All tours start at 10am from Uyuni, as we had arrived 2h earlier we had time to grab breakfast, walk around town and buy some supply for the tour.
The town itself, more the village of Uyuni doesn’t have much to offer. Only the main has a real road where you can find restaurants, tours companies and shops.
It seems not worth to stay longer than 2h in town. The real stuff is definitely the salt flats.
The tour companies
First of all, all the companies provided more or less the same tour, and all have similar condition.
We picked “Salty Desert adventurous” because they seem to be a good company with positive reviews, offered free sleeping bag, and had good pricing.
Globally we were satisfied with them. We can’t say that everything went according to plan but that’s what made it an adventure and a memorable souvenir.
We had told them via email that we would come and they offered to pick us up at the bus station, but you can very well go on the spot there and reserve the same day. It all starts at their office where you check-in, chose your meal option (regular/vegetarian) and the type of tour you want.
For the 3 days tour, there are 3 options: a Spanish tour, English tour or private tour. Of course each of them comes with another price. After reflection, we decided to go for the Spanish one which is the cheapest. We told ourselves that there wouldn’t be much to explain and that paying the extra wasn’t worth it. Moreover Tina speaks Spanish, so she could even translate if there are some important information.
We must say that this was the right call! In the end, the guide which is also the driver doesn’t talk that much.
Day 1
10am, time to start the tour in front of the tour company office and meet our group. We are now 6, a driver called Iber and a nice Toyota 4×4. After giving our backpack to Iber who put them on the car’s roof and protect them with a big plastic cover, we all introduced ourselves to each other.
Meet our group: Patricia from Germany but living in Austria, Jo from UK, Megan from the US, Simone from Germany living in Switzerland.
We continued to a small town with a souvenir market and where a toilet break could have been taken before keeping on into the Salt flats.
The next stop is an ancient hostel made of salt converted into a restaurant. Lunches are brought by the tour company. Our vegan option: Fried eggplant, veggies, quinoa salad, and oranges. Regular option: meat, sausages, potatoes. The food was really yummy, and we all had more than enough to eat.
If you need the bathroom, don’t forget to bring 5bs. Quite expensive toilet regarding how dirty there were.
It was then a 40min ride in the “Salar de Uyuni” before a 2h break for the most famous picture of all Bolivia. You are now in the middle of nowhere all alone with your group. We were there in July 2019, the dry season so the land was really white but visiting it during the rainy season would also be great as the salar would be flooded.
Iber was really skill and now how to take good picture. He offered us poses to do and assist us on how to do them (check-out the next spot for all our pictures there). You can also tell him what you want, and he will try to make it happen. We would definitely recommend you to bring some items to make cool picture but they would need to be as big as possible. A key holder size stuff animal or so doesn’t work best.
After becoming professional model, we drove to “Incahuasi Island” a national park (entry cost of 30bs)
It is a 40min visit that make you hike along dead corral, fossils, algae’s and huge cactus. This place is the remains of an ancient volcano which was submerged around 40 000 years ago when it was a prehistoric lake.
The view from there is splendid and there are no difficulties to hike this small island. but if you’d rather save 30bs, this attraction is not mandatory. In our group only 4 of us went there. But we would recommend it.
We then drive near the end of the Salt flats to wait for sunset before driving one more hour to reach the hostel.
The hostel was double room with shared bathroom/WC. It was made entirely of salt and the floor was made of salt flake which wasn’t convenient to step on but really unusual.
We were 8 groups there so totally 46 peoples for 2 showers and 3 WC. The shower cost 10bs and was hot but there wasn’t any pressure.
The dinner was so-so, the vegetarian option was light, a piece of bread and a small omelet. The regular option was much better, beef meat and sausages. Our group decided to share a 55bs bottle of wine that was sweet but that we enjoyed all together.
At this point, time for the next day briefing: breakfast is at 7am for a departure at approximately 8am.
At night it became super cold but thanks god we had sleeping bag and a bunch of blankets. There wasn’t 220V plug in the room and you had to charge your electronics in the common area.
what to bring
During this trip, we will go up to 4900m altitude. Higher than the Mont blanc in the Alps. We would recommend bringing under pants (easy to carry around and light, as you may not need it every day during your trip), merinos t-shirt (great choice for t-shirt as they can be used in warm and cold weather), merinos shocks, gloves, hat and a warm but foldable jacket.
Also, you will need to bring some water, you will be able to refill during the trip, so 1L per person will be more than enough. As always bring snacks along.
Toilet paper, a torch or headlamp, soap for the hostel at night.
And finally ,some cash….
“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton
