Coquimbo

The Elqui Valley is one of Chile's most distinctive landscapes — a narrow, intensely green corridor of vineyards and fruit orchards squeezed between bare, striated desert mountains, following the Elqui River up from La Serena into the Andean foothills. This is the historic centre of Chilean pisco production, the grape brandy distilled here since colonial times; small towns like Vicuña and the aptly named Pisco Elqui are dotted with family-run and larger distilleries offering tours, tastings and pisco sours in view of the vines. The valley's exceptionally clear, dry air and high altitude have also made it one of the world's best amateur stargazing destinations — public observatories such as Mamalluca, just outside Vicuña, run evening tours with powerful telescopes for views of planets, star clusters and the southern sky, a rite of passage for visitors to the valley. Vicuña is also home to a museum dedicated to Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean poet and educator who became Latin America's first Nobel literature laureate, born in the valley in 1889.

La Serena, Chile's second-oldest city, is a graceful colonial-style town on the Coquimbo coast, rebuilt in the mid-20th century in a deliberately Spanish-colonial architectural style that gives its centre a unified, elegant character rare in Chile. Numerous churches — around thirty in total — dot the compact historic core around the Plaza de Armas, alongside a lively craft market and archaeological museum with pre-Columbian artefacts from the region's Diaguita culture. A long, gently curving beachfront (the Avenida del Mar) links La Serena to its twin port city, Coquimbo, whose hilltop Cruz del Tercer Milenio monument and historic centre add a contrasting, working-port character. La Serena's mild climate and relaxed pace make it a comfortable base for exploring the Elqui Valley inland or the penguin islands up the coast, with a good range of hotels and restaurants for a region still relatively light on international tourism.

North of La Serena, the small fishing village of Punta de Choros is the gateway to the Humboldt Penguin National Reserve, a cluster of protected islands just offshore that host one of the largest colonies of Humboldt penguins in the world, alongside smaller numbers of Magellanic penguins, playful sea lions, marine otters and, with luck, dolphins and even whales offshore. Boat tours from the village weave around the islands (landing is not permitted, to protect the wildlife) for close views of the colonies and the surrounding marine reserve's rich birdlife, including pelicans and cormorants. It's a full-day excursion from La Serena best done in calmer morning conditions, and a highlight for wildlife-focused travellers looking for an easy, low-key alternative to the busier wildlife circuits further south in Patagonia.