Peru and Bolivia in 13 Days: Which Order, What Fits

Peru and Bolivia share the Andes, Lake Titicaca and one road between them, so combining them is less a question of whether than of how many days and in which direction. The short answer: plan thirteen days, start in Peru, and cross the lake by land. That order lets you climb gradually, from Lima on the coast to the Uyuni salt flat at 3,656 m, instead of landing at the top on day one.

This guide is the reasoning behind that answer, and what changes if you have ten days or seventeen.

How many days Peru and Bolivia really need

Thirteen days is how we plan it, and ten is the floor. Under ten, one of the two countries turns into a stopover: you either rush Machu Picchu or reach the salt flat for one hurried sunrise.

Days	What fits	What you give up
10	Cusco, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, La Paz, Uyuni	Lima, and any slack between flights
13	All of the above, plus Lima and two nights in the Sacred Valley	Nothing on the main line
17	The 13-day line plus the Amazon from Puerto Maldonado	A second round of flights

The variable that decides is not the number of sights. It is how many nights you can spend low before you sleep high. Every day you cut comes out of the Sacred Valley, because it is the only part of the route that is not a fixed booking, and it is also the part that protects you from the altitude.

Which country first: start in Peru and climb

Start in Peru. The route then climbs in steps, and you sleep at each one:

Stop	Sleeping altitude
Lima	~150 m
Sacred Valley	2,871 m
Aguas Calientes, below Machu Picchu	2,040 m
Cusco	3,399 m
Puno, on Lake Titicaca	3,830 m
La Paz, centre	~3,650 m
Uyuni salt flat	3,656 m

Plenty of itineraries run Bolivia and Peru the other way round, starting in La Paz. The problem is the airport: El Alto sits at 4,061 m, one of the highest international airports in the world. The CDC’s ascent guidance says not to go from below 1,200 m to sleeping above 2,750 m in a single day. Flying from Lima to La Paz breaks that rule by more than 800 m on your first night. Flying to Cusco and driving straight down to the valley breaks it by 121 m.

Every figure in that table, and where it comes from, is in our guide to altitude in South America.

A Peru and Bolivia itinerary, day by day

This is the thirteen-day line. Each row is one night, so you can see where the days go.

Day	Where you go	Where you sleep
1	Arrive in Lima	Lima
2	Lima on foot	Lima
3	Fly to Cusco, drive straight down	Sacred Valley
4	Maras, Moray and the valley floor	Sacred Valley
5	Ollantaytambo, train to Aguas Calientes	Aguas Calientes
6	Machu Picchu early, back to Cusco	Cusco
7	Cusco	Cusco
8	Overland to Puno	Puno
9	Lake Titicaca by boat	Puno
10	Cross into Bolivia, on to La Paz	La Paz
11	La Paz	La Paz
12	Fly to Uyuni, out onto the salt	Uyuni
13	Sunrise on the salt flat, fly out	—

Two legs set the rhythm. The Cusco to Puno day is a full one either way: the PeruRail Titicaca train takes 10 h 30 and runs only three days a week (Monday, Thursday and Saturday from May to December), so if you want the train, it sets your dates. And the border day is another full one, covered below.

If that is the version you want, you can see the 13-day Peru and Bolivia route with what is included and what it costs. The rest of this guide is about the decisions behind it.

Two weeks: 2 weeks in Peru, or Peru and Bolivia?

With fourteen days, the honest choice is between a slower Peru and a second country. Two weeks in Peru buys you the core, Lake Titicaca and one more region, usually the Amazon. Two weeks across Peru and Bolivia buys you the thirteen-day line above with one spare day.

Choose by what you came for:

• If the Amazon matters more than the salt flat, stay in Peru. Puerto Maldonado is one short flight from Cusco, and it costs three to four days. Our Peru itinerary guide lays out that version.
• If Uyuni is the photograph in your head, cross the border. Bolivia adds La Paz and the salt flat for four to five days, against three to four for the jungle.
• If you are unsure how you handle altitude, Peru alone is the lower-risk version. Every night in Bolivia on this route is spent above 3,200 m.

Keep the fourteenth day as a buffer before the flight home. Uyuni is a domestic airport, and a delayed flight out of the salt flat should not cost you your international connection.

Crossing the border at Lake Titicaca

The crossing is by road, and it is simple if you do it in daylight. From Puno there are two crossings on the lake: Kasani, on the road through Copacabana, and Desaguadero, further south.

Bolivia’s customs authority lists the opening hours:

Crossing	Open daily	On to La Paz
Kasani	08:00–22:00	Via Copacabana and Tiquina
Desaguadero	09:00–21:00	Direct, south shore

The Desaguadero hours are those of the joint border centre. The Copacabana road is the slower and better one: it follows the lakeshore and lets you see the Bolivian side of Titicaca. At the Strait of Tiquina the vehicle crosses on a barge and passengers cross by boat. Either way, plan for one full day from Puno to La Paz, with the border in the morning.

On paperwork, one change matters. 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 stay up to 90 days in a one-year period. A yellow fever certificate may be requested, especially for the tropical areas, which this route does not enter. British passports also get 90 days without a visa, according to the UK Foreign Office. If you hold another passport, check before you book.

Best time to visit Peru and Bolivia together

The best time to visit Peru and Bolivia in one trip is May to September, when the dry seasons of both Andes overlap. Within that, the variable that decides is whether you want the Uyuni mirror.

If you want	Go in	The trade-off
Clear skies on both sides	June to August	The coldest nights of the year at Puno, La Paz and Uyuni
The best compromise	May	As dry as August in Cusco, with warmer nights
The mirror on the salt flat	December to March	The wettest months in Cusco, and the Inca Trail closed in February

The mirror is the catch. It only exists when there is water on the salt flat, and that is the wet season, when the Peruvian half of the trip is at its worst. The month-by-month detail for each side is in our best time to visit Peru and best time to visit Bolivia guides.

Peru or Bolivia, if you can only do one

For a first trip, Peru. Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Sacred Valley are the reason most people come, and they are the low, forgiving end of the route. Bolivia is the better second half rather than the better alternative: every Bolivian night on this line is above 3,200 m, and it is reached most gently from Peru, by land.

The exception is the traveller who has already done Peru. For them, Bolivia on its own makes sense, and the Uyuni salt flats tour climbs gradually inside Bolivia for exactly that reason. Our Bolivia tours page sets the two routes side by side.

What each extra day buys

The thirteen-day line is full but not tight. These are the additions people ask for, and what each one costs in days.

Add-on	Days it costs	Why
A spare day before the flight home	1	Uyuni is a domestic airport, far from any international one
A third night in the Sacred Valley	1	More time low before Cusco and Puno
Amazon via Puerto Maldonado	3–4	Two flights and at least two full days in the reserve
The classic Inca Trail	3 more than the train	Four days on foot to Machu Picchu, and permits months ahead

The internal flights are the line that moves the budget, not the hotels. Our South America travel cost guide has the observed fares for Lima to Cusco and La Paz to Uyuni, and the fixed price of the Machu Picchu day.