7 days in Bolivia
A seven day route that treats the jeep circuit as the main event and the altitude as the planning constraint it is.
Last updated . Tour operator rosters, fuel politics and cash machine reliability all move quickly in Bolivia. Season flips the salt flat between mirror and hexagons. Recheck operator reviews and your government's travel advice close to the dates.
Bolivia compresses into one image, a white void with a jeep in it, and the trip is honestly organised around earning that image well. The salt flat is reached from Uyuni town by tour, 1 day for the flat or 3 days for the loop through coloured lagoons and flamingo salars towards the Chilean border, and every trip report says the same thing: the route is identical across operators, so what you are actually buying is the driver, the vehicle and the cook. Around the centrepiece, everything is high. La Paz sleeps at about 3,600 metres and the lagoon circuit tops 4,900, so the week is sequenced to make that survivable rather than heroic.
How many days do you need in Bolivia?
7 days: 3 around La Paz, 1 getting to Uyuni, and the 3 day salt flat and lagoons circuit.
If you only want the mirror photograph, 5 days with the 1 day tour does it. Ten days brings Lake Titicaca and Isla del Sol into the route between La Paz and the south.
One day or three days at Uyuni?
3 days, if the budget allows: the flat itself is day 1, and the coloured lagoons, flamingos and 4,900 metre desert of days 2 and 3 are what people come home talking about.
The 3 day loop sleeps in basic refuges at serious altitude, with nights well below freezing in winter; the 1 day tour is the right call for anyone unsure of their acclimatisation.
How do you pick a Uyuni operator?
By recent reviews and the state of the 4x4s, not by shaving 10 dollars: the routes are identical, so the operator is the entire product.
Recurrent complaints in reports are drunk driving, broken vehicles and vanished bookings, and the same few names keep earning praise. Book a day ahead in Uyuni town after looking operators in the eye, or with a well reviewed agency online in high season.
Do you need cash in Bolivia?
Yes. Cards fail often outside the big hotels, machines run dry, and travellers are advised to carry bolivianos plus about 200 US dollars as a backup that tours and emergencies will always accept.
The dollar advice comes straight from recent traveller reports during the country's currency squeeze. Change and small notes matter; nobody on the altiplano can break a 200 boliviano note.
The plan at a glance
- Days
- 1 to 2
- Where
- La Paz
- Altitude
- About 3,600 m
- What needs arranging
- Nothing fixed; arrive rested
- Days
- 3
- Where
- Valle de la Luna and the cable cars
- Altitude
- 3,600 m
- What needs arranging
- Nothing
- Days
- 4
- Where
- To Uyuni
- Altitude
- 3,670 m
- What needs arranging
- The overnight bus or the flight
- Days
- 5 to 7
- Where
- The salt flat and lagoon circuit
- Altitude
- 3,600 to 4,900 m
- What needs arranging
- The operator, chosen with care
| Days | Where | Altitude | What needs arranging |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | La Paz | About 3,600 m | Nothing fixed; arrive rested |
| 3 | Valle de la Luna and the cable cars | 3,600 m | Nothing |
| 4 | To Uyuni | 3,670 m | The overnight bus or the flight |
| 5 to 7 | The salt flat and lagoon circuit | 3,600 to 4,900 m | The operator, chosen with care |
The route at a glance
11 mapped stops · 7 days
Live route map
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Route stops
Follow the numbered order through each day.
Day 1: La Paz, gently
- 1Plaza Murillo and the centre · about 2 hours
- 2The Witches' Market · about an hour
Day 2: The cable car city
- 3Mi Teleferico to El Alto · about 3 hours
- ·Line hopping · about 2 hours
Day 3: Valle de la Luna, and the packing day
- 4Valle de la Luna · about 2 hours
- ·Cash, layers, water · about 2 hours
Day 4: To Uyuni
- 5La Paz to Uyuni · the day
Day 5: The salt
- 6The train cemetery and Colchani · about 2 hours
- 7Salar de Uyuni and Isla Incahuasi · about 4 hours
Day 6: The coloured lagoons
- 8Laguna Colorada · about 2 hours on site
- 9The Siloli desert and the stone tree · stops along the day
Day 7: Geysers at dawn, then out
- 10Sol de Manana geysers · about an hour
- 11Termas de Polques · about an hour
- ·Back to Uyuni, or over to Chile · half a day
Day 1: La Paz, gently
Arrive at altitude and act like it: the first day is streets, coca tea and no ambition.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot, slowly
Afternoon
Plaza Murillo and the centreabout 2 hours
Government square, cathedral, and the surrounding grid at a deliberate stroll. La Paz sits around 3,600 metres and day one is for respecting that.
The Witches' Marketabout an hour
Llama foetuses, offerings and remedies on Calle de las Brujas. More workaday than the name suggests, and genuinely of the city.
Day 2: The cable car city
Mi Teleferico is the sight: a metro made of cable cars, stitched across a canyon city.
- On foot
- About 5 km on foot between lines
Morning
Mi Teleferico to El Altoabout 3 hours
Ride the red line up to El Alto's rim for the full bowl of the city with Illimani behind. The Thursday and Sunday El Alto market up top is one of the continent's largest.
Afternoon
Line hoppingabout 2 hours
The network is transport, not a tour, which is why it is the best tour: a few bolivianos a line, locals commuting past your window across half a kilometre of air.
Day 3: Valle de la Luna, and the packing day
Eroded badlands on the city's edge, then the quiet logistics afternoon the circuit deserves.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot
- Book before you go
- Tonight's bus to Uyuni or tomorrow's flight, and the tour deposit
Morning
Valle de la Lunaabout 2 hours
A short taxi south to a maze of clay spires. An hour's loop trail, best in morning light.
Afternoon
Cash, layers, waterabout 2 hours
The circuit takes cash only in practice, nights below freezing much of the year, and no shops that matter after Uyuni town. This unglamorous afternoon is what days 5 to 7 run on.
Day 4: To Uyuni
The overnight bus or the short flight, into the scruffy rail town every jeep leaves from.
- On foot
- About 2 km on foot
- Book before you go
- The tour itself, confirmed in person today if not already
All day
La Paz to Uyunithe day
Around 8 to 10 hours by bus, under 1 hour by air. The town itself is a staging post: eat, sleep, meet your operator, look at their vehicle without embarrassment.
Day 5: The salt
Train cemetery, salt works, and then the white nothing itself, with Incahuasi's cactus island in the middle.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot in glare
Morning
The train cemetery and Colchaniabout 2 hours
Rusting locomotives on the town's edge, then the village where the salt is scraped and bagged. The standard first two stops of every jeep, and better than they sound.
Afternoon
Salar de Uyuni and Isla Incahuasiabout 4 hours
Ten thousand square kilometres of salt, with a coral island of giant cacti to climb in the middle. Wet season turns it to the famous mirror, dry season to white hexagons to the horizon; both are the real thing.
Day 6: The coloured lagoons
South into the Eduardo Avaroa reserve: flamingo lakes, wind carved rock, and altitude that means it.
- On foot
- Short walks at high altitude
All day
Laguna Coloradaabout 2 hours on site
A rust red lake at about 4,300 metres, pink with three flamingo species that have no business surviving here. The day's centrepiece and the night's refuge is nearby, cold and basic.
The Siloli desert and the stone treestops along the day
Wind cut rock formations on a mineral plain, with the Arbol de Piedra as the photographed one.
Day 7: Geysers at dawn, then out
The 4,900 metre geyser field before sunrise, hot springs after, and the long run home or the Chile border.
- On foot
- Short walks, thin air
Early morning
Sol de Manana geysersabout an hour
Boiling mud and steam columns at about 4,900 metres in pre dawn cold, which is when the steam is at its most theatrical. The trip's altitude ceiling; heads ache here and that is normal.
Termas de Polquesabout an hour
The hot spring that makes the dawn worth it: outdoor water at body temperature beside a lagoon. Towel from the jeep, bliss from the ground.
Afternoon
Back to Uyuni, or over to Chilehalf a day
Circuits either loop home, a long afternoon, or drop you at the Chilean border for San Pedro de Atacama, which is the classic overland continuation. Decide when booking; it changes nothing else about the tour.
The options below are separate choices rather than a package. Read how RoamWeek chooses and orders suggestions before using any of them.
Book the separate parts
Book the parts that need booking
The jeep circuit is best booked with eyes on the operator. What is sensibly arranged ahead is the flight in, the La Paz base and the Uyuni transport.
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
- Flights
El Alto is the practical gateway and one of the world's highest airports, and arriving rested matters more here than anywhere else this site covers.
Search on Aviasales
- Stays
Three acclimatisation nights in one good La Paz base set up the whole circuit, and Uyuni's thin hotel stock fills the night before every departure wave.
Search on Booking.com
- Activities
In high season the well reviewed operators sell out ahead, and a platform booking with a real review trail is the online version of looking the agency in the eye.
Search on GetYourGuide
What is worth the time, and what is not
Worth your time
- The 3 day circuit over the 1 day taster. The lagoons, flamingos and geysers of days 2 and 3 are the part nobody regrets, and they cannot be day tripped.
- Paying more for the operator with recent good reviews. The route is identical everywhere, so the premium buys the only variables that matter: driver, vehicle, honesty.
- Mi Teleferico as La Paz's main event. It is genuine city infrastructure that happens to be the best viewpoint network on the continent, for pocket change.
Skip it
- Flying in and starting the circuit immediately. The loop tops 4,900 metres; without the La Paz days first, day 6 becomes something to endure rather than see.
- The cheapest seat in the Uyuni agency row. It is the same route with worse brakes; the horror stories in the reports cluster at the bottom of the price list.
- Counting on cards or cash machines south of La Paz. Machines run dry and terminals fail; the circuit runs on notes you brought.
Why this order
La Paz opens the trip because its 3,600 metres are the acclimatisation for the circuit's 4,900, and because the city is worth days on its own terms rather than as a transit lounge. The logistics afternoon sits on day 3, before the travel day, so nothing about the circuit is improvised. Uyuni gets an evening rather than a day because it is a staging post, and the honest use of it is inspecting the jeep you will spend 3 days inside. The circuit closes the week because everything before it exists to make it comfortable, and because ending on the geysers and the hot spring beats any airport.
Book the trip
Start with Bolivia, dates and travellers
Compare the travel services first, then use the itinerary below to plan each day.
- Flights
Choose your airports, travel dates and passenger count.
Search flights - Hotels
Search stays near the places in this route.
Search Booking.com - Activities
Check tours and tickets for the stops you want to keep.
Find activities
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
Read next
- 10 days in Peru
The classic previous chapter: most Uyuni jeeps carry someone who came south from Cusco.
- 7 days in Ecuador
The third Andean country, for the full spine run.
What we checked
- Bolivia official tourism portal read 31 August 2026
- UK government travel advice, Bolivia read 31 August 2026
- Boltur, Bolivian state tour operator read 31 August 2026
Why this page exists. This is the only RoamWeek route that says the Uyuni decision is the operator, not the price: the 3 day circuits run the same track between 3,600 and 5,000 metres, and the difference travellers report is drivers, vehicles and honesty rather than the itinerary.