Places · Bolivia

Natural Wonders of Bolivia: The 4 Most Beautiful Places to Visit

4 places in the atlas

Much of Bolivia lies on the high Altiplano, a vast plateau over 3,600 metres up between two Andean ranges. Its centrepiece is the Salar de Uyuni, the dried bed of ancient lakes and the largest salt flat in the world — so flat it is used to calibrate satellites, blindingly white in the dry season and a perfect sky-mirror when wet. Around it stretch red and green mineral lagoons, geysers, deserts, and flamingo colonies, and beneath the salt lies a huge share of the planet's lithium. Bolivia also drops from these heights into Amazon lowlands rich with life. Below are the 4 natural wonders of Bolivia in the atlas — the most beautiful places to build a trip around, each with what makes it remarkable, when to go, and how to reach it. Best overall time: The dry season (roughly May–October) for the white salt-tile scenery and easy travel; the wet season (roughly December–April) for the mirror effect.

Salar de Uyuni, Altiplano, southwestern Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni

Altiplano, southwestern Bolivia

The largest salt flat on Earth — a blinding-white expanse of over 10,000 square kilometres high on the Bolivian Altiplano that becomes, after rain, the world's biggest natural mirror, reflecting the sky so perfectly that the horizon disappears.

Desert & dunes Latin America
The red and orange waters of Laguna Colorada streaked with white borax flats under a blue sky with distant volcanoes, Bolivia

Laguna Colorada

Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, Sur Lípez, Potosí Department, southwestern Bolivia

A shallow salt lake on the Bolivian Altiplano at 4,278 m whose water runs brick-red with algae and sediment, streaked with white borax islands and dotted with thousands of flamingos.

Lake Latin America
The snow-capped cone of Nevado Sajama rising above brown hills and a wet Altiplano grassland where llamas and alpacas graze, Sajama National Park, Bolivia

Sajama National Park

Western Altiplano, Oruro Department, Bolivia, on the border with Chile

Bolivia's first protected area: a high Altiplano park crowned by Nevado Sajama, at 6,542 m the country's highest mountain, with some of the world's highest woodland, geysers, hot springs and vicuñas grazing beneath snow-capped volcanoes.

Volcano Latin America
A deep, narrow canyon with layered tan and pink sandstone walls and a dry rocky riverbed at the bottom, under a partly cloudy sky, Torotoro National Park, Bolivia

Torotoro National Park

Northern Potosí Department, Bolivia, about 140 km south of Cochabamba

A small national park of folded sedimentary rock in Bolivia's Andean valleys, with a 300-metre-deep canyon, a waterfall-filled gorge, one of the country's largest caves and thousands of dinosaur footprints left on Cretaceous shorelines.

Canyon Latin America

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🇧🇴 Bolivia: full country guide 🗺️ Latin America 🇦🇷 Wonders of Argentina 🇧🇷 Wonders of Brazil 🇨🇱 Wonders of Chile 🇨🇴 Wonders of Colombia