Distant choices

At a dizzying altitude of 9,000ft, the Atacama Desert in the far north of Chile is one of the most remote and driest areas in the world. Not the easiest place, then, to operate a luxury hotel.

The 52-bedroom Hotel de Larache, in the tiny oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama, opened in August 1998 and is the Explora hotel group's second property. The first Explora, the 30-bedroom Hotel Salto Chico, opened in October 1993 and is even more remote - at the opposite end of Chile, on the southern edge of Patagonia, only about 100 miles from Tierra del Fuego. It is reached by a four-hour flight south from Chile's capital, Santiago, then a six-hour, winding drive from the isolated city of Puerto Natales.

These aren't your ordinary luxury hotels, however. The remoteness is their raison d'àtre. As the name suggests, the Explora concept is based on the excursions that come with the package. Guests don't pay a room-and-board price, they pay for room, board and the excursions. They can choose from a line-up of more than 35 "explorations" at each hotel, from walking and hiking to horse riding, mountain biking, climbing and four-wheel-drive expeditions under the care of the resident multilingual guides. There's a maximum of 10 guests on all the excursions, and the trips are chosen each night in the bar before dinner.

In Atacama, for example, guests can choose between a three-hour walk up a 15,092ft-high volcano, a three-and-a-half-hour cycle ride through sand dunes to Tulor, or a three-hour hike through Death Valley. The first of these needs acclimatisation, and authorisation is subject to physical fitness.

There are more gentle trips for the less agile. This is important, as the hotel, which has an annual average occupancy of 85%, attracts a good quota of elderly Americans, many of whom opt for a guided tour around the local museum or a drive around the nearby salt lake. Europeans tend to prefer mountainous Patagonia.

The Explora (left) concept is the brainchild of a wealthy Chilean businessman, Pedro Ibanez, who likes to travel around the world with his friends and family. He wanted to share his way of travelling with others, explains Explora Hotels' managing director, Felipe Cruz. "This is not his idea, particularly," Cruz says, "but it's the old way of travelling - knowing where you are coming from but not knowing where you are going. Explora allows people to discover the surroundings through our excursions."

The average length of a visit to an Explora hotel is four nights, and there is some - though, as yet, not much - repeat business, says Cruz, for this is once-in-a-lifetime stuff. For the best room with the best view (of the Cordillera Paine mountain range) in Patagonia, the rate is US$2,636 (£1,882) per person for four nights, though the average achieved rate is about $2,000 (£1,428) per person. The hotels also offer packages of three and seven nights. The price includes all meals and drinks, except certain wines. Among Ibanez's other business ventures is a Chilean winery, Vi¤a de Gracia. Guests can choose from a free selection of Gracia wines, or pay for the other wines on the shortlist.

"At first, we charged extra for all drinks," explains Hotel de Larache's acting general manager, Marcelo Sigall. "But it didn't work. People don't come to these places to drink, and we try to make it like a home from home."

Explora ambience

Sigall opened both Explora hotels, and has spent the past three years in Patagonia. "I had never run a hotel before," she admits. "I had a huge house with a big family and I did lots of entertaining - that was the sum total of my experience. But that's the ambience Ibanez wanted. My friends and family thought I was mad to go there, but I fell in love with it. People feel different after being here. I see my guests arrive from the big cities all tensed up, then they open the window, see those views and appreciate the silence - that's what we're all about."

There are no televisions or CD players in the bedrooms, but there is a satellite-linked telephone. The only sounds in Atacama are the odd bird (the altitude makes it too inhospitable for most other animals) and the whirr from the overhead fans, which keep the air moving on hot summer days when temperatures reach 35¼ºC - though the clever architecture by Gérman del Sol, with its angled, suspended roofs anchored over the thick-walled, low-level structures, helps to keep the rooms cool.

Atacama has had the occasional negative review - Lonely Planet, for example, was less than kind about the design. "But," splutters Cruz, "this is written for backpackers" - not for the moneyed Americans, British, French and Germans (in that order) who make up the great majority of Explora's leisure guests. Business guests account for 10% of the clientele. The overwhelming majority of the glossy travel press, virtually Explora's only marketing tool, has bordered on the reverential, with the Guardian recently declaring Hotel de Larache "the coolest hotel in the world". Cruz adds: "We've had some business in through the Internet, too." The group's Web site is at www.explora.com.

The town, San Pedro de Atacama (right), also provides some business. It has been a firm favourite with the backpacker fraternity since the 1960s and many of the adobe-style hotels in the town - complete with mud walls and corrugated-iron roofs - cater for the budget traveller. "Anyone can walk in here for a drink - if we're not too busy," says Sigall, "but we don't exactly encourage it."

San Pedro, in fact, has pulled its socks up since Explora came to town, Sigall claims. "Other hotels here have seen what we are doing," she says. "Many didn't even have their own generators until recently - lights used to go out at 10pm."

The town provides most of the hotel's employees. When Sigall opened Atacama, she wandered up and down the street in San Pedro to hire staff. Locals now make up 60% of the 85-strong team, while the rest come from the copper mining and airport town of Calama, an hour's drive across the desert.

There's a staff-to-room ratio of 65:30 in Patagonia. "Keeping these two hotels open all year in these remote areas is not easy, or inexpensive," says Cruz, "but the volume of staff we have is one of the most important factors in keeping up this level of quality and service. Things run pretty smoothly." The peak months in both hotels are May and October. "But," Sigall adds, "we are full through the winter. In Patagonia, it gets pretty rainy and cold, but there are still excursions you can do."

Executive chef is Santiago-based Laurent Pasqualletto. His brief was to keep things "light but tasty", using lots of fresh, local ingredients. "No buttery, creamy or heavy dishes," says Cruz. "That's no good for the excursions." And dishes draw inspiration from the surrounding areas.

San Pedro gets off lightly as far as supplies go. There are three flights a day from Santiago to Calama, and the hotel's supply van meets each flight. The rest of the produce is drawn from the surrounding oasis towns, with local growers providing the hotel with fruit and vegetables, such as corn and the "grain of the Incas", quinoa, plus more obscure local items such as the flower-like patasca, which is added to soups and salads.

In Patagonia, there's only one flight a week to the nearest city. "We just have to be a bit more creative in the kitchen," says Sigall, so Hotel Salto Chico relies on more dried foods. And yes, the more difficult and costly supply line is reflected in the room rates.

Are there plans for more Explora hotels? "Certainly," replies Cruz. "We're looking at other possible sites in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Easter Island."

EXPLORA HOTELS

General manager: Felipe Cruz

Hotel de Larache

Explora en Atacama, Calle Domingo Atienza S/N, Ayll£ de Larache, Casilla 8, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Tel: 00 56 5 585 11 10

Manager: Michael Purcell

Rooms: 50

Hotel Salto Chico

Explora en Patagonia, Sector Salto Chico S/N, Communa Torres del Paine, Casilla 57, Puerto Natales, XII Region, Patagonia, Chile

Tel: 00 56 2 699 68 24

Managers: Dolores Figueroa and Claudio Molina

Rooms: 30

Wines

Viña de Gracia wines are available through Patriarche: 020 7381 4016

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine,19-25 July 2001