Bolivia, in detail

A friend’s guide to Bolivia

Six long city guides, one very large salt flat, and 120 tours read review by review. Start with the altitude — almost everything else in Bolivia follows from it.

Read the city guides Browse every tour review →

The guides

Six cities worth building a trip around

Long reads rather than listicles: what each place is actually like, how the altitude behaves, where to eat, and how many days to give it before you move on.

All destinations →

Destination guideLa Paz Travel Guide: The World’s Highest Capital, Cable Cars, and What to Actually DoThe first thing to understand about La Paz is that the city is built into the wall of a canyon. The administrative centre sits at around 3,650 metres, the high…Read the guide

Destination guideUyuni and the Salar: A Friend’s Guide to the Three Day Salt Flats TourYou probably have an image of the Salar de Uyuni in your head before you read this. Maybe the one with the surface flooded after rain, perfectly mirroring the sky…Read the guide

Destination guideSucre Travel Guide: Bolivia’s White City, Independence Capital, and Where to Slow DownSucre is the only Bolivian city that asks you to slow down. La Paz is fast and vertical; Santa Cruz is broad and tropical; Uyuni is a base camp for…Read the guide

Destination guideCochabamba Travel Guide: Bolivia Culinary Capital, Cristo Statue, and the Largest Market in South AmericaCochabamba does not get the international attention that La Paz or Uyuni get, and that is broadly fine with cochabambinos. The city sits in a temperate valley at 2,560 metres,…Read the guide

Destination guideSanta Cruz de la Sierra Travel GuideThe flight from La Paz to Santa Cruz takes 50 minutes and crosses 3,200 vertical metres in the process. You leave the canyon city at 3,650m, drift over the eastern…Read the guide

Destination guideTarija Travel Guide: The Wine Country, Singani Distilleries, and the Mediterranean Side of BoliviaTarija does not feel like Bolivia. The street rhythm is slower than La Paz. The accent is closer to Argentine Spanish than to the Quechua-influenced Spanish of Cochabamba. The food…Read the guide

Most booked

The experiences travellers rate highest

Ranked by the people who actually went, not by us. Prices are per person and move with the season — the wet months on the Salar cost more for a reason.

All 120 reviews →

01La Paz and El Alto: Cable Car Rides and Walking Tour790 reviews · 2h 30m · from $10→ 02La Paz Half-Day Walking Tour591 reviews · 2h 30m · from $3→ 03La Paz: Private City Tour with Cable Car & Moon Valley Visit508 reviews · 5 hours · from $43→ 04La Paz: Full Day Trip to Copacabana and Isla del Sol400 reviews · 1 day · from $59→ 05La Paz: Mountain Bike Down the World’s Most Dangerous Road386 reviews · 1 day · from $145→ 06La Paz: Cholitas Wrestling Tickets and Transfer338 reviews · 4 hours · from $25→ 07From La Paz: Uyuni Salt Flat Tour & Overnight Roundtrip Bus327 reviews · 3 days · from $275→ 08La Paz: Charquini Mountain Guided Hike287 reviews · 8 hours · from $39→

By region

Where you will actually spend the days

Bolivia is big and slow to cross. These are the places most itineraries are built from, each with everything we have reviewed there.

Salar de Uyuni51 reviewed

La Paz57 reviewed

Titicaca & Copacabana14 reviewed

The Atacama crossing11 reviewed

Coloured lagoons10 reviewed

Tiwanaku9 reviewed

The Death Road5 reviewed

Sucre7 reviewed

Eat & drink

Three tables, one country

The altiplano, the valleys and the lowlands share less than you would expect. Two guides to what lands on the table before you order — and the tours that put you in front of it.

Food & drink →

EatingTraditional Cuisine of Bolivia: A Friend’s Guide to Eating Across the CountryAsk a Bolivian what the national dish is and you will get a different answer in every city. La Paz says salteña. Cochabamba says silpancho. Sucre says salteña, but the…Read the guide

DrinkingBolivian Drinks: Singani, Chuflay, Api, and the Country’s Drinking CustomsIn 1880 a small group of British railway engineers laying track through the Bolivian Andes between Uyuni and La Paz ran out of gin. The supply ship from Hamburg had…Read the guide

Book a table, or a walk to one

★ 4.5Evening Foodie Tour of La PazFrom $32167 reviews

★ 5.0Bolivia: Bolivian Wine Tasting with Charcuterie BoardFrom $4910 reviews Local street Market Walking TourFrom $1110 reviews

★ 3.3La Paz: Street Food Walking TourFrom $196 reviews

Before you go

The three things nobody tells you first

Altitude decides your first two days. Coca explains half of what you will see. And the glaciers above La Paz are going, which is worth understanding while you are looking at them.