STARGAZING TRAVEL GUIDE · THE NIGHT SKY, PLACE BY PLACE
Some skies are darker than others.
Reviews of the best stargazing and astronomy tours on earth. Teide above the clouds and the Atacama at altitude, the Southern Cross over Lake Tekapo and the Milky Way from a desert camp, telescopes on a Hawaiian summit and observatory decks high over the city. We sort through the listings so you book the right night out.
Worth the airfare
Three skies that belong to one place on earth.
You can look up almost anywhere. But the view from above the clouds on Teide, the depth of the Atacama at altitude, and the undimmed southern sky over Lake Tekapo happen in these three places and nowhere else.
Tenerife
Above the Clouds on Teide
Tenerife’s volcano pushes you up past a sea of cloud to one of the few certified Starlight reserves on earth, where the trade winds leave the summit air bone-dry and still. An astronomer points the scope at Saturn while the sky darkens, the Milky Way comes up over the crater, and you understand why the world’s great telescopes were built on this island. Sunset safari from the south or a late telescope night near the cable car, this sky is unlike anywhere else in Europe.
- 1 Tenerife: Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing Tour
- 2 Tenerife: Sunset and Stargazing at Teide National Park
- 3 Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing with Dinner (Star Safari)
Chile
The Atacama at Altitude
The driest desert on the planet, two kilometres up and hundreds of miles from a city: the Atacama gives you the clearest night sky most people will ever stand under. A guide walks you through the southern constellations the naked eye can actually see here, then a row of telescopes pulls in star clusters and nebulae before a warm drink under the cold. This is why ALMA and the great observatories chose this corner of Chile.
- 1 San Pedro de Atacama: Etno-Stargazing Tour with Transfer
- 2 San Pedro de Atacama: Stargazing Experience
- 3 San Pedro de Atacama: Guided Atacama Desert Stargazing Tour
New Zealand
The Southern Cross at Tekapo
Lake Tekapo sits in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve, one of the largest in the world, where lighting is controlled for miles so the southern sky burns undimmed. You ride to the Mount John summit observatory or stand by the lake as the Southern Cross, the Magellanic Clouds and the galactic core wheel overhead. Alpine, crisp and almost impossibly dark, the Mackenzie nights run clear right through the cold months.
- 1 Lake Tekapo: Alpine Stargazing Experience with a Guide
- 2 Lake Tekapo: Stargazing Experience
- 3 Chameleon Stargazing Shared Tour
The one everyone books
If you only get one night under the stars.
More travellers reach for this one than any other on the site. A safe first booking in a place you are still getting to know.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Stargazing Tours
Teide, the Atacama, Dubai’s dunes, the Egyptian desert, Lake Tekapo. The telescope nights and desert safaris travellers reach for first, under the skies they most want to stand beneath.
Where to look up
Pick your dark sky.
Tenerife for the view above the clouds. The Atacama for the clearest air on earth. New Zealand for the southern sky, Egypt and Arabia for desert camps, the American Southwest for red-rock nights. Each place, with the nights it does best.
Which kind of day
How to spend a night under the stars.
The kind of night matters as much as the place. Three ways to get under a dark sky, depending on the time you have and how deep you want to go.
Tenerife & the Canaries
Spain reaches its darkest skies offshore.
The Canary Islands sit in the trade winds off the African coast, where the air is dry and still and the light pollution laws are some of the strictest on earth. That is why Teide and the ridges of La Palma carry world-class observatories, and why a sunset safari up the volcano ends with the Milky Way arcing over the crater. You climb above the cloud, the temperature drops, and an astronomer pulls Saturn into focus.
See the best stargazing tours in Spain →The American Southwest
The darkest skies in the Lower 48.
The desert West is full of officially designated dark-sky country: the red rocks of Sedona, the slickrock around Moab, the high plateaus of Utah’s national parks, and the summit of Mauna Kea reaching above half the atmosphere in Hawaii. Guides set up scopes where the air is thin and dry, point out the galactic core climbing over the canyon walls, and tell you the Navajo names for the stars overhead.
See the best stargazing tours in the USA →The best part
Everyone goes quiet at the same moment.
A good night under the stars is never just the view. It is the moment the guide kills the last red lamp and your eyes finally adjust, the band of the Milky Way resolving out of the dark, a shooting star catching someone mid-sentence. You drove out as strangers and stood there together, necks craned, saying nothing, suddenly very small under a very big sky.
Browse every stargazing tour →The Egyptian desert
Out of Hurghada, the desert turns the lights off.
A quad bike or a camel out of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, an hour into the Eastern Desert, and the Red Sea resorts fall away behind you. A Bedouin camp serves dinner under an open sky, someone brings out a telescope, and the Sahara night does the rest: no haze, no glow, the Milky Way edge to edge and a horizon of pure black. These are the easiest dark skies on earth to reach from a beach holiday.
- 1 Sharm El-Sheikh: Ultimate ATV Quad, Stargazing & BBQ Dinner
- 2 Hurghada: Sunset Quad Bike, Camel w/ Opt Stargazing and BBQ
- 3 Hurghada: Sea & Desert Horse Tour, Stargazing, Dinner & Show
By time under the stars
How long do you want to be out?
Some nights you want an hour on an observatory deck and an early bed. Some nights you want a real telescope and an astronomer to read the sky. And some nights you want to drive deep into the desert and sleep under the Milky Way. Pick the night, we will point you at the tour.
An hour or two
Get above the lights.An observatory deck or a planetarium show: the night sky and the city far below, no late drive home, back at the hotel before midnight.
An evening
Look through a real telescope.A guided stargazing tour with an astronomer and a proper scope: Saturn and its rings, distant galaxies, the constellations finally making sense overhead.
A whole night out
Sleep out under the Milky Way.A desert safari to a camp far from any glow: dinner under the stars, the Milky Way edge to edge, and a sky so deep you stop trying to count.
Past the last streetlight
An hour out of Dubai, the desert goes dark.
The Gulf cities glow like furnaces, but the Arabian desert behind them is vast and empty. A 4x4 climbs the red dunes out of Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Doha to a camp where the only light is the fire: a barbecue under the open sky, a camel ride at dusk, and the stars coming out hard and bright once your eyes adjust. Sunset safari or a full overnight in the dunes, the contrast with the skyline is the whole point.
See all 11 stargazing tours in the UAE →By place
Pick where you want to look up.
Tenerife for the view above the clouds. The Atacama for the clearest air on earth. Lake Tekapo for the southern sky. Dubai for the desert dunes. Sedona for the red-rock Milky Way. Hurghada for a Bedouin camp in the Eastern Desert.
By country
Every country worth a clear night.
From the Canaries to the Atacama, the Egyptian desert to the Arabian dunes, the American Southwest to the dark-sky reserves of New Zealand. Browse by the country whose sky you want overhead.
Dusk to deep night
A perfect night under the stars.
First proper stargazing trip and want to do it right? Here is how a great night unfolds, from the sunset warm-up to the galactic core climbing late.
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