TRAVEL DATES: 18 to 29 OCT 2023 // La Paz, Uyuni, Potosi & Sucre, Bolivia.

Bolivia has always intrigued me, and I had heard many great things about this country and their people. For many reasons, I knew I did not want to travel alone so I booked the Bolivia Highlights tour with with Intrepid. I liked how this trip included a handful of different cities in 11 days. I wanted to try and see as much as possible while I was there. I have included my review of Intrepid at the bottom of this blog, because it is long, but necessary so if you are curious scroll to the end! I would give their tour a 3.5/5.

Bolivia is rugged, the people were so friendly, the landscapes and vistas were remote and like nothing I have ever seen before. The thing I liked the most is so much of the country feels like it has not been overrun by tourism, which is hard to find in much of the world nowadays. What that means to me is even though we were in the “tourist” areas, it still felt like we were surrounded by locals and not much was overbuilt to accommodate luxury travel. It was refreshing in many ways! I now would love to go back and explore other areas we didn’t get to on this trip!

Below are my recommendations (with helpful links in pink) and our day by day itinerary with my favorite photos.

11 DAYS BOLIVIA DAY BY DAY:

DAY ONE - Explore La Paz

DAY TWO - Valle de La Luna, Valle de Las Animas + Start tour

DAY THREE - Travel to Uyuni

DAY FOUR - Uyuni Salt Flats

DAY FIVE - Uyuni surrounding areas

DAY SIX - Return to Uyuni

DAY SEVEN - Arrive Potosí + Mine Tour

DAY EIGHT - Arrive Sucre + Bolivian Dance show

DAY NINE - Sucre and Dinosaur

DAY TEN - Sucre and hike option

DAY ELEVEN - Return La Paz

WHY VISIT BOLIVIA?: Bolivia is a country that invites you to step off the beaten path. The country is full of contrasts from the hot amazon lowlands to the cold snowy mountains and high altitude cities. It has an array of breathtaking natural beauty, landscapes, vistas, and rich culture. Bolivia is also South America’s most indigenous country where tradition coexists with modern practices. This country truly offers an unfiltered adventure for every type of traveler.

BEST TIME TO VISIT BOLIVIA?: With such a diversity of landscape, the best time to visit depends on your intended destination. There are two distinct seasons: wet and dry. The wet season is from November to April, which means some roads are impossible to pass - which is something to highly consider when visiting Uyuni. Dry season is from May to October and is considered the best time to visit for most of the country.

GETTING TO BOLIVIA + VISAS: I love using Skyscanner to research all flight options no matter where I am flying from, or what my destination is. I recommend using this site to find the best flights and then book directly with the best airline option. Most visitors do not need a visa to enter Bolivia. If you are a USA citizen a visa is required to visit Bolivia. The cost of a tourist visa is $160 USD and you may stay for 30 days. You can get a visa by visiting a Bolivian Embassy or Consulate in the United States. You can also purchase your visa when you land. This website has more information on visiting Bolivia as a US Citizen.

Make sure you have all the required paperwork before arriving so you do not run into any issues. Since I had a short layover once I landed in Bolivia, I got my Visa in advance from the Bolivian Embassy. My friend, Lindsay who flew directly into La Paz purchased hers at the airport. She said it took some time, but was a simple enough process.

PREPARE FOR HIGH ALTITUDE: Okay, there isn’t really much you can do to prepare for this, but be prepared for the chance of experiencing the affects of high altitude. We were never below 8,000 feet on this tour. Which meant we took things slow when it came to walking, avoided drinking a lot of alcohol and instead drank a lot of water. High Altitude sickness can happen to anyone - no matter your age or physical shape. It can also happen to you randomly, meaning even if all other times you have been fine, this trip could affect you. Make sure you do research and talk to your doctor about traveling at high altitudes.

DON’T FORGET TO PACK: Make sure you add these to your luggage, if you don’t already travel with them:

Rain jacket or umbrella (it would randomly rain out of nowhere)
Sunscreen - the sun in South America is STRONG. Don’t mess with it. If you don’t want to pack it, you can easily buy some at any Farmacia.
Good walking shoes for city walks and exploring the salt flats.
Medicine for the common cold and stomach issues
Electrolytes (these are super useful when traveling to higher altitudes)
Layers - always, always layers!

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR BOLIVIA:

Transportation: There are taxis, local buses, private drives and cable cars depending on what city you visit.
Money: Cash is still king and used a lot in Bolivia. There are ATM’S at every airport and I never had trouble finding one in the larger cities. I always use ATM’S to withdraw cash in the local currency (except in Argentina - read my Argentina post on why). I also bring a few $100 USD as a backup in case I cannot get cash out I can go to a cambio and exchange it.
Safety: In all the major cities, just be careful with your things. Don’t have your cell phone out and wear flashy jewelry or watches. You don’t want to be an easy target. This is good advice for any major city you visit.
Drinking water: I would not recommend drinking water or brushing your teeth with the water anywhere in Bolivia. Stick to bottled water.
Eating at cafes + restaurants: A friendly reminder that restaurants in Bolivia (and most of South America) are slow moving and they take their time. The food does not always come out together, you may even get your drinks after your meal. Just have patience and don’t expect anything to be fast. You can easily spend up to two hours at a table for dinner. You usually have to ask for your bill (la cuenta por favor) as they don’t bring it to you. If you are worried about getting sick - make sure to eat only cooked food and avoid anything that could be washed in the local water (like veggies).
Phones: We still have our American phone numbers with T-mobile. They offer free international usage in over 200 countries and it’s such a breeze to be able to land in a new country and instantly use our phones. I got service in most of the country.
- If you live in South America, you already know this, but if you are coming from United States - Download WhatsApp. You use your own cell number. It is the most used form of communication in South America. You can text restaurants, taxis, guides etc.
- E-SIM cards are another option some people use to have a local number. I don’t know much about this though.
APPS: WhatsApp is a must. Google translateor SpanishDict is also very helpful as not everyone speaks English and you often need to know some basic Spanish to communicate.

18 OCT 23 - EXPLORE LA PAZ

Getting to La Paz from Montevideo involved three flights and over 8 hours of travel time so after arriving I was more than happy to get to our hotel and crash for the evening while I waited for my friend, Lindsay to land at 3am! After a night and early morning of rest, we were eager to get out and explore La Paz.

We of course took it slow with the high altitude and decided to do a self tour of the city via the Teleférico. This cable system has 10 different lines and connects the whole city by air. This is a very easy and cheap way to see as much of the city as you can and the views are unreal - it really gives you a feel for how massive La Paz is. We started at Parqueo Mi Teleférico station, a 5 minute walk from the hotel, bought a ticket in cash at the booth and rode all the way up to El Alto.

Do not be intimidated by this cable car system. We got a map from the hotel and it was very easy to navigate via google maps and pointing to where we wanted to go while purchasing our tickets (if you don’t speak Spanish). After cruising above the city of El Alto, we made our way back down on the red line and stopped to visit the Central Cemetery. I am not going to lie, would never put a cemetery on my list of places to visit, but it was recommended by the hotel and well worth the visit. We wandered around enjoying viewpoints, appreciating the care and love they put into each burial site and soaked up the powerful artwork scattered throughout the cemetery.

I read a lot about the colorful city “Chualluma” In La Paz, which you can see in the bottom left photo. I really wanted to visit this part of the city - because hello—— I LOVE COLOR, but it was quite a walk to get there and on day one it would have been too much with the high altitude. We found out later it really is not the safest place to visit either, so go with a guide or perhaps skip visiting it. So we continued viewing the city from the cable car system and went back to the hotel to have some lunch and rest before dinner.

Landing at number 32 of the 50 Best Restaurants in Latin America, Lindsay and I made reservations at El Gustu. The incredible mix of flavors was unlike anything I have ever tried before! Although this restaurant might be considered pricey compared to other meals and places to eat in La Paz, I hands down believe it is worth it. Treat yourself to a nice meal and creative presentation of food while in the de facto capital of Bolivia.

19 OCT 23 - VALLE DE LA LUNA, ANIMAS & BEGIN INTREPID TOUR

Our hotel provided me with transportation from the airport and with my semi-broken Spanish I was able to communicate with our driver to setup a private tour for our second day in La Paz. You can contact Hilver on WhatsApp (he only speaks Spanish) and he would be more than happy to show you the city! He showed up on time, was professional, friendly and we felt very safe with him.

The first place he took us was Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley). This area features unique lunar like landscape and geological formations that are composed of mainly clay and sandstone. You can take about 45 minutes to walk through the canyon on designated paths and get lost in another world!

We then got back in the car with Hilver, who with his local hookup drove us into the private land to get an up-close view of Valle de Las Animas. In Spanish it means Valley of the souls - considered holy ground by many locals. You can hire a tour guide to show you this area or hike in as well. I have never in my life seen anything as unique as this - the jagged rock formations reaching into the sky will take your breath away.

One of the major benefits of having Hilver as our tour guide is he knew everyone! Which meant he was able to get us into the extremely popular lunch restaurant Bolivian Popular Food. This place does not take reservations, it is a first come, first serve spot and once they run out of food they close for they day. They also have a small window of open hours - only 12:15-2:30PM. We were very grateful he was able to use his magic to have the restaurant squeeze us in. The presentation (and taste) of the three course set menu was mouth-watering. We also loved the great energy of the kitchen and staff. I highly recommend making this part of one of your afternoons - just get there early to get on the waitlist!

After lunch, Hilver showed us around the famous Mercado de las Brujas (witches market) where you can buy all sorts of textiles and souvenirs. Hilver took some photos of us with the local street art. We had to make sure we also got a photograph with him as he made our time in La Paz quite special. I am so thankful I know some Spanish and was able to communicate with him so we could adventure out before meeting up with our group from Intrepid for dinner.

After lunch we wandered over to our hotel, which was very close to The Witches Market and met up with our group of 8 and our tour guide, Julia. As you can see we did La Paz on our own, without the tour company for two days before we even met up with our group! We went out to dinner and then settled in for the evening to get rest before our adventure to Uyuni.

20 OCT 23 - TRAVEL TO UYUNI

With an 8am departure we took a bus to the central train station in La Paz. From here we jumped on a local bus to Uyuni. I am not going to share the details on this, because I disagree with the tours decision to take this form of transportation. Intrepid wants to minimize the carbon footprint, but this bus ride was almost 10 hours and this large bus only had about 12 people on it as well as tons of black smoke coming out the back the whole time! The roads are bumpy, which was fine, but honestly that is just a long time to be in a bus before adventuring out in a 4WD for three days. Hands-down buy a plane ticket - fit it into your budget! The direct flight is only 1 hour and gives you time to just unwind before long travel days. I also hate wasting a lot of time traveling from A to B when you have limited days to see a country. Okay enough of my rant. We got to Uyuni after dark and had dinner then went to bed early to get up early.

UYUNI: This is a very small town in southwest Bolivia that is used as a hub to visit the famous Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni). There are a few restaurants and some grocery stores to stock up on water. There are also tour companies to choose from here if you want to last minute pick a tour company to take you to the Salt Flats.

WHERE WE STAYED IN UYUNI: We stayed at the end of the city at Samay Wasi. It was a 3-star hotel and okay in my opinion. There looked like a lot nicer hotels in this town for not much more money. I would find something else if I returned.

VISITING UYUNI SALT FLAT: After going with Intrepid, I realized how easy it could have been to do all of this on my own (as we did all of La Paz on our own in advance haha). You can easily fly to La Paz hire a tour guide or walk around yourself. Then fly to Uyuni and hire a tour company to show you the salt flats. There are so many tour companies as this is a popular destination in Bolivia. Book a tour in advance and I highly suggest booking a private tour as you have more flexibility on the itinerary. I like this brief easy article from National Geographic explaining the basics to visiting the Salt Flats. Also make sure you include a night tour! I am still annoyed that our tour company did not have this included.

21 OCT 23 - UYUNI SALT FLATS

We piled into our two Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD vehicles and started our adventure to the Salt Flats. Our first stop was Cementerio de Trenes. Here we took a group photo with the Uyuni sign and trains. This is where the old trains go to die and it’s become quite the tourist influencer spot. A lot of people and honestly, not really my cup of tea, hahah. Thankfully it was a quick stop before we drove to our next destination.

We then made our way over to a Salt Museum to see how they harvest and distribute the salt from the salt flats. They even use the salt to make bricks and you can stay at salt hotels made out of these bricks. This is a good place to buy little souvenirs from the Salt Flats.

Next stop on our adventure was the famous Dakar Bolivia sign and Plaza of the Flags. There was no flag from USA so if you are from the states and plan on visiting, feel free to bring our flag to add to the plaza. We played around with perspective photos, soaked up the endless views of salt and had lunch right on the salt flats. Make sure you wear sunscreen and layers because that sun reflecting on the salt definitely heats you up quickly!

After we all got our salt flat photos we made our way over to Isla Incahuasi to hike the island of cactus. So many cactus covered on this tiny island in the middle of the salt flats!! It was a little bit of a hike with the altitude, but so worth the incredible vistas at the top. Gives you a great perspective of how expansive the largest salt flats in the world are.

We got to see how they harvest the salt and watched the sunset before driving to our hostel for the night. Hostal de Sal Los Lipez was made of salt bricks and had shared room accomodations. There were definitely better options in this small San Juan town, but also keep in mind as mentioned in the beginning of this blog that tourism has not taken over this country or city yet, so luxury is not really an option yet.

22 OCT 23 - VOLCANOES, VISTAS, FLAMINGOS AND LAGOONS

An early start to the day so we could make it to the Chiguana Desert, located on the southern edge of the Uyuni Salt Flats. We could see many volcanoes in the distance, including the active Ollagüe. This is the day I started to feel sick with stomach issues and the guide and driver gave me some local tea with tons of herbs that helped make me feel better.

We got back in our awesome 4WD vehicles and visited Cañapa, Hedionda, and Chiarcota Lagoons, where we got to see so many flamingos! I will save you from having to look at my 300 flamingo photos and show just a few faves!

After lunch we entered Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve, where Siloli Desert is located (world’s highest and driest desert) and we saw the rainbow mountains, cool rock formations, found a cute viscacha and saw the “Rock Tree” made from lava rock.

We wrapped up the day by soaking up some views of the famous red lagoon. It was freezing and windy so after getting a photograph I jumped back in the car to warm up an enjoy the natural beauty of Bolivia without wind knocking me over!

23 OCT 23 - GEYSERS, HOT SPRINGS, VISTAS AND ROCKS

Today was a very loonnngggg day and as much as I love off-roading and adventure, being a bit sick did not make this a very ideal travel day hahah. I wish this was split into two days and could have involved camping or something relaxing in nature - although I am pretty sure there are no major places that we would have been allowed to camp on this route. Just a thought! We started our morning at geysers.

We then got to rejuvenate in some open-air hot springs! Delightful and very much needed.

A quick stop at Dali Desert, named after the artist Salvador Dali because of it’s striking resemblance to his artwork. We got to see the green and white lagoons with Licancabur in the background, the volcano that sits on the border between Bolivia and Chile.

During our lunch stop in a small town we got to see tons of llamas! I will never get over seeing llamas. Our last stop was Rock Valley before we pushed through and after 12 hours made it back to Uyuni to sleep for the night before heading to our next city.

24 OCT 23 - TRAVEL TO POTOSÍ & MINE TOUR

We took a local bus for four hours and arrived in Potosí. Then I took advantage of a private tour to visit a mine in Cerro Rico. We learned a lot about this mine and how tough the life is for these miners in my Spanish classes, including watching a documentary on two young boys working the mines. We first stopped at the local market to buy dynamite, coca leaves and soda to gift the miners. Then we went up the mountain and into the mine. The tour provided masks, helmets with lamps as well as full body suits for protection while inside the mine.

A dark history with these mines, made the tour sad in some ways, but it was very educational and we learned even more about the city and mines, which had been the largest source of silver in the history of mankind. We also found out our tour guide use to be a miner and now he makes his income from the tours - which was really nice to hear!

While half the group was busy touring the mine, the other half walked around town and visited the National Mint of Bolivia. I took advantage of seeing all of this the next morning, right before we headed to Sucre.

25 OCT 23 - TRAVEL TO SUCRE

A morning stroll around Potosí and then another local bus to the city of Sucre. Spent the night enjoying a Bolivian dance and cultural experience.

26 OCT 23 - SUCRE & DINOSAUR PARK

Got to see actual dinosaur footprints!

27 OCT 23 - RELAX DAY IN SUCRE

Relaxed to recuperate and San Miguel views.

28 OCT 23 - FLY TO LA PAZ

Return to La Paz, the starting city so people could return home.

Hi There! Blog posts take a while to create! Stay tuned while I keep adding more details to the trip.

MY THOUGHTS ON INTREPID: If I were to rate my overall trip with Intrepid I would give it a 3.5/5. I absolutely LOVED our tour guide, Julia! She was a local, very friendly, knowledgable and helpful the whole trip. I just felt like the company could have done a better job of organizing the trip and the things we saw. Nothing was planned for La Paz, and I am so thankful my friend Lindsay and I arrived a day early to explore on our own while we acclimated to the altitude. I ended up finding my own tour guide that drove us all around the city in one day and it was so much fun!

We took local buses, for “carbon footprint” reasons, but this added a lot of travel time to our days where a flight could have saved us over 8 hours on a bus that had a lot of fumes coming out the back! I was the most excited about going to the Uyuni Salt Flats, but they didn’t even include any night tours - and we all know that Uyuni is one of the best places to see the stars at night, so I am bummed about this not being included. We also spent 3 days driving a lot - after an 8 hour bus ride from La Paz to Uyuni so it was a lot of time in the car. I wish they had added another day of down time or hiking or relaxing in Uyuni area to split up the long car rides. By the end of the 3 days the whole group was so over being in the car!

Accommodations were subpar. I was okay with this, but once we saw that we could have stayed at “nicer” hotels for only $10 more a person, we were shocked at how much more we could get with such little $$. Totally understood the more basic hotels while we were out in Uyuni, but it would have been nice to stay at better hotels while we were in the cities.

My friend and I also got sick (and a few others on the trip). I believe it was something we ate, even though I am always very careful in certain countries to avoid vegetables, soup etc. to not get a food illness. However, I trusted the food we were eating through the tour group. Whatever stomach sickness we got, left us very uncomfortable for many days - and we had to spend one whole day in our hotel room - near the toilet. I am not holding this against the tour company, because things like this happen and are very common in various South American countries!

After having such an amazing experience in Patagonia with Timbuktu Travel (yes we paid a lot more and the trips were private) and the trip to Colombia with Indico Travels which puts together trips for 30-40 year old, I have to say I would hands down choose these two companies over Intrepid. I know it was my first time with Intrepid, so I don’t have anything else to compare it to. I may try them again, but I think I can do a better job planning my own trips and using more boutique style companies!

To double confirm all these thoughts, on my way back to the airport I hired my original tour guide from La Paz, Hilver to drive me and we were talking about my tour and what we did. He was showing me pictures of a man he took to Uyuni the same time as us and he had reflection photos during the day as well as night photos. He also confirmed that we didn’t do much in 11 days and could have done a lot more. So I know that my initial gut feeling about this tour was correct!!

Anyways! I hope this honest review helps you make decisions when it comes to your trip planning. Look around and see if you can find a better tour company for Bolivia, and if you do, please leave a comment below so others can try them out!

THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS PROVIDED BASED ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. THESE ARE MY PERSONAL OPINIONS AND ALL FACTS, DETAILS, INFORMATION ABOVE COULD CHANGE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF COPYING THIS ITINERARY DOES NOT GO EXACTLY AS PLANNED OUT ABOVE. IF YOU MAKE A PURCHASE ON SOME OF THE LINKS PROVIDED I GET A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL SPENT, WHICH HELPS ME CONTINUE TO TAKE TIME TO WRITE ALL THESE BLOG POSTS. THANK YOU!