone together, which is a pretty clever way of keeping everyone together. It works perfectly and one of these clubs is always a good option for an evening out on the town in Arica.

Northern Chile may not get as much attention as Santiago or the Patagonia region but you’ll find that it has a lot to offer. Between the stunning sites of the Atacama Desert, beautiful Lauca National Park, and the warmer ocean waves of a lively Arica, you can’t go wrong focusing your Chile vacation to the north. You are also in a good position to cross borders into Peru or Bolivia by land. So keep it in mind when your planning your Chile, vacation. Don’t forget about the north.

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