Bolivia and Chile: the Uyuni Salt Flats to the Atacama

Arrive in La Paz

El Alto International Airport to your hotel in La Paz

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : La Paz
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the days ahead: how we pace the altitude, what the desert lodges are like and what to keep in your day bag. Then we walk a few minutes to an early, light welcome dinner of Bolivian dishes.

Compris

• Pick-up at El Alto International Airport (LPB)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Old La Paz and the cable car

La Paz on foot, then Mi Teleferico over the city

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : La Paz
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

A gentle morning on foot with your guide, at a pace set for the altitude. We start in Plaza Murillo, with the cathedral, the Legislative Palace and the old presidential palace around a square full of pigeons. From there Calle Jaen, a cobbled colonial street, leads past small museums in painted houses, and the stone Basilica of San Francisco faces a busy square. Behind it, the Witches' Market sells herbs, charms and dried llama foetuses for offerings to Pachamama, Mother Earth; your guide explains what each one is for.

Après-midi

Lunch is your choice, and the early afternoon is free to rest. In the late afternoon we ride Mi Teleferico, the city's network of cable cars, which carries commuters between La Paz and El Alto. Gliding over the rooftops, you see how the city climbs the walls of its canyon, and the low sun lights Illimani across the bowl.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Walking tour of old La Paz with your guide: Plaza Murillo, Calle Jaen, the Basilica of San Francisco and the Witches' Market
• Cable car ride on Mi Teleferico in the late afternoon

Fly to Uyuni, sunset on the salt

La Paz to Uyuni by air, then the Train Cemetery, Colchani and the edge of the salar

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Uyuni
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive up to El Alto for a flight of about an hour, which we aim to book in the morning, south across the altiplano to Uyuni.

Soir

Other trips spend nine to ten hours on the road for this leg, or a night on a bus; we have the afternoon on the salt instead. Uyuni is a windy frontier town at about 3,660 m, and lunch together is in town. A few minutes outside it is the Train Cemetery, where steam engines and wagons from the days when Uyuni was a rail hub for the mines have been rusting in the open since the mid 20th century. We continue about 20 km north to Colchani, a village on the edge of the salar where families dry, grind and pack salt by hand, then drive out onto the Salar de Uyuni itself, at more than 10,000 square km the largest salt flat in the world. We stay for sunset, when the white crust turns pink and gold, and drive back to Uyuni for a free evening.

Compris

• Flight from La Paz to Uyuni
• Airport transfers in La Paz and Uyuni
• Lunch in Uyuni
• The Train Cemetery
• Colchani salt village
• Sunset on the Salar de Uyuni

Across the salar to Incahuasi

Uyuni across the Salar de Uyuni to Incahuasi, then to the southern shore

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Salar de Uyuni (southern shore)
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

This morning we load the bags onto the roofs of our 4x4s, with local drivers and no more than four guests in each, so everyone has a window. We cross onto the salar near Colchani and stop at the salt monuments and the Dakar Rally sculpture, then drive west for about two hours across a flat white crust that, in the dry season, cracks into a pattern of hexagons as far as you can see. Incahuasi is an island of rock in the middle of it, covered in giant columnar cacti, some several metres tall, and in fossil coral from the time the salar was a lake.

Après-midi

We arrive before the midday wave of day tours from Uyuni and walk the trail to the top for a view across the salt to the volcanoes. Lunch is a hot meal at Incahuasi, then there is time for the classic perspective photos.

Soir

In the afternoon we drive south off the salt to a simple salt lodge on the quiet southern shore for sunset and dinner.

Compris

• 4x4 crossing of the Salar de Uyuni with local drivers, no more than four guests per vehicle
• Salt monuments and the Dakar Rally sculpture
• Incahuasi island and its summit trail, entry fee included
• Lunch at Incahuasi
• Sunset on the salt from the southern shore
• Dinner at the salt lodge

The coloured lakes to Laguna Colorada

Southern shore of the salar to the Chiguana flat, the lakes, the Siloli Desert and Laguna Colorada

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Laguna Colorada
• Environ 5.5 h de route

Après-midi

A stop every 30 to 60 minutes and a hot lunch break it up. We cross the Chiguana salt flat, with the smoking summit of Ollague volcano on the Chilean border, then climb to a chain of small lakes, Canapa, Hedionda, Chiar Khota and Honda, each a different colour, where Andean, Chilean and James's flamingos feed in the shallows. Lunch is a hot meal on the shore of Laguna Hedionda. In the afternoon we cross the Siloli Desert, with wind-carved rocks including the Arbol de Piedra, the stone tree, and enter the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve. We reach Laguna Colorada in the late afternoon, when the wind and low sun bring out its red.

Soir

The night is at a simple desert lodge nearby.

Compris

• 4x4 day with your guide and local drivers
• The Chiguana salt flat and the Ollague volcano viewpoint
• Lagunas Canapa, Hedionda, Chiar Khota and Honda, with their flamingos
• Lunch at Laguna Hedionda
• The Siloli Desert and the Arbol de Piedra
• Eduardo Avaroa reserve entry fee and Laguna Colorada
• Dinner at the desert lodge

Geysers, hot springs and over the border to San Pedro

Laguna Colorada to Sol de Manana, Polques and Laguna Verde, then Hito Cajon and down to San Pedro de Atacama

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : San Pedro de Atacama
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Matin

An early start, at about 6:30 am, because the geysers steam hardest in the cold of the early morning and the border handover is set for late morning. At about 4.5 hours this is over our 4-hour cap, because the track crosses remote desert with no town to stop in; the geysers, the hot springs, the lakes and the border handover break it into short legs. We climb to Sol de Manana, at about 4,900 m the highest point of the trip, a field of boiling mud pots and hissing vents. Breakfast warms up at the Polques hot springs, where you can soak in a pool at about 30 degrees with the desert all around. We cross the Dali Desert to Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde beneath the cone of Licancabur volcano. At Hito Cajon, the remote Bolivian exit post, we say goodbye to the drivers and switch to a Chilean vehicle, and your guide comes with you.

Après-midi

The paved road drops about 2,000 m in 45 km to San Pedro de Atacama, where we clear Chilean immigration and have a late lunch together. The rest of the day is free.

Compris

• Sol de Manana geysers
• The Polques hot springs, entry included
• The Dali Desert, Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde
• Bolivian exit at Hito Cajon and transfer by Chilean vehicle to San Pedro
• Lunch in San Pedro de Atacama

A free morning, then the Valle de la Luna

San Pedro de Atacama to the Valle de la Luna and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : San Pedro de Atacama
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

After the crossing, a slow morning. Sleep in, walk the dusty lanes of San Pedro, an oasis village of adobe houses at about 2,400 m, or sit in the shade of the plaza by the whitewashed adobe church, one of the oldest in the region. The archaeological museum in town covers the Atacameno people who have farmed this oasis for thousands of years.

Après-midi

Lunch is your choice.

Soir

About two hours before sunset we drive a few kilometres west into the Cordillera de la Sal to the Valle de la Luna, the Valley of the Moon, a protected area of salt-crusted ridges, dunes and wind-cut rock managed with the local Atacameno communities. We walk through the formations and the salt caves where access is open, then climb to a ridge viewpoint as the light turns the valley red and gold and the volcanoes on the eastern horizon glow pink. Back in town, we sit down to a group dinner together.

Compris

• Valle de la Luna at sunset with your guide, entry tickets booked ahead
• Group dinner in San Pedro

Activités en option

• Laguna Cejar, a salt lagoon where you float as in the Dead Sea, in the morning (priced at booking)

El Tatio at dawn, stars at night

San Pedro de Atacama to the El Tatio geysers and back, then a stargazing session outside town

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : San Pedro de Atacama
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

The one very early start in San Pedro, because El Tatio is at its best at sunrise. We leave at about 5 am and drive about 90 km north, climbing in the dark to a geyser field at about 4,320 m run by local Atacameno communities. In the freezing air before the sun clears the mountains, steam from dozens of vents rises in tall white columns; as the day warms the plumes thin out, which is why we come early. We walk the marked paths with your guide, then have a picnic breakfast beside the field, and there is a warm thermal pool for anyone who wants it. On the way down we stop at Machuca, a hamlet of thatched adobe houses, and at a wetland where vicunas and water birds feed.

Après-midi

We are back by about noon for lunch together, and the afternoon is free for a long rest. After dark we drive a short way out of town for a stargazing session with an astronomy guide, with telescopes in the dry, dark desert air.

Compris

• El Tatio geysers at dawn, community entry fee included
• Picnic breakfast at the geysers
• Machuca and the Putana wetland on the way down
• Lunch in San Pedro
• Stargazing session with an astronomy guide and telescopes

Across the desert to Calama

San Pedro de Atacama to Calama airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Soir

A relaxed last morning after the late night: breakfast when you like, and a last walk to the plaza or the craft market. We leave San Pedro at a time set by your flight and drive about 100 km west across the desert to Calama airport, about an hour and a quarter. The road climbs over the Cordillera de la Sal, with a last view back over the Valle de la Luna and the line of volcanoes along the Bolivian border, then crosses a flat, bare plain towards Calama, a copper-mining city on the Loa river. Your guide sees you to the check-in desks before saying goodbye. Most flights from Calama go to Santiago, about two hours, for connections home. Book a flight from Calama leaving after about 1 pm, so the morning is not rushed; if you want more time in Chile, we can add hotel nights in San Pedro or Santiago.

Compris

• Drop-off at Calama airport (CJC)