Salar de Uyuni (Salt flats of Bolivia)

Table of Con­tents Show

 Overview:

The world’s biggest mir­ror – and the world’s largest salt flat, the majes­tic Salar de Uyu­ni is a more than 10,000 square kilo­me­tre beau­ti­ful almost oth­er world­ly nat­ur­al won­der filled with incred­i­ble hexag­o­nal salt flats, beau­ti­ful cac­tus, rocky islands, tow­er­ing vol­ca­noes, mul­ti-coloured lakes, flocks of flamin­gos – and arguably the great­est spot to see the sun­rise, sun­set and milky way on the plan­et – with the Salar de Uyu­ni which sits more than 3,000 feet above sea lev­el being a place that will tru­ly take your breath away.  

Home to more than 10 bil­lion tonnes of salt and offi­cial­ly the worlds biggest lithi­um reserve, the Salar de Uyu­ni was formed some 10,000 years ago when the lake that once occu­pied this giant land mass dried up giv­ing birth to the icon­ic flats – with the wet sea­son in Bolivia see­ing the near­by lakes flood onto the flats cre­at­ing the famous mir­ror and reflec­tive effect on the plains and blur­ring the lines between where the heav­ens and earth begin. 

Along­side being home to stun­ning emer­ald and red lakes and a series of geot­her­mal won­ders – includ­ing bub­bling mud pools and dor­mant vol­ca­noes, the beau­ty of the Salar de Uyu­ni has also seen it hit the big screen with the oth­er world­ly land­scapes of the Salar de Uyu­ni pro­vid­ing per­fect set­ting for the dis­ap­point­ing Star Wars the Last Jedi and the Hol­ly­wood block­busters of The Fall and the James Bond film the Quan­tum of Solace.  

Fur­ther the stun­ning and unique set­ting of the Salar de Uyu­ni allows for not only illu­sion like pho­tos – where the land­scape allows explor­ers to place toy such as dinosaurs or cars and stand in the dis­tance mak­ing them life size for fun­ny illu­sion pho­tos – but also sweep­ing views of the incred­i­ble flats – which are most evi­dent dur­ing sun­rise and sun­set – where the beau­ti­ful flats are lit up by the bright sun turn­ing a shade of orange and red – but also in the night time where the clear pol­lu­tion free skies above the Salar de Uyu­ni allow for the per­fect chance to star gaze and won­der upon the con­stel­la­tions, milky way and galaxy that reflect down upon the mag­i­cal won­der of the world that is the Salar de Uyu­ni. 

Where:

Found almost 12,000 feet above sea lev­el the beau­ti­ful and majes­tic Salar de Uyu­ni is found in the Daniel Com­pos area of in the mid­dle West of Bolivia close to the Andes Moun­tains and the Chilean Bor­der.  

Getting There:  

Being a desert your in for a bit of a trek to get to the Salar de Uyu­ni – and you’ll need a tour guide to get into the high­lights and explore the won­der – as the ter­rain is wild, unpre­dictable and not suit­able for self-dri­ve tours.  

Giv­en it’s size and it’s loca­tion to the bor­der of Chile – the Salar de Uyu­ni is main­ly accessed from the Boli­vian cities of Uyu­ni or Tupiza or the Chilean town of San Pedro de Ata­ca­ma – and for those doing the trip as a tour across South Amer­i­can it’s also a top tip that you can also fin­ish at either of these cities as well – with the town of Uyu­ni being the most pop­u­lar spot and town from which to com­mence tours.  

So, if tak­ing on the Salar de Uyu­ni from the Boli­vian towns of Uyu­ni or Tupiza what we’d sug­gest is to fly into the main Boli­vian air­port of La Paz and then for those on a bud­get hop on a 10 hour bus or  4 hour train town to either city – or fly direct to save time and mon­ey and then begin your tour from either city with tours includ­ing pick up from hotels in both towns.  

We’d advise against dri­ving – both as you won’t be able to get your car onto the Salar de Uyu­ni – and also because the Boli­vian traf­fic is both fast paced and unpre­dictable – so pub­lic trans­port is our pick to get to the won­der in Bolivia.  

If head­ing to the Salar de Uyu­ni from the Chilean side, then your best bet is to fly into the air­port of Cala­ma from wher­ev­er you start your jour­ney and then hop­ping on a bus to the town of San Pedro de Ata­ca­ma in Chile – from where you tour will start.  

From our side we’d rec­om­mend start­ing your trip in Uyu­ni and then end­ing in Chile and Salar de Uyu­ni – as your jour­ney in will be a lot eas­i­er from the Boli­vian side and the town of Uyu­ni – and it gives you an easy and cheap way to cross into the beau­ti­ful coun­try of Chile to con­tin­ue your jour­ney.  

When it comes to tours, be sure to do your research before hand  — as some of the tours do skim on aspects such as safe­ty, accom­mo­da­tion and meals – so we’d strong­ly advise bud­get­ing a lit­tle more – (some­where in the region of $300 Usd) for a pri­vate mul­ti-day tour, that takes in all of the high­lights of the beau­ti­ful Salar de Uyu­ni. 

Best time to Visit:

While you’ve no doubt seen the famous reflec­tive Salar de Uyu­ni pho­tos – it’s impor­tant to note that the effect doesn’t hap­pen all year round in fact it’s only real­ly only avail­able in the wet sea­son of Bolivia which occurs between Decem­ber — April.  

Along­side catch­ing the stun­ning reflec­tive view – you’ll also be in for far greater stun­ning sun­ris­es and sun­sets and have a much bet­ter stargaz­ing expe­ri­ence which all reflect off the beau­ti­ful salt flats dur­ing the wet sea­son.  

How­ev­er the wet sea­son also brings with it both flood­ing and mud tracks which can also mean that trip to the beau­ti­ful Inc­ahuasi Island and its incred­i­ble panoram­ic view­points of the Salar de Uyu­ni are off lim­its – so for this rea­son we rec­om­mend vis­it­ing between March – April where you should get the best of both worlds – both access to the stun­ning sights at the won­der and the beau­ti­ful reflec­tive expe­ri­ence for a tru­ly enjoy­able expe­ri­ence at the won­der of the world that is the Salar de Uyu­ni.  


Explore:

Stretch­ing into the hori­zon, the 10,000 square kilo­me­tres of the won­der of the Salar de Uyu­ni is a tru­ly majes­tic site, with the stun­ning reflec­tive hexag­o­nal shaped salt flats, the sparkling lakes, the tow­er­ing moun­tains and of course the beau­ti­ful wildlife – includ­ing the flocks of flamin­gos com­bin­ing into a desert like wilder­ness full of incred­i­ble nat­ur­al beau­ty and diverse land­scapes.  

While the high­light of your trip will undoubt­ed­ly be step­ping onto and explor­ing this rich beau­ty of Salar de Uyu­ni that is almost from anoth­er plan­et– the eas­i­est way to do so on is tour as trav­el­ling across the vast wilder­ness by your­self will not only see you have a tough time nav­i­gate to the high­lights, but you also run the risk of both break­ing down in the salt flats and of course find­ing your­self alone amongst the 10,000 square kilo­me­tres of the Salar de Uyu­ni – which while beau­ti­ful can be unfor­giv­ing.  

So before begin­ning your explo­ration we’d advise to care­ful­ly select your tour oper­a­tor – make sure they’re rep­utable, it’s a pri­vate trip and the accom­mo­da­tion they pro­vide is up to scratch – and make sure it’s a mul­ti-day trip as you don’t want to miss out on the gor­geous sun­set, sun­rise and night time stargaz­ing expe­ri­ence on Salar de Uyu­ni – still with that all sort­ed and hav­ing giv­en your­selves a few days to adjust to the high alti­tude (the Salar de Uyu­ni stands at  3,650 meters) the below are our picks of things to do and see when vis­it­ing the majes­tic and beau­ti­ful Salar de Uyu­ni: 

Witness Sunrise on the Salar de Uyuni: 

You’ll have to get up ear­ly, but wit­ness­ing the incred­i­ble sun­rise on the Salar de Uyu­ni is tru­ly awe-inspir­ing, as you see the bor­der between heav­en and earth merge into one and the dark vio­let reflec­tions of the Salt Flats light up in deep red and orange giv­ing the Salar de Uyu­ni life and cre­at­ing a tru­ly beau­ti­ful and kalei­do­scop­ic array of colours – that reflect back off the mir­ror like reflec­tion of the salt flats.  

One to make sure your tour includes, we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing sure that you get a tour with mul­ti-day option to take advan­tage of camp­ing or get­ting a decent hol­i­day on the flats – to make your morn­ing wake-up call that bit eas­i­er and be pre­pared to come with a flash­light and some warm lay­ers as the night time does get chilly – but if you come well pre­pared and with a decent cam­era you’re in for a  full treat as you observ­er one of the great­est sun­ris­es on the plan­et that lights up the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Salar de Uyu­ni. 

Uyuni Train cemetery 

Once one of the great­est train lines on the plan­et, the Uyu­ni train fer­ried foods, met­als and of course salt across the Salar de Uyu­ni and con­nect­ed Bolivia with Chile and to the cost of the South Pacif­ic Ocean.  

Now while the train line lies aban­doned, a series of emp­ty car­riages and loco­mo­tives lie on the line cre­at­ing the Uyu­ni Train Ceme­tery and adding to the eeri­ness and desert atmos­phere of the Salar de Uyu­ni.  

Offi­cial­ly aban­doned in the 19th cen­tu­ry, the for­mer British train car­riages are now adorned with Graf­fi­ti – and make a real­ly inter­est­ing des­ti­na­tion to explore as you climb with­in the car­riage and pho­to­graph this his­toric and aban­doned car­riages that help tell the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry of the Salar de Uyu­ni. 

Monuments (Dakar Rally & Island of Flags) 

Trav­el­ling on from the Uyu­ni Train Ceme­tery, you’ll come to two mon­u­ments – the first being the mon­u­ment to the famous Dakar Ral­ly – the biggest and most dan­ger­ous ral­ly in the world that see’s adven­tur­ers trav­el across thou­sands of kilo­me­tres of ter­rain in tough con­di­tions and unsuit­able cars.  

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, though the Dakar Ral­ly which was once the pride of the Salar de Uyu­ni and which bought a great eco­nom­ic boost and atten­tion to this majes­tic won­der has moved on from South Amer­i­ca to the deserts of Dubai, but a quick vis­it to the mon­u­ment is def­i­nite­ly worth it in our books – not only to get your imag­i­na­tion and inter­est going for future ral­lies but as it offers a great spot to look over the beau­ty of the Salar de Uyu­ni.  

From the Dakar Ral­ly mon­u­ment, you’ll also come to our favourite mon­u­ment in the whole of the Salar de Uyu­ni – the mon­u­ment to flags – where you chan­nel your inner Amund­sen and plant a flag of either your coun­try, foot­ball team or fam­i­ly to mark the spot where you stood on the Salar de Uyu­ni.  

Colchani 

The beau­ti­ful town of Colchani is a true desert town – with a pop­u­la­tion of just 700 – and it’s hear where you will like­ly stop for both some food, a good sleep – and per­haps most impor­tant­ly of all a sou­venir – with the sell­ing of tourist mem­o­ra­bil­ia being a vital eco­nom­ic resource for this small town.  

It’s a also a unique town – as any town sit­u­at­ed in the desert will be being home to a giant salt dis­tri­b­u­tion oper­a­tion that har­vests the salt from the Salar de Uyu­niand makes sure it reach­es Bolivia and beyond – and we’d real­ly rec­om­mend not only try­ing the salt on offer but also invest­ing in a sou­venir to sup­port the locals and make sure you have a beau­ti­ful reminder of your trip with­in the won­der of the world that is the Salar de Uyu­ni. 

Incahuasi Island  & Rock Formation: 

 Mov­ing fur­ther on and you’ll get to the post­card spots of the Salar de Uyu­ni — the Inc­ahuasi Island it’s famous cac­tus and rock for­ma­tions that will give you those sweep­ing views of the salt flats in all their glo­ry.  

The Inc­ahuasi island – which is often not acces­si­ble in the wet sea­son (which is why we advise going in March or April where you can the best of the reflec­tion and the beau­ty spots) is a desert rocky hill in the mid­dle of the flats that stretch­es for some 60 acres and is home to a series of clas­sic desert Cac­tus  — some which tow­er 10 feet into the air and which are tes­ta­ment to the abil­i­ty of life to thrive in even the harsh­est of con­di­tions.  

Believed to have been formed as the result of one of the vol­ca­noes that dot the Salar de Uyu­ni erupt­ing tens of thou­sands of years ago, the Island sits in the mid­dle of Salar de Uyu­ni – and after a steep 15-minute trek to the sum­mit you’ll get incred­i­ble panoram­ic views that stretch all the way into the hori­zon for majes­tic views that reflect the clear blue sky of the stun­ning salt flats – for one of the best pho­to spots in the whole of the won­der.  

For those who spend a bit more time at the top you’ll also get the chance to explore the apt­ly names Desert of Dali – a series of unique rock for­ma­tions that sup­pos­ed­ly resem­ble the famous works of the great painter with their unique and oth­er world­ly shapes pro­vid­ing fur­ther awe—inspiring if con­fus­ing — sights for you to both pho­tog­ra­phy and admire with­in the won­der of the Salar de Uyu­ni. 

The Big Stone — Arbol de Piedra 

Leav­ing the glam­our and stun­ning views of the Inc­ahuasi Island – your next stop will be a quick one as you head to the Arbol de Piedra – a big rock found in the val­ley of Rocas that sum­mits at least 20 foot fall that resem­bles an over­grown tree.  

While the rock itself may not sound inter­est­ing, the fact it still stands in the mid­dle of the incred­i­ble Salar de Uyu­ni make it unique and gives it an almost mirage effect as you snap if from both close up and a far and adds to already oth­er world­ly and beau­ti­ful land­scape of the Salar de Uyu­ni – for one of the great­est rocks on the plan­et.  


Tunupa Volcano

From the glam­our of the rock – you can then expect your tour to take you to one of the most beau­ti­ful sights that dots the land­scape of the Salar de Uyu­ni – the mighty Tunupa Vol­cano. 

Offi­cial­ly dor­mant, the Tunupa Vol­cano is not only a stun­ning won­der on the edge of the Salar de Uyu­ni that makes for incred­i­ble pho­tos when stand­ing on the salt flats, but is also sacred to the indige­nous Boli­vian Com­mu­ni­ties who live on the Salar de Uyu­ni, with the Vol­cano car­ry­ing it’s tra­di­tion­al name of Tunupa – which lit­er­al­ly means God of Thun­der.  

Tow­er­ing over the Salar de Uyu­ni – the Tunupa Vol­cano stands at more than 17,000 feet so you’ll need a spe­cial tour and plen­ty of moun­tain climb­ing expe­ri­ence to sum­mit it as well as a good head for alti­tude, so what we’d sug­gest is ask­ing your guide to let you sum­mit to the view point on the Tunupa Vol­cano- which is accessed after a 3 hour hike and from where you can reach the first lev­el of the Vol­cano – at a much more man­age­able 5,000 feet – and from where after a trek up some soil and ash you will find your­self at a view­point where you can look over the whole of the Salar de Uyu­ni for some absolute­ly incred­i­ble views of this beau­ti­ful and nat­ur­al won­der.  

Sol de Manana 

A geo-ther­mal won­der, the Sol de Man­ana is in our view one of the most under­rat­ed sights in the whole of the Salar de Uyu­ni – as it sees a series of bub­bling mud lakes stretched out over miles from where you can see the Vol­canic activ­i­ty of the dor­mant vol­ca­noes of Salar de Uyu­ni first-hand.  

Bub­bling away under the sur­face, the lake is affec­tion­ate­ly known as the Morn­ing Sun (not to be con­fused with the stun­ning sun­rise)  — but you’ll smell it before you see it as the strong sul­phur aro­ma of the lakes greets you – but as you do approach the bub­bling lakes you’re in for a rare treat as you can get as close as you wish (just be sure not to get too close) – with the lack of safe­ty bar­ri­ers allow­ing you to get great pho­tos of this spe­cial geo-ther­mal won­der.  

Eduardo Avaroa Reserve 

The Famous Eduar­do Avaroa Reserve and its Lagoons of the Salar de Uyu­ni is home to not only stun­ning birds – includ­ing the famous desert Flamin­gos – but also a series of stun­ning and sweep­ing land­scapes – includ­ing moun­tains, hot springs, gey­sers, and Vol­ca­noes – and lies at the south side of the stun­ning Salar de Uyu­ni.  

A chance to expe­ri­ence dif­fer­ent ter­rain – you can expect mul­ti-day tours to head to the Eduar­do Avaroa Reserve for a true explo­ration and adven­ture par­adise in the heart of this nat­ur­al beau­ty with the reserve being not only the most vis­it­ed and pro­tect­ed with­in Bolivia, but also being one of the high­est on the plan­et – clock­ing in at more than 13,000 foot in height ! – for some stun­ning nat­ur­al scenery that is guar­an­teed to take your breath away.  

Laguna Colorada

Chief among the beau­ty of the  Eduar­do Avaroa Reserve is the famous Lagu­na Col­ora­da – the great Red and famous lagoon which is home to a num­ber of species of beau­ti­ful Flamin­gos – who flock to the lake all year round.  

A true priv­i­lege to watch these beau­ti­ful birds in the wild – it’s even more beau­ti­ful at both the high alti­tude, against the beau­ty of the Salar de Uyu­ni and com­bined with the beau­ty of the red lake – which shines a colour of dark red thanks to the algae and envi­ron­ment in which it sits.  

Anoth­er stun­ning and unique oth­er world­ly pho­to spot, the Lagu­na Col­ora­da is eas­i­ly hike able – which makes it even more incred­i­ble as you trav­el around the beau­ti­ful lake watch­ing the beau­ti­ful flamingo’s bask­ing in the unique beau­ty of the Lagu­na Col­ora­da.  

Laguna Verde  

From the Red Lake of Lagu­na Col­ora­da you can also head to the green lake of Lagu­na Verde – the sparkling and shin­ing lake that fre­quent­ly turns shade of dif­fer­ent vari­ants of green and which sits against the beau­ti­ful Lin­can­cabur vol­cano cre­at­ing a beau­ti­ful reflec­tion of the geot­her­mal vol­ca­noes and the Salar de Uyu­ni in one stun­ning bright lake.  

An unsur­pris­ing­ly Salt Lake, the Lagu­na Verde is unfor­tu­nate­ly absent flamin­gos as it’s some­what acidic, but it is found in the south of the Salar de Uyu­ni in the Alti­plano region – which means you can eas­i­ly use it as a final stop on a trip round Salar de Uyu­ni  — and won­der around the turquoise and Emer­ald lake of Lagu­na Verde and mar­vel on its beau­ty and that of the whole of the Salar de Uyu­ni before trav­el­ling on.  


Photos:  

Along­side vis­it­ing the many enjoy­able won­ders of the Salar de Uyu­ni – one of the most fun expe­ri­ences is tak­ing pho­tos on the flats – not just so you have the famous images of your­self reflect­ed on the flats or gaz­ing into the night sky – but also because the unique ter­rain of the Salar de Uyu­ni allows you to cre­ate a series of fun illu­sion pho­tographs where­by if you stand in the dis­tance and place a small item or toy – such as a dinosaur, truck or fig­ure in the fore­front of the pho­to you can snap some illu­sion pho­tos.  

Using clever depth and light set­tings on your cam­era – you’re in for no end of fun and you’ll see peo­ple stop­ping all over the flats to cre­ate these pho­tos – so our advice would be to come pre­pared not only for the stun­ning ter­rain, sun­rise and sun­set pho­tos of the Salar de Uyu­ni – but also come with a series of mini toys or items to let you tru­ly take advan­tage of this nat­ur­al won­der for a series of hilar­i­ous shots set across the beau­ty of the incred­i­ble won­der.  

Sunset watch: 

Hav­ing snapped sun­rise, the beau­ti­ful Lagu­na Col­ora­da and the stun­ning panoram­ic views from a top the Inc­ahuasi Island you’ll be almost at the end of the day – where the best is till yet to come in the form of the beau­ti­ful sun­set that reflects against the stun­ning salt flats into the hori­zon and lights up the beau­ti­ful ter­rain of the Salar de Uyu­ni.  

Begin­ning around 6pm, this phe­nom­e­non is tru­ly spe­cial and will present a kalei­do­scope of colours from bright orange to dark red that reflect back off the stun­ning salt flats, into the hori­zon as the bright Boli­vian suns burns for a tru­ly beau­ti­ful dis­play – giv­ing you a series of tru­ly stun­ning pho­tos — before it gives way to some­thing even more spec­tac­u­lar – crys­tal clear images of the galaxy and Milky Way.  

Stargazing: 

Thanks to both the reflec­tive salt flats, the high alti­tude and the com­plete absence of pol­lu­tion in the Salar de Uyu­ni owing to its desert land­scape — the Salar de Uyu­ni is one of the best spots on the plan­et to go Stargaz­ing with the clear nights and loca­tion of the Salt Flats turn­ing it into the best Plan­e­tar­i­um in the world and giv­ing you beau­ti­ful views of the galaxy and milky way above that stretch into the hori­zon.  

Best viewed in our view from one of the Kachi Lodges – a series of cir­cu­lar domes with clear roofs from where you can view the night sky in com­fort – you can also wrap up warm to go camp­ing under this stars – and it’s high­ly advised to bring a decent cam­era and a begin­ners guide to cos­mol­o­gy as you wit­ness the almost oth­er world­ly view of the Galaxy, the Milky Way and the heav­en­ly stars above you that reflect back off the true won­der of the world that is the Salar de Uyu­ni for a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  


How long to stay:  

While there are 1 day tours avail­able from all three cities that will take you to the main day time spots of the Salar de Uyu­ni – you’ll only get a snap­shot of this beau­ti­ful won­der – and miss out on the incred­i­ble sun­rise, sun­set and stun­ning clear skies and milky way views reflect­ed on the Salar de Uyu­ni in the evenings – which are tru­ly breath tak­ing and awe-inspir­ing.  

For this rea­son we real­ly rec­om­mend a 3 day tour – which will give you enough time to ven­ture deep into the salt flats and expe­ri­ence mul­ti­ple sun­sets and star gaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and get a ache to expe­ri­ence the many scenic and beau­ti­ful spots dur­ing the day – and snap those all impor­tant reflec­tive and illu­sion pho­tos.  

Fac­tor­ing in the impor­tant and nec­es­sary 2 days for alti­tude accli­ma­ti­sa­tion in Uyu­ni (or from your start­ing point) all in all you can expect your trip to the won­der of the Salar de Uyu­ni to be spread across 5 incred­i­ble days.  

Top Tip: 

Thanks to the more that over 10,000 square kilo­me­tres of beau­ti­ful, reflec­tive and majes­tic nat­ur­al plains that make up the Salar de Uyu­ni there’s lit­tle need to wor­ry about safe­ty com­pared to when explor­ing the rest of the beau­ti­ful city of Bolivia – how­ev­er there are a few things to be con­scious of when vis­it­ing the Salar de Uyu­ni.  

First­ly – unless you have an unlim­it­ed bud­get or an adven­ture trav­el show behind you – you’ll need to get your­self on a tour to explore the incred­i­ble Salar de Uyu­ni, and this is where you’ll encounter your main obsta­cle for vis­it­ing the won­der.  

While prices for trips from all three of the access towns (Uyu­ni, Tupiza, San Pedro de Ata­ca­ma) vary between $100 Usd — $350 Usd in price, you need to account that the cheap­er options are like­ly sav­ing mon­ey by putting trav­ellers in out­dat­ed bus­es, cramped accom­mo­da­tion and will often give you lim­it­ed time at each of the key explo­ration spots – if any at all.  

So our tip would be to ensure you not only bud­get a bit more mon­ey for a tour – and make sure it’s pri­vate and an overnight (so you can watch the incred­i­ble sun­rise, sun­set and Milky Way) but also make sure you have a strict cri­te­ria – which includes a capac­i­ty lim­it, a dri­ver who speaks your native tour, mak­ing sure the tour drops you off where you want (you can use the tour to trav­el between coun­tries) and most impor­tant­ly has a decent rep­u­ta­tion for safe­ty – with the tour com­pa­nies Oasis and Dali known to have had pre­vi­ous inci­dents of safe­ty breach­es in the past.  

Along­side this we’d also advise you to book your tour in advance and online through a rep­utable vender – with those who book in per­sons at one of the cities espe­cial­ly Uyu­ni like­ly to face scam­mers and high prices and over-priced and low qual­i­ty tours and we’d advise as well to come pre­pared with plen­ty of snacks and water regard­less of your tour as they can be hard to come by in the Salar de Uyu­ni. 

Hav­ing sort­ed your tour, it’s also nec­es­sary to account for the high alti­tude of the Salar de Uyu­ni – with the won­der lying at some 12,000 feet – we’d advise both giv­ing your­self some accli­ma­ti­sa­tion time in Uyu­ni and com­ing with plen­ty of water and alti­tude sick­ness tablets – which com­bined with the large amount of time you will spend in the car both arriv­ing and cross­ing the slat flats can make the flats a rocky and unbal­anced place – so be sure to plan ahead.  

Fur­ther, despite the desert vibes of the Salar de Uyu­ni, the wet sea­son while being the most pop­u­lar and offer­ing the reflec­tive view also offers the cold­est tem­per­a­tures at the won­der – espe­cial­ly at night – so we’d advise for the evening to be sure to bring a cou­ple of extra lay­ers, glove and a sleep­ing bag if camp­ing to give your­self a more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence when stargaz­ing – and then for the day­time be sure to come pre­pared with sun­screen, a decent brimmed hat and some swim­ming gear for the day – as you are like­ly to expe­ri­ence both the extremes of heat and cold dur­ing your trip round the won­der.  

Final­ly for the keen pho­tog­ra­phers amongst you – be sure to not only time your vis­it for the wet sea­son between Decem­ber – May where the rain cre­ates the incred­i­ble mir­ror and reflec­tive effect for tru­ly stun­ning pho­tos – but come along with a series of props – such as toy cars, dinosaurs and movie mem­o­ra­bil­ia – which when laid on the salt flats with your­selves in the dis­tance will allow you to cre­ate a series of fun and illu­sion like pho­tos with a series of pos­es against the back­drop of the won­der of the world that is the Salar de Uyu­ni.  

Cost: 

Half the bat­tle with the cost is mak­ing sure you get the right tour guide and com­pa­ny who real­ly can make of break your trip – and along­side all the top tips for pick­ing a tour guide for the salt flats you’ll also have a range of prices for your tour – which dif­fer based on length, com­fort­a­bil­i­ty, dura­tion and of course whether it’s a pri­vate or shared trip.  

While prices for yours range from $100 Usd — $350 Usd for tours – we’d real­ly rec­om­mend­ed head­ing for one that’s a mul­ti-day trip at the top of the price range that’s pri­vate. This will not only ensure that you get to see the incred­i­ble sun­rise, sun­set and get stargaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties over the Salt Flats, but give you con­trol of which bits of the Salar de Uyu­ni you get to see from the explore sec­tion above – and if it’s pri­vate as accom­mo­da­tion can be unpre­dictable in the desert give you a decent chance of end­ing up in the Kachi lodges for star gaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

You’ll  also find the mul­ti-day tours take in more of the stun­ning sights of the region – includ­ing the Eduar­do Avaroa Reserve and see you paired with an Eng­lish Speak­ing guide – which can real­ly help you appre­ci­ate the beau­ty of the salt flats as you trav­el across them.  

So com­bin­ing a more expen­sive mul­ti-day pri­vate tour – and being sure to hag­gle when book­ing if book­ing in per­son and com­bin­ing the cost with the entrance fee $20 Usd to the park, the cross­ing of the bor­der $2Usd along with a bud­get for some snacks you can expect a mul­ti-day tour to come in at $200 Usd – a decent price to explore one of the worlds most remote and majes­tic nat­ur­al won­der of the world.  

You can expect this price to rise by between $10 — $500 Usd to get to one of the three towns ( Uyu­ni, Tupiza, San Pedro de Ata­ca­ma) from where the majes­tic Salar de Uyu­ni can be accessed and account­ing for visas based on your trav­el­ling start point.  

Fun Fact:  

Along­side being the worlds largest Salt Flats – and the World’s most nat­ur­al (and in our view stun­ning) mir­ror – the Salar de Uyu­ni is unsur­pris­ing­ly a hot spot for Hol­ly­wood with numer­ous block­busters tak­ing advan­tage of the majes­tic salt flats to cre­ate oth­er world­ly or eerie scenery – with the dis­ap­point­ing Star Wars the Last Jedi film, and the excel­lent Fall and the James Bond Film Quan­tum of Solace both using the Salt Flats for their finales.  

Best photo spot: 

With the salt flats offer­ing oth­er world­ly ter­rain, as well as being the sight of many epic film loca­tions and being the largest mir­ror in the world with the hori­zon blur­ring the lines between where the heav­ens meet the earths – it’s not only a majes­tic and beau­ti­ful nat­ur­al won­der but one of the best places on the plan­et to cre­ate ‘mirage’ and wacky and fun pho­tos.  

 Because of this, you’ll get a unique chance to play pho­tog­ra­phy tricks – includ­ing per­cep­tion and dis­tance – so we’d advise bring­ing a series of props – includ­ing the pop­u­lar toy dinosaurs, bus­es, and space­ships – which when sat on the Salar de Uyu­ni and when you take a few steps back allow you to cre­ate a phe­nom­e­non that the toys are life size – giv­ing you some tru­ly fun­ny shots and pos­es.  

 On a more seri­ous notes – the more famous salt plane reflec­tion pho­tos are a must snap – so remem­ber to time your vis­it dur­ing the rainy sea­son for this shot – or if vis­it­ing out­side the rainy sea­son make sure you get on a tour that heads up to the top of Inc­ahuasi island from where you get panoram­ic and sweep­ing views of the salt flats in every direc­tion.  

Final­ly regard­less of the time you go you’ll be in for some of the best sun­ris­es, sun­sets and sight time views on the plan­et – which are dou­bly enhanced thanks to the sym­me­try effect of the salt flats mir­ror phe­nom­e­non – with a stay in the Kachi huts on the planes def­i­nite­ly rec­om­mend­ed as you enjoy the stun­ning galax­ies and milky ways light­ing up the salt flights in some of the most clear and roman­tic skies that stretch to the hori­zon that cap off a day spent explor­ing the true nat­ur­al won­der of the world that is the Salar de Uyu­ni. 

 

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