By rail
Uyuni station, trains from Oruro on the line south to the Argentine border
South America · Bolivia
Uyuni, Bolivia
The railway town at the edge of the salt flat
Getting there
By air
Uyuni (UYU), ~3 km from the town
Best time to visit
May to October for the dry white salt; December to March for the mirror effect after rain
Don't miss
Salar de Uyuni
The Train Cemetery
Colchani salt works
Isla Incahuasi
Pulacayo
Things to do
A day or a three-day 4x4 trip onto the Salar de Uyuni
Sunset at the train cemetery
The Sunday market
Where to eat
Sources: Photo: PsamatheM · CC BY-SA 4.0
What to pack
Very warm layers for nights far below freezing, sunglasses and high-SPF sunscreen for the glare, cash — card machines are few
A quieter corner
Pulacayo, the ghost mining town up the road with the locomotive said to have been robbed by Butch Cassidy
Questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Uyuni?
May to October for the dry white salt; December to March for the mirror effect after rain. What to pack: Very warm layers for nights far below freezing, sunglasses and high-SPF sunscreen for the glare, cash — card machines are few.
How do I get to Uyuni?
Fly into Uyuni (UYU), ~3 km from the town.
What is there to do in Uyuni?
A day or a three-day 4x4 trip onto the Salar de Uyuni, sunset at the train cemetery, the Sunday market. A quieter find: Pulacayo, the ghost mining town up the road with the locomotive said to have been robbed by Butch Cassidy.
What should I eat in Uyuni?
Llama steak, quinoa soup, salteñas from the market.
About Uyuni
- Desert
- Mountains
Where it is
Uyuni is a town in the Potosí department of south-western Bolivia, on the altiplano at about 3,660 m, at the eastern edge of the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world.
History
Uyuni was founded in 1889 as a railway junction on the line that carried silver and tin from the mines of Potosí and Pulacayo down to the Pacific ports, and the rusting locomotives of its train cemetery date from that trade. Tourism to the salt flat has remade it since the 1990s.
People
The town is a staging post: Quechua and Aymara families run the hotels, tour agencies and the Sunday market, and the salt workers of Colchani still cut and dry salt from the flat by hand. Evenings are cold and quiet once the 4x4s return.
Known for
- The Salar de Uyuni
- The Train Cemetery
- Colchani's salt works
- 4x4 trips to the coloured lagoons
Did you know?
The Salar de Uyuni is so flat and so bright that satellites use it to calibrate their altitude sensors.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.