In the Elqui Valley is the town of Vicuña is where most accommodation is located. However, these options are simplistic and often rustic. Therefore, we work with our accommodation partner, located about 20km before reaching Vicuña (coming from La Serena), and only a few km prior to reaching the Puclaro Reservoir Dam - the Hotel Casa Molle.

This is a family owned, constructed, and manged high-end property offering 24 guest rooms.

The hotel is an up-market boutique lodge whereupon a considerable amount of thought has gone into creating an aesthetically pleasing design, spacious guest rooms, attractive inner gardens, indoor swimming pool as well as a well-package menu of daily excursions to all the key places of interest in the valley as well as water activities on the reservoir.

About
The Casa Molle lodge is an independent hotel offering 24 well-appointed guest rooms. The owners Karim and Marisol have invested their minds, spirits, and souls over a four-year period into the project creating a high-end, boutique lodge in the middle of the charming and beautiful Elqui Valley.

The property sits on its own 17 acres (6.8 hectares) of land, a “stones throw” from the Elqui River.

Along with 6 outdoor hot tubs the lodge offers a good indoor swimming pool.

Architecture
Casa Molle combines low, wide, adobe walls in such a way to enclose large interior spaces like a fort, along with pyramid-shaped roof tops, made from a local material called Totora, as well as natural stone embedded into walls and on paths. The emphasis during design and construction was to use as much local and natural material as possible.

In line with this ethos, the owners capitalized in the rich, fertile soil and regular Mediterranean climate to create fruit-bearing orchards, and diverse gardens full of native plants in order to construct a harmony with the environment.

Within the lodge simple materials such as wicker and wood have been utilized along with pastel colouring.

At the point where the lodge is located the valleys walls are steep and this, combined with low light pollution and the clearest night skies on Earth, add to provide wonderful star gazing opportunities for guests.

In addition, Casa Molle has its own amphitheatre decorated with hand, loom-woven blankets, sheepskins, ceramic stoneware and lanterns, adding to the overall natural ambience of the lodge.

Day Excursions and Tours
The lodge offers daily tours to practically all the key places of interest in and close to the Elqui Valley. For example: Visit to the Gabriela Mistral Museum in Vicuña, visits to small, local villages including Pisco Elqui with a lunch stop at a Pisco distillery. Horse back riding. Day trip to see Humboldt Penguins on an island in the Pacific; excursion to the Valle del Encanto, the Fray Jorge Forest in the Limari Valley among many other options.

Restaurant
The Casa Molle restaurant offers, principally Mediterranean food with regional flavours and local ingredients.