Camping San Pedro

You could spend your entire Chilean hol around Arica: it's an utterly excellent spot. As well as the surfing, bodyboarding and those 20 kilometres of golden beach, Arica's a top pick for historic highlights, like the Museo de Sitio Colón with its 32 excavated Chinchorro mummies, colourful St Mark's Cathedral, and the Museo Histórico y de Armas covering the region's history and military history. Another famed Arica attraction is the Morro de Arica, a high hill and a national monument, from which you can see as far as Peru. Just outside town, Chungará Lake in the Lauca National Park is the 12th highest lake in South America and the 31st highest in the world: some spectacular scenes await your camera, particularly of Parinacota Volcano. And then? Have a look at the House of Culture and the Archaeological and Anthropological Museum of San Miguel de Azapa, before an evening in Arica's casino.