Northern Chile and Bolivia recommendations

[lucha54]

Hi All!
For anyone that has been to San Pedro de Atacama and/or southern Bolivia (Salar de Uyuni, Potosi, Sucre, Tupiza) could you recommend a good hostel and/or tour companies in any of those places? Thanks!

 

[m0r1arty]

I can recommend Andoriña hostel in Samaipata which is just beyond Sucre (11 hours) into Bolivia. Chap that runs it is Dutch and his wife (A local named Doriña) is a very astute environmentalist who can take care of your needs and assist with providing tours of El Fuerte and other great places around there.

Failing that they have good relations with a couple of very nice hostels in Sucre which will see you right (We skipped Sucre last time round, however it is meant to be incredibly chilled out and well worth a visit - next time for us I suppose).

Hope this helps!

-m0r

 

[sam3g]

There are so many tour companies/hostels in San Pedro de Atacama it is incredible, and I've heard a lot of bad stories about the Salar de Uyuni tours. Personally, we had our tour office (can't remember the name) tell us that they only used 2005 or newer Toyotas. We drove an hour is the very nice toyota to the border of Bolivia (in the middle of the desert) where they tried to transfer us to a 1990 toyota that WOULDN'T EVEN START. After deciding that we absolutely would not risk getting stranded in the desert with an SUV that didn't work, we eventually convinced the original driver to take us. It could have been worse, but in the end we had a great time.

I would recommend skipping Uyuni (the town), it's only good to get a cheap meal and a bus ticket to your next destination.

 

[lucha54]

Hi thanks for your tips, I actually got back from the trip last week and I liked Layana Tours for the San Pedro excursions and Estrella Del Sur (also Cordillera comes highly recommended) For the Uyuni tour. It was great! And the car never broke down

 

[TheBigDaddy]

serious question and i dont wanna thread hijack but for people who have been to south bolivia, north chile and argentina, what is the internet like there ?

If you wanted to live in the middle of nowhere for a while, but need a constant though not fast internet connection to work and survive, is it possible ?

 

[jlord]

internet in south bolivia (certainly sucre/potosí/tupiza/villazon) is terrible. could barely cope with me uploading some photos to facebook...

 

[thomasb]

In the North of Argentina and Chile (at least in the cities) the internet is not too bad, it's not super fast, but it's pretty reliable. In Bolivia I found it didn't work very well anywhere except for the bigger cities.

 

[bkoustav]

Is it possible for 1 person to do a excursion to Salar? From the pists here and ither sources it seems that you have to book whole vehicle.

 

[lucha54]

You just get hooked up with a tour through a hostel or agency. It includes 2 salars and some gorgeous lagoons and non-earthly scenery. Was about $60 usd equivalent when I went in march 2012. Definitely worth it. Also recommend the half day tour to valley of the moon. I don't recommend the geyser day trip, too expensive, freezing cold, altitude sickness, 4 am wake up call. Definitely do the one to the salar and lagoons though. Really awesome

 

[lucha54]

Oh and by a tour I meant u pay to go with other travelers and a guide. For a private tour just you, yes much more expensive. Or rent a car but as fun, more complicated, more expensive and you don't get the knowledge of a guide