Located south of Bogotá in the department of Huila, the Desierto de la Tatacoa is one of Colombia’s most unique landscapes and natural attractions. A visit is well worth a stop when traveling Colombia. Read on to learn all about the Tatacoa Desert, including how to get there, where to stay, and what to see.

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Travel Guide to the Tatacoa Desert – Contents

• Why Visit the Tatacoa Desert
• What to See and Do
• How Many Days?
• Tour vs Going on Your Own
• Where to Stay
• Packing List
• How to Get to the Desierto de la Tatacoa
• Practical Tips

Why Visit the Desierto de la Tatacoa

To be honest I hadn’t really heard a whole lot about the Tatacoa Desert until a few years ago when I started seeing more and more photos of it pop up on Instagram and other social media.

Luckily, the Desierto de la Tatacoa is well worth visiting for more than just an Insta photo. There are some nature and adventure places I would recommend over it like Guaviare, Casanare, Caño Cristales, or Colombia’s other desert of La Guajira and Punta Gallinas, all of which also have stunning landscapes themselves.

However those are all a bit tougher to reach too.

The Tatacoa Deserta really is a neat landscape, is fun to explore, and it has some of the best star gazing you’ll find anywhere. It also makes for a great stop to split up your travel time if you are traveling or backpacking through this part southwest Colombia

So, if you plan to go to San Agustín (which is definitely well worth it), Popayán, Pasto, the lovely Las Lajas Sanctuary, and/or travel to or from Ecuador, you ought to include a stop over in the Tatacoa Desert. Also, if you just have a couple extra days to travel outside Bogotá, including a a couple nights to see the Tatacoa Desert is totally worth it.

Is the Tatacoa Desert actually a desert?

Although called the Desierto de la Tatacoa, it’s technically not a desert but a dry tropical forest.

Tens of millions of years ago, it was a thriving and wet forest. It has basically been drying up for millions of years, gradually turning into a desert overtime. There is actually a lot more plant life and green than I expected.

Meanwhile, the wind and rain the area gets has caused erosion over time, carving out tiny canyons like labyrinths and creating unique shapes in the dried up soil. It’s that process of dry erosion that gives the area its fascinating, almost otherworldly looking landscape.

The Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada called it the Valle de las Tristezas, or “valley of sadness.” The name of Tatacoa was also used by the Spanish to refer to the area in reference to the rattlesnakes they found in the area.

What to See at the Tatacoa Desert

Well, the desert, of course.

Actually, there are two main areas of the desert, both of which are worth visiting. There is also an additional, longer and lesser known trail that we did that I thought was absolutely worth it.

Finally, you can’t come here and not go stargazing at the observatory, and the nearby town of Villavieja is worth spending a bit of time exploring too.

Here, I’ll run down everything to see and do at the Desierto de la Tatacoa.

Visit the Gray Desert

As I mentioned before, there are two main areas of the desert, each with its own distinctive color.

The first one we visited was the “gray” part of the desert. This is the larger of the two areas and has the additional trail. It tends to get less attention than the “red” desert. I think that may be because photos of the red desert look better as the gray just is hard to see much contrast in photos.

However, the gray part of the Tatacoa Desert is definitely worth visiting and is arguably neater looking in person.

Below, I’ll talk about some of the things you can see in the Gray Desert:

Los Hoyos

This is the most visited part of the gray desert.

Here there are a few swimming pools that were built at some point. These look kind of cool in photos, but we thought they didn’t look very enticing in person. I mean both that they didn’t look that nice to swim in and they looked kind of like an eyesore. Honestly, it’s kind of a shame they built them in a natural area like this.

What is definitely worth seeing in this part of the gray Tatacoa Desert is the short trail that goes through the Valle de las Fantasmas, or Valley of Ghosts (I’ve also seen this referred to as the Valle de los Deseos).

The rock formations here are incredibly unique, and get their name because some say they appear to be ghosts or representations of both humans and animals. It’s all very surreal looking. You might half expect Jabba the Hutt to slither around a corner as it does look a bit like Tatooine (sorry, Star Wars nerd here).

So, while I don’t think the $8,000 fee to swim is worth it, definitely make sure you do the half hour or so walk through the trail to see the rock formations. Do see what you can make out in the shapes, and watch out for the Sarlacc Pit.

As you can see in these photos, the gray part of the desert is fascinating looking. The rock formations are so unique, and it feels a bit like being on the moon. I would skip the pools but they are there if you want them.

There is another lesser visited part of the gray desert that offers a nice hike that we did, which I’m going to tell you about below.

The Xilópalos Trail

Xilópalos are petrified tree trunks. They are evidence of the thriving tropical forest ecosystem of millions of years ago. In fact, this area is considered one of the most important in Colombia for the finding of fossils.

There is a trail our guide took us on here that was really cool. The Xilópalos at the end of the trail themselves we didn’t find all that impressive (see the photo above), but the trail itself was nice.

It goes over lots of interesting terrain in the gray desert. It also passes through 3 narrow canyons named La Señorita, La Culebra, and El Tiempo. This was the highlight of this trail and why I think it’s worth doing. It’s really interesting passing through these narrow little tunnels that were carved out by rain drainage over millions of years.

This trail is also not very commonly visited, in fact we didn’t see anyone else on it during our hike. We did this first as it is the farthest away from where we were staying. It was also a nice, active way to start the day.

The hike isn’t particularly tough, with just a few short inclined sections, and allows you to see a lot more of the desert and chances to look out for birds, lizards, and other animals.

We were still able to see all of the desert in a day, even with a long lunch and nap break. Therefore, I highly recommend doing this trail, even if it means getting up a little earlier to fit it in to your day.

The Red Desert

This tends to be the more well known part of the desert. Iron in the soil here gives it the rusty, reddish orange, copper look.

If the gray part of the desert looks like the moon or Tatooine, this part feels like Mars. Honestly, it does almost feel like you are walking through a movie set or something. It is really neat looking.

The main area here is known as Cuzco. You can get some neat views from the top before climbing down and walking along the a short trail that goes through the area. The red, wavy walls look like someone molded them out of clay.

This is probably where I should stop and note that you should not climb on any of the formations. They are not actually hard rock but extremely tightly packed sand. Climbing on them can damage them. Maybe a couple more million years they’ll be hard enough to climb on, but for now stay off.

We went here in the afternoon a little bit before sunset. The sunset was really pretty, but I actually wished we had gotten here a bit earlier as we were a little rushed walking through the trail itself so we wouldn’t get caught by the dark.

Just outside the entrance and exit to the trail there is a little restaurant that has great jugo de caña, or fresh sugarcane juice. It’s the perfect refreshment for cooling off after walking through the heat of the desert.

That about sums up seeing the Tatacoa Desert itself. We did all of this in a day, however, there is a great night time activity in the Tatacoa Desert that makes spending a night all but a must that I’m going to tell you about as well.

Stargaze at the AstroSur Observatory

Besides the neat landscape, the Tatacoa Desert is also well known as an excellent place for stargazing and astrophotography. That makes sense since it’s a large open space with very little development and light pollution that also happens to be extremely close to the Equator.

There are several observatories in the Tatacoa Desert. We went to the AstroSur Observatory, which had been recommended to us as the best one. It is run by a university professor, who does a great presentation.

We laid back on astroturf while he pointed out with a laser pointer the constellations and planets you can see with the naked eye as well as giving a crash course on basic astronomy and its history. I thought it was a great presentation. He does talk a bit fast, and it is all in Spanish, so those with little or no Spanish might not get quite as much out of this.

Admission was only $10,000 COP (Colombian Pesos), and there were also 6 telescopes set up looking at different constellations, the moon, and Jupiter that you can look through at the end of the presentation.

It was quite crowded and the lines for the telescopes were a bit long, but for the price and great presentation it seemed like a great value to me.

We didn’t go to the other observatory, so I can’t say for sure this one is better but I thought it was quite good so I’m willing to take the word of the people who recommended it over the other one. In turn, I’m passing that recommendation on, but if anyone has been to the other, or better yet both, do share your experience and which you liked more in the comments.

There is a cool little spot just across the street where you can get a light dinner and/or drinks. They have burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and salchipapas as well as beers, juices, and other stuff like that. Susana loved their mango biche.

They actually have a neat mirador that overlooks the desert, and this would be an excellent place to see the sunrise. We watched the sunset here before walking over to the observatory, and that was nice, albeit on the opposite side of the mirador.

Check out the Town of Villavieja

Villavieja is the nearby town.

Some people stay at hotels in town, which may be a good choice if you want nicer accommodations or options for restaurants at night. However, if you stay in the Desierto de la Tatacoa itself like we did, I still recommend heading into town for a half day if you have the time.

There is a Museum of Paleontology (Museo Paleontológico) here. It is ok and has a few neat examples of petrified wood and animal fossils found nearby in the Tatacoa Desert.

However, it was a little disappointing, especially since we waited through the lunch break to see it. It’s pretty weak compared to all the paleontology exhibits in Villa de Leyva, the other place in Colombia known as a major fossil site. So, I wouldn’t categorize this a must see, but it was cheap and kind of neat if you are in town anyways and don’t show up at lunch time.

We also checked out a neat brewery and bar. Known as La Planta de Cerveza, it was still under construction when we went and only part was open.

It’s going to be a really neat space once it’s open though. There is neat street art and murals in the entrance, a cool bar area, and there will even be a pool area. There will also be a brewery tour, although the beer for the time being is still being made elsewhere.

I was a bit disappointed they didn’t have much of a selection and no beers on tap. The two beers they did have were pretty good though.

However, assuming they finish, I would think by mid-2022 and after this will be a great place to spend a couple hours and enjoy some beers.

Finally, you can go to the malecón on the Magdelena River.

We heard they offer sunset boat rides. We ended up not heading down there. There is also a Casa Museo del Totumo that displays artisan crafts made with Totumo. That sounds like it might be interesting, especially if you have not seen many things made with Totumo before.

Soak in the PisciLodo

This is another thing we did not do, but it was recommended to us by the family that runs the place we stayed. Not to be confused with the very non natural pools at Los Hoyos, this is supposedly a true natural pool and mud bath.

From photos online it looks like there is a pool where you can swim as well as a mud bath where you can cover yourself with mud in an experience similar to the Mud Volcano near Cartagena. Supposedly this is very good for your skin.

We decided we weren’t all that interested in doing this, but it did come recommended and has good comments online. So, if it interests you, check it out. Doing town in the morning and this in the afternoon would work well. If you do go, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

How Many Days to Visit?

We stayed 3 nights, and this was perfect for us, especially since we were coming from Bogotá and going to San Agustín next, both more or less full day trips. That gave us 2 complete days to explore, 1 for the desert and 1 for town.

So, I recommend 3 nights.

If you’re coming from closer or heading somewhere closer after, 2 is probably ok. 2 is probably ok as well if you’re not all that interested in seeing Villavieja as you’ll have a full day to see the desert and if you really jam pack that day you can probably fit in one of town or the Piscilodo too.

I think 1 night would just be too whistle stop unless you are book ending that with staying in Neiva nearby. That way you can get two near full days.

Otherwise, I would find a way to do at least 2 nights. As a bonus, if it’s cloudy your first night you have the second night as a backup to do the observatory.

On the other hand, I think staying beyond 3 nights might get a bit boring. If you want an extra day to relax, that’s cool, especially since there are some hotels with pools that aren’t too crazily priced. However, I wouldn’t do more than 4 nights at the very most.

Going with a Tour vs Going on Your Own

I think if you are comfortable navigating Colombian public transportation, have decent Spanish, and have those 3 nights, going on your own is fine. Don’t worry I’m going to go over how to get there below.

Now, I will say, I do think getting a guide for the walks through the desert itself is definitely best. Our guide said several years back a person got lost for several days and nearly died before they found him.

The guide went with works with our hotel. We paid him $240,000 COP. I think that was pretty reasonable since it was all day, just the two of us, and it included Tuk-Tuk transportation to and from the Xilópalos trail and Los Hoyos. I’m sure you can join group tours as well for cheaper.

If you only have 1 or 2 nights, a tour package for the entire trip might be a good option. For those with less Spanish or those not wanting to travel by public transportation, I would advise going with a tour package.

If you are coming from Bogotá and would like a guided experience (not a bad idea to avoid the delays of buses), you might be interested in this 3 day tour or this 2 day tour from Bogotá.

BnB Colombia, who we have a partnership with, also offers 2 multi-day tours that include visits to the Tatacoa Desert. This 5 day tour goes to Tatacoa, San Agustín, Popayán, and Cali. Meanwhile, this 12 day tour adds a day in Bogotá and goes to Guaviare instead of Cali. If you’d like a more custom tailored experience, fill out this form and they will get back to you to help you design a perfect Colombia trip.

Can You Do a Day Trip?

If you are really pressed for time, I would say it is possible to do a day trip, but only from Neiva.

However, if you can only spare a day, I would advise booking a tour because public transportation can run on unreliable schedules (we lost more than 3 hours waiting for a bus). Plus, you would miss out on the observatory.

Now, if you have your own transportation, I do think you can make a day trip work on your own.

If you would prefer to do a day trip, this day tour is a good option as it includes the observatory and takes you back to Neiva the same evening.

Given the fact that there isn’t that much to see in Neiva itself, rather than book end your trip to the desert staying there, I personally would just opt to stay the couple nights in the desert or in Villavieja.

Where to Stay in the Tatacoa Desert

There are quite a few options for where to stay to visit the Desierto de la Tatacoa. There are cheaper lodge style hotels as well as nicer hotels that offer cabins and fancy glamping experiences.

You also have the option of staying in the Tatacoa Desert itself or staying in Villavieja, which is only a half hour or so away from the main sites in the desert. I’m going to give suggestions for both below.

Where to Stay in the Tatacoa Desert

Casa del Campo Los Cactus – Where We Stayed – Highly Recommended

We stayed our 3 nights at Casa del Campo los Cactus and thought it was great. It’s almost directly in the middle of the desert, half way between the gray desert and the red desert. It’s just a 5 minute walk to the AstroSur Observatory too, which made it very convenient. We stayed in a small cabin made from recycled soda bottles like the one in the photo.

There are several of these cabins as well as some rooms in the main house itself. Some have multiple beds, making this a good option for groups and families too. It is a family run establishment and the family was super friendly, plus they have an in house guide who we did our tour with. We thought the price was very reasonable as well. It’s not luxury but its comfortable and a good value.

I definitely recommend it.

Infinito Tatacoa – Luxury Glamping in the Tatacoa Desert

If you’re looking for a luxury Desierto de la Tatacoa hotel, check out Infinito Tatacoa. A newer place, they offer lovely, luxury glamping style bungalows. Designed based on traditional indigenous homes, it’s a unique look for a vacation cabin. It is on the very pricey side, but the place looks incredible. There is a spa and a pool on site as well. If you want a luxury experience in the Tatacoa Desert, this is the place for it.

Qji Glamping – More Modestly Priced Glamping

Qji Glamping Biohotel offers bungalows in the desert at prices about half the price of Infinito. It’s not nearly as luxury looking but still offers nice looking, bamboo style bungalows. There is a pool on site and this Tatacoa Desert hotel is only a short walk from Los Hoyos and the Xilópalos trail. It makes for a good option for those who want slightly nicer accommodations in the desert itself but don’t have the budget for the snazzy Infinito.

Tubo Hotel – A Unique Desierto de la Tatacoa Hotel

This is a neat looking place and an interesting concept. In fact, we almost booked here. Tubo Hotel has small, pod style rooms in giant tubes. It is really colorful with each of the tubes painted different colors and lots of multi-colored common areas. There is also a pool here, although it’s located just outside of Villlavieja and not deep in the desert. It has sort of a hostel atmosphere too, so if you’re looking to meet other travelers and want a pool in the Tatacoa Desert at more affordable prices than the places above, it’s a good choice.

Pachingo – for Desierto de la Tatacoa Camping

If you want to camp in the Tatacoa Desert, Pachingo is the best option. Their tents are up on their own little platforms in the desert and there are decent looking bathroom facilities available. There is also a cabin available although it is a good deal pricier than the tents and comparable in price to Qji above. If it were me, I’d probably rather just pay the little bit more it costs to stay in a room at Casa del Campo los Cactus but if you really want to say you’ve gone camping in the Tatacoa Desert, this is the place to do it.

Places to Stay in Villavieja