Bolivia Tours

Bolivia is the highest country most travellers will ever visit, and that is the whole planning problem. La Paz’s airport at El Alto is at 4,061 m — one of the highest international airports in the world. Fly straight into it from sea level and the first two days are spent in a hotel room.

Every one of our Bolivia trips is built around that fact: private, tailor-made, and sequenced so that you reach the salt flat already acclimatised rather than on day two out of a plane.

Why Bolivia works best after Peru, not before

The altitude ladder only runs one way. Cusco is 3,399 m, Lake Titicaca 3,812 m, La Paz about 3,650 m, the Uyuni salt flat 3,656 m and Potosí 4,067 m. Arrive from Lima and you climb in steps over a week. Arrive direct from Miami and you land above 4,000 m on day one.

That is why almost every Bolivia trip we build is the second half of a Peru itinerary, crossing the altiplano overland from Puno. It costs two days and buys you the whole country working properly. The South America altitude guide has the ascent rules and the thresholds.

What Bolivia actually is

Uyuni is the reason most people come, and it is not a day trip. The salt flat is the size of a small country and the three-day 4x4 circuit south of it — coloured lagoons, flamingos, the Siloli desert — is the part people remember. One day on the salt is a photograph. Three is a journey.

La Paz is a city in a canyon with a cable car network as public transport, and it is the best urban day in the Andes. Sleep in the Zona Sur at about 3,250 m rather than the centre at 3,600 m; the CDC names this exact trick for both La Paz and Cusco.

Lake Titicaca and the Isla del Sol are the natural bridge from Peru, and the crossing at Copacabana is one of the few land borders worth doing on purpose.

Sucre and Potosí are the colonial half of the country. Sucre, at 2,810 m, was inscribed by UNESCO in 1991 and is the easiest city in Bolivia to spend three slow nights in, which is exactly what the altitude asks for. Potosí, under the silver mountain of Cerro Rico, has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2014. Our Uyuni route passes through it without a night there, because at about 4,070 m it is the wrong place to sleep.

Two Bolivia trips, two directions of travel

We sell two itineraries that cross Bolivia, and they solve the altitude problem from opposite ends.

	Peru and Bolivia	Bolivia on its own
Length	13 days	9, 12 or 15 days
Where you land	Lima, at sea level	Santa Cruz, at about 400 m
How you climb	Sacred Valley, Cusco, Puno, then along Titicaca by road	Samaipata, three nights in Sucre, then Uyuni
Salt flat	The last two days of the trip	The centre of the trip, with the Lípez desert behind it on the 12- and 15-day versions
Who it suits	A first trip to the Andes, with Machu Picchu	Travellers who have already done Peru

The Peru and Bolivia tour is the one most people choose: Machu Picchu, the lake and La Paz in the order the body wants them, finishing on the salt.

The Uyuni salt flats tour enters Bolivia through the lowland east instead of El Alto, so night one is spent near sea level. Its fifteen-day version carries a real reserve day for the desert road and finishes over the border in San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile.

Bolivia holidays: how many days to give it

Bolivia rewards time more than most countries, because the distances are long and the altitude sets the pace. As a rule of thumb from the routes we run:

• Nine days is the shortest version of Bolivia on its own that still sees Sucre and the salt flat. It leaves out the lagoon desert south of Uyuni.
• Twelve days is what the altitude ladder needs if you want the Lípez as well.
• Thirteen days covers Peru and Bolivia together, and ten is the floor before one of the two countries turns into a stopover.

Whatever the length, keep a day free before the international flight home. Uyuni’s airport has no international service and usually one or two flights a day to La Paz, so a cancellation there is normally a lost day rather than a short delay.

Seasons, in one line

Dry season is May to October, and that is when the salt flat is a white hexagonal crust you drive across. December to March is when a few centimetres of water turn it into the mirror everyone has seen in photographs — but roads on the southern circuit can close. You are choosing between two different places, not between good weather and bad.

Our month-by-month guide to Bolivia’s seasons sets out which month gives you which salt flat, and how cold the nights get.

Is Bolivia safe to travel to right now?

Checked on 1 October 2026. Advisories change; read the current versions before you book.

For a trip that moves by road, the bigger practical risk in Bolivia in 2026 is disruption, not crime: blockades and fuel shortages can stop a travel day without warning. Here is what the official sources say today.

• United States. The State Department rates Bolivia Level 2, “Exercise Increased Caution”, due to crime and civil unrest, in an advisory last updated on 27 April 2026. The one exception is Chapare Province, at Level 4, “Do Not Travel”. It warns that large demonstrations can happen with little warning and block transportation.
• United Kingdom. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, in advice updated on 22 September 2026, says a State of Emergency has been declared, giving police and armed forces powers to remove roadblocks. It advises against all but essential travel to the Chapare region of Cochabamba, tells travellers not to try to cross roadblocks, and records regular petrol and diesel shortages across the country.
• The US Embassy in La Paz. Its security alert of 9 September 2026 warned that organisations were calling for protests and blockades over fuel prices and supply, and that during the last sustained period of blockades overland travel was significantly interrupted for more than seven weeks.

Neither of our routes goes anywhere near Chapare. What both can be exposed to is a blocked road on a travel day, and that is the risk to plan around.

What we do about blockades

These are the measures already written into our two Bolivia itineraries:

• The Peru and Bolivia tour and the twelve-day Uyuni route both fly between Uyuni and La Paz rather than driving it.
• On the Peru and Bolivia tour, the Puno to La Paz day can be flown instead of driven. It costs more, and we quote it as an option.
• On the Uyuni salt flats tour, we plan fuel margin into the desert legs, the fifteen-day version carries a reserve day, and the weather-closure policy is written and agreed before you pay, together with round-the-clock local phone support.

If a road we need is blocked, we do not try to cross it. The FCDO’s advice is the same.

Visas and entry for Bolivia

• US passports. In a message dated 3 December 2025, the US Embassy in La Paz relayed the Bolivian government’s announcement that US citizens no longer require a visa to visit Bolivia for tourism and business. You need a passport with at least six months of validity at entry and must declare your address of stay, and you can remain up to 90 days in a one-year period. Study, residency and other purposes may still need a visa.
• UK passports. The FCDO’s entry requirements say you can visit for up to 90 days without a visa in a one-year period. Border officials issue 30-day stamps, and the passport should be valid for six months after arrival with two blank pages.
• Other passports. Check with the nearest Bolivian embassy before you book. We have not verified the rules for every nationality, and they have changed recently.
• Yellow fever. The US Embassy notes that a vaccination certificate may be requested, especially for the tropical areas of the country. That includes the lowland east, where the Uyuni salt flats tour begins, so ask a travel-medicine doctor before you fly.