Traveling by bus in Bolivia

I'd disagree, and say you only have one option: purchase a ticket in the terminal.

Bus travel in Bolivia can be so unpredictable, purchasing a ticket beforehand, online or otherwise, is asking for trouble.

Also, Bolivia does have pretty cheap internal flights...

hello adealy, but I will have to disagree as well :)

There are not cheap flight companies in South America like in other continents:

flight La Paz - Santa Cruz (average 110$us)
bus La Paz - Santa Cruz (average 25$us)
flight La Paz - Sucre (average 70$us)
bus La Paz - Sucre (average 15$us)

If it's not possible to book because is upredictable, it wouldn't be possible to plan a trip to any place in Bolivia for the same reason, and there exist more tourism companies compared to last years.

Besides, these companies normally refund you if a social/natural problem arises.

regards

Edited by: dager

I have to agree with adealy. I've only taken a plane once in Bolivia, but I paid 400 Bolivianos from La paz to Sucre booking the day before the flight. I have to say that's very cheap. Obviously buses are cheaper.

Bolivia is cheap across the board--buses are obviously cheaper than flights. But seriously--considering that any tourist visiting Bolivia was able to afford the price of getting there, I can't imagine who would rather pay $20 for a 25-hour bus ride with a drunk driver than pay $60 for a 45-minute flight on the national airline.

I thought plane tickets were expensive in Bolivia relative to other similar countries... the fact that you just paid a few thousand to get to Bolivia doesnt make everything else cheap in comparison... I paid one-way $120 for LaPaz-SantaCruz which is less than 2hrs and while this is cheap in comparison with same distance flights in the US or UK, I have also paid $60 for a flight between Malaysia and Sumatra... i am not advocating for buses, just making a point that while LP says "flights are inexpensive in Bolivia", to my knowledge this is not true.

La Paz to Santa Cruz may be an hour flight, but it also saves a potential 20 hours on a bus. That makes a flight much more valuable in my opinion.

You paid $120 to go La Paz-Santa Cruz? That's about double the most expensive flight I took only two years ago...didn't go that precise route, but still. You sure they didn't sell you a round-trip ticket?

not all people can afford flight tickets, not all towns and cities have airports. Besides, backackers may want to see small towns as well, and may stay some nights in different places rather than main cities... so booking bus tickets online seems a very good option for me.