Laguna Cejar and Tebenquinche: Floating in the Salt Flat, and What to Check First
4 min read
Ask the operator, before you pack a swimsuit, whether you can swim at Laguna Cejar on your date. The tour pages promise floating in a salt lagoon in the Salar de Atacama, but the sources disagree about where bathing is allowed. The two tours below both combine Laguna Cejar, Tebenquinche Lagoon and Ojos del Salar.
Where you can swim
The Whipala Expedition tour lists a swim in Cejar Lagoon of about 30 minutes, and a reviewer notes that you float because of the salt, so not knowing how to swim should not be a problem. The afternoon tour with sunset cocktail promises weightless floating and names Cejar Lagoon and Piedra Lagoon for it. Against that, the weather-and-news site Meteored, writing in March 2025, says bathing is only permitted in the second lagoon, Laguna Piedra, and that Cejar can only be viewed from lookouts. We found no official source on the current rule. Sernatur’s page on Los Flamencos National Reserve says that each sector sets its own access, hours and ticketing.
So ask your operator in which lagoon you will swim.
Two tours compared
| Afternoon tour with sunset | Four-hour lagoon tour | |
|---|---|---|
| Tour | Cejar Lagoon, Tebenquinche and Ojos del Salar | Cejar Lagoon tour |
| Length | 4.5 hours | 4 hours |
| Language | Spanish, English, Portuguese | English, Spanish |
| Park fee | CLP 21,000 listed under inclusions, but the page also says every visitor pays it, in cash to the guide | CLP 21,000 per person, not included; due 12 hours before departure |
| Extras | Hotel pickup, sunset cocktail and local food | Driver-guide and snack; starts at the agency, Tocopilla 418; runs with at least 6 people |
| Not suitable for | Babies under 1 year | Children under 7, pregnant women, wheelchair users, people over 70 |
Prices are €65.07 for the afternoon tour and €33.87 for the four-hour tour.
What the afternoon tour does
The afternoon tour picks you up at your hotel, drives to the Salar de Atacama, which its page calls the third-largest salt flat in the world, and then visits Tebenquinche Lagoon, recently classified as a nature sanctuary, and Ojos del Salar, two freshwater lagoons in the middle of the salt flat. The day ends with an appetiser, a rica-rica pisco sour and local food while the sun sets over the Andes. It drops you in the centre of town. The other tour lists a picnic stop and puts the altitude at about 2,300 metres.
Which to book
For a first lagoon trip at low altitude, the afternoon tour is the better pick: hotel pickup and the sunset are part of the plan. Its page lists the park fee under inclusions but also says every visitor pays it in cash to the guide, so ask whether it is in the price and carry CLP 21,000 in cash either way. On the four-hour tour it is extra and must be paid 12 hours before departure. More tours visit these lagoons: browse all lagoon tours and see the other full-day option, the Piedras Rojas lagoon guide. Our stargazing guide is the natural second half of a day that ends at sunset.
