4 questions about the Salar

Last I heard Noef Kempff's only entry point, a small landing strip, was out of operation. I could be wrong though. I'd love to visit myself one day.

As for the original question

1) Many suffer from altitude sickness. Acclimatise in La Paz or elsewhere for several days. You will reach almost 5000m on the tour but sleep lower (don't know exact stats)

2) Tours are generally considered of better quality from Tupiza as they have better quality companies. Some Uyuni tours are good, others not. Red Planet gets better reviews than most from Uyuni.

3) If you want a private tour staying in nice hotels then you should be prepared to pay the full cost yourself (4 ppl). It's easy to find others for the cheaper tours in either city

4) Comes down to luck really. It's wetter during Feb_Mar but more likely to have mobility problems.

Yup Would love to do NK as well, but not sure about the landing strip....

1) If you rush up to Uyuni/San Pedro and then do the trip straight away you will likely get some altitude sickness. Try to acclimatise in La Paz/Cusco or somewhere before arriving - as a lot of backpackers will do.

2) Its a much of a muchness. The tupiza tours have an extra day and see a bit more scenery. Start where you want to start.

3) Not sure theres too many 'nice hotels' on the Alitplano - it seemed like the majority of tours were staying at a hotel with basic amenities.

4) Rainy season means you are more likely to get some sweeeeet reflections on the Salar. That said, Isla Incahuasi is likely to be cut off and you won't get to see it.

These are the only nice hotels in the area, which can be stayed in during the SW circuit tours. http://www.taykahoteles.com/es/

I stayed in 3 of them and can attest they are pretty good, 3-4 stars. Very expensive though.

1) About the altitude sickness, you can take coca leafs, I live in San Pedro de Atacama and when we go to the altitude we take them and it helps a lot, but if you have had some problems with the altitude you should acclimatize for 2 or 3 days.
4)The best month in the wet season is January, not extremely wet.
You can enjoy the mirror effect in January if you are lucky, but to be sure in February but because of the rain you will have accessibility problems.
The dry season is colder, one month ago Uyuni had -20 celsius degrees and now they have -15, -10 and there`s no heating.

Marcela Orellana
www.hostalsumaj.cl

1) Altitude sickness: As noted - varies from person to person; best to spend some time at altitude. Colchani is at 3681m, the Hotel de Piedra is at 3699m, the Hotel del Desierto is at 4505m, you will ascend to 5026m if you cross the Paso del Inca.

2) Starting point: We arrived at the Salar de Uyuni from Sucre, Potosí, and Uyuni.

3) I'm looking for a private up-grade tour, and am in touch with Hidalgo, Ruta Verde, Quechua and Tupiza. Any other to reach out to? We arranged our guide (and second vehicle - we took our own car) through Joy Ride Café in Sucre - they did a great job.

4) Timing: see other posts above.

A lot of people are already acclimatised by the time they get to Uyuni. But some do still get sick - the coca leaves help.

There's a lot of chat about Tupiza being better. Uyuni is a dump, but its closer to the salar, tours leave from there more regularly and it'll be a bit cheaper (although I'm guessing price isn't as much of a factor as it might be for others.) Red Planet came up time and again when we were asking round. They were fine, although not amazing (we had a few problems with them - http://2britsabroad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-highs-and-lows-of-our-visit-to.html ) and maybe not what you're looking for if you want something a bit more.

1) Altitude sickness...
I had a problem in Cusco (3300 m), so expecting problems here too.
La Paz and Uyuni are both 3600 m...

With previous problems in Cusco you´d want a first night lower than that. Which is easy : the low ( and posh ) end of La Paz is lower than Cusco , 3100-ish vs 3400 in Cusco.

Re coca and other drugs : Diamox has a proven preventive effect. Cusco docs are less impressed with coca - Cabada and Mozo has made two surveys of Cusco travellers , one with six thousand and another with 900+ , and are very sceptical . The Zubiteta specialist clinic in La Paz doesnt recommend it either.