Iquique Travel Guide

Playa Cavancha sits in the desert port city of Iquique and is northern Chile's most pleasant urban beach, with golden sand and calm Pacific waters ideal for swimming and surfing. At one end, the Cavancha pier is a spot for fishing and sunset views; the seafront avenue links casinos, hotels and seafood restaurants. Iquique's year-round sun and near-zero rain make it a famed dry-climate resort in South America, with paragliding and a lively beach nightlife.Paragliders skimming overhead are the town's own sky theatre.

The Museo Corbeta Esmeralda is an open-air maritime museum in Iquique, a full-scale replica of the Chilean corvette Esmeralda of the War of the Pacific. Visitors board the hull, gun deck and cabins to relive the 1879 Battle of Iquique.

Paseo Baquedano is the most atmospheric pedestrian street in the old quarter of Iquique, a northern Chilean port, running nearly fifteen blocks from the waterfront into town. European immigrants enriched by the nitrate boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries built rows of houses from imported Oregon pine using American balloon-frame construction, with verandas, overhanging eaves, skylights and little watchtowers in a mix of Georgian, Greek Revival and Adam styles. The result — an unusual wooden cityscape for Chile — is protected as a 'Zona Tipica' historic zone. Wood-and-stone paving, fountains, greenery, craft stalls and street performers line the way. At one end, Plaza Prat holds the 1877 clock tower and the 1890 Municipal Theatre; along the street stand the Astoreca Palace and the free Museo Regional, with Chinchorro mummies and nitrate-era artifacts.