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Salar de Uyuni
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Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Salar de Uyuni

Bolivia · Latin America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Salar de Uyuni

Tap a month for its page

  1. Salar de Uyuni in January: good
  2. Salar de Uyuni in February: ok, busy
  3. Salar de Uyuni in March: sweet spot
  4. Salar de Uyuni in April: good
  5. Salar de Uyuni in May: good
  6. Salar de Uyuni in June: ok
  7. Salar de Uyuni in July: good
  8. Salar de Uyuni in August: good
  9. Salar de Uyuni in September: sweet spot
  10. Salar de Uyuni in October: sweet spot
  11. Salar de Uyuni in November: good, busy
  12. Salar de Uyuni in December: good
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in Mar, Sep or Oct — these months score within a whisker of each other; 18C max, 0 rainy days. Nov is the next best.

Dry season: Apr–Nov, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.

Things to do in Salar de Uyuni

  • Tunupa Volcano A dormant volcano that some longer tours allow you to hike up.
  • Pulacayo Near world's second largest silver mine, at this historical site there's the Bolivia's first railway and a train robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
  • Isla del Pescado The "island" of fossilized coral, covered in ancient cacti that grow only a centimeter a year.
  • Mount Uyuni Mountain in Potosí, Bolivia
  • Jalsuri Mountain in Bolivia

Tours and tickets in Salar de Uyuni

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Salar de Uyuni), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 17° 14d 61% 11.7h good 17C max, 14 rainy days
Feb 17° 11d 59% 11.5h okbusy busier than usual
Mar 17° 7d 57% 11.3h sweet spot 17C max, 7 rainy days
Apr 16° 1d 32% 11.0h good 16C max, 1 rainy day
May 13° 0d 23% 10.8h good 13C max, 0 rainy days
Jun 11° 0d 25% 10.7h ok 11C max, 0 rainy days
Jul 12° 0d 22% 10.8h good 12C max, 0 rainy days
Aug 12° 1d 21% 10.9h good 12C max, 1 rainy day
Sep 16° 0d 23% 11.5h sweet spot 16C max, 0 rainy days
Oct 18° 0d 24% 12.2h sweet spot 18C max, 0 rainy days
Nov 19° 2d 31% 12.5h goodbusy busier than usual
Dec 19° 7d 44% 12.2h good 19C max, 7 rainy days

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Uyuni town: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in February and November; quietest in September and December.

Then and now

Salar de Uyuni's April days now average 16.1°C, 1.3°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 3 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–9016.6°16.2°16.1°14.8°12.6°10.2°10.6°12.9°14.6°17.4°18.0°17.9°
2017–2617.1°17.1°16.8°16.1°13.1°10.7°11.5°12.4°15.6°17.8°18.9°18.8°
Change+0.5°+1.0°+0.7°+1.3°+0.5°+0.5°+1.0°-0.5°+1.0°+0.4°+0.9°+0.9°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Salar de Uyuni is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and C plugs at 115 / 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Boliviano. UK Foreign Office: avoid all but essential travel to parts. Everything for Bolivia: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — The currency is the boliviano (BOB). Cards are not widely taken outside the cities, so carry small notes for street food, taxis and tips, and if you bring cash to change, bring US dollars. Card and ATM fraud occurs: use ATMs in well-lit public places or inside a bank or business, and cover the keypad.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Service is included in the bill, but a small tip of around 5% is sometimes given and considered polite; taxi drivers are not tipped.

Getting around Salar de Uyuni

  • Apps — Rides: Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Taxis have no meters, so confirm the fare before you get in. Book a radio taxi by phone or through your hotel: it shows the company's name and phone number on the roof, and registered taxis carry a sticker on the windscreen. Do not hail taxis in the street or share one with strangers.

Standardized car-tours are the most common way of visiting the salt flat. Because of the sheer area size and hostility of the environment, moving by feet or even bicycle is not easy. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Salar de Uyuni, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — police 110 · ambulance 118 · fire 119.
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 8 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (11)

Salar de Uyuni in pictures

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, 2016 02 04, DD 10 12 HDR
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Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, 2016 02 04, DD 01 03 HDR
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Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Piles of Salt Salar de Uyuni Bolivia Luca Galuzzi 2006 a
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Luca Galuzzi (Lucag), edit by Trialsanderrors, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

03 Salar de Uyuni nX 14
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PsamatheM, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Salar de Uyuni is like

Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world and one of the most amazing natural attractions of Bolivia. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
Train Graveyard. The famous lot of old wrecked steam locomotives. Colchani, Bloques de Sal. A salt processing village, 7 km north of Uyuni. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
Termas de Polques hot springs. Adjacent to Salar de Chalviri, allowing for hot spring swim. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
Most organized tours start in Uyuni, usually Uyuni Plaza Arce. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe
In the tours, drunk drivers are a possibility: do not risk if you have a suspicion. Taking emergency supplies is advisable if undertaking a private trip. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Salar de Uyuni, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Salar de Uyuni

Also in Bolivia

Nearby

Kind of place

Salar de Uyuni is in Bolivia, Latin America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and fare data before any link is built.