South of the Atacama Desert, after passing lonely beaches, the Pan de Azúcar National Park with its incredible variety of cactuses, islands full of penguins, and the Copiapó Valley, one reaches La Serena. The Copiapó Valley almost beats the desert in beauty with its grapevines and fruit plantations, although the desert has its own spectacular surprise when in some areas in specific years it explodes with multicolored flowers and is for a short time the "flowering desert". La Serena has become the area's most attractive beach resort. The long Avenida del Mar offers miles of long beaches lined by chalets, apartment buildings and small restaurants that come to life in the summer. In contrast, the city center has a colonial and traditional atmosphere and includes 30 colonial churches.

On the outskirts of La Serena, the fertile valleys of Elqui and Hurtado not only produces papayas and grapes for the production of Pisco but supposedly also emit esoteric waves. As the tale goes, the Elqui Valley has mysterious energies. Gabriela Mistral, the famous poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945, was born here. With its beautiful views and quiet towns a visit to the "Norte Chico" will not go unrewarded. The region's clean and clear night skies have attracted international astronomical observatories that were established in the region's mountains; some of them are open to visitors.