Bolivia’s Altiplano Treasures: Titicaca, Uyuni & Sajama – 10 days

Depending on your international flight schedule, you’ll arrive early morning (typically between 2–6 AM) at El Alto International Airport, perched on the edge of the Altiplano at 4,023 m (13,200 ft). At this altitude, it’s normal to feel light-headed or short of breath—this is part of the acclimatization process. Soon enough we will descend into the bottom of the valley where you will feel much better. Downtown La Paz lies below at 3,600 m (12,000 ft), and our hotel is located at 10,200, in the nicest neighborhood called Calacoto.

After passing through Immigration (where you’ll get your tourist visa) and Customs, your guide will meet you with a Sergio Photo Tours sign. We’ll assist with your luggage and transfer you in our private vehicle down the scenic canyon road, where the city unfolds in dramatic layers below. We head to Hotel Casa Grande Suites (or similar 5*) in the Calacoto neighborhood for check-in and rest. Lunch is on your own at the hotel.

The key to acclimatizing well is to move slowly, stay hydrated, and rest when needed. Everyone adjusts differently—listen to your body. Our itinerary includes ample time for this process.

At 2 PM, we’ll begin a four-hour guided city tour to explore La Paz’s open-air markets, colonial districts, the Witches’ Market, and panoramic viewpoints that reveal the city’s wild topography. Afterwards, we’ll return to the hotel to rest and freshen up before dinner.  Over dinner, we’ll get to know each other and go over the days ahead—reviewing gear, clothing, and last-minute details. So now is the time to make sure you’re fully prepared.

We recommend a light dinner (more carbs and veggies than protein) and avoiding alcohol or caffeine tonight. Mate de Coca (coca tea) is helpful for acclimatization during the morning and daytime but avoid it at night.  To aid in digestion, anise or chamomile teas are good choices in the evening.

Keep drinking water, it’s very important for acclimatization.

Hotel: Casa Grande Suites (5*)

Meals included:  D

After a restful night and a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we’ll depart at 8:00 AM for Lake Titicaca—the sacred jewel of the Andes. Today’s journey takes us to explore the classic landscapes of Bolivia’s Altiplano highlands and the Taraco Peninsula, nestled along the shores of the lesser-visited small lake. As we travel, sweeping views of the Cordillera Real unfold above the shimmering waters of Titicaca. Along the way, we’ll pass through small hamlets and traditional farming communities, where campesinos still work the land as their ancestors did—planting, harvesting, and tending to their flocks of sheep in a rhythm unchanged for generations.

We’ll stop for lunch at a peaceful lakeside location, with scenic views and plenty of photo ops.  After lunch and a short walk along the lake, we begin our return to La Paz. To avoid the heavy traffic in the city of El Alto, we’ll time our return from the lake accordingly—expect about a two-hour drive back to the hotel, with occasional photo stops en route. Later in the evening, we’ll gather for dinner at a local restaurant, sharing stories and good company as we prepare for the days ahead.

Hotel: Casa Grande Suites (5*)

Meals Included: B, L, D

After a restful night and a nourishing breakfast, we begin our journey south toward one of Bolivia’s most iconic landscapes—the Uyuni Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni), deep in the heart of the Altiplano. We depart La Paz at 8:00 AM, gradually climbing out of the city’s canyon and up onto the vast high plains. Within an hour, we ascend from 10,200 ft to the rim of the Altiplano at 13,300 ft, where the landscape opens up dramatically.

We take the main paved route southeast toward the mining city of Oruro and continue on to the highland town of Challapata, where we’ll stop for a relaxed lunch. From here, the journey takes us further southwest, past Salinas de Garci Mendoza—the gateway to the salt flats—before transitioning onto dirt roads for the final leg of the day. After about 90 minutes of off-pavement travel, we reach the northern edge of the Salar de Uyuni, passing through the villages of Jirira and Coquesa before arriving in Tahua. Weather and arrival time permitting, we may head straight to the edge of the salt flats for a sunset photo session—an unforgettable sight as golden light dances across the world’s largest salt flat. Stretching over 4,000 square miles and sitting at 12,000 ft above sea level, the Salar de Uyuni is a surreal and luminous expanse—often referred to as Earth’s mirror. After sunset, we return to freshen up before dinner.

We overnight at the comfortable Hotel Tayka de Sal, built from salt blocks and offering striking views of the salt flats. Dinner is served on-site, a warm and hearty end to an awe-inspiring day.

Hotel: Tayka de Sal (3*)

Meals included: B, L, D

We start the day early with a short pre-dawn drive—just 10 minutes from the hotel—to the edge of the Uyuni Salt Flats. If you managed to get to bed early, you’ll be well-rested for one of the most spectacular sights in the Andes: sunrise over the Salar de Uyuni. It’s even more spectacular during the rainy season (Dec to March) as the first light breaks across the eastern horizon, the mirror-like surface of the salt flats reflects the sky in surreal, dreamlike symmetry. It’s a magical moment—one best experienced in silence, with camera in hand.

Because the sun rises quickly at this latitude, we return soon after to the hotel for a proper breakfast and a short rest. Later in the morning, we set out across the varied terrain inland toward the Chiquini Caves, where you’ll see remarkable petrified plant formations—fossilized remnants of a distant, wetter era. Our route takes us through small canyons and natural overlooks offering unique perspectives on the salt flats below. We’ll enjoy a picnic lunch en route before returning to the hotel for a short break in the afternoon.

In the late afternoon, we ascend the flanks of Mount Thunupa, a dormant volcano that towers over the northern edge of the Salar at 17,460 ft (5,321 m). Visible from nearly every angle in the region, it has long served as a geographic and spiritual landmark. A short walk from the end of the road leads us to a little-known cave where pre-Inca mummies lie in eternal rest—silent witnesses to a vanished culture. Geologically, Thunupa is a relic of the Pleistocene, formed by ancient lava flows and later shaped by glaciers that once covered its summit. It once stood as an island in prehistoric Lake Minchin and Lake Tauca—vast inland seas that once blanketed the Altiplano.

From this commanding height, the view is staggering: the endless expanse of the Salar stretches beyond the horizon in every direction.  It’s so massive its boundaries cannot be seen, even from this height. It’s a place where scale defies the senses. We descend in time to return to the salt flats edge for sunset—another chance to capture the changing light over this extraordinary landscape—before heading back to the hotel for dinner and a well-earned rest.

Hotel: Tayka de Sal (3*)

Meals included: B, L, D

After breakfast we enter the salt flats and head south to Incahuasi Island where we will have time for a walk to the top of the island before having lunch. We continue south to the only exit in the area and head out of the salt flats to the southern Altiplano and the town of Alota. The adventure roads begin here.  Our first major stop is the Ciudad de Piedra, or City of Stone—a vast, ancient lava field transformed by time and wind into surreal rock sculptures. It’s a playground for light and shadow, offering dramatic compositions for surreal landscape photos. We visit the Anaconda Canyon and the Black Lagoon, hidden deep within the City of Stone. Our route winds south across sandy washboard roads until we arrive in the village of Villa Mar, where our hotel is. We will check-in and freshen up before dinner and overnight in Villa Mar.

Hotel: Mallku Cueva (4*)

Meals included: B, L, D

After an early breakfast, we head southwest into the heart of Bolivia’s most remote and visually striking landscape of colored lagoons, boiling mud and volcanoes. Our route is on unmaintained dirt roads—rarely graded, minimally marked and rocky—and leads us deep into the wild soul of the Altiplano. As we continue, the terrain opens into the basin where Laguna Colorada is home to tens of thousands of pink flamingos of 3 species (James, Andean and Chilean), and surrounded by borax deposits and extinct volcanoes. We continue to the highest pass at close to 16,000 to the caldera Sol de Mañana where boiling mud pits and fumaroles burst into the cold Andean sky. In the afternoon, we enter the Siloli Desert, a high-altitude basin unlike any other. Here, the earth blushes with layers of pastel—ochres, rose, and soft grays—framed by towering volcanoes that soar to over 18,000 ft. Wind has sculpted bizarre formations, including the famed Árbol de Piedra (Stone Tree), rising like a natural monument to surrealism. We arrive at our remote lodge overlooking the desert in the late afternoon. With time to settle in before sunset. You’ll have a chance to capture the changing light across this stark, cinematic landscape at sunset and especially for sunrise tomorrow as these mountains face to the east. Dinner and overnight in the Siloli Desert.

Hotel: Tayka del Desierto (3*)

Meals included: B, L, D

Make sure to wake up early for the sunrise today! The mountains face east to the rising sun and this is their best angle for beautiful sunrise photographs!  The terrain opens into the Route of the Lagoons—a string of high-altitude lakes that shimmer in shades of emerald, sapphire, and rust-red. These altiplanic lagoons are rich in life where you will photograph graceful pink flamingos feeding in mineral-rich waters, Andean eagles soaring on thermals, and herds of wild vicuñas navigating the sparse terrain. Each stop along the way offers unique photographic opportunities—from sweeping reflections to close-up wildlife and ethereal desert light. The further north we go we enter into a region of a vast lava flow, same as the other ‘cities of stone’ but even more elaborate with hidden canyons, blue lagoons and pink lava rock.  Keep an eye out for the llareta plant, an ancient, extremely slow-growing dense woody plant that looks like a clump of moss in shades of bright green.  We finish our journey away from the volcanoes on the Chilean border to the red desert south of Uyuni before arriving in the late afternoon. After checking-in we can head to the train cemetery, a surreal collection of rusty steam locomotives left to rust into oblivion on the Altiplano. There are endless photo ops here, especially if you like abstract photography and the sunsets make the trains come alive with color.  Dinner and overnight in the town of Uyuni.

Hotel: Jardines de Uyuni (4*)

Meals included: B, L, D

Today is mostly a travel day, but an easy one—along paved roads. After an early breakfast, we head northwest across the wide-open Altiplano, where morning light shimmers on the horizon and every curve in the road reveals a new layer of the Andes. Our destination is Sajama National Park, tucked near the Bolivia–Chile border. It’s Bolivia’s oldest protected area—established in 1939, and a place where time slows, and the landscape speaks in silence and scale. Towering above it all is Nevado Sajama, a snow-draped strato-volcano and the highest peak in Bolivia at 6,542 m (21,460 ft). Its perfect cone rises from the golden altiplano, glowing in the sunrise and settling down in the soft light of sunset. We will find endless inspiration here: steaming hot springs at dawn, flamingos feeding in alpine lakes, gnarled Queñoa trees clinging to stone, and shifting clouds casting shadows over a vast, ancient land. This is a place shaped by fire and wind, where nature feels raw and sacred. We plan to arrive in time for sunset at our favorite lagoon for reflections, then continue to our lodge—Hostal Tomarapi, a locally owned retreat nestled beneath the northwest flanks of Sajama.  Dinner and overnight in Tomarapi.

Hotel: Hostal Tomarapi (3*)

Meals included: B, L, D

We begin with early morning light bathing the slopes of snow-capped Nevado Sajama at sunrise. Nearby, the twisted Queñoa forests climb the mountainside, considered the highest forests on Earth. Their gnarled trunks and peeling bark make for stunning close-ups and textured compositions. The day continues through wide plains where wild vicuñas roam—delicate, doe-eyed camelids once reserved for Incan royalty, now thriving again after near extinction. If we’re lucky, we may spot viscachas, and the elusive armadillos. Sajama is also a birder’s dream, so we’ll keep our eyes open for Andean condors, puna rheas, flamingos, horned coots, and the elegant diademed plover. These birds, adapted to life at 13,000+ feet, add vibrant life to the stark landscape. We’ll visit steaming hot springs, geysers hissing from the earth, and walk among herd of domesticated llamas and alpacas. It’s a surreal and otherworldly setting, made for storytelling through your lens. The dry puna climate, harsh yet stunning, offers endless contrasts: icy peaks under a cobalt sky, sun-cracked soil beside shimmering lagoons, and timeless villages with adobe homes where indigenous culture and myth still live strong. We finish the day with another opportunity for a sunset shot of Sajama being lit by the setting sun over Chile.  Dinner and overnight in Tomarapi.

Hotel: Hostal Tomarapi (3*)

Meals included: B, L, D

Our last sunrise in Sajama and all that is required is to step out of your room and see the sun light up the colonial-era church of Tomarapi and Sajama’s icy summit!  Breakfast soon after then we depart back towards La Paz. The road turns to pavement after about an hour of rugged canyons as we head northeast to the Cordillera Real and La Paz for our final day across the Altiplano.  Lunch en-route.  The drive will keep us high above the rugged canyons for some time until we come to the edge of a cut in the geography and below us will be the city of La Paz. Surrounded by grey and red rock canyons and massively eroded badlands, this is truly one of Bolivia’s most spectacular vistas. We should be arriving in the mid-afternoon with enough time to check-in, refresh and if you are into it, our last sunset in Bolivia. After dropping three thousand feet into the canyon, we will enjoy the temperate climate at the bottom of the canyon of La Paz. Our final and farewell dinner and overnight in La Paz.

Hotel: Casa Grande Suites (5*)

Meals included: B, L, D

Normal departure times from the hotel are around midnight.  Based on your flight schedule, we will coordinate a departure time from the hotel. The ride from hotel to the airport takes 45 minutes. Domestic flights require 1.5 hours before departure and international flights require 3 hours before departure.

Hotel: none

Meals included: none

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