Salar de Uyuni Tour Companies

Quoting holybinch

Susanna : I can relate to your experience, being a french expat myself, i know the behaviour my fellow coutrymen can sometimes have when in groups abroad !
But don't worry, we aren't all like that !

No of course, I know!!! Just before the Uyuni incident we travelled together with two French guys and they were awesome, and my sister is married to a French guy and their kids are half-French, so I really don't have a problem with French people. It was just their attitude.

//susanna

Hi Dbo,

I think trying to do the Salar tour from Cochabamba might prove more hassle than its worth. I can definitely recommend a good tour company frmo Uyuni however. They are called Oasis Tours and their office is in the main square in Uyuni. They are helpful, will provide an English speaking guide (for a slightly higher fee) although I recommedn going with a Spanisdh speaking one - its great if you are trying to learn the language! Also, if you need a sleeping bag for the trip they will sort you out with that.

Our guides were lovely, the food was excellent and I had no complaints at all.

is salar de uyuni worth going to? same question about the titicana desert i guess since they are in the same area.

A bit limited on time so ... Lets say if you had a choice between huaraz (or iguazzu falls) and "titicana and uyuni" what would be the order of preference?

Don't do Huaraz if in a hurry; in fact, don't do anything in a hurry . The point of travelling is NOT hurrying, isn't it?

Of the options you mention, Iguazu is the only one that you could do in one day, even though I'd recommend you take 2 or 3. Huaraz is the most time-consuming, both because it's a bit hard to reach, and because you need to go trekking to appreciate its beauty. Personally, I found lake Titicaca extremely boring.

Depending on where you come from and where you're going, I'd prefer going to the Salar first and then, time permitting, travel from there to Iguazu (which, by the way, can be an extremely adventurous, time-consuming experience if you take the route through paraguay; ask Susanna).

Niels

Quoting Sohy

is salar de uyuni worth going to? same question about the titicana desert i guess since they are in the same area.

A bit limited on time so ... Lets say if you had a choice between huaraz (or iguazzu falls) and "titicana and uyuni" what would be the order of preference?

These are all pretty far away from eachother! Where else are you planning to go? If your in a hurry, don't try to cover too much land. South America is HUGE.

But I agree with Niels, skip Huaraz. Salar de Uyuni is defenitely worth seeing, it's touristic allright but I've never seen anything like it! It's amazing.
Titicaca is beautiful too, but you'll need nice weather to fully apreciate it. I was ill most of my time there so I didn't like it that much.

If you have to choose between Uyuni and Iguazú, I would say Uyuni.

//Susanna

well these are the list of places and things that wanna do, not in any order. prolly going to have to cut it down some. have a total of 9 weeks to do it:

chile:
-flight into santiago
-Atacama Desert (include valley of the moon) as well as the Altiplano and geysers (maybe)
-Salar de Uyuni (bolivia or chile)

peru:
-Huaraz (hiking, canoeing,climbing)
-Huacachina (sandboarding and dune buggying)
-Arequipa
-Cuzco (do inca trail here)
-Puno to the floating Islands, Taquile and Amanati (maybe if worth it)

bolivia:
-Copacabana, and isla del sol (maybe)
-La Paz (downhill mountain bike to Coroico)
-Sucre

Argentina:
-Salta
-Iguazzu falls
-BA
-Mendoza (some rafting here)
-Bariloche (maybe)

Patagonia:
-Torres del Pain
-Glaciar Perito Moreno
-Tierra del Fuego (maybe)

These places seem like the places to see according to all the posts in the forum. (realise that it might be a little too much)
any suggestions?

I'm planning to see roughly the same things as Sohy, but in 3 to 3.5 months.
I hope we'll manage to do it, but on another end, we really don't want to rush, and will probably limit our internal flights to a couple max.

I have to say I can't wait to be there

Hey
Thanks for all the info guys... will bear it all in mind when nearing Uyuni. Currently in Montevideo (heading for BA next) so it all seems like a long way off but I'm sure it'll come flying round.

Dan

Sohy, that's going to be far too stressful!!! Why don't you focus on a smaller area? For example skip Patagonia - I mean although it's amazing, you will get the mountains, hiking and glaciars in Huaraz too. Because it will take you days just to get there!

//Susanna

Good luck with choosing a company and dont choose Sandra Travels as i had a nightmare with them.Although one thing did eventually go right with them which i will tell you about in a moment.

Things that went wrong:
They said they would meet me at the train station at 2am and never turned up.
Hence they never took me to a hotel which was planned to.
The tour was meant to start on Monday and the office was closed all day.When i phoned the company they didnt know anything about a tour starting then.
I was promised a maximum of 6 people but they squeezed 7 in.
The jeep needed the brakes fixing halfway through the first day.
All the tour was in Spanish even though we insisted on an english speaking guide.
I had a transfer arranged to get me to Chile and the night before i was told the weather had been so bad for the last 3 days that it was possible i wouldnt make it.(so why not tell me this at the start).

Anyway something did go right in the end and that was when i got to the Bolivian immigration hut where the transfer was taking place there was loads of people waiting to go to Chile as well and some had been stuck there for 36 hours with no food.Some also got stuck out in a jeep in the night which was found snowed under.
Lots of people thought something dubious was going on and only Colque Tour members who were arranging the transfer would leave first which turned out to be true.
However my guide quickly started driving off towards Chile while i was wondering what the hell was going on.A jeep started coming towards us with snow 5 feet deep on either side and while he tried to go up the verge at a stupid speed he turned it over on its side with people inside it.
While i helped get them out the Colque Tour transfer jeep stopped,my guide bundled me and my bag in and off we sped.
People were right the jeep had spare room in it but was only taking the Colque Tour group and somehow me along to Chile.

So if you want an easy transfer from Bolivia to Chile i would go with Colque Tours.