How To See Bolivia On A Budget: Our Highlights Travel Guide
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How To See Bolivia On A Budget
In this travel guide we’ll show you how we saw Bolivia on a budget and what our highlights were. After visiting Peru, we ventured over land to beautiful Bolivia for just under 2 weeks. We found the two countries to be fairly similar in some respects, such as the culture, food and climate. We spent the first 5 days in Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world (where Sam got his first case of a bad belly)!
Then we went over to awesome La Paz for a couple of days before heading down to Salar de Uyuni for an EPIC three day adventure in the salt flats! This is something on our top must-do list for South America travel, it’s seriously so cool. We decided to skip the capital, Sucre, because it looked fairly similar to other cities we had seen in Peru, and after 3 weeks at over 2500m above sea level, we were looking forward to getting back down! Read on for our top travel tips:
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WHERE to go in bolivia
There are a few main spots in to see in Bolivia and the best way to get to them is by bus, although you can fly as well we’ve heard it’s not the best experience! We knew we 100% wanted to do the salts flats and Copacabana sounded cool as well, plus it’s a great stop off if coming from Peru, we heard mixed reviews about La Paz but are so glad we went in the end!
In total we saw:
Copacabana (Lake Titicaca)
La Paz
Uyuni
Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni)
Copacabana, Lake Titicaca
We first arrived in Bolivia arrived in this tiny, picturesque town in the early hours of the morning and pretty much saw the whole town on the way from the bus stop to our hostel by the waterfront haha (about a 15-minute walk). Our friends stayed in what looked like Teletubby Land with awesome hot tub views of the lake, it is a little bit pricier than the average budget backpacker rate though.
There are a few nice bars along the road and places to eat but only minuscule corner shops if you want to buy your own food (I don’t think we ate fresh fruit the whole time we were there!). From the pier you can also get a cheap boat ride to a nearby island with a restaurant for a great day out. We loved staying here to relax and unwind a bit- we even tried zorbing on the water! You do not go as fast as you’d think you would…
why to visit La Paz
At first we were a bit put off from visiting here because we had read some bad reviews about it being one of the more dangerous spots of Bolivia, but we loved it! It can be a little bit hectic at times but it has lots of charm, especially the Witches Market at the top of the city. They also have loadssss of lovely jewellery here so now’s the place to stock up! The hostel we stayed in was also quite nice, it was very central and affordable. If you’re crazy enough to want to travel down Death Road, then this is where you’ll start from.
One of our favourite parts of La Paz was the covered food market in the main square (Mercado Lanza). It looks like an abandoned parking lot from the outside and you’ll wonder where we’ve recommended you to go once you get inside haha but we promise it’s worth it! Go to the last floor and you’ll see tons of tiny stalls packed in side by side, pick one with the most people (which is practically all of them so you can’t go wrong really) and enjoy a DELICIOUS meal for about £1! As with most of Bolivia, all meals come with a soup starter and then a main dish- and the portions are huge! You’ll sit elbow to elbow with local people and have an unforgettable experience. We ate lunch here practically every day.
Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats tour
And now for our highlight of Bolivia tour: The Salar de Uyuni salt flats national park. We left from Uyuni, Potosi, for a 3 day excursion (but you can pick a day tour up to 5 days as well). To get there we took the 7 hour overnight bus with Panasur, which was recommended as one of the best companies because the road can get pretty bumpy. You can also fly from La Paz and Sucre. We came out the other end directly in the Atacama desert, Chile, but you can also do a round-trip or do it in reverse if you’re coming from Chile first. If you have more time, you can also stop at Potosi the “silver city”, a UNESCO world heritage site, along the way.
We booked our tour company when we arrived, at about 6 AM, because we wanted to suss out the look of them but from what we saw online the best ones to go with are Cordillera, Andes Salt Expedition and Red Planet. We went with Cordillera because the others were already fully booked but we were super happy with this choice and had a GREAT time with them! Make sure to do your research beforehand because you really don’t want the car to break once on the road. Also, check what time of year is best to visit as depending on rainfall etc. will determine your access to certain parts of the tour.
You’ll take off at about 10 AM and then go straight to an awesome train graveyard. We had loads of fun running around here. Then it’s time to head for some food. Along the way you’ll pass a monument and get your first glimpse at the epic perspective-shifting vastness of the flats. Outside the salt-block “restaurant” there’s also loads of flags so don’t forget to get a pic with your home country’s one! Don’t worry about getting those famous perspective shots because your tour guide will help you with these after lunch.
Then you’ll pass an old mining town to see the traditional manufacturing process and pick up various types of souvenirs if you like- we bought a bag of salt which we later abandoned due to its illegal-looking nature haha…You’ll spend the night in a salt-block building at about 5000m above sea level. if you’re arriving in Bolivia and then coming straight here make sure you acclimatize first- this is almost the same height as Everest base camp! We had already been at high altitudes for a few weeks and even I felt a bit claustrophobic.
Day 2 starts at about 7:30 AM where you’ll see all of the different coloured lakes and flamingoes, plus some pretty cool natural stone structures, volcanoes and a petrified cactus desert! We also stopped at what was once a cave under the sea and saw lots of petrified coral.
Day 3 starts at about 5 AM for an EPIC sunrise with the geysers and then a well-needed hot spring soak- it gets pretty cold up there so make sure to bring plenty of warm travel layers (these are the thermals we use). On your way out you’ll see the Dali Desert (so-called because it looks like one of his paintings) before finishing in the super cute San Pedro de Atacama, if you come out in Chile.
Not only was the whole 3 days an absolutely awesome immersion into some of the most unique nature and landscapes we’ve ever seen, but we had the best time with the friends we made along the way (2 of which even came to our wedding!). If you only do one thing in Bolivia, we highly recommend doing this tour.
So there you have it! Our Bolivia travel guide on a budget and our personal highlights. Hopefully it can be of some help to you, we’d love to hear about how your adventures go in the comments section below. If you’ve already been to Bolivia, what else would you add?
