Choosing the best tour for Uyuni´s Salar

How do you choose the best tour of the Salar de Uyuni? As soon as you arrive in Uyuni, you’ll be bombarded with all kinds of offers, so it’s best to come prepared….

UYUNI

It's an incredibly expensive city for Bolivia, so our first priority will be to save up some bolivianos so we can use them later to book a better tour of the Salar.

All buses, no matter where you're coming from, stop on Arce Avenue, north of the market.

There are many guesthouses on this section of the street, but they are the most expensive; it’s worth walking east or west, avoiding this street and the central square (Pza Arce, where all the tourist restaurants are) to find significantly cheaper accommodations.

The same goes for food. Prices at Plaza Arce are exorbitant (like about 40 B$ for a pizza or 30 B$ for a continental breakfast). Head east or west from there, and you’ll find the restaurants where the locals eat, with reasonably priced menus.

FINDING THE BEST TOUR OF THE UYUNI SALAR

Now comes the tricky part…

The first thing to decide is how many days you want the tour to last: one day or an overnight trip (usually, people who choose to stay overnight outside of Uyuni opt for two nights)

On the one-day tour, you don't spend the night at the Salar, and you visit the Uyuni train graveyard, a handicraft market, a first salt flat, and Incahuasi Island

The extended tour (3 days and 2 nights) includes all of the above, plus a visit to the Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve (Arbol de Piedra, Dalí Desert, geysers, hot springs, Laguna Colorada, and Laguna Verde), among other sites.

The second step is to decide how much we want to spend:

One-day tour: about 160–190 B$; extended tour: no more than 800 B$, INCLUDING the cost of admission to the Reserve

Here are some tips for choosing the best tour of the Salar de Uyuni:

The Salar is a place unlike any other in the world. It's worth spending a little more money to get better service (guide, lodging, meals, etc.).

Wear warm clothes. Really warm. Really…

Make sure they give you a thorough explanation of the services included in the tour—which ones are included in the price and which ones aren't—because there are always surprises later on….

Ask:

– whether meals (usually included) or water (not included) are included; buy water in Uyuni because at the tour stops they'll try to charge you about 15 B$
– what kind of accommodations they offer (shared rooms with other travelers or not, free showers—they charged us 10 B$ or 15 B$ per shower 😓—), whether there’s electricity at the hotel—some only have it for a few hours a day—and anything else that comes to mind, no matter how silly or basic it might seem.
– Admission fees: For example, the 30 B$ admission fee for Incahuasi Island is not included.
– Those of you who end up in Chile, like me, will have to pay another 50 B$ for what they call the “transfer”—the cost of the ride from the border to San Pedro de Atacama.

When they issue the receipt, insist that everything you've paid be listed on it, since “omissions” or “mistakes” can occur later.

Okay, so after all that advice on how to choose the best tour to the Salar de Uyuni, on our tour they kind of left me stranded in the desert on the last day, haha—I’m giving out advice, but I don’t have any for myself….

THE TOUR ITSELF

The first stop is the Uyuni train graveyard cementerio de trenes de Uyuni

Once proud machines, these steam trains have now been left to their own devices about 3 km from the city. To get the most out of the experience, it’s best to come at sunset, when the twilight reflects off the rust that covers them…

Unfortunately, they'll take you there in the morning, when all the tourists from all the different tours are there at the same time. It's crowded—absolutely packed—and you spend what I think is an excessive amount of time there; it would be a good idea to talk to the guide and ask him to cut the stop here short so you can spend more time at other, more interesting places.

Now the fun begins—the first salt flat primer salar

A vast white ocean stretches out before us, broken only by small waves formed by mounds of salt. It is so vast that it practically corners the poor surrounding mountains, which dare not cross it…

Let's dip our toes in the “water”

A thin crystal of salt, so fragile that it shatters the moment I set it down on the ground again. Millions of these, pressed against the ground, form the surface of the salt flat. The ground crunches beneath our feet as if we were walking on corn flakes or something like that…

Against the white horizon, a glimmer of life emerges: the island of Incahuasi la isla de Incahuasi 

The solitary cacti are the last line of defense, the last vestige of life in an inhospitable white sea. The guide will tell you that you can go on a “hike” for 30 B$ to climb to the top of the island. Don’t pay. You can hike to the top from anywhere on the island that isn’t the “official trail.” They’re so greedy that they even try to charge you for the shade. And I’m not kidding.

It rained a little while ago. A mirror so perfect forms on the ground that even the sky is reflected in it.

The second day is all about colors: you’ll climb to the vicinity of the Ollagüe volcano, at an altitude of about 5,000 meters, to enjoy the ochre hues of the desert and its twisted formations—or trees… made of stone.

The lakes

The color green also wants to join the party; its representative is the Laguna VerdeIts color is due to the high concentration of arsenic and copper in the lake bed, so swimming here might not be the most pleasant experience 😛 Depending on the wind strength and the time of day, the green will appear more or less emerald-colored.

More lakes and more colors: the Laguna Colorada (due to some algae that grow there) it doesn't always appear that color—it's best in the morning around 11:00—but that doesn't seem to bother the three species of flamingos that nest there; from the Aguas Calientes Lookout, you can appreciate just how vast their numbers are

There are three types of flamingos here: the Andean, the Chilean, and the James’s flamingo, and they all seem to get along well—except, it seems to me, when food is involved… that’s when things really get heated, much to the delight of photography enthusiasts.

And that's the end of the second day.

Geysers, Hot Springs, and Other Sites

On the third day, they’ll make you get up early. Really early. Breakfast is around 5:00. The excuse is to try to watch the sunrise over the geysers… well, they didn’t impress me much, but people seemed delighted to be enveloped by the stinky fumaroles coming from the mountain—I guess the smell of sulfur drives some people crazy…

To get rid of this nuisance, there's nothing better than turning to the Aguas Termales de Polques On the edge of Laguna Salada, with the temperature around 40°C. A great way to forget about the cold showers at the salt hotels over the past two days…

To be honest, the blog author was so freezing that he chickened out at the last minute and didn't go inside 😥 To make matters worse, in my attempt to chase after a herd of vicuñas that was passing by, I stepped into every puddle imaginable, leaving me even more frozen than before 😰

And to wrap up the tour, they’ll take you to the Dalí Desert (a cluster of supposedly surreal rock formations in the Pampa Jara Desert) and to the far end of Laguna Roja; if you’re lucky and the wind is blowing just right, it really does look as if it’s covered in blood….

From here on, those crossing the border will find it about 15 minutes from Laguna Roja (remember that its morning hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.), and those returning to Uyuni can expect a 6- to 7-hour trip 😓

Well, that wraps up the Salar de Uyuni; it doesn't matter that the guide was terrible or that he fell asleep at the wheel 😬, that the hotels were more like shacks than anything else, or that it was packed with people on the first day… it's the best trip I've taken in South America so far 😊

If you found this post helpful in finding the best tour of the Salar de Uyuni, or if you have more information, please let me know by leaving a comment!!

If you want to read more about Bolivia: https://999millas.net/category/paises/bolivia/

Or you can check out their official website: https://www.salardeuyuni.com/es/

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Texto y fotos : Mike ¡