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[azreal]

Rent a private jet and you can go anywhere you want .... any time you want.

[kathryn77]

Hi Evazantha,

What did the tour operators have to say about tours at that time of year? I'm afraid I don't know from personal experience, however I was in Cuzco at Easter and the locals went wild for that, but I'm not sure how it affected trips & transport. I was in the north of Peru during a public holiday and the bus station was closed though...

For the second question, you can go from La Paz to Copacabana, Bolivia, and cross the border from there. Copacabana is on the lake too, with islands, then when you get to Puno in Peru, you can also visit the floating islands/stay on an island from there before heading to Cusco.

Hope that helps! Maybe someone else can advise on Christams/New Year time specifically for you.

[mmbcross]

This site has a contact e-mail, and they are located in Bolivia, so they can probably give you pretty good information about the tours and when they operate.
http://www.boliviaweb.com/travel/guide/uyuni/tours.htm

[avais]

Hey all,

Again i'm going to be another tagger on to this thread if thats okay - i know i should have started a new one. I'll be travelling around the world and because of my booking class only have 5 weeks in south america - sad times. Anyways due to my short time there i've organised most elements, 11 day tour from rio to Buenos aries via Igaunas falls. few days in BA then fly to Lima for my inca trail. Inca trail finishes in Cusco on 11th Dec.

My issue is basically that i've got to get from Cusco - realistically departing on 12th, to Uyuni to start a tour over the plains going to St Pedro on the 14th. i basically need to know the quickest way from Cusco to Uyuni in the time i have to make sure i dont my tour - already paid for.

Any advice would be great.

PS - My salt tour drops me off in St Pedro from where i'll be getting a 4 day Pachamamu bus to Santiago, as I'm due to fly out of Santiago on 24th Dec.

[joost9009]

[s]Hi,
We did the same trip last september, from Cusco to Uyuni. We took a direct flight from Cusco to La Paz and from La Paz we took a direct touristic bus to Uyuni. We fly with Aerosur, this company flies every day from cusco to la paz, price was not much I believe max 100 USD. We left in the morning and arrived in the afternoon in La Paz. In La Paz we took a taxi from the airport to the centre, very easy and enjoyable (great views mountains and La Paz itselfs). In the centre we went to the agency of Todo Turismo. The best company in Bolivia for easy comfortable direct bus ride to Uyuni! You can book a ticket in advance, but also the same day. Be sure you go directly to the company when you arrived in La Paz, because it is a populair company and full is full. I believe we paid around 40 USD one way p.p. The next morning we arrived in Uyuni, so it took is about 25 hours from Cusco to La Paz.

for more information about bus times en adres
http://www.touringbolivia.com/

enjoy your stay!!!

[avais]

I've spent so much on tours and flights in south america already i was hoping i'd be able to do this in cheaper bus journeys - is that not an option? or do you think its not an option worth taking?

[kathryn77]

Hiya, it's quite a long way by bus in such a short time frame. The Uyuni salt flat tours usually set off early morning, so you will have to be in Uyuni on the evening of the 13th really...which means you have, say 36 hours from the morning of the 12th....

So...Cuzco to La Paz via Puno is around 15 hours...then from there to Uyuni is about another 15 hours.....so it's do-able I guess, but you have to take into account the sometimes unreliability of everything in both Peru & Bolivia and that things might not run to your timescales, so take that into account before you decide...

[mmbcross]

From what I can see, there is no direct bus from Cuzco to La Paz, you will probably have to change buses in Puno. Cuzco to Puno takes about seven hours, and it will be another seven or eight hours from there to La Paz via the Desaguadero border. I checked Aerosur online, but cannot find any current service between Cuzco and La Paz.

[avais]

thanks very much for the help guys. It appears my travel agent told me some porkies then as he seemed to think i'd be able to comfortably make my way down to the salk plains tour within the 2 days he'd allocated. I appreciate you guys giving me advice on this now rather then me stressing out completely trying to make all my connections.

So removing buses and given my timeframes what is the best method for travel from Cusco to Uyuni please? Is it the air ticket which someone suggested? also if you can give me a rough guide on what i'd be looking at paying and when you think i should book that would be brilliant.

Thanks again for all your help!

[kathryn77]

Hiya, I've just done a search on Skyscanner & Expedia, and the flights are all via Lima, taking about 8 hours, but that is still half the time it would take by bus from Cuzco to La Paz via Puno....so it would be your call on what would suit better

Either way, you'll have to do the La Paz to Uyuni stretch by bus, which is around 15 hours.

I also tried other airports which would be closer to Uyuni on arrival (Sucre in Bolivia and Salta in Argentina) but they are much more expensive and aren't direct either.

I think you should plan for La Paz to Uyuni by bus, arriving on evening of 13th, and work backwards from there, deciding what is best for you between plane or bus to get from Cuzco to La Paz....

[tezzab]

Hi all,

I am putting together a holiday next April/May 2011 in South America and would like any advice available.
Depart Australia 16th April to Buenos Aires arriving 16th April, with my 26 year daughter Tara, we would like to see Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Salar/Uyuni, ending up in Cuzco for 2 days prior to doing the Inca Trail, then heading home via Los Angeles (1day). All in 3 weeks! can it be done?

I was thinking of going straight to Rio from Buenos Aires, Tara's birthday 17th April... then coming back to Buenos Aires, Montevideo etc any thoughts???

don't mind air travel or train, don't like buses for long trips.

Thanks,
Terry