Even though it is physically possible to drive a personal vehicle across the salt flats, it’s wildly dangerous and strongly discouraged without a local guide. GPS tends to be unreliable, and the landscape feels calm but isn’t, so it becomes deceptive fast. People often end up stuck in muddy, thin areas of the salt crust,…
You can book a stargazing tour straight through local tour agencies in Uyuni or online, ahead of time. Usually, these are separate 3- to 4-hour outings that leave town around 2:00 AM, or 3:00 AM sometimes. Salar de Uyuni has some of the strongest stargazing worldwide because there is basically zero light pollution and the…
Salar de Uyuni is in the Bolivian Andes, sitting at about 3,656 metres (11,995 feet) above sea level. If you join a three-day tour, then expect to go higher still, up to around 4,900 metres (16,000 feet). Since the elevation is this high, altitude sickness, also known as soroche, is something people really think about….
Yes, Uyuni tours are generally safe when you go with reputable, highly rated tour operators. But risks are there, like altitude sickness, extreme cold, or reckless driving from cheaper operators, which happens more than people expect. For safer travel, read recent reviews carefully before booking and do not chase the absolute cheapest price. Confirm that…
A 1-day tour really just spans the Salar de Uyuni salt flats, Incahuasi Island, and the Train Cemetery. A 3-day trip keeps going a bit further down south, into the national reserve, to catch high-altitude deserts, bright lagoons, and active geysers. The 1-day choice works well for visitors who are short on time and who…
For perfect mirror reflection photos, go in the rainy season, set your camera lens almost touching the water’s surface, and make sure your subjects wear vividly coloured clothing so they stand out against the sky. This visual trick performs best on totally windless days where the water stays perfectly calm. Lowering the camera angle removes…
Honestly, the easiest way to go from Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama is to arrange a normal 3-day, 2-night 4×4 tour that plainly ends with a border handoff at Hito Cajón. On the last morning of the 3-day trip, your Bolivian driver leaves you at the high-altitude border post. After you get stamped out…
The Train Cemetery, or Cementerio de Trenes, is basically an open-air museum where you can see rusted and abandoned 19th-century British steam locomotives sitting in the open, and it is only about 3 kilometres outside the town of Uyuni. Back in the late 1800s, Uyuni was a key transport hub for mining companies that shipped…
Incahuasi Island sits right smack in the middle of the Salar de Uyuni salt flat, in southwestern Bolivia, and it feels kind of like an odd little place, because it is an isolated hilly outcrop with giant cacti all over it, and it is surrounded entirely by that glaring white salt crust. Now this “island”…
Yes, you can stay in a hotel that is built from salt blocks all the way through, and the most famous ones sit on the edges of the salt flats in Colchani. Everything you see, from the walls and beds, all the way to the dining tables, is made using the local salt. A salt…