Bolivia · Altiplano
Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
The biggest salt flat on the planet - hexagons underfoot in the dry season, a mirror of the sky in the wet.
Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat on earth, a blinding white crust the size of a small country lying at around 3,650 m on the Bolivian Altiplano. In the dry months it cracks into hexagons hard enough to drive across; in the wet it holds a film of water and turns into a mirror of the sky. Uyuni, a windblown railway town on its eastern edge, is where the jeeps leave from, and most carry on southwest through the Eduardo Avaroa reserve to the Chilean border.
Suggested stay
2–4 days
Language
Spanish
Currency
BOB
Timezone
UTC-4
Why you'll love Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
The mirror when rain lies on the salt the horizon disappears and the sky doubles, which is the photograph almost everyone comes for
Scale hours of driving across dead-level white with nothing to judge distance by, which is exactly why the trick perspective photos work
The lagoons the run south crosses red and green mineral lakes, geysers, hot springs and volcanoes, with flamingos feeding above four thousand metres
Strangeness locomotives rusting in the desert, an island of giant cactus in the middle of the salt, and hotels built from salt blocks
Best time to visit
Jul-May
13-21° days
20.463° S, 66.824° W
UTC-4 · America/La Paz
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Weather & when to go to Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Jul-May
Watch for all year altitude risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
No bad season, just two different salars and a choice to make. The mirror needs the wet months, roughly Dec-Mar, when standing water can shut the crossing to the cactus island and jeeps keep nearer the shore. The dry months give hexagons, unrestricted driving and the full southwest circuit, but no reflection. Nights are below freezing for much of the year at this altitude.
Top things to do in Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
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Salar de Uyuni - cross the salt flat by 4WD
scenic 👍 PopularThe standard run west from Uyuni passes the salt-working village on the shore and then simply drives out onto the crust, stopping at the plaza of flags, the salt-block buildings and whatever the light is doing. Nothing prepares you for the flatness or the silence.
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Isla Incahuasi - the cactus island in the middle of the salt
scenic nature wildlife 👍 PopularA rocky outcrop of fossil coral studded with giant cactus that grow about a centimetre a year, the tallest of them well over a thousand years old. A short path climbs to the top for white in every direction. Reachable only when the crust is dry enough to drive.
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Cementerio de Trenes - the train cemetery outside Uyuni
history 👍 PopularSteam locomotives and rolling stock from the old Antofagasta line, abandoned on the edge of town when the mineral trade fell away and now stripped, scrawled on and corroding in the salt wind. Most tours stop here first, and it is an easy walk from town.
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Laguna Colorada - red water and flamingos at altitude
nature wildlife scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedA shallow lake stained rust-red by algae and sediment, streaked with white borax islands, and one of the few breeding grounds of the rare James's flamingo. It sits above four thousand metres and the wind coming off it is punishing, so go layered.
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Salar sunsets and night skies - stay out on the salt after dark
scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedNo light pollution, no dust and no horizon, which makes sunset and a moonless night on the flat the reason to choose a tour that waits rather than one that hurries back. When there is water down, the stars come up underfoot as well.
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Volcan Tunupa - the volcano on the salar's north shore
scenic adventureThe banded red and ochre cone above Tahua gives the salt flat its Aymara origin story. A steep walk climbs towards the crater rim and a view down over the whole white basin, and a cave on the slope holds pre-Inca mummies, still seated and wrapped.
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Sol de Manana - geysers and mud pots at first light
scenic off beaten pathA geothermal field close to five thousand metres, all boiling grey mud, fumaroles and sulphur steam, visited at dawn when the cold makes the plumes enormous. There are no railings and the crust is thin in places, so walk where the driver walks.
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Laguna Verde - the green lake under Licancabur
scenicCopper minerals turn the water milky green once the afternoon wind stirs it, under the near-perfect cone of Licancabur on the Chilean border. It is the last stop on the southwest circuit before the crossing into Atacama.
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Arbol de Piedra - the stone tree of the Siloli desert
scenicA lump of volcanic rock the wind has carved into a narrow-stemmed tree, standing alone in a sand desert scattered with boulders. A brief stop in itself, but the surrounding country is the strangest stretch of the whole circuit.
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Termas de Polques - hot springs beside a salt lagoon
wellnessA stone-walled pool fed by hot spring water on the shore of a pale lagoon, usually reached soon after dawn with the air well below freezing and flamingos feeding a few metres out. Bring a swimsuit you can get into and out of fast.
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Colchani - salt piles, salt blocks and the salt hotels
culture artsThe village on the eastern shore where families rake the crust into drying cones, cut and iodise it by hand, and sell llama wool and salt carvings from a row of stalls. The hotels built from salt blocks look straight out at the flat.
Best areas to stay in Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Uyuni
Where tours start $Windswept railway town of tour agencies
Explore hotels in Uyuni →
Colchani
Out on the salt $$Salt-working village facing the flat
Explore hotels in Colchani →
Tahua and Jirira
Quiet north shore $Quiet north-shore villages under Tunupa
Explore hotels in Tahua and Jirira →
Tupiza
Alternative start $Red-rock canyon town, lower and warmer
Explore hotels in Tupiza →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
Getting to & around Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
Getting there
Fly or bus into Uyuni, where every salt-flat tour starts; the salar itself begins a short drive west of town
Flight
Joya Andina Airport (UYU)
The single-runway airport sits a few kilometres north of Uyuni, with short flights up from La Paz. Taxis and hotel pickups cover the hop into the grid of agency streets in minutes, and the altitude hits you the moment you step out.
Train
Uyuni station
The Expreso del Sur and the slower Wara Wara del Sur run down from Oruro to Uyuni and on south towards Tupiza and the Argentine border. It is the most comfortable way to arrive overland and it needs booking ahead.
Coach
Uyuni bus terminal
Overnight buses grind in from La Paz in around ten to twelve hours via Oruro, with shorter daytime runs from Potosi and Sucre. Bring a sleeping bag or every layer you own: the buses are cold.
Drive
Hito Cajon border
Plenty of people arrive backwards, joining a three-day circuit in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, crossing at Hito Cajon and reaching the salt flat at the end of the trip rather than the start.
Getting around
Tour 4WD
The only practical way onto the salt and around the circuit: shared jeeps of six with a driver-cook, or private hire if you want the pace
TBC
Walking
Uyuni is a handful of flat blocks and you can walk the lot, train cemetery included, in an afternoon
Free
Taxi
Short runs to the airport, the station and out to the salt-working village on the shore; drivers wait around the plaza and the terminal
TBC
Day trips from Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
Southwest circuit to the Bolivian lagoons
2 daysHigh-desert lagoons
The classic run south through the Eduardo Avaroa reserve: red and green mineral lakes, three flamingo species, the boulder deserts, geysers and hot springs, sleeping in basic refugios well above four thousand metres. Most groups finish at Hito Cajon and transfer down to San Pedro de Atacama.
Getting there
car | tour
2-3 days by shared 4WD, usually one way to the Chilean border
Volcan Tunupa and the north shore
Full dayVolcano and mummies
Cross the flat to the far shore, where a banded volcano rises over two small villages. A stiff walk climbs towards the crater for the widest view of the salar there is, and a cave on the slope holds pre-Inca mummies.
Getting there
car | tour
Full day by 4WD across the salt to Tahua and back
Train cemetery and the salt village
Half dayRusting locomotives
The two stops nearly every tour rushes through, done at your own pace: the abandoned locomotives on the edge of town, then Colchani, where the crust is raked into cones to dry and cut into blocks by hand.
Getting there
car | walk
A 20 min walk or short taxi ride from Uyuni, then a short drive north
Tupiza
1-2 daysRed-rock canyons
A lower, warmer town among red rock spires and cactus, where the thing to do is ride out on horseback through the formations. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were cornered nearby at San Vicente in 1908.
Getting there
train | bus
About 5-7 hr by train or bus southeast
A little history of Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
The salar is the floor of a vanished sea. Through the last ice age a chain of lakes filled the southern Altiplano, Minchin and then the vast Tauca, and when the last of them evaporated it left two salt crusts, Uyuni and Coipasa, along with the shrunken remnants of Titicaca and Poopo. Beneath the crust lies brine rich in lithium. The Aymara tell it differently: the volcanoes around the basin were once people, and when Tunupa's husband abandoned her, the milk and the tears she wept for her child spread across the plain and dried white.
People have worked the salt here for as long as they have lived this high, cutting it into blocks and moving it by llama caravan down into the valleys, and burying their dead in chullpa towers around the shore. Uyuni itself is young and industrial, a junction founded in 1889 on the railway running to the Pacific, busy while Bolivian minerals moved through it and stranded when they stopped, which is why a field of locomotives rusts on its edge. Tourism came late, and lithium later still.
Lake Minchin floods the southern Altiplano basin
Lake Tauca, the last of the great lakes, spreads across the same basin
The water evaporates, leaving the Uyuni and Coipasa salt crusts behind
Aymara herding communities work the shores, raising chullpa burial towers and running salt caravans by llama
Inca expansion reaches the Altiplano; the island in the salt keeps the name Incahuasi, house of the Inca
Silver is struck at Potosi and the whole region's economy turns to mining
Uyuni is founded as a junction on the railway linking Bolivia's mines to the Pacific coast
Mineral traffic collapses and the locomotives are left outside town, becoming the train cemetery
Bolivia begins state-led lithium projects on the brine at the salar's southern rim
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Limited
Wifi
Limited
Power
Type A / B / C
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+591
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FAQs about Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni)
▸ When is the best time to visit Salar de Uyuni?
It depends which salar you want. The wet months, roughly Dec-Mar, lay a film of water on the flat and give the mirror, though water can close the crossing to the cactus island. From about May the crust is dry and hard, driving is unrestricted and the southwest circuit is at its most reliable, but there is no reflection.
▸ How many days do you need at Salar de Uyuni?
One full day covers the flat itself, from the train cemetery to the island and out for sunset. The southwest circuit to the lagoons and the Chilean border adds two or three nights, and that stretch, rather than the salt, is what most people end up talking about afterwards.
▸ Do you need a tour, or can you go independently?
Practically speaking, a tour. There is no public transport onto the salt, no marked routes, no phone signal and nothing to navigate by, and the southwest circuit crosses genuinely remote desert where a breakdown matters. Shared jeeps of six are the norm; private hire buys you a pace of your own.
▸ How high is it, and will the altitude be a problem?
Uyuni sits at about 3,650 m and the southwest circuit sleeps higher and crosses passes near five thousand. Come up gradually through La Paz, Sucre or Potosi rather than flying straight in, take the first day slowly, drink the coca tea, and get medical advice first if you have heart or lung trouble.
▸ Is Salar de Uyuni expensive?
Bolivia is one of the cheaper countries in South America and the shared jeep circuit is among its best value trips, with transport, driver, cook, meals and refugio beds bundled together. The salt-block hotels are the exception. Choose an operator on vehicle condition and driver reputation, never on the lowest quote.
▸ Can you carry on into Chile at the end?
Yes, and many do. The circuit finishes at the Hito Cajon crossing, where a transfer runs down to San Pedro de Atacama in a couple of hours. Get your Bolivian exit stamp on the way and keep warm layers to hand, because the border post is high and bitterly cold.