Hostal casa Flores — Hotel in San Pedro de Atacama

We stayed here for 4 nights. The hostal is close to the bus terminal, the only gas station in town and a 5 min walk to main street with tons of restaurants, stores and travel agencies.||We had room 4, which is a small room with one window looking into the courtyard and a small bathroom.||There is no TV in the room, liquid hand soap in a dispenser and a large bottle of shampoo was provided. The shower has a low water pressure and you only get hot water if you let it run for several minutes.||There is 1 Chilean double power outlet near the 2 beds and a small closet. The room comes with 2 chairs and a small table. The door has cracks and allows the room to cool out at night and heat up during the day. There is a fan in the room, but no heating or air conditioning. The window can be opened; there is no mosquito net to keep insects out.||Breakfast was included; it is available from 7:30-9:30am. It consists of 3-4 Chilean breakfast rolls, hot water, hot and cold milk, a fruit juice (sometimes orange, sometimes pineapple), 3 types of sliced sausages (bologna and ham and salami), sliced cheese, 2 types of cereal and strawberry and peach yogurt, dry muffins, crackers and cookies. They have a good selection of tea bags incl coca tea and instant coffee powder. On the breakfast table are typically also bananas, an apple and a mandarine. There is also a TV in the breakfast room.||Every evening, we were asked if we eat breakfast in the breakfast room of leave early (the El Tatio tours start at around 5am). On the day we left early, they gave us a bag with 4 energy bars and 2 apples.||Wifi is fast and very reliable!||Room cleaning is only before noon. They gave us fresh high quality towels every day, except for 1 day where we started late and asked them to not make our room and on day 2 where they forgot to make our room. ||You only get 1 room key and that only fits in the door to your room. Most of the time when we got back to the hotel, we had to ring the door bell and they let us in within a few seconds.||There is limited parking in town. You can, however, park your car on the opposite side of the street in front of the hostal.||The room was clean, but had a smell on the first day. The building had a corrugated metal roof and you will hear some klicking noise from it throughout the day (and night).||Nobody speaks English, so make sure to have a translation app handy if you don't...

We stayed at the hostel for a couple of days and really enjoyed our time there. It’s in a good location which is quiet but also close to restaurants and food shops.

We were able to avoid paying the 19% VAT on our booking by paying in cash (Chilean Pesos or USD), and by showing our PDI slip that we had been given by immigration at the airport. This was a great saving on the cost of the hostel. If you are paying by card you will have to pay the tax on the booking.

The staff are really lovely and provide daily room cleaning. The kitchen area is extremely well equipped and provides free drinking water as well as tea and coffee. The equipment included: oven, hobs, all utensils, toaster and blender.

The shower pressure was great and we constantly had hot water which was amazing.

The bed was really comfy and we were provided with plenty of blankets to keep warm. We stayed during the winter so it gets really cold overnight and there’s no heating or air conditioning in the room - I believe this is quite typical for hostels in Atacama though. The blankets were more than sufficient though!

The only let down was the WiFi as it barely worked most days we were there. We had great reception with our Movistar SIM cards though so it wasn’t a big issue.

I would definitely...

I paid $70 USD a night for this hotel thinking the accommodations would be appropriate for the cost. While the place was clean and beds were comfortable, there was only a small fan in the room and a tiny window in the bathroom, meaning there was no circulation. Atacama gets very hot during the day and it is not fun to return to a hot room after a long day touring. I was given the room (room 8) right next to reception, so I had to listen to guests coming and going, with hotel workers talking to each other and the TV (the only one is at reception) all day and night. Breakfast was very basic - nothing hot. They do prepare a nice snack for you if you are doing a tour before breakfast begins. Staff do their best to help and are friendly. They don't speak any English though. The location was about a 15 minute walk to the main street, which was nice because it was away from the loud bars and crowds and the street was very quiet. Overall, an average stay. I'd likely look for alternative lodging next time I return that has better circulation...