Shared tours are more affordable, but they don’t offer much flexibility when it comes to your schedule. Tour operators in the region offer shared or private tours. What tour should I use to visit Salar de Uyuni? If you’re coming from Argentina, look into multi-day tours operating out of Tupiza, Bolivia, a good base less than 60 miles over the Argentinian border.

San Pedro de Atacama in Chile is another well-known starting point for tours of the salt flats, but because it’s about 200 miles away, most tours are three days long. If you’re traveling from La Paz to Uyuni, you can take a one-hour flight or an eight-hour overnight bus.

The small town is so close to the flats, you can easily take day trips. The town of Uyuni in Bolivia is the most popular place to embark on tours of the salt flats. Salar de Uyuni sits near the point where Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile meet, so tourists tend to come from three different starting places. The ideal month to visit is May, when the seasons transition from wet to dry and you’ll have a good chance of seeing the salt flats both dusty and reflective. May to November is the dry season, which means temperatures are colder, but the ground is harder and you can drive across the land more easily. To see Salar de Uyuni’s breathtaking mirror effort, visit during wet season, from December to April-but be aware that when it gets too rainy, it can be hard to get around and you might not be able to access certain areas.

If you’re planning a trip to witness the surreal beauty of the Salar de Uyuni salt flat, here’s what you need to know. There’s even a hotel built out of salt bricks: the Palacio de Sal. The natural wonder has served as a valuable source of salt and lithium for Bolivia, and it has long been a hot spot for tourism in South America. When nearby lakes overflow, or the area gets rain, a thin layer of water covers the expanse, transforming it into a massive reflective mirror that makes for jaw-dropping, dreamlike photos. Stretching for more than 4,050 square miles-a little smaller than the state of Connecticut-it is the world’s largest salt flat, formed when several prehistoric lakes dried up 25,000 to 10,000 years ago, leaving behind hexagonal patterns of salt on the otherwise featureless surface. Salar de Uyuni, located in the Daniel Campos province of Bolivia, looks like it belongs on another planet.

Uyuni salt flats