La Paz
Bolivia
A city in a canyon at 3,600 metres, with cable cars for buses
Photos by RODRIGO GONZALEZ, Azzedine Rouichi, Florian Delée and Florian Delée on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Bolivia
May to October (dry); April and November are quieter and still fine
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 110mm in Jan
Where it is
16.50°S, 68.15°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Ride the cable car network end to end for the price of a coffee
- Walk the Witches' Market and ask what things are before assuming
- Cycle the Yungas Road, with a reputable operator and not the cheapest one
- See a cholita wrestling night in El Alto
- Take the bus to Tiwanaku
La Paz travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Bolivia
Good valueBolivia has had a dollar shortage and the official rate and the street rate have diverged — check what is current the week you travel rather than trusting a printed figure. Cash dollars in good condition are valuable here; a torn note will be refused.
ATMs & cards
Banco Nacional and Banco Unión machines take foreign cards but have run dry during the dollar shortage, and limits are low. Bring cash dollars as a backup and keep them flat and unmarked.
Avoid these
- relying on machines alone during the dollar shortage, when they run dry
Use these instead
- Banco Nacional de Bolivia
- Banco Unión
- Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz
Bring cash dollars as a backup and keep them flat, clean and untorn — a marked note is refused here. The official and parallel rates have diverged, so check what is current before you travel.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Bolivia
Reasonably safeThe altitude is the first thing and it is serious: 3,600m in the city, 4,061m at the airport. Arrive and do nothing for a day, drink water, skip alcohol. Crime is opportunist — express kidnapping from street taxis is a documented risk, so use an app. Protests and road blockades are frequent and can close the airport road.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Sopocachi
- Zona Sur, La Paz
- San Miguel, La Paz
- Mi Teleférico — every line, at any hour
Worth more attention
- Express kidnapping from street taxis, which is documented — use an app or a radio taxi
- El Alto — the market areas, on Thursday and Sunday, with valuables on show
- Plaza Murillo — and the centre during protests, which are frequent and can close roads for days
- The altitude, at 3,600m, which is the actual first-day risk
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Bolivia visa rules
No visa neededup to 90 days
Ninety days per year, not per entry — the allowance is annual and is counted across visits.
Other passports
Visa on arrivalup to 90 daysUSD 160, cash, in unmarked notes
US citizens need a visa, obtainable on arrival with a yellow fever certificate, a hotel booking, a passport photo and the fee in pristine dollars. Torn or marked notes are refused.
Visa required in advance
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Bolivia
Evacuation likelyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate for the lowlands, and required by some neighbouring countries on the way out
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Yellow fever for the Amazon and the Yungas
- Rabies for a long stay
Getting treated
Limited. La Paz and Santa Cruz have private clinics that can stabilise; outside them there is very little, and Uyuni has a small hospital and nothing more. Altitude complicates everything, including recovery. Evacuation cover matters here.
Altitude is the dominant health issue: La Paz is 3,600m, El Alto airport 4,061m, the Uyuni lagoons 4,900m. Acute mountain sickness is common and pulmonary oedema happens. Ascend slowly, drink water, and treat coca tea as a help rather than a cure. Do not drink the tap water.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodSalteñas are eaten mid-morning and never later, are full of hot stew, and there is a technique to not wearing them. Api with pastel for breakfast. And La Paz has, improbably, one of the best restaurants in South America in Gustu, which trains Bolivian cooks with Bolivian ingredients.
Nightlife
Peñas with folk music, a small but serious cocktail scene, and cholita wrestling in El Alto, which is not nightlife exactly but is what people go to.
- Sopocachi — the bars and the peñas
- Calle Jaén — the colonial street, and the small venues on it
- El Alto — cholita wrestling, on Sunday afternoons
Closing: 03:00, and the altitude decides how long you last.
A beer in a bar: 15–30 BOB
Alcohol at 3,600m hits roughly twice as hard, and the hangover is altitude as much as drink.
Getting around
Easy- YangoWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- From the airport
- El Alto airport down to La Paz Bs 70–120
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper than a street taxi, and a radio taxi called by the hotel is the other safe option.
Uber does not operate in Bolivia.
Time zone and your working day
America/La Paz — the same time as you
8 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 09:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 09:00–17:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Bolivia
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 56% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Basic. Maps, messaging and music; a video call away from wifi will struggle. Mobile runs at 20% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Bolivia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Spanish (Latin American)
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-syas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse meDisculpedees-KOOL-peh
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
The c and z are said as an s here, not the Spanish "th" — gracias is GRA-syas.
Religion
Roman Catholic, layered over Andean belief
Pachamama, the earth mother, is honoured alongside the church rather than instead of it — the offerings sold in the Witches’ Market are for exactly that, and are burned or buried at the foundation of a house. Nobody finds the combination contradictory.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Accept coca tea or leaves, which are legal, traditional and genuinely help with the altitude
- Ask before photographing anybody, particularly cholitas in traditional dress, and expect to pay
- Say buenos días to a room when you enter a shop or get in a shared taxi
- Pour a splash on the ground before the first drink — the ch’alla, an offering to Pachamama
Don't
- Do not photograph the mummified llama foetuses in the Witches’ Market without asking; they are for household offerings and are not a curiosity
- Do not confuse coca leaf with cocaine, or joke about it — the distinction matters a great deal here
- Do not push through a road blockade during a protest, which is a normal and serious form of politics here
- Do not underestimate the altitude on the first day, however fit you are
Where to stay in La Paz
No Holistay rentals in La Paz yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is La Paz on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into El Alto LPB
40 minfrom the airport· 4 km as the crow flies
40 min down into the city — and the airport is at 4,061m, the highest international one in the world.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
