3 Days In The Bolivian Salt Flats: A Complete Travel Guide
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3 Days In The Bolivian Salt Flat
High up in the clouds near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of 3,656 metres above sea level you’ll find the Bolivian Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats). At 10,582 square kilometres this is the largest salt flat in the world and oh boy is it impressive! It’s one of our South America highlights.
In this post, we’ll tell you about our 3-day off-road adventure and what you can expect if you’re planning to explore this incredible part of the world. If you’re exploring the Bolivian countryside then this trip is an absolute must…….NO EXCUSES! You’ll witness some of the most mind-blowing landscapes you’ve ever seen and will come away knowing you’ve had one of the best adventures of your entire life.
Contents
Booking Your Bolivian Salt Flats Tour
GETTING FROM LA PAZ TO UYUNI
We took an overnight bus with Panasur from La Paz, which was recommended as one of the best companies. Tourist buses usually run from La Paz to Uyuni at 8pm and take between 7 to 10 hours depending on the season. The bus costs between 12-20 GBP/ 15-25 USD/ 105-173 BOB depending on which bus company and seat type you choose. If you’ve just arrived in Bolivia, it’s recommended you spend a few days acclimatizing first to avoid altitude sickness.
Other recommended buses are Trans Omar and Todo Turismo, which like Panasur also provide a much more tourist-focused service and include a small meal and hot drinks within the price.
A WORD OF WARNING: This journey is notoriously bumpy and uncomfortable due to the rough, unmaintained road surface, especially the last 2/3rds of the route. Luckily though it’s pretty much straight so you won’t be dealing with those narrow Bolivian mountain roads you’ll grow to hate while travelling around Peru as well haha.
Due to the quality of the road, it’s not always possible for buses to run during the wet season (with March /April being the worst months) so if you’re planning on visiting during this time then double check before buying your ticket.
The other option to get to Uyuni is to fly from either La Paz or Sucre but if you’re on a budget like us then we recommend one of the bus services. If you fancy splashing out you can find more info regarding flights here.
BOOKING YOUR bolivian salt flats TOUR
We arrived in the small town of Uyuni, Potosi, at 6am and got straight to work to hunt out the different tour companies. We’d done loads of research before to determine which one we wanted to go with and had shortlisted Cordillera, Andes Salt Expedition and Red Planet salt flat tours as these had the highest reviews and were recommended for the best safety of the drivers.
Once you start researching you quickly come across lots of horror stories about the Bolivia salt flats tours, from drunk drivers, terrible sleeping conditions, lack of safety equipment, car crashes, and breakdowns, pretty much you name it and it seems to have happened. It’s vital you don’t just pick a tour because it’s the cheapest option. Your safety is more important than saving a few quid so this really is one of those times where you need to pay more for a trustworthy, safe, fun experience.
All of the tour agents open up when the La Paz buses arrive in the morning but tickets can sell out pretty quickly for the tours so make sure you get straight to work on booking one before you do anything else!
To save disappointment it might be worth getting to Uyuni one day earlier or booking with an agency online. The only reason we didn’t book online is that we wanted to suss them out in person but we can confirm our recommendations are legitimate and all of high quality. For Uyuni accommodation options and prices click here.
THE TOUR OFFERINGS
Uyuni tours can vary in price depending on who you go with and what package you want. We went for the standard 3 day 2 night salt flat tour which starts in Uyuni and ends in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, and costs 109 GBP/ 140 USD/ 972 BOB per person. If you want a longer or shorter tour then there are other package options available from day tours up to five days.
Questions to ask the tour agency:
How many people are there in the car?– the less, the better, of course, but it is usually 6 people + the driver
Does the driver speak English?– ours didn’t (Talisa speaks Spanish), but you can sometimes pay more to have someone English speaking
Where does the tour end?– do you want to end back in Uyuni on the Bolivian side or continue to the Atacama Desert in Chile?
Are there any extra costs? – The answer is YES but we’ll go into more detail about that later
DAY 1 of the salt flats tour
After booking our tour we had a few hours to spare before setting off so we explored the local Uyuni morning market. We purchased a couple of fedora hats as it’s recommended while out in the salt flats as there is zero shade. If you didn’t bring your own hat then this market is the place for you, they’re super cheap and great quality!
After meeting our driver and fellow passengers we all loaded up the jeep and set off at about 10am. The first stop was the Train Cemetery, where you can see the remains of nineteenth and early 20th-century steam locomotives. This place is awesome and really starts the trip off with a bang.
Next, we headed to the little village of Colchani to see how the salt is extracted and processed for distribution as well as visiting a little salt museum with some salt sculptures.
We then went to Playa Blanca, an old salt hotel where we stopped for lunch in a large room with loads of other people that were also on tours. This is the area where you first lay your eyes on the expanse and beauty of the salt flats.
After lunch (which is cooked by your driver) we headed right into the heart of the Bolivian Salt Flats to get those famous perspective pictures. There’s no words to describe how incredible it is out there. Nothing around for miles, an empty horizon, no point of reference at all, just a white floor and a blue sky. This sight alone is worth every penny.
You can expect to spend an hour or so out in the flats. Our driver turned into a photographer and helped us take some really amazing shots. Everyone in our group took it in turns and then we did some great group ones too.
The next stop was Incawasi Island also known as Fish Island, an isolated mound of petrified coral and hundreds of giant trichocerus cacti (some as high as 12 metres) located right in the centre of the Salt Flats, 100 km from Uyuni. This place is a photographers wet dream as the island itself is incredible and the panoramic views are so beautiful. It’s also totally not what you’d expect to find out there and really feels like you’re on another planet. We spent over an hour at Incawasi before jumping back in the jeep and continuing our journey.
The last couple of hours were spent driving across the other half of the salt flats with a few short stops along the way before reaching a perfect spot to sit and watch the sunset. We were then driven to our accommodation for the night, which was a small hotel made from nothing more than SALT! Everything from the bricks to the beds was made of the white stuff and apparently, they have to rebuild it every 15 years, as the rainwater erodes the bricks over time. We finished off with a hot meal and chatted the night away with our new friends on the tour with us.
DAY 2 of the salt flats tour
After eating breakfast we left our accommodation at 7.30am for another full day of adventure. This part of the tour is really something special. We had no idea what we were going to see so had zero expectation for the day ahead. What we did end up seeing though were landscapes so alien to us that it felt like we were on Mars!
This day is all about rocks and lagoons and some more rocks followed by some more lagoons haha. First we went to see some petrified volcanic lava and a viewpoint of Ollagüe volcano, which has little volcanic activity. Afterwards we visited a chain of highland lagoons including Cañapa lagoon, laguna Hedionda (where we stopped for lunch and were cooked a simple Bolivian meal by our driver from the boot of the car), lagoon Chiarcota and lagoon Honda. These places are incredible! Each lagoon is a different colour which comes from certain minerals in the water and all of them are full of flamingos! We were also lucky enough to see an Bolivian Andean Fox (Culpeo).
We then continued onto the final stop and the piece de la resistance of the day: Laguna Colorada or ‘Red Lagoon’, a shallow saltwater lake, peppered with white borax islands. It spans 6000 hectares, sits at an altitude of over 4000 metres above sea level, is less than a metre deep and gets its colour from the algae and rich minerals in the water. It’s also home to three flamingo species including the James’ Flamingo which is incredibly rare, can only be found in the high Bolivian Andean plateaus and are naturally white but get their pink colouring from the lake.
This day is full to the brim with crazy landscapes and amazing wildlife and was such an added bonus to the incredible previous day.
After the lake, we were driven to our accommodation for the night which was a dormitory room we shared with the other people on our tour. We were given another simple Bolivian meal and a bottle of wine and all spent the evening chatting together before calling it a night. The accommodation is pretty basic but it had a good vibe. All we needed was a bed to crash on as we were pretty damn tired from the full day of fun we’d just had!
DAY 3 of salt flats tour
The morning kicked off early with a race to see the sunrise at Sol de Mañana, an active geothermal field complete with bubbling mud pots, geysers, and an acrid smell of sulfur. It was such an amazing way to start the day by watching the sun rays flash through the steam coming from the ground all around us. We spent over an hour walking around this otherworldly place completely gobsmacked by the rawness of the nature. We’d never experienced geysers before so we were pretty fascinated by them.
SAFTEY TIP: You’re allowed to roam completely free around the geysers without any restrictions on how close you want to get to them. The ground is very uneven and hard to see in certain areas due to all the steam. A tourist actually died here a couple of years ago as they slipped whilst trying to take a selfie and fell into the boiling water. BE CAREFUL!! Don’t be stupid just because there isn’t a barrier. Safety first people.
After leaving the geysers we were taken to Polques, an area of small natural thermal pools where we were able to take an early morning bath in 30 Degree water out in the open. The pools are famous for apparently curing arthritis and rheumatism so we’ll see if that’s factual later in life.
The route then passed through spectacular landscapes with multicoloured volcanic rock formations at heights of 5000 metres above sea level (That’s nearly the height of Everest Base Camp!) before then entering the National Reserve Eduardo Abaroa. Within the reserve we stopped for a while in Dali Valley which gets its name from characterised landscapes that resemble surrealist paintings by Salvador Dali.
The last stop on the journey was one final lagoon (Laguna Verde) which has a beautifully clear aquamarine colour and is perfectly framed by a mountain behind it.
We then hopped in the jeep for one more trip to the edge of the Bolivian border where we were picked up by a minibus and driven to the Chilean border passport patrol and onwards to our final stop in San Pedro de Atacama, which took about an hour overall. We went onwards with two of our new friends from the tour but our other new buddies wanted to finish in Uyuni on the Bolivian side so they got another whole day of adventures.
Our driver Ronaldo actually suffered huge back pains on the last day which resulted in the guys that went back to Uyuni driving the jeep while he was laid flat out in the back giving them directions across the roadless desert. They were trainee doctors and total legends so looked after him well. They also had an epic time driving around the flats, which is something not many people get to experience!
So, that was the bulk of our 3-day adventure in the Bolivian Salt Flats. We had such a great time on this trip so we hope our words have done this place justice. We also met some new lifelong friends on this journey so that was a huge added bonus for us (they even came to our wedding)!
We’ve also provided a price breakdown and some other important notes below that will help you when planning for this trip:
COST BREAKDOWN for salar de uyuni tour
What’s included:
Transport in a Toyota Land Cruiser or Nissan Patrol 4×4
Food : Day 1 – Lunch and dinner/ Day 2 – Breakfast, lunch and dinner/ Day 3 – Breakfast and lunch (Vegetarian meals supplied upon request, even though these were pretty measly so we suggest supplementing with your own snacks!)
First night stay in a salt hotel in your own room, second night stay in a shared dormitory
Driver/English or Spanish speaking guide according to your requirements
What’s not included:
Incawasi Island (Fish Island) – 3 GBP/ 4 USD/ 30 BOB
Galaxy Cavern 2 GBP/ 3 USD/ 20 BS
Eduardo Avaroa National Park 17 GBP/ 22 USD/ 150 BOB
Transfer out tickets to San Pedro 6 GBP/ 7 USD/ 50 BOB
Hot spring 70p/ 9o cence/ 6 BOB
TOTAL PRICE (TOUR + EXTRAS)
139 GBP/ 177 USD/ 1,229 BOB
Although the tour drives to many different places over the 3 days the price of a lot of them is not included so be prepared to pay more. You will have to pay for entry into Eduardo Avaroa National Park as this is part of the route and the transfer ticket to San Pedro. The other attractions are optional so if you don’t want to pay then you don’t have to do them, although as you can see from the above breakdown the additional fees are pretty minimal.
WHAT TO BRING on the tour
Sun cream
Sleeping bag – optional for extra warmth as it can get pretty cold at such high altitudes
Waterproof Clothing
Warm clothes (gloves, wool socks, thermals, rainproof/windproof jacket, long trousers, leggings)
Lots of snacks for extra energy – There’s no extra food other than the meals they provide which are a little small so bring plenty of snacks to keep you going
Water – The tour doesn’t provide water so make sure you bring it with you. We had a total of 10 litres between us which was plenty
Sunglasses
Swimsuit (for the hot springs)
Travel towel (not provided at the hostels)
Hat
Camera
Torch
a note on the uyuni RAINY SEASON
If you travel to Bolivia in the rainy season between January to March you will likely be lucky enough to have the unique experience of seeing the Uyuni salt flats reflecting like a huge magical mirror. But you won’t be able to visit fish island during this time as it’s in the middle of the flats and isn’t possible to reach in those wet conditions. So weigh up when you want to go- we didn’t go in rainy season but personally would choose the reflecting salt flats over the giant cacti!
And that’s our complete travel guide to the Bolivian Salt Flats! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our 3-day adventure and have found the information useful. If you’re planning a visit to Salar de Uyuni and want to ask us any questions before you set off then feel free to comment in the section below. Also, if you’ve previously visited this epic place then how was your experience? We would love to hear about it!
