4-Day Uyuni Salt Flats Tour from Tupiza

On Day 2, breakfast will be served between 7:00 and 7:30 am, before leaving Quetena Chico at around 8:30 am. Thankfully for our group, the weather had completely turned from the day before, with clear blue skies on the horizon.

After around two hours of driving through snow-covered landscapes, you will reach Laguna Colorada, a vast red-coloured lake surrounded by mountains, flamingos and herds of llamas. This was one of my favourite stops on the entire road trip and one of the first opportunities to really understand the vastness of the reserve you are travelling through. Except for one other couple who had arrived that morning, there was no one else around, which added to how remote the place felt.

After leisurely strolling around Laguna Colorada for an hour, we continued towards the Sol de Mañana geysers and fumaroles, where steam constantly rises from the volcanic ground. I have never really been drawn to geysers, partly because of the smell, and this was no exception, so it was only a brief stop before continuing through to Chalviri for lunch.

After lunch, you will spend the rest of the afternoon in the Dalí Desert, stopping at Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde along the way. The two lakes sit close to each other, giving you time to walk beside them and take in the landscape. Laguna Blanca is known for its pale, milky appearance, while Laguna Verde can take on a much stronger green colour depending on the wind and light. In my case, the wind and light must not have been pointing in the correct direction because the colours were not quite as obvious as their names suggested.

Rising above the lakes is the Licancabur Volcano, which reaches almost 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) and sits right on the Bolivia-Chile border. Its near-perfect cone makes it one of the most distinctive features of the landscape, and while you can see it from a distance across the Dalí Desert, it becomes much more impressive as you get closer to Laguna Verde.

After another long day of driving, you get to decompress at the Polques hot springs, watching the sun set over the horizon. Looking back on Day 2, it was clear that the “quieter route” the tour company had sold me was actually a reality rather than just a selling point. We had barely seen any other tourists throughout the day, and while we were sitting in the hot springs by ourselves, we could see the convoy of tours returning from Laguna Colorada, where we had been almost completely alone that morning.

On the third day, you will wake up before sunrise to leave Chalviri and, if you are lucky, catch the sun rising over the horizon. Day 3 was easily the biggest driving day of the tour, as you make the long journey towards the edge of the Salar, so buckle in.

The first few stops of the day were Copa del Mundo, Camello de Piedra and Italia Perdida, a collection of unique rock formations scattered across the landscape. For football fans, Copa del Mundo actually does look like the World Cup trophy and isn’t just a tourist scam. You will stop for a short time at each one, giving you the chance to walk around the formations and even climb up some of them if you want. The blue skies we had made a cool contrast against the red rocks of the desert.

From here, you will continue through Laguna Vinto and Laguna Negra. Both lakes are much smaller than those from the previous day and looked a little swampy, with shallow water surrounded by grasslands, rocks and grazing llamas. They were still a good opportunity to stretch our legs after sitting in the car for a few hours.

You will then move on to Cañón de la Anaconda and Cañón del Cóndor, which were much more impressive for me, particularly Cañón de la Anaconda. The stop lets you stand right at the top of the canyon, looking down at the river twisting through the landscape below, which makes it pretty obvious where the name comes from.

The last stop of the day is Julaca, an old railway settlement with an abandoned train station and locally made craft beer. It is a unique little place with plenty of quirky decorations, and a good opportunity to support a local business along the way, so it is worth trying a few beers. You will also have a late lunch here before making the final push towards the edge of the Salar.

Once you reach the edge of the Salar, the usual plan is to watch the sunset over the salt flats, but the weather had other ideas for us. We arrived with a thin layer of water covering the salt from the February rains, while a storm was brewing in the distance and lightning started flashing around us. The sunset was quickly cancelled, and the guides hurried everyone back into the 4WDs.

The final accommodation was a salt hostel in Puerto Chuvica, where dinner was also served. This was the best accommodation of the entire trip, with fewer people sleeping in each room and reliable hot showers, which were very welcome after three days of sitting in a 4WD.

The final day of the four-day tour starts well before sunrise, when you leave Puerto Chuvica after breakfast and drive out onto the Salar de Uyuni in complete darkness. At this stage, the only thing you can see is whatever is illuminated by your 4WD, as you nervously wait and hope that the morning will bring the kind of beautiful sunrise reflected across the salt flats that you have seen in so many photos.

Eventually, our driver chose a spot in the middle of the Salar, where we eagerly waited as the sky started to change colour and dawn approached. As the first light appeared, the reflections of the nearby mountains and the 4WD sitting next to us slowly began to emerge. The sky continued to transform until it became a deep orange with a tinge of pink, perfectly mirrored across the Salar all the way to the horizon, where it became almost impossible to tell where the reflection ended and the sky began.

The original itinerary had us watching the sunrise at Isla Incahuasi, but there was too much water on the Salar for us to reach it after the rain from the previous days. When visiting the Salar de Uyuni, and Bolivia in general, you need to find a balance between having enough rain for the reflections to happen and having clear enough weather to actually see them. The best time to do this is in the shoulder season after the wet season in late March and early April.

Once the sun was up, we spent plenty of time taking the classic perspective photos and videos you have probably already seen online. Your driver will help you set these up, and trust me, they will get very creative. Breakfast is then served directly on the salt flats, probably one of the more unique places I’ve had an espresso.

Your final stop on the Salar is at the former Playa Blanca Salt Hotel, which was once an operating hotel built largely from salt. You will also stop at the famous area where flags from around the world are displayed, which was one of the places I was most keen to see and definitely did not disappoint.

After leaving the Salar, you will have your final lunch with your group in Uyuni before being given the option to visit the Train Cemetery just outside town. It was an optional stop for our group, but one I would recommend since you are already there and it does not take long. Afterwards, our driver dropped everyone where they needed to go in Uyuni, whether that was the bus terminal, airport or somewhere else in town.

Looking back, doing a four-day Salt Flats tour and starting from Tupiza is definitely worth the extra day you spend on the road. There aren’t many places in the world like the reserve you drive through, and having that additional day means you get to see stops that many travellers simply never reach, while also experiencing the route with far fewer tourists along the way.