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Travel guide
Salar de Uyuni and Sud Lipez
5 stops
Best time to go: May to October (dry), January to March (mirror)
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Welcome
Salar de Uyuni and Sud Lipez, in a few days
The largest salt flat in the world and its endless mirror, followed by the red and green lagoons of Sud Lipez, geysers and flamingos. A 4x4 circuit between 3,600 and 5,000 metres.
- Day by day
- 1 Uyuni Days 1-3
- 2 Colchani Day 4
- 3 Chuvica (salt hotels on the south side of the salar) Day 5
- 4 Laguna Colorada (Huayllajara refuges) Day 6
- 5 Uyuni (return) Days 7-8
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Route map (numbers = order of the stops).
1
Uyuni
Days 1-3
The base town on the edge of the salar, with a hundred locomotives and wagons rusting in the desert 3 km away.
🎟️ Worth booking
- The Salar de Uyuni mirrorhalf a day · from In the rainy season a thin film of water covers the salt crust, more than 10,000 km² at about 3,650 m, and reflects the sky so exactly that the horizon disappears.
✦ Free to visit
- The Uyuni train graveyard
🛏️ Where to sleep · Budget: Kory Wasy Hostal ↗ (€32 a night) · Mid-range: Casa de Sal - Salt Hotel ↗ (€95 a night) · Luxury: Hotel Jardines de Uyuni ↗ (€145 a night) · All places to stay by budget →
📲 Book things to do in Uyuni on GetYourGuide
2
Colchani
Day 4 · 🚕 Taxi 30 min
The village at the entrance to the salar, about 20 km north of Uyuni, which has lived from salt for generations.
🎟️ Worth booking
✦ Free to visit
- Colchani and its salt hotels
🛏️ Where to sleep · Luxury: Hotel de Sal Luna Salada ↗ (€220 a night) · All places to stay by budget →
📲 Book things to do in Colchani on GetYourGuide
3
Chuvica (salt hotels on the south side of the salar)
Day 5 · 🚙 4x4 with driver 1 day
A night in a hotel built of salt on the southern edge of the salar, after crossing it by way of Incahuasi island.
🎟️ Worth booking
- Incahuasi Islandabout 1h · from In the middle of the 10,582 km² of the Salar de Uyuni, a rocky outcrop of some twenty hectares rises out of the salt crust like an island.
4
Laguna Colorada (Huayllajara refuges)
Day 6 · 🚙 4x4 with driver 1 day
The high country of Sud Lipez: a brick-red lagoon, geysers at 4,850 m, the green lagoon under Licancabur and a night in the Huayllajara refuges.
🎟️ Worth booking
- Laguna Coloradaabout 1h · from At 4,278 m in the Eduardo Avaroa reserve, this shallow 60 km² lake turns brick red when the sun warms it. The colour comes from algae and micro-organisms, and white islets of borax cut across the surface.
- The Sol de Mañana geysersabout 30 min · from A geothermal field at about 4,850 m, which makes it one of the highest on the planet.
- Laguna Verde and the Licancabur volcanoabout 30 min · from At the far south of Sud Lipez, a few hundred metres from the Chilean border, a salt lake that turns emerald green when the wind stirs its copper-rich sediment. Without wind it stays a dull grey.
✦ Free to visit
- The Stone Tree and the Siloli Desert
5
Uyuni (return)
Days 7-8 · 🚙 4x4 with driver 11 to 13h
The long drive back to Uyuni, 11 to 13 hours by 4x4, then a last night in town.
🎟️ Worth booking
🛏️ Where to sleep · Budget: Kory Wasy Hostal ↗ (€32 a night) · Mid-range: Casa de Sal - Salt Hotel ↗ (€95 a night) · Luxury: Hotel Jardines de Uyuni ↗ (€145 a night) · All places to stay by budget →
📲 Book things to do in Uyuni (return) on GetYourGuide
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
A 4x4 tour with a driver · Sud Lipez is done as a three-day tour with an agency in Uyuni, nights included. Choose it for its drivers and vehicles, not its price.
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
🚗 Car hire
Compare the agencies before you land.
Compare · Booking
Compare the agencies before you land.
Compare · Booking
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
Some links are partner links: we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Salteñas: baked pastries holding a sweet, juicy stew, eaten as a mid-morning snack.
- Pique a lo macho: beef, sausage, chips, egg and hot peppers piled on one plate for sharing.
- Sopa de maní: a peanut soup, the best known of the filling soups of the highlands.
- Quinoa and potatoes: the Altiplano grows hundreds of varieties, including chuño, freeze-dried in the open air.
- Api morado: a thick, hot drink of purple corn, served at breakfast with a fried pastry.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Rushing the altitude: take the first two days in La Paz slowly, drink water and go easy on alcohol.
- Drinking tap water, or diving into street food in the first days.
- Choosing a Salar agency on price alone: ask about its drivers, its vehicles and its safety record.
- Planning to the hour: road blockades are common, so leave a spare day or two.
Getting by
Words that help
English ↔ Spanish
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Hello | Hola |
| Thank you | Gracias |
| Please | Por favor |
| Yes | Sí |
| No | No |
| Excuse me | Perdone |
| Goodbye | Adiós |
| Do you speak English? | ¿Habla inglés? |
| I don't understand | No entiendo |
| How much is it? | ¿Cuánto cuesta? |
| Where are the toilets? | ¿Dónde están los baños? |
| The bill, please | La cuenta, por favor |
| Help! | ¡Socorro! |
| Cheers! | ¡Salud! |
✈️ Flight delayed by 3 hours or more, or cancelled? You may be owed up to €600. Check your flight on AirHelp.
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyBolivian boliviano (BOB)
Best seasonMay to October (dry), January to March (mirror)
PlugA/C · 220V
Tap waterBottled only
TippingRound up, or about 10% in restaurants
Emergency110 / 118
EntryVisa-free for up to 90 days a year for UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports, and for EU citizens except Cypriots. US citizens have been exempt since December 2025. Make sure your passport is stamped on arrival: a missing stamp means a fine on the way out.
HealthHepatitis A and typhoid are recommended. Yellow fever vaccination is advised for the Amazon lowlands, where malaria is also found; this route stays well above both. The real risk here is altitude.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/salar-de-uyuni
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos: Pexels and Wikimedia Commons (Lenta Moebiusa from Russia, CC BY-SA 2.0 ; Herr stahlhoefer, Public domain ; Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Details are indicative, check before you leave.