7 things they don’t tell you about the Uyuni, Bolivia tours

Uyuni

by Michael Tieso on February 14, 2010

Teresa and I have recently went on a three day tour starting in Uyuni, Bolivia and passing through the many attractions in the surrounding area including Salar de Uyuni, Laguna Verde, hot springs, and lots of the beautiful nature Bolivia has to offer in the south. Though we are backpackers, there are sites that require a tour; as its not accessible any other way. If done with the right agency, a tour could save you more than doing it yourself. After going to about 6 different agencies,we had found that nearly all gave around the same price and could only bargain a small amount if possible. Most tours pass by the same exact places as well. After three days, we found all agencies failed to mentioned a few things.

Pedalando no salar - Uyuni Salt Lake

Pedalando no salar - Uyuni Salt Lake by eduhhz

1. Bring extra cash

There will be no ATM’s for the next three days. Though all food and bed is covered, there are still things you need to pay for. All inclusive doesn’t include much. More details on this below.

2. Don’t expect to shower well or at all

At the time of writing, most guesthouses were charging 10Boliviano for hot water. Normally this wouldn’t be so bad if it were hot outside but even during the summer, high altitude, rain, and wind can lead to some very cold nights and too difficult to shower in. There was one guesthouse that was charging 10Boliviano to even use the shower which included the hot water. If on a budget, do what I did and take a cat bath in the sink though it’s still cold, it’s not as bad.

Soul-bouldering in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Soul-bouldering in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia by remo.bissig

3. Bring extra camera batterys and memory cards

Again the guesthouses will charge you if you want to charge your electronics. You’re likely to take hundreds of pictures because of the amount of sights you’ll be seeing in such a short period of time, bring a backup memory card or make sure to clear out what you had earlier.

4. Best if you’re planning to go to Chile

If you’re starting the tour in Uyuni, the tour will end in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. There is an option not to go to Chile and instead right before the border, to go back to Uyuni. After being on your third day, eight hours straight back to Uyuni in a jeep is the last thing you want to do. It’s a ride that has nothing more then plain desert fields and distant mountains you’ve been seeing the last three days.

Salar de Uyuni after the rain

Salar de Uyuni after the rain by Magnaza

5. Onward travel – Trying to leave Uyuni

Train tickets in Bolivia can only be purchased either the day of or the day before the train departures. This can be difficult when coming back late after a three day tour and wanting to leave for a new city. Tickets are likely to sell out fast the day before and leaving the day of is luck of the draw. To get around this, your tour agency can purchase your train ticket for you while you’re on their tour. Just ask them before you leave on the tour. Another option is taking the bus from the bus terminal. There are many options in bus companies though the bus won’t be as comfortable as the train, it’s a little cheaper and you’ll be able to leave the day you want to.

6. Bring flipflops

During rainy season, the Salar de Uyuni has plenty of water for you to walk on. The salt and water may ruin your footwear so be aware. Bring both sneakers and flipflops.

Isla de Pescado, Salar de Uyuni - southwest Bolivia

Isla de Pescado, Salar de Uyuni - southwest Bolivia by Phil Marion

7. It gets cold at night

We were nearly not told that it would get extremely cold at night for our second night on the tour. If we had not asked, we wouldn’t have brought warmer clothing. Be sure you bring warm clothing for the night as it will get very cold.

Sunset over the Salar de Uyuni

Sunset over the Salar de Uyuni by wallygrom

My last recommendation is to NOT stay in the HI hostel in main town Uyuni. It’s badly run with horrible management. There’s only one shower and bathroom for the entire building for over 30 rooms. They charge you if you shower more than once and question you if you take longer than three minutes in the shower. For only 10Boliviano more across the street from the train station there is Hotel Avenida which includes private shower, a place to do laundry, clean, and friendly staff.

Article by Michael Tieso

Michael Tieso started Art Of Backpacking with a vision of sharing cultural knowledge to the world and inspire more people to travel. He left the cubicle life to travel the world in May 2009 and he still continues the journey to this day with no end to it. He loves adventure, food, and music. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter

Michael has written 113 awesome articles for AOB.

Subscribe to the feed via RSS or EMAIL to receive instant updates.

  • Also, I had severe altitude sickness. Be ready to have coca leaves in your cheek at all times.
  • LOVE THIS ARTICLE!! I was planning on visiting Bolivia this December.
  • Glad it helped! Let me know how it all goes :)
  • Tip number 3 is the best. For trips, I always bring extra batteries along with the rechargable batteries I already have.
  • bolivia09
    Be warned, I did this tour ex-Uyuni and had a great time but we heard bad stories from those who came from Chile. You begin in San Pedro de Atacama and go up in altitude so fast that many people were sick for the whole three days of the trip (if you know you're bad with altitude sickness keep this in mind). Also, there were far fewer choices of tour groups going out of Chile and none had a great reputation.

    Be warned, they say that the tour is guided, but it really isn't unless you can speak spanish and ask the driver. We were fortunate enough to do that, but otherwise they generally don't speak english and therefore can't explain anything to you!

    The only other thing that can be hit and miss is the people you sit in the jeep with for three days. Sometimes it can be the best experience and sometimes it can be the worst. We asked and found out we were going with four young boys which we thought would be a lot of fun, but they turned out to be quite racist and insulting and sat in the front of the jeep and never offered to swap with us! Fortunately we could speak spanish and they couldn't so we chatted to our driver and his lovely wife, the cook, the entire trip and learnt a lot about the area and the park as they couldn't speak english very well.
  • Thats very true. For most of our trip we had a really great group but we had to split groups because everyone else was going to Chile while we were going back to Uyuni. The second group all spoke in their language and didn't speak to us at all nor the driver. It made for a boring 8 hour trip back to Uyuni. Since we knew Spanish, we ended up talking to the driver as well while they didn't.
  • bolivia09
    having said this we had an amazing time and loved every minute of it, some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen in my life!
  • Kirsten
    Yes. Yes yes yes, all of this is true! If you get back from your tour and plan to leave that night but haven't purchased a bus ticket back to La Paz already (or even if you have), chances are you are going to be stranded in town for an extra couple of days thanks to minimal buses leaving town and dozens and dozens of tourists wanting to leave as well...and there is literally NOTHING to do in the village of Uyuni.

    Hot showers are not "hot-" if you're lucky they MIGHT end up being lukewarm but generally hot means cool, but not as icy as it would be without the heater. When I was on my trip there in July or August, it was -20 degrees celcius at night when we were out on the flats and I most certainly was not armed with anything but 2 very thin Alpaca sweaters! STAY WARM, stay dry and bring cash :)

    (motion sickness pills wouldn't hurt either if your stomach doesn't take too kindly to driving in a jeep over jagged mountainous terrain for 10 hours a day)

    Great points, dead-on, Bolivia is wonderful!
  • Glad you enjoyed the article! Good call on the motion sickness pills. I did in fact get a little ill from the bumpy ride.
  • luisaTieso
    Great information, these are the little things that can actually ruin your whole adventure and not appreciate your surroundings...BTW a sink? AND cold? I may be on a budget but I NEED my hot water and shower. I'll remember your advise. Thanks
  • Youd be surprized what you actually need and dont need. At first its rough but you get use to the unexpected and just do what you can to keep going.
  • johnnyvagabond
    great tips -- thank you! I'm hoping to reach this area in 2011; bookmarking until then :)
  • Thanks! Have fun and let us know how it went if you can :)
  • This is a great post, thanks! It can be so frustrating as a traveler to find yourself at the mercy of a tourist company and their lack of information.

    We once went on a 4-day trek in Peru with 6 other people. Half of us had signed up with one company and half with another, and we all were missing different vital bits of information. Our half, for example, had been told we didn't need to bring our own toilet paper. The other half had been told they didn't need to worry about potable water. Fortunately, we were able to trade some of our water purifying tablets for some squares of TP, and everyone survived.

    Thanks for putting this post together!
  • Travelers helping travelers! Glad it worked out in Peru. Somehow it always works out. We just seem to think of an alternative to what we expected I suppose.
blog comments powered by Disqus