Bolivia > Bolivia Experience

Advantages: A lively and exciting city
Disadvantages: Thieves all over the place

La Paz - Bolivia's capital - is an incredibly lively, colourful, bustling city with loads of character. From around 4060m at its highest point to 3100m at its lowest (the better off you are, the lower down you live), the city sprawls across a huge valley surrounded by massive snow-capped mountains, and it looks amazing. Because La Paz sometimes seems to be so full of bustling people and honking taxis and in-your-face street-sellers and things going ...
...such a buzz to it La Paz is a great city just to have a wander around - past all the street-sellers and salteña stands and traditional women wearing colourful Aymara dress, who in turn walk past the trendy businessmen wearing suits and sunglasses, and the markets and witchcraft stalls and the little minibuses on the main road, which constantly holler their fares and destinations as they drive along. And the people dressed up in zebra costumes who ... Read review

Advantages: Truly breathtaking; some of the best scenery in the world
Disadvantages: Hard to get to; gets very cold

The Salar de Uyuni is more commonly known as the salt flats or salt pans. Coming to Bolivia, I had heard a little about them, someone likening them to a desert of salt but I wasn't quite sure what to expect. After visiting though its something i would say is an absolute must for anyone travelling to this part of the world! Imagine being surrounded for hundreds of miles by compltley flat pure white salt. It feels as though the dazzling whiteness extends ...
...Uyuni from La Paz for me was a gruelling experience - 13 hours on a cramped bus along un-tarmacked roads, made only slightly more bearable by a TV showing the most over exaggerated Spanish soaps and a slightly dodgy copy of Troy. It was definitely worth the long journey, however, and the drivers are generally happy to stop off in the small hamlets along the way to stock up on supplies, or even pull up by the side of the road for toilet breaks. My ... Read review

Advantages: Beautiful scenery, lovely people, charming cities, cheap and safe
Disadvantages: Breathing at altitude!

Last year I spent seven months travelling in South America with my partner and Bolivia was our favourite country by a long shot. In my opinion Bolivia is the cheapest, friendliest, safest and most interesting of the Andean countries. Highlights include the largest salt flat in the world, Salar de Uyuni. You can take a three day jeep tour which takes in the salt flats, vivid hued high altitude lakes dotted with flamingoes and cold deserts of southern ...
...finest city in Bolivia - indeed the nicest city we visited in South America - was Sucre. The whole city is made up of low level whitewashed buildings that open out into flower-filled courtyards. The weather is fantastic and I would recommend visiting the city from Potosi. The descent from the thin air of the highest in the world at 4,000m to Sucre at 2,300m causes an oxygen rush which heightens the experience of entering the clean, white, peaceful ... Read review

Advantages: Lots of Wildlife; the Amazon; very relaxing
Disadvantages: The humidity; Illness

Rurrenebaque is a small town set right in the heart of the Bolivian rainforest (La Pampas) Getting there from La Paz generally invloves a flight, and a breathtaking one at that. Taking off in a small 12-seater plane, you really get the impression of how big jumbo jets and interntional ariports are! As you soar over mountains, and lakes, slowly the scenery becomes greener and before you know it, you are looking out on the Amazon Basin with endless ...
...the odd river twisting its way through them. The plane begins to descend towards the canopy and everyone begins to look slightly nervous as there is no sign of civilisation let alone an airport. When you seen as though you are just close enough for the wheels to touch the trees, suddenly a long clearing appears and the plane bumpily touches down on a large stretch of grass before ambling slowly up to the airport - a small one roomed hut. On stepping ... Read review

Advantages: Idillic location; very relaxing; plenty of trekking
Disadvantages: Hard to get to; very few creature comforts

...as a village square. Sorata is centered around this square with a couple of shops several café/resatuarants and a few hotels dotted around it and (along with one internet café, which costs around 15p for an hour - a slight contrast from the $4 for 15mins in miami airport on the way over). Trekking: The primary activity in Sorata is definately the trekking and there is cerntianly plentiy of opportunity in the surrounding area. We were embarking ...
...through the valleys. In sorata itself, there are most things that any trekker would need, and if you look around then you can find shops selling fresh fruit, cheese and eggs, as well as plenty of centres to hire guides and mules for the more arduous portions of some of the treks. Trekking up to just over 6000m was truly breathtaking and if you have the time it is well worth doing. It is also worth climbing half way up, as there is space to camp ... Read review