Bolivia backpacking Itinerary

Destination: South America, Bolivia

Season: April 2016

Bolivia Backpacking itinerary, This is my backpacking itinerary for Bolivia. In each city you can spend a day or a month depending on what type of person you are. I am generally speaking a quick mover, below is how I did it, you can use this as a guidelines to give you a rough idea of how much time you need to spend in each city. Through out my trip in Bolivia I used night bus to transport from one city to another. The aim of this itinerary is to give you an idea of what to expect and show you to start, but always remember the whole purpose of traveling is to explore and discover new things about yourself and life.

Bolivia backpacking Itinerary

Bolivia Itinerary

The Icon for the transfer method
The h for the number of hour of transportation time
am or pm is the time of departure from the city
The D for the number of days i spent in the city

I only had 7 days in Bolivia, and i did to cover some city, the reasons being I meet great people on my 3 day tour in salar de uyuni and we decided to travel together for some time. Hence instead of me going to Santa cruz and Sucre I ended going to San Pedro which was great. I might go back to Bolivia when I do Argentina. However my main objective in Bolivia was to see La Paz and Salar de uyuni, which i happily did.

Puno
5am 3h→

Copacabana
9am 4h→

La Paz
8pm 8h →

Uyuni
8am →

SalarDaUyuni
3D Tour →

SanPedro
9am 6h →

Uyuni
8pm 8h →

La Paz
Next adventure

Bolivia backpacking Itinerary

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My hostels

La Paz
I stayed at Loki Hostel
I also stayed at sol andino hostel in La Paz

My hotel

I stayed at hostel all the time.

My tour agency

Nothing specific, I booked most my tour through my hostel. with regards to Salar de Uyuni, once you get to Uyuni try to shop around for a bit and choose an agency, I believe they are very similar. Just make sure you book it from an office not from a random person in the street.

You should

Take good clothes to accommodate for Salar de Uyuni cold weather at night.
Read my Bolivia blog

You should not

Never trust any random person in La paz, I meet many new people in La Paz and we even travel together for some time, but there were resident at the same hostel as me. The idea is, La Paz is not the safest city in the world, just be carful and dont go to unknown area.

BOLIVIA STEP BY STEP

Bolivia Day 1-3 getting to La Paz

Day 1: This was a long day for me, as I had to take a 3h bus from Puno in Peru to Copacabana. I stopped in Copacabana for 4h to explore the area. I than took 4h bus from Copacabana to La Paz, the scenery along the way was very nice, I was in La Paz for 2pm. I than walk from La Paz Bus station to my Hostel,Loki Hostel, which was about 15mint of walking.

Day 2:Was mainly walking and exploring La Paz, there are lot of nice bars and restaurants you can try. I also booked my Bus ticket to Uyuni.

Day 3: After a nice breakfast at my hostel, I exploring the city little bit more, Than I took evening bus to Uyuni.

Top things to do in La Paz
I sure there is other many things you can do but this is my favourite

City walking tour
The Witches’ Market
Plaza Murillo
San Pedro prison
Yungas Road (death road)
Cable car

My accommodation in Bolivia
The most important thing to me is the location of my accommodation, therefore I always stay in a safe(just kidding) and a central location.
In La Paz I stayed at two different hostels both of which was in a central location.
My first hostel was Loki Hostel in Av. América, La Paz, although it was very loud and the parties stayed on all night, but i loved it
My second hostel was Sol andino hostel, which was few minutes away from plaza eguino
If you stay in any of these hostel or around that area you going to be in a central location and not far from any thing. if you dont mind loud music i stay at Loki hostel all the way.

Transport LaPaz to Uyuni
On my arrival to La Paz, i shopped around few different tour agency you find few if you go to the Bus terminal in La Paz you can easily book the ticket from their. The bus terminal about 15 minutes walk from Loki Hostel in Av. América, La Paz.
There are different rout to get from La Paz to Uyuni, I decided to get the evening bus, which was very nice and comfortable. The journey toke around 8h. I left La Paz around 8pm and i was in Uyuni at 5am.This timing is perfect because most salar de uyuni tours start around 9am. I was at Uyuni for 5am, I walk from the bus terminal to the main Uyuni centre. The hostels normally open at this time to serve breakfast, after having a breakfast i started looking for a tour I just picked one and it was great. they generally all very similar. My tour started around 9am on the same day.

BOLIVIA STEP BY STEP

Bolivia Day 4-6 Salar de Uynui
My tour started at 9am from Uyuni, I did the 3 day tour, which I really recommend to get the full experience of Salar de Uyuni. To me its more than the white ground and the blue sky, its the actual experience of living in this desert for few days. Regardless of the very cold night and the hot day, it worth every minutes. Plus the scenery is one of the finest on our planet, I have attached some photo on the side.
The tour was very organised, we had one Jeep and 6 tourist. We loaded every thing into our car and started the tour from Uyuni all the way to the Bolivia-Chile border. If you do the Salar de Uyuni three days trip, you get to see the train graveyard, Uynuilaguna colorada, laguna verde, laguna celeste, Isla-Incahuasi, and de mañana geysers which is one of the best landscape I have seen.
Your Jeep will finally stop at the Bolivia-Chile border, you can either go back to Uyuni in the same car, about 6 hours. Alternatively you can do what I did, Which take a mini bus to San pedro in Chile, Which I highly recommend. Its only about 3 hours drive from the border.

Top things to do in Salar de Uyuni
I sure there is other many things you can do but this is my favourite
You most take a good camera with you, this is my favorite camera

Train graveyard
Uynuilaguna colorada
laguna verde
laguna celeste
Isla-Incahuasi
De mañana geysers

My accommodation in Salar de Uyuni
We slept at a very basic accommodation but I loved it. Its very cold at night, you need to were several layers of clothes and cover yourself with few sheets. Simply were all you clothes and sleep with them.

Transport Salar de Uyuni
The best and safest way to see Salar de Uyuni, is to book a tour from Uyuni. The tour agency will provide you with a Jeep and a driver, who will take care of every thing for you, the driver will stop in all the attraction and tell yo how much time you have to spend in each area. Just make sure you get back on time. Depending on which tour you picked, either 1 day or 3 day tour, the 3 days tour will stop at the Bolivia-Chile border. Form their you have the choice to go back to Uyuni than back to La Paz or Sucre, Or keep going San pedro in Chile. If you have the time its worth it. My fly back was from La Paz, therefore I had to get back to La Paz From San pedro. You have different option to go from San pedro to La Paz, but the easiest is to rent a private Jeep from San Pedro to Uyuni than a bus from Uyuni to LaPaz. You can easily arrange for this from San pedro. It about 6 hours from from San pedro to Uyuni, you should get to Uyuni around 3pm wait for few hours than take a night bus from Uyuni to La Paz on the same day. You can sleep over if you want but I don’t drocoomend this as their is nothing to do in Uyuni.