Hotel Las Balsas, La Paz

Advantages: World's highest capital that's high on life.
Disadvantages: Oxygen tanks are expensive.

...just off calle Illampu, is Hotel Italia. Some described it as a dump, others extolled the balcony that comes with each room. Whatever the truth its tariff of 40B certainly means it's worth a look for those travelling on a shoestring. ATTRACTIONS Football is popular in Bolivia and the cable channels screen matches from all over the world pretty much 24 hours a day. The biggest team in the country playing out of La Paz are sensibly called the Strongest FC. Boliviar are another top team (Santa Cruz) who perennially do well in the continents version of Champions League, the Copa America. All the big cities have decent sized stadiums and if you get a chance seeing a game is great entertainment. In Santa Cruz we watched local team Oriente Petrolero trash La Paz's Iberoamericana 5 - 1 in front of a small but noisy crowd. With the terraces... Read review

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Advantages: beautiful
Disadvantages: altitude sickness

...I visited La Paz a few years ago. The city is the highest anywhere - many people suffer altitude sickness for a day or two, although we found that it wasn't too bad when we took it very easy to start with! The city is very beautiful - set in snow - capped mountains. There are many historic areas, as well as many new (half - built) houses. A great place to buy Bolivian goods - fabrics etc. Take warm clothes even in the summer - you can tan and catch cold at the same time. I cannot wait to get back there - a real adventure of a city if you care to look.... Read review

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Advantages: Everything you could want under one (massive) roof
Disadvantages: Located at the southern end of "The Strip" - so a bit of a walk to some attractions...

...We stayed at the MASSIVE MGM Grand for a few days this time last year. The MGM Grand, guarded by a 45-foot-tall bronze lion statue has 5,005 rooms and used to be the largest hotel in the world, a claim recently stolen by the Ambassador City Jomtien hotel in Thailand with 5,100 rooms. It's still the largest hotel in North America, although I think this will soon be stolen by George Clooney's Vegas hotel development... (While we're on the subject of large hotels, 17 of the 20 largest hotels in the world are in Las Vegas ! So even if you don't stay at The MGM Grand, odds are you'll be staying somewhere big...) The MGM Grand is part of the MGM Mirage group, that also owns, among others, The Bellagio, The Mirage, Treasure Island, New York-New York (just across the street) and Beau Rivage hotels/casinos in Vegas. The first thing... Read review

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