How to moonwalk

A new travel trend has appeared on (or rather, below) the horizon for 2025. Moon-walk your way towards a more serene and in-depth experience of your destination.

After dark jaunts provide a pleasantly narrowed scope of experience, instead of the sometimes overwhelming buzz of options available in daylight hours.

With multi-generational appeal, and the scope for modest to not-so-modest budgets; noctourism is an original yet ancient way to explore the world around us. 

Cruise the sights under the moon, instead of being jostled by sweaty crowds. Using the celestial perspective is, after all, the way our eldest ancestors navigated their way through new territories. 

Holy nights

Anyone who has found themselves lying awake at 3am will know that the brain functions differently late at night. These odder thought-patterns can be used for more enjoyable activities than remembering that embarrassing thing you did when you were fourteen. Noctourism can often be unexpectedly emotional. 

Something as apparently simple as catching sight of a shooting star, can remain in the mind for decades after.

The experience of listening to the sounds of a darkened Amazon jungle, or witnessing the Northern Lights, has a dreamlike quality that touches something beyond a rational intake of information.

As travel becomes more accessible, with information about everything everywhere at our fingertips, moments that really move us are shown to be the most valuable

Stars in vogue

The world looks, feels, and sounds different under cover of darkness,” writes Stephanie Vermillion, whose book on noctourism, 100 Nights of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Adventures After Dark, was recently featured in Vogue magazine. 

Her book, published by National Geographic, serves as a roadmap for exploring the world after dusk:

“It highlights happenings across over 50 countries, from full-moon festivals and midnight food markets to eye-popping stargazing, aurora hunts, after-hour safaris, and out-of-this-world accommodations (think: glamping on the side of a sheer Peruvian cliff).”

Wishing you clear skies

There are many different forms of noctourism – from bioluminescent swimming in the warm seas to night-hiking a mountain in order to watch the sun break over the peak – but the definitive is stargazing.

The simplest of activities, but not accessible to everyone. Increased urbanisation, light pollution, and in some cases climate-change, make truly clear skies increasingly rare.

The fabled Atacamanian night

High altitude, low humidity, and minimal light pollution make the Atacama Desert a theatre for some of the finest celestial performances in the world. They play nightly.

Awasi Atacama provides the perfect perch from which to observe Northern Chile’s pristine skies. The stargazing tour begins after dinner at the lodge’s Relais & Chateaux restaurant. 

Guests take a fifteen minute drive to the viewing area, which has some of the most favourable conditions on earth, and observe with both their bare eyes and a powerful telescope.

As journalist Jamie Lafferty wrote for National Geographic Traveller, “As a waxing crescent moon sets behind the Loa mountains, the Milky Way appears like a distant storm. Shooting stars dart across the black so quickly as to seem imagined. The silence is breathless. The fabled Atacamanian night doesn’t disappoint.”

When to go?

Astronomical observations are weather-dependent, and February’s rainy season makes conditions particularly unpredictable.

Additionally, the full moon can affect visibility for stargazing. For the best experience, we recommend keen stargazers check in advance if their visit coincides with the full moon by emailing us at [email protected].

Every night at our 12-room adobe lodge is an opportunity for astronomical viewing: guests can enjoy a heavenly pisco sour looking up at the skies in our open-air patios.