How to Plan a Budget Trip to Uyuni Salt Flat & Atacama Desert 🇧🇴🇨🇱

👍 This is all you need for a travel guide to the Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia and the Atacama Desert in Chile!
1️⃣ Route: La Paz – Uyuni – Atacama – Calama – Santiago (total 7 days).
2️⃣ Recommended buses🚌: Titicaca from La Paz to Uyuni (see P2-P3), very comfortable and not smelly, recommended by a Bolivian taxi driver.

Cruz del Norte from Uyuni to Atacama. Frontera del Norte from Atacama to Calama, then take an Uber to LOA airport.
3️⃣ Currency Exchange: You must exchange currency in Bolivia; the black market and official exchange rates are almost 2:1 now. Just search for “casa de cambio” for the exchange address, and any one will do as the rates don’t differ much.

4️⃣ Recommended Travel Agencies: In Uyuni, highly recommend Ariel Magic’s sunset and stargazing tour; the guides are very professional at taking photos. Because they are popular in Korea, many Koreans sign up with them, and the guides can even give instructions in Korean. The photos really turn out great!

!! You can also book a day tour with them (P7-P10).
In Atacama, highly recommend Atacama Magic. They offer discounts if you book more than two tours. The guides are very responsible and always set up a WhatsApp group before departure. The stargazing tour takes great photos and has good explanations, and they separate groups by language.

The snacks and drinks are great, especially the breakfast on their geysers tour, which is super delicious😋 We even encountered a little fox🦊! I booked three tours: stargazing, geysers, and Moon Valley (P11-P17).
5️⃣ La Paz Guide: It’s fun to visit the Witches’ Market, but be careful with your belongings.

The cable car ride🚡 is very cheap, 3 bolivianos for a single trip and 5 bolivianos for a transfer ticket. It’s like riding a cable car in a domestic scenic area, and the cable car stations are really clean! (P4-P6)
Stargazing Tips: Go during a new moon. The stars in Atacama are clearer than in Uyuni, and the Milky Way🌌 is visible to the naked eye in both places!

Salar de Uyuni Tips: Go during the rainy season (usually December to March of the following year), but this year the rainy season was delayed, so you might still see the mirror effect in April. Just go on a clear day after it has rained. Bring altitude sickness medication, as La Paz is at 4,070m, Uyuni at 3,670m, and the geysers in Atacama at 4,300m.

6️⃣ The world’s largest salt flat, Uyuni, and the “driest place on Earth,” the Atacama Desert, have breathtaking scenery that speaks for itself. Atacama feels like Mars, and in Uyuni, you can’t tell where the sky ends and the lake begins—it seems endless. I saw the most beautiful sunset and twilight.

Wishing everyone a wonderful view!