What's on in Iquique, Chile through the year

Peak crowds — Chilean summer season, Summer holidays in Chile

• Season

  Chilean summer season

  1 Jan – 28 FebSchool holidaysCrowded

  Cavancha and Brava fill with Chilean and Bolivian families for the two months the schools are out, the seafront restaurants queue and the Zofri duty-free car park is full all day.

• Season

  Altiplanic winter inland

  1 Jan – 15 Mar · usuallyRisk

  Summer storms over the altiplano send flash floods down the ravines inland, cutting the roads to Mamiña, Pica and the high parks. The coast stays dry, but check before any day trip up from town. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Chilean summer season, Summer holidays in Chile

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: Chilean summer season (1 Jan – 28 Feb), Altiplanic winter inland (1 Jan – 15 Mar (usually))

Busy — Summer holidays in Chile, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Holiday

  Semana Santa

  3–5 AprEaster & Holy WeekCrowdedBook earlyClosures

  Good Friday and Holy Saturday are public holidays, giving an autumn long weekend. Offices close, long-distance buses and domestic flights fill, and hotels in coastal, lake and desert towns see one more busy weekend after the summer. Source ↗

Still on: Altiplanic winter inland (1 Jan – 15 Mar (usually))

Busy — Semana Santa

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Semana Santa (3–5 Apr)

Busy — Glorias Navales

• Season

  Camanchaca grey mornings

  15 May – 30 Sep · usuallyFog season

  In the southern winter the coastal fog bank, the camanchaca, sits over the city most mornings and only burns off around midday. Beach days start late and the promenade is quiet until the sun comes through.

• Holiday

  Glorias Navales

  21 MayNational holidayCrowded

  The city where Arturo Prat's Esmeralda went down in 1879 marks the anniversary with a parade at Plaza 21 de Mayo, a flotilla out to the Esmeralda buoy and a 21-gun salute at 12:10, the hour she sank. Source ↗

Busy — Winter holidays in Chile

Nothing new starts in June.

Still on: Camanchaca grey mornings (15 May – 30 Sep (usually))

Peak crowds — Fiesta de La Tirana, Winter holidays in Chile

• Festival

  Fiesta de La Tirana

  10–20 JulReligious feastCrowdedBook early

  A village 70 km inland takes a quarter of a million people and two hundred masked dance societies for the Virgen del Carmen on 16 July. Iquique is where they all sleep, so its beds go months ahead. Source ↗

Still on: Camanchaca grey mornings (15 May – 30 Sep (usually))

Busy — San Lorenzo de Tarapacá

• Festival

  San Lorenzo de Tarapacá

  1–11 Aug · usuallyReligious feastCrowdedBook early

  Pilgrims from Chile, Peru and Bolivia pour into a desert village about a hundred kilometres inland for the miners' saint on 10 August, with dance societies playing through the night. Iquique is the base. Source ↗

Still on: Camanchaca grey mornings (15 May – 30 Sep (usually))

Peak crowds — Fiestas Patrias, Fiestas Patrias recess in Chile

• Holiday

  Fiestas Patrias

  18–19 SepNational holidayCrowdedClosures

  Fondas go up behind the beach and the mining camps inland empty into town for two days of public holiday. Shops and offices shut and the road to the altiplano is busy both ways. Source ↗

Still on: Camanchaca grey mornings (15 May – 30 Sep (usually))

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in October.

Busy — Fiesta de San Andres in Pica

• Festival

  Fiesta de San Andres in Pica

  28–30 NovReligious feastCrowded

  The oasis town of Pica, a day trip inland, honours its patron saint with the uncorking of the chicha on the 28th, a 5:30 am drum-and-dynamite wake-up on the 29th, candlelit processions and religious dance troupes. Source ↗

Busy — Summer holidays in Chile, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in December.