Travel to Bolivia: itinerary, altitude and when to go

Set in a bowl between 3,200 and 4,000 m, La Paz takes two or three days, after a first day of rest to acclimatise. The Mi Teleférico cable car network, opened from 2014, links the centre to El Alto in minutes and gives the best views of the city and Illimani. The Witches' Market, Calle Jaén and Plaza Murillo fill a morning. The Valley of the Moon, about thirty minutes south, takes an hour. On Thursdays and Sundays, the huge 16 de Julio market livens up El Alto.

Sitting at about 3,800 m, Titicaca is shared with neighbouring Peru. On the Bolivian side, Copacabana, three and a half hours by bus from La Paz with a short ferry crossing at the Strait of Tiquina, is the base for Isla del Sol, the mythical cradle of the Incas. Allow two nights: one on the island for sunrise, one in Copacabana. On the way, the UNESCO-listed site of Tiwanaku makes a half-day trip from La Paz, about two hours by road.

Covering more than 10,000 km², the Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world. The classic trip takes three days by 4x4: crossing the salt, cactus-covered Incahuasi Island, then the Colorada and Verde lagoons and the Sol de Mañana geysers above 4,800 m. Between January and March, a thin film of water turns the salar into a mirror, but some tracks become impassable. Nights drop well below freezing from June to August. The circuit can end at the Chile border, towards San Pedro de Atacama.

At around 4,000 m, Potosí was one of the richest cities in the world in the sixteenth century thanks to the silver of Cerro Rico. The colonial town is UNESCO-listed, and the Casa de la Moneda, the former mint, deserves a two-hour guided visit. Tours of working mines are still possible with cooperatives, but they involve dust, gas and narrow tunnels: avoid them if you have breathing problems or claustrophobia. One night is enough, three to four hours by road from both Uyuni and Sucre.

At 2,800 m, milder and less breathless than La Paz, Sucre is the constitutional capital, with UNESCO-listed white facades. Three days cover the Casa de la Libertad, where independence was signed in 1825, the Recoleta convent and Parque Cretácico, where a limestone wall bears thousands of dinosaur footprints. Many travellers stay a week for Spanish lessons. On Sundays, the Tarabuco market, about two hours away, showcases Jalq'a and Yampara textiles.

In the eastern lowlands, Santa Cruz is the country's largest city and its main international gateway, Viru Viru airport. Three hours west by road, the village of Samaipata gives access to the pre-Inca site of El Fuerte, listed by UNESCO, and the tree-fern forests of Amboró park. To the east, the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos, also World Heritage, are explored over four to five days on a road loop. Neighbouring Brazil extends these plains to the Pantanal.

Rurrenabaque, about an hour's flight from La Paz, opens onto two worlds. Madidi National Park, one of the most species-rich protected areas on the continent, is discovered on a three-day stay in a community ecolodge, by canoe on the Beni and Tuichi rivers. The more open Yacuma pampas are ideal for spotting caimans, capybaras and river dolphins. The best season runs from May to October; from December to March, rain often disrupts flights and the road from La Paz.