My 3 questions about Salar de Uyuni tours in Bolivia?
 

After visiting Peru, we plan to make a Salar de Uyuni tour starting and ending from Uyuni. We plan to take the early morning flight from La Paz to Uyuni (reaches in Uyuni at 07:15) and start the Salar de Uyuni tour on the same day.
1-) Is that reasonable?
2-) Any company you would recommend?
3-) We may have time to do either 4D3N or 3D2N tours. Which is the best?
thank you

We did our tour from Tupiza but I will do my best.

1. I would try to get there the day before if possible. We took three flights in. Bolivia, two of them were delayed by up to two hours. One because the pilot couldn't start the engines and another because a previous flight had crashed on the runway in Sucre. I got the impression that these occurrences were quite common so your flight might be delayed. Probably best to check with the tour operator you choose ( although in Uyuni I rather suspect that they will say anything they think you want to hear. If you are on a private tour they will wait on a shared tour, maybe not.

2. Operators, I Uyuni do have a poor reputation for overcrowding, poorly maintained vehicles etc. So choose carefully. We used. Tupiza Tours who were excellent and I have heard that they now operate from Uyuni as well. Red Planet also seem to get good reviews.

3. We did the 3D4n tour which seemed about right. The actual Salar is but a small ( but albeit amazing) part of the experience part. The lagunas, geysers etc are also quite something.

thanks crellston.
we will stay in Puno on 04th August. On the next day we want to go to La Paz. Either with a daytime bus or transturin which is quite expensive. Which one you recommend, if bus, which company, should we can we book from now?
We will stay in La Paz on 5th. Upon your suggestion I checked Amaszonas flights, there is a flight at 14:15 reaching Uyuni at 15:00. We will stay in Uyuni on 6th and on 7th morning we will start Salar de Uyuni tour.
What do you think of this plan, also which hotel you suggest in La Paz? thank you very much

or should we go for a night bus from La Paz to Uyuni instead of a flight? In this case we will have the whole day to explore La Paz. Are there so many things to see in La Paz or half day would be enough?

no problem nimurg

Last time there we just passed through Puno and stopped in Copacabana instead. we got the Panamericano bus from Puno to Copa and again from Copa to La Paz (a spectacular trip BTW!). o would imagine that they run a bus from Puno all the way to LP but can't be sure. Once in Copacabana it is really easy to find buses to LP which all seem to start leaving from around midday on. i doubt you will be able to book in advance but is should be very easy either in Puno or Copa. I can't recall the cost but it wasn't expensive.

La Paz definitely has a lot going for it and is worth the time with a lot to see. definitely the n=most "south American" of all the capitals we visited. As you are limited on time i would suggest Banjo tours who do a half day tour of La Paz taking in the main sights as well as El Alto - a great experience.

some more details and photos on my blog

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blo...ai/6/tpod.html
entries 23 & 24

http://banjotours.com/ expensive for Bolivia but v. good.

I can't really advise on the night bus v flying from LP to Uyuni as i did neither, however, having spent a lot of time on Bolivian buses I would choose the flight over a night bus

Calle Llampu id a good street to look for a place to stay. on mlgb's suggestion we chose Hotel Berlina which at around $30 pnwas good value and very nice but there a re a lot of other to choose from. a good central location close to the witches market

Hi nimurg I don't know if you've seen my trip report on Bolivia, although it is getting a bit long in the tooth.

http://www.fodors.com/community/sout...e-nov-2011.cfm

I did the Amaszonas flight to Uyuni. It was exciting. As crellston said, don't count on anything being on time (or even running at all). It is best to be a bit flexible in Bolivia. As mentioned in my report, I really enjoyed La Paz, since I had been traveling for a while from Arequipa via Colca Canyon and then Puno I was acclimated to the altitude when I arrived. La Paz it is one giant street market and the older ladies in traditional attire add to the atmosphere. If you had planned on doing souvenir shopping, you can do much better in Bolivia than in Peru (I suspect some of what they sell in Cusco might be made in Bolivia).

I enjoyed my Uyuni-based tour. I didn't book it in advance, just when I arrived. Many people do that. However I did go in late November (low season) and there had been a transit strike, so there were cancellations so it was easy.