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Planning your journey to Bolivia and solely have just a few days to spend on this stunning county? In this submit, I’ll share our itinerary for five days in Bolivia visiting La Paz and Salar de Uyuni (and, moreover, you possibly can go to yet one more location of your alternative, Lake Titikaka, Cochabamba and even drive the well-known Death street). We have been planning to go to Cochacabana on lake Titikaka, nevertheless, sadly, because of the lack of vacationers, no excursions have been going there on the one day we have been there.
The overview of hyperlinks used on this article:
Things you could know earlier than travelling to Bolivia
Bolivia is without doubt one of the lesser-visited nations in South America and in contrast to most nations on the continent, it’s landlocked. Bolivia additionally doesn’t have nice worldwide flight connections – once we went there simply after the covid restrictions have been lifted, there have been solely two worldwide flights per day going to and from Bolivia. One was to Lima, one other one to Bogotá. On high of that, there have been days when there have been no flights in any respect.
Have your paperwork prepared
It’s additionally considerably troublesome to enter Bolivia: these requiring a visa on arrival should spend hours within the queue! Even in case your entry was simple (e.g. no visa required), you may nonetheless spend 10-Quarter-hour on the passport management counter. Since there is no such thing as a wi-fi on arrival and most nations don’t have good roaming agreements with Bolivia (in contrast to in Peru, the place we had limitless knowledge and requires £6 a day with Vodafone), it’s very troublesome to retrieve your paperwork. The paperwork you want are insurance coverage, lodge bookings and return tickets. Also, relying on the present necessities, you would possibly want some vaccination certificates and PCR checks – however that may change quickly.
Make certain to save lots of them in your telephone (take screenshots or simply save them within the recordsdata), as passport management officers will verify all these paperwork!
Bring multiple financial institution card
In Bolivia, money is king. Of course, you possibly can pay by card in good eating places, however most locations solely settle for money. There are ATMs on the airport (fairly just a few), however not all of them work with worldwide playing cards. We needed to attempt two playing cards till we tried our Monzo card that labored in certainly one of 8 ATMs. Unfortunately, I didn’t bear in mind which financial institution owned this ATM, but it surely was in the direction of the tip of the room. Make certain to deliver multiple journey financial institution card and don’t get discouraged if many of the ATMs received’t work – there are ATMs there that can work with overseas playing cards.
Internet and knowledge in Bolivia
Since we wanted knowledge to seek out our method round La Paz, we determined to purchase a SIM card in one of many memento retailers in La Paz airport (the one open place). They solely accepted money as nicely. We obtained a SIM card with knowledge and acquired two scratch playing cards for knowledge refills. I have to say that the web is a bit costly in Bolivia: for 20 Bolivianos you solely get about 2GB of information. It doesn’t stretch too far, so that you most likely find yourself solely utilizing knowledge for navigation and important issues and use Social media at your lodge.
Safety in Bolivia: how protected is La Paz
Before travelling to Bolivia, I’ve heard some combined opinions about security in La Paz and El Alto. Some folks felt uneasy there, whereas others felt very protected. Having spent 3 days in La Paz (and just a little little bit of El Alto as nicely), I have to say that we all the time felt very protected there. Not even as soon as have we skilled a scenario the place we felt uneasy or somebody was unusually all in favour of us. As an individual, who grew up in Mexico City, Jose has an eye fixed on folks, who would possibly discretely comply with you and have an excessive amount of curiosity in you for no good motive. That was very completely different in comparison with the town centre of Quito (the capital of Ecuador), the place it wasn’t very protected in any respect.
However, it’s value mentioning that we adopted all the traditional precautions, e.g. not strolling alone late at evening, taking solely authorised taxis, and taking note of all our belongings. For travelling South America I purchased a really discrete crossbody bag with numerous pockets, together with some inside pockets, which might be very exhausting to entry for pick-pocketers. Moreover, it’s waterproof and suits numerous stuff! I feel it’d nonetheless be offered on-line, for those who’re , you possibly can discover it right here >>
Before we begin with our ideas for five days in Bolivia and our detailed itinerary, I wished to share the overview of our itinerary:
Our itinerary for Bolivia in 5 days:
Day 1: Arriving at La Paz airport (most likely late at evening / early within the morning), exploring La Paz, evening bus to Salar de Uyuni
Day 2: Day tour to Salar de Uyuni, an evening at Hotel de Sal, Luna Salada (or an evening bus to La Paz)
Day 3: Flight to La Paz with 5 hours to spend in Cochabamba, evening at Selina La Paz or MET Hotel La Paz
Day 4: A day tour of your alternative: Copacabana (Titikaka Lake) or a tour to the Death street
Day 5: Exploring La Paz, late evening flight onwards to Lima or Bogota
Now let’s discuss this itinerary for Bolivia in 5 days in additional particulars!
Day 1 of 5 days in Bolivia: La Paz and evening bus to Uyuni
Passport management in La Paz
We landed in La Paz round 3:30am! Since there aren’t too many worldwide flights arriving to La Paz (as of now, you possibly can solely fly there from Lima or Bogota, we flew from the latter), you’ll possible land in La Paz very early, simply le we did. On the one hand, it’s wonderful, as a result of you’ve your entire day to spend in La Paz. On the opposite hand, for those who haven’t had an opportunity to sleep within the airplane (s), you’ll arrive exhausted. Since passport management takes fairly a little bit of time (I’ve written about it in a separate paragraph proper at the beginning of this submit), you’ll solely get to the town centre of La Paz at 5:30am and even 6:00am. Since we had to purchase a SIM card and, surprisingly, the method took a bit lengthy, we arrived simply after 6am.
Where to remain in La Paz
If you’re feeling advantageous, you possibly can simply go away your luggage at some hostel for a price and begin exploring La Paz. However, we have been tremendous drained, so we really went straight to our hostel. We booked Selina La Paz for two nights (regardless of solely needing it for about 16 hours), but it surely was solely £18 per evening for a non-public room, so we didn’t hesitate a lot. After arriving at Selina, we went straight to sleep and slept till 11am (for about 5 hours), which gave us sufficient power to outlive the day!
If you’re identical to us and really feel such as you want a lodge to sleep for a minimum of a few hours, I positively advocate Selina!
Some nicer and posher inns are positioned within the South of La Paz, e.g. Achumani station, however will probably be very inconvenient to remain there only for a few hours since many of the landmarks are positioned within the metropolis centre, and that’s the place the buses to Uyuni depart from as nicely. You can keep there later while you return from Uyuni.
Exploring Sopocachi and consuming in the most effective restaurant in Bolivia
Selina, the place we stayed for the primary day, is positioned in Sopocachi, among the best areas to remain in La Paz for younger folks. There are loads of good bars and low locations throughout the realm. There are additionally just a few road meals markets, eating places and it’s usually only a very good and hipster space to stroll round. The solely draw back in Sopocachi is site visitors. Even at 12pm, numerous roads are fairly congested! We ended up arriving 20 minutes later to the restaurant, as a result of we waited for a taxi for about Quarter-hour. Then, because of the site visitors situations, it took us about 35 minutes as an alternative of 15-20 to get to the South of La Paz, Calacoto.
Gustu is positioned within the South of La Paz, that’s thought of a fancy space of the town. Gustu was opened by a co-founder of the well-known Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of many world’s finest eating places. We took a 3-course menu, which price round £22 per individual and was value each penny! You can select a starter, most important and a dessert and all of the dishes have been distinctive. We relied on the waiters’ assist to elucidate the menu to us as we couldn’t recognise many of the elements. Among the dishes, there have been native river fishes from the Bolivian a part of the Amazon rainforest, numerous distinctive herbs, greens and fruits and even alligator carpaccio!
Walking across the metropolis centre and visiting Mirador Kili-Kili
Later, we took a taxi to get again to the town centre, the place we visited Calle Jaen – one of many only a few protected streets in La Paz, the place it’s not allowed to demolish buildings and do just about any visible adjustments to the streets. Calle Jaen is unquestionably the prettiest road in La Paz, so head there for some stunning photographs. On Calle Jaen, we discovered a stunning little tour company, the place we booked some excursions for the upcoming days in La Paz (a meals tour and a teleferico tour of the town).
We didn’t spend an excessive amount of time within the metropolis centre this time, as we knew that we are going to have extra time in La Paz later and actually have a correct tour of the town. Before heading again to the lodge, we determined to go to the most effective place to see La Paz from above – mirador Kili Kili! You solely have to stroll for about 20-25 minutes to get there from Calle Jaen.
The view from Kili Kili is de facto beautiful – you possibly can see the 360 panorama of La Paz!
Taking an evening bus to Uyuni
After visiting the mirador, we returned to our lodge to bathe, pack our luggage (we determined to go away our suitcase in Selina and decide it up in a day) and produce simply our backpacks with us. We determined to take the bus to Uyuni from an organization referred to as Todo Turismo. They had the most effective opinions and security file; truthfully, it was a terrific expertise.
The bus departs within the night, at 9pm, nevertheless, you could be at their workplace a minimum of Quarter-hour earlier than that. Todo Turismo workplace has bathrooms and different services.
Our bus was wonderful – it had two ranges – the VIP on the bottom degree and the traditional seats on the primary ground. Since I’m fairly dangerous at sleeping within the buses, we went for probably the most handy choice, the VIP seats that recline fairly nicely (most likely round 150 levels or so). Normal tickets price round $36-38 a technique and VIP prices a bit extra, round $45 every method. It’s positively not low-cost, however the planes to Uyuni are far more costly, plus, you’re saving cash on the lodge. Alternatively, if that’s not obtainable otherwise you’re on the lookout for a less expensive choice, you possibly can discover extra tickets right here.
The tickets additionally embrace meals – dinner and breakfast and so they have been good! The solely drawback we had was the truth that it obtained extraordinarily sizzling inside the beautiful insulated VIP compartment – I awakened due to that and needed to go and ask them to change on Air-conditioning.
A day tour round Salar de Uyuni
We arrived on the Todo Turismo workplace in Uyuni round 7:45 am. Their workplace additionally has bathrooms, tea and a few comfortable sofas if you wish to wait there for a short time till your tour begins. Actually, the excursions begin round 10:30 am, however you could get to the tour company’s workplace Half-hour earlier.
We determined to ebook this tour – it was the best-rated tour in Uyuni and it exceeded our expectations. It began fairly slowly, the primary 3 hours have been fairly uneventful (simply the practice cemetery, some technical stops to select up the wellies and a cease within the salt museum and memento store), nevertheless, later it was solely getting higher and higher!
We had an exquisite buffet lunch in the midst of Salar, 1 hour in Fish island after which we had a photoshoot in the midst of Salar. Our group was fairly giant – we have been 18 folks in complete and our information shot a video with all of the tour contributors – it was enjoyable! After that, we had some snacks and wine watching sundown in Salar and even one further exercise – stargazing, which was wonderful!
It was such an extended tour and we obtained to our lodge round 8:45pm (they introduced us all the way in which to Hotel de Sal Luna Salada, which we booked for one evening).
This tour is stylish and it tends to promote out, so make sure that to verify the costs and availability right here >>
Night at a salt lodge
We have been initially hoping to remain at Palacio del Sal, nevertheless, it was absolutely booked, so as an alternative, we booked one other good salt lodge, Hotel de Sal Luna Salada. It’s positioned barely additional away from Uyuni, circa 15-20 minutes driving, nevertheless, a few of the rooms had a view of Salar, which was wonderful. Overall, the lodge itself was beautiful, however the meals and the spa weren’t nice. However, we nonetheless loved our expertise – it was very distinctive! And the lodge itself was completely beautiful, particularly the stunning lounge areas with fireplaces with views of Salar.
Day 3 in Bolivia: Flying to La Paz, Cochabamba
Uyuni to Cochabamba by airplane
Since the primary and second days in Bolivia have been already fairly tiring, we determined to take a flight from Uyuni to La Paz as an alternative of the evening bus. Before the pandemic, there was once loads of direct flights to La Paz from Uyuni, nevertheless, as of May 2022, there have been none. Actually, there have been simply 3 flights per week and all of them went to Cochabamba and never La Paz. However, it was attainable to purchase a flight from Cochabamba to La Paz as nicely. There are a number of flights to La Paz from Cochabamba, so you possibly can take the one with the shortest ready time if you wish to go to La Paz as quickly as attainable. Alternatively, you possibly can spend just a few hours in Cochabamba and uncover the town.
Things to do in Cochabamba in just a few hours
Cochabamba will not be an enormous metropolis, so it’s positively attainable to see some most important highlights in simply a few hours. The airport is nearly 10-Quarter-hour away from the town centre. You can simply seize a taxi and head to the Plaza de Armas.
Cochabamba can be the meals capital of Bolivia. All the folks we met in La Paz (locals) really helpful us to go to Cochabamba to eat!
Finally, it’s value mentioning that Cochabamba is de facto sizzling! While each Uyuni and La Paz are positioned at excessive altitudes, Cochabamba’s altitude is nearly zero – and it’s 30 levels there!
Evening in La Paz, transferring inns
Depending on the time you arrive in El Alto – La Paz, you possibly can both head on to your lodge or stroll round and eat dinner someplace.
We selected the second choice. For dinner, we picked Manq’a, a spot specialising in Bolivian dishes. Everything was completely scrumptious there and so they had numerous uncommon dishes on the menu (together with some distinctive desserts and drinks).
After dinner, we needed to decide up our baggage from Selina. We didn’t decide Selina for the following few nights in La Paz as a result of there have been numerous feedback within the opinions in regards to the noise on the weekends, as there’s a nightclub positioned within the basement of Selina.
After a really tiring a part of our journey to South America, we determined to deal with ourselves and keep in among the best inns of La Paz, the just lately opened MET Hotel positioned within the leafy neighbourhood referred to as Achumani.
Day 4: Exploring La Paz or taking a day journey
On the 4th day in Bolivia, you possibly can both keep in La Paz and proceed exploring the town or take one of many day journeys and both go to Copacabana (lake Titicaca) or to one of many mountains, or, alternatively, perhaps you’re feeling match to go to the well-known loss of life street biking journey?
Here are a few of the finest excursions you possibly can take in your 4th day in Bolivia:
Private tour to lake Titikaka (requires minimal two folks) – it is possible for you to to see one of the crucial stunning and largest lakes on this planet – verify availability right here.
The well-known bike tour to the loss of life street (it’s a descent from over 5k over the ocean degree), but it surely’s nonetheless a really difficult tour, because it requires excellent bodily situation – ebook right here.
Beautiful Palca Canyon Tour with an non-compulsory cease at Valle de las Animas – verify right here.
Chacaltaya & Valle de Luna Tour (make sure that to deliver heat garments, as Chacaltaya was once a ski resort) – verify right here.
Condoriri and the lagoons full trekking tour for trekking lovers – verify the provision right here.
Austria Peak Trek – verify availability.
Famous Huayna Potosi mountain trek – all the way in which as much as 5000m above the ocean degree with beautiful views (difficult) – see value.
If you resolve to spend a day in La Paz as an alternative…
In our case, the excursions for lake Titicaca weren’t obtainable on that day resulting from lack of guides and vacationers as nicely and I had some odd points with my knee, so I couldn’t go on any excursions that concerned numerous strolling (not even mentioning trekking), so we determined to remain in La Paz as an alternative.
We spent the morning and early afternoon strolling across the “posh” a part of La Paz – Achumani. The purchasing space was positioned circa 10 minutes strolling from our lodge, which was nice. This space is far better than the centre of La Paz and in addition, it’s a lot simpler to breathe there, because it’s additionally decrease than the remainder of La Paz. There are loads of retailers and cafes as nicely.
For lunch, we went to a restaurant referred to as Ancestral for lunch. Ancestral is a steakhouse and it was fabulous. I can positively advocate it! The costs have been most likely 3-4 instances decrease than in London.
Heading to the town centre and visiting Mercado de las Brujas
After lunch, we determined to take the teleferico to the town centre to go to the well-known Witches Market or Mercado de las Brujas, the place they promote new child llamas and llama foetuses that dangle outdoors the stalls (they give the impression of being surreal and even a bit terrifying). Inside the “Brujas” stalls, they promote numerous teas, soaps and sweet which can be produced for various causes, e.g. to assist discover a job, discover love, getting wealthy amongst different issues.
Taking a meals tour of La Paz
In the night, we had our meals tour of La Paz., the place our information introduced us to the primary meals market of La Paz, Mercado Lanza, positioned steps away from the primary sq.. There are so many meals stalls and most of them promote numerous Bolivian dishes. We had an opportunity to attempt a few them and so they have been fairly distinctive and excellent! Later on, we went to a restaurant with our information, the place we had a tasting of 5 extra in style dishes in Bolivia, reminiscent of Fricasé, Sopa de Mani, Chairo and others! If you’re all in favour of taking an identical tour, you possibly can verify the costs and availability right here.
Our final day in Bolivia: Teleferico tour of La Paz, yet one more go to to Mercado Lanza, Ice Cream from Netflix and the flight to the following vacation spot
Teleferico tour of La Paz
The final day of our 5 days in Bolivia we determined to spend in La Paz and this time, see La Paz correctly and discover our extra in regards to the historical past of the town. We booked a Teleferico tour of La Paz (you possibly can discover the provision right here).
I can positively advocate this tour – it was simply $10 per individual and even included all of the tickets for the Teleferico. Our information, Maria, informed us loads in regards to the historical past of La Paz and El Alto and in regards to the Cholitas (ladies in conventional Bolivian attire) and Cholets (a word-play for Cholitas + Chalets), which rich Aymara (indigenous folks) of El Alto and La Paz construct for themselves. There can be an interesting tour of the most effective Cholets in El Alto together with visiting a celebration – you possibly can discover out extra right here >
Trying Sopa de Cardan and Helado de Canela
After the tour, we determined to go to Mercado Lanza one final time and attempt to discover the well-known bull testicle soup of Bolivia – Sopa de Cardan. This soup could be very in style in El Alto within the mornings, however we managed to seek out it in Mercado Lanza within the afternoon as nicely. Then, we went to attempt one other thrilling dish in La Paz, this time, a dessert! There is a well-known Netflix road meals documentary and one of many episodes was devoted to La Paz. So we went to attempt the well-known ice cream place close to the cemetery in La Paz. It serves a really distinctive cinnamon ice cream (it’s not really an ice cream, extra like a sorbet) – and it’s pink!
In the afternoon, we walked across the metropolis centre and tried the final of the dishes really helpful to us by the locals – the normal pasties – Salteñas. There are loads of spots serving salteñas within the coronary heart of La Paz, nevertheless, we discovered a restaurant referred to as Paceña la Salteña, which specialises in them. I picked a vegetarian one and Jose obtained a meaty one – each of them have been very liquid inside and tasted like a soup, which was fairly distinctive. When consuming a salteña, it’s very straightforward to make a multitude, so make sure that to watch out when consuming it!
We additionally went to a shopping center referred to as Las Torres and spent a while in Juan Valdez cafe there. It was additionally very attention-grabbing to see how a Bolivian shopping center appears to be like like.
After that, we went again to our lodge MET to begin packing and attempt to get some sleep earlier than our flight at 3am. As I discussed beforehand, the 2 worldwide flights depart from La Paz each depart at evening. One departs at 3:30am, one other one a bit later. It’s exhausting to resolve whether or not to go to mattress early and attempt to sleep 3-5 hours earlier than the flight or stay awake in any respect. Taking a taxi to El Alto airport at evening additionally means there received’t be any site visitors, so you may get there in simply 20-Half-hour relying in your location! In our case, it took round 28 minutes to go there from the Southern a part of La Paz
Summary of 5 days in Bolivia: Uyuni and La Paz
I hope you discovered this itinerary for Bolivia in 5 days helpful and obtained some concepts on your future journey to stunning Bolivia. Naturally, 5 days are usually not sufficient to see numerous Bolivia, but it surely’s sufficient to see Uyuni and get to know La Paz (and in addition one of many places like Copacapaba or the Death Road)! We beloved our Bolivia expertise and hope to return there sooner or later!
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