If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD586.50), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Casa Molle sits in the Elqui Valley, below soaring summits and a stellar expanse of sky in northern Chile. Naturally, when you’re under some of the world’s clearest skies, it’s all about the stars; and this earthy-hued hideaway has the country’s most sparkling outlook. Sprawling gardens cascade with all kinds of cacti too; and relaxed rooms, with repurposed furnishings, locally made handicrafts and taupe tones, blend beautifully into sandy surroundings. Whether you spend your days exploring the peaks and swimming in hot springs, or at guided meditation and laughter-therapy sessions – by evening you’ll all come together for those celestial light-shows.
10am; check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £469.65 ($587).
More details
All-inclusive rates include meals, daily activities, access to the spa, and return transfers to and from the airport.
Also
One of the Deluxe Double Queens has been adapted with an accessible bathroom for guests with limited mobility, and communal areas are all wheelchair-friendly.
At the hotel
Free-to-use bikes and kayaks, boccia court, nine-hole golf course, plant nursery, charged laundry service, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, Bose speakers, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, and Alpaka bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Rooms all look fairly similar when it comes to decor (natural tones, hand-weaved light fixtures and patterned throws are all present and correct), and each has its own private terrace so your choice will come down to how much space you’re seeking. For that extra elbow-room, splash out on one of the sizable Super Deluxe rooms, which also have an outdoor rain shower surrounded by tropical greenery.
Poolside
There are plenty of pools to dip your toes – or more – in at Casa Molle. The main one is outdoor, just steps from the bar, and has coo-worthy views of the surrounding mountains; a heated indoor pool soothes in the spa; and the adults-only pool is set behind lofty cacti and flanked by spacious day-beds.
Spa
A welcoming stone Buddha sets the scene at the spa, which features five treatment rooms (two with their own private terraces and freestanding bath tubs), an indoor pool, cold plunge pool, and sauna. There’s also a gym that’s kitted out with treadmills; and outside, there’s a collection of hot tubs embedded into raised walkways.
Packing tips
Bring well-worn hiking boots for valley trekking and your coolest kaftans for poolside pottering.
Also
All items available at the on-site boutique have been handmade by native artisans from local communities.
Children
Welcome; there’s no kids’ club or crèche, but staff can arrange babysitting on request and little Smiths can take part in most activities staff can arrange.
Sustainability efforts
Earth-kind practices are part of the everyday at B-Corp-certified Casa Molle, where solar panels provide all energy, water usage is closely controlled, ingredients are supplied by local farmers and often picked straight from the gardens, owners are working hard to set up programs aimed to support local communities, and even the paint was made using sand from the Elqui Valley.
Any outdoor table will put you in a prime stargazing spot.
Dress Code
Keep it as casual as you’d like – colorful kaftans by the pool and light linens come evening will serve you well.
Hotel restaurant
Dining at Casa Molle’s follows the same laidback attitude as the rest of this taupe-toned hideaway. You’re welcome to eat where you please, but we’d recommend taking your fare alfresco at a handcrafted table under one of the many thatched, bougainvillea-bedecked canopies. Especially after-dark, when starry evening skies make nightcaps all the more soul-soothing. Menus are carefully crafted by the chefs, and change depending on what’s growing in the hotel’s gardens that week, but typically include modern takes on traditional Chilean dishes (you’d do well to expect plenty of ceviche and asado-style plates).
Hotel bar
Head to the poolside bar, where mixologists shake up creative concoctions with homemade spirits and syrups, for pisco-packed cocktails or Chilean wines.
Last orders
Breakfast is served from 8am to 11am; lunch is from 12.30pm to 2.30pm; afternoon tea is from 5.30pm to 6.30pm, and dinner is dished up from 7.30pm until 9.30pm.
Casa Molle is in the heart of northern Chile’s Elqui Valley, less than an hour from coastal city Coquimbo.
Planes
International flights will take you straight into Santiago’s airport; from there, you’ll have to take a one-hour connecting flight to La Serena, which is a 40-minute drive from the hotel. Private transfers to and from the airport in La Serena are included in your stay.
Automobiles
If you’d rather take the wheel, there are plenty of rental booths at the airport and the hotel’s a fairly straightforward drive away along Ruta 41 until you reach the turning for El Molle, five minutes from the hotel. Once you arrive, staff will give you a passcode for the private carpark.
Other
There’s also a helipad at the hotel for those arriving in style.
Worth getting out of bed for
Activities at Casa Molle are tailored towards exploring the Elqui Valley’s impressive surroundings, and what better place to start than a horseback ride along its salt flats, from Pisco Elqui to Cochiguaz, or guided trek into the peaks that cradle it. Grab one of the hotel’s bikes and explore, or take to the water and spend the afternoon kayaking along a nearby lagoon and swimming through the Las Hediondas hot springs. And aquaphiles can continue the party at the Puclaro Dam, which is primed for all sorts of watersports. Self-declared sommeliers should head a little further south to try refined pairings at the Alcohuaz vineyards. At the hotel, guided meditation and breathwork sessions, laughter therapy, and tai chi classes make for reposeful mornings; and you can show off your strongest swing at the hotel’s nine-hole golf course. But nothing quite compares to the starry sights that grace Chile’s night skies; and, as the first awarded International Dark Sky Sanctuary, the Elqui Valley puts you right in the center of it all; stargaze from the sanctity of your private terrace, or admire constellations from the El Pangue Observatory for truly extraordinary scenes.
Local restaurants
All your meals are included at Casa Molle, so you won’t need to venture too far for flavor-filled Chilean fare. But, if you find yourself exploring nearby Vicuña, stop in at raved-about Alóe Restorán for traditional dishes and craft cocktails.
Local bars
For locally brewed beers on tap and live music, head to Cervecería Ruta 41, a 20-minute walk from the hotel, along the Elqui River.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this starlit stay in the Andes and unpacked their homemade pisco and bottles of carménère wine, a full account of their Chilean break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Casa Molle in the Elqui Valley…
Chile’s landscapes speak for themselves, and the star-studded Elqui Valley is certainly no different; but below the peaks and along papaya-lined paths, celestial Casa Molle is giving the valley’s already talked-about beauty an unassuming boost. Set around an ever-growing collection of cacti (which owners aim to make one of the largest in South America), this reposeful retreat has alfresco spots in abundance, so whether you take your pisco sours by the pool, under the shade of the avocado trees, or on your private terrace is really up to you. Chalkboards boast daily activities (meditation and tai chi classes, vineyard tours, horseback riding and guided hikes, to name a few), a wise Buddha greets guests at the spa, and chefs infuse Chilean classics with homegrown herbs. But, whether you’re here to play the intrepid explorer, or simply to de-stress to the sound of cicadas, be sure to turn your gaze skywards once dusk welcomes the desert’s story-telling constellations.
