Bolivia: La Paz, Sucre, Potosi and the Uyuni Salt Flats

1. Day 1: Arrive in La Paz

   El Alto International Airport to your hotel in La Paz

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in La Paz
   Day 1 details

   Your flight lands at El Alto International Airport (LPB), at about 4,060 m one of the highest airports in the world, on the rim of the altiplano above La Paz. A driver meets you in arrivals for the short drive over the edge and down into the city, which fills a deep bowl about 400 m lower, with the triple summit of Illimani on the skyline when the air is clear. We keep today deliberately empty: altitude is the one thing that can spoil the first days in Bolivia, and the best cure is rest, water and coca tea, which every hotel offers. Your room is ready on arrival when the hotel can manage it. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the days ahead, how we pace the altitude and what the desert nights are like, then we walk a few minutes to an early, light welcome dinner of Bolivian dishes.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the early evening briefing; rest is the plan

   Activity: Walk slowly, drink plenty of water and skip alcohol tonight; most people feel the altitude on the first day.

2. Day 2: Tiwanaku, then the cable car down

   La Paz to Tiwanaku across the altiplano, back to El Alto, then Mi Teleferico down into La Paz

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in La Paz
   Day 2 details

   We leave after breakfast and drive about an hour and a half west, up through El Alto and across the flat altiplano past adobe farms and grazing llamas, to Tiwanaku, near the southern end of Lake Titicaca. Between about AD 500 and 1000 it was the centre of a state that reached into what are now Peru, Chile and Argentina, and it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Arriving in the morning, before the midday sun, we walk with a local site guide through the sunken temple with its carved stone heads set into the walls, onto the platform of Kalasasaya to the Gate of the Sun, past the eroded Akapana pyramid, then to Puma Punku, where precisely cut andesite blocks lie scattered as if dropped. The two site museums hold the finest carvings. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Tiwanaku village. On the way back the van leaves us at the top of the cable car network in El Alto, and we ride Mi Teleferico down over the rooftops into the city in the late afternoon light, with Illimani across the bowl when the sky is clear.

   Included

   • Tiwanaku with a local site guide: the semi-subterranean temple, Kalasasaya and the Gate of the Sun, Akapana and Puma Punku
   • Both site museums
   • Sit-down lunch in Tiwanaku village
   • Cable car ride on Mi Teleferico from El Alto down into La Paz

   Easier option: See Kalasasaya, the sunken temple and the museums, then wait in the shade of the cafe while the others walk to Puma Punku.

   Free time: Evening free in La Paz

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot over flat, open ground at about 3,850 m, with strong sun; bring a hat and sunscreen. The cable car is seated and takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

   

3. Day 3: Old La Paz on foot, then fly to Sucre

   Old La Paz on foot, then La Paz to Sucre by air

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Sucre
   Day 3 details

   A morning on foot in old La Paz with your guide, before the afternoon flight. Plaza Murillo holds the cathedral, the Legislative Palace and the old presidential palace; from there Calle Jaen, the best kept colonial street in the city, leads past small museums, and the stone Basilica of San Francisco faces the busiest square in town. Behind it, the Witches' Market sells dried llama foetuses, herbs and charms for offerings to Pachamama. After an early lunch of your choice we drive up to El Alto for a flight of under an hour south-east to Sucre, about 800 m lower than La Paz, and most people feel the difference straight away. The airport is about 30 km outside town. Sucre is Bolivia's constitutional capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991, a grid of whitewashed churches, convents and mansions around Plaza 25 de Mayo. Late in the afternoon we walk up to the Recoleta, the Franciscan monastery above town, and sit under the arches of its viewpoint for sunset over the red roofs. Dinner is your choice.

   Included

   • Walking tour of old La Paz with your guide: Plaza Murillo, Calle Jaen, the Basilica of San Francisco and the Witches' Market
   • Flight from La Paz to Sucre
   • Airport transfers in La Paz and Sucre
   • Sunset at the Recoleta viewpoint

   Easier option: Take a taxi up to the Recoleta instead of walking the hill.

   Free time: Lunch and evening free

   Activity: About 2.5 hours on foot in La Paz on steep streets at about 3,640 m, then one steep street up to the Recoleta in Sucre, at about 2,800 m. Flight times are set by the airline and sent with your final itinerary.

   

4. Day 4: Dinosaur tracks and the white city

   Sucre, with Cal Orck'o on the edge of town

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Sucre
   Day 4 details

   This morning we drive about 5 km out of the centre to Cal Orck'o, a former limestone quarry whose near-vertical wall is covered in thousands of dinosaur footprints, laid down about 68 million years ago in the mud of a lake shore and tilted upright by the lifting of the Andes. The Parque Cretacico beside it has life-size models and a terrace facing the wall; at set times a guided walk goes down to its foot, and we book it so you see the tracks up close. Back in town, your guide takes the group to Casa de la Libertad on Plaza 25 de Mayo, where Bolivia's declaration of independence was signed in 1825, past the Cathedral and up to the rooftop terraces of San Felipe Neri, a former convent with white domes and bell towers and the best view of the old city. The rest of the day is free: the Museo de Arte Indigena has fine Jalq'a and Tarabuco weaving, and the central market is good for fresh juice and saltenas. This is the slow day before we go back up to altitude.

   Included

   • Cal Orck'o and the Parque Cretacico, with the guided walk to the foot of the track wall when it runs
   • Casa de la Libertad and the Cathedral with your guide
   • Rooftop terraces of San Felipe Neri

   Optional experiences

   • Chataquila pre-Hispanic trail: a guided half-day walk, mostly downhill on an old stone path, with transport (price shown when you book)
   • Tarabuco Sunday market, when day 4 falls on a Sunday (price shown when you book)

   Easier option: Watch the track wall from the terrace of the Parque Cretacico and skip the walk down.

   More active option: Take the Chataquila trail in the afternoon, about 3 hours on foot.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 2.5 hours on foot in the morning, with steps at Cal Orck'o and up to the San Felipe Neri rooftops.

   

5. Day 5: Up to Potosi and its silver mint

   Sucre to Potosi

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Potosi
   Day 5 details

   We leave Sucre after breakfast and drive about three hours west on a paved road that climbs from the valleys to the high plateau. Potosi, at about 4,070 m, is one of the highest cities in the world, and Cerro Rico, the cone-shaped mountain of silver above it, made it one of the richest places on earth in the 16th and 17th centuries, at the cost of countless indigenous and African lives in the mines. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After a sit-down lunch in the old centre we take the booked guided tour of the Casa Nacional de Moneda, the royal mint finished in the 1770s, with its wooden rolling mills once turned by mules, its coins and its colonial paintings. Your guide then walks the group past the churches and balconied houses of the old town. From late afternoon you are free; Potosi is cold after dark, so the hotel's heating and a hot drink are welcome.

   Included

   • Drive from Sucre to Potosi with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Potosi
   • Guided tour of the Casa Nacional de Moneda
   • Walk through Potosi's old town

   Optional experiences

   • Cerro Rico cooperative mine visit with a former miner as guide, in place of the old-town walk (price shown when you book)

   Easier option: Rest at the hotel after the mint instead of the old-town walk.

   More active option: The Cerro Rico mine visit: about 2 hours in hot, dusty and cramped working tunnels at about 4,200 m. Not for anyone with heart or breathing problems or a dislike of tight spaces.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Potosi is the highest city on the trip; walk slowly. The mint tour is about 1.5 to 2 hours on foot indoors, and its time depends on the day of the week.

6. Day 6: To Uyuni and a first sunset on the salt

   Potosi to Uyuni, then to the salar near Colchani

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Uyuni
   Day 6 details

   A morning drive of about three and a half hours on paved road takes us south-west across open puna, with llamas, small adobe villages and the long line of the Cordillera de Chichas on the horizon, down to Uyuni, a frontier town on the edge of the altiplano. After lunch together and time to check in, we drive a few minutes out of town to the Train Cemetery, where steam engines and wagons from the mining railway era have been left to rust in the desert. In the late afternoon we head about 22 km north to Colchani, where families still dry and pack salt by hand, and on to the edge of the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on earth, at about 3,660 m. We stay out on the salt as the sun goes down and the white surface turns pink and then blue. Dinner tonight is free in Uyuni. We stay two nights at the same hotel, on either side of the desert, so your main bag waits here.

   Included

   • Drive from Potosi to Uyuni with your guide
   • Lunch in Uyuni
   • The Train Cemetery
   • Colchani salt village
   • Sunset on the Salar de Uyuni

   Free time: Evening free in Uyuni

   Activity: Short walks only. The salt is blinding: bring sunglasses, sunscreen and a warm layer for sunset.

7. Day 7: Across the salar to Incahuasi

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Salar de Uyuni (southern shore)
   Day 7 details

   This morning, with a small overnight bag each, we switch to 4x4s with local drivers, 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 high, and in fossil coral from the time the salar was a lake. 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 on the horizon. Lunch is a sit-down meal at Incahuasi, then there is time for the classic perspective photos. In the afternoon we drive south off the salt to our salt hotel on the quiet southern shore, built of salt blocks, for sunset and dinner.

   Included

   • 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 hotel

   Easier option: Walk the flat path around the base of Incahuasi instead of the climb to the top.

   More active option: Climb to the summit of Incahuasi, about 45 minutes up and down on rocky steps.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the salt hotel

   Activity: The Incahuasi trail is steep and rocky at about 3,700 m. The salt hotel has private rooms; heating is limited, so bring a warm layer for the evening.

8. Day 8: The coloured lakes to Laguna Colorada

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

   • Drive about 5.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Laguna Colorada
   Day 8 details

   Today is the longest: about 220 km and five and a half hours of driving on desert tracks, eight to nine hours out with the stops, because the lakes are strung out across empty high desert with no town between the salar and Laguna Colorada. 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, with white borax banks and flamingos. The night is at a simple desert lodge nearby.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay in the 4x4 or by the vehicle at any stop; the lakes are all close to the track.

   More active option: Walk the shore path at Laguna Colorada to the higher viewpoint, about 45 minutes.

   Free time: Evening at the lodge

   Activity: The highest day: tracks reach about 4,600 m and the lodge is at about 4,300 m. The lodge has private rooms but little heating, and nights are very cold from June to August: pack a sleeping-bag liner, and we ask the lodge for an extra blanket for every bed.

   

9. Day 9: Laguna Colorada back to Uyuni

   Laguna Colorada to Villa Alota, the Valle de Rocas and San Cristobal, then Uyuni

   • Drive about 6.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Uyuni
   Day 9 details

   If you want it, we drive the few minutes to the shore at first light, when Laguna Colorada is still and the flamingos feed close in; it is the one early start on the trip, and you can sleep in instead. After breakfast we leave at about 8:30 for the drive back north: about 300 km and six to six and a half hours of driving, nine to ten hours out with the stops, most of it on slow desert track, because there is no shorter way back from the reserve. The flight home is tomorrow morning, so nobody watches the clock today. The first long stop is the Valle de Rocas near Villa Alota, a field of eroded rock towers to wander among. Lunch is together in San Cristobal, a mining village whose 17th-century church was taken down and rebuilt stone by stone when the old village was moved for a mine. The last stretch is on paved road, and we reach Uyuni in the late afternoon, back at the same hotel and your main bag, with time for a hot shower before a farewell dinner together in town.

   Included

   • Laguna Colorada at first light (optional)
   • The Valle de Rocas near Villa Alota
   • San Cristobal and its rebuilt church
   • Lunch in San Cristobal
   • Farewell dinner in Uyuni

   Easier option: Sleep in instead of the first-light visit, and stay by the 4x4 at the Valle de Rocas.

   More active option: Scramble among the higher rock towers at the Valle de Rocas, about 45 minutes on uneven ground.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Uyuni before dinner

   Activity: The longest day in the vehicle, with short walks at each stop; the last stretch from San Cristobal is paved. Uyuni, at about 3,660 m, is a relief after the desert nights.

10. Day 10: Fly back to La Paz

    Uyuni to La Paz by air

    • Drive about 15 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    A last breakfast in Uyuni, then the short drive of a few minutes to the town's small airport for the morning flight to La Paz, about an hour in the air. The airline sets the departure time, which we send with your final itinerary; on the schedules we have seen it leaves around 9 am, and we leave the hotel about an hour before, so there is no early alarm. The flight crosses the altiplano, with the white of the salar falling away behind and, on a clear day, the snow peaks of the Cordillera Real ahead as we come in to El Alto. After nine days at altitude, landing back at about 4,060 m feels very different from the first morning. Your guide flies with you and sees the group to the arrivals hall at El Alto International Airport, where the trip ends in the late morning. If you fly home today, book an onward flight leaving after about 3 pm, to allow for a delay on the Uyuni flight. If you want more time in La Paz, we can book extra nights and the transfer into the city.

    Included

    • Transfer to Uyuni airport
    • Flight from Uyuni to La Paz
    • Drop-off at El Alto International Airport (LPB)

    Activity: Book an onward flight from La Paz leaving after about 3 pm, or add a night in La Paz. The exact Uyuni flight time is sent with your final itinerary.

Wildlife and weather: April to November is the dry season: clear skies, a firm white salt crust with its hexagon pattern, and open desert tracks. Days are sunny and nights are cold, sharply so in the southern desert from June to August. Flamingos (Andean, Chilean and James's) feed on the lakes all through the season. The mirror effect on the salar needs rain, from about December to March, when flooding can close Incahuasi and the southern route, so we do not run then.

• La Paz2 nights
• Sucre2 nights
• Potosi1 night
• Uyuni1 night
• Salar de Uyuni (southern shore)1 night
• Laguna Colorada1 night
• Uyuni1 night