To Bolivia from London - how on earth?

Hello everyone,

Am planning a summer 2014 Bolivia trip and would really like to hear suggestions on the best way to get there bearing in mind there are no direct flights.

Many thanks indeed!

How 'bout London to Miami and continue on to La Paz or Santa Cruz with American Airlines?

London - Miami - Bolivia (I think the most common way)
London - Madrid - Bolivia
London - Lima - Bolivia
London - Buenos Aires - Bolivia
London - Panama - Bolivia

Check out flights out of Madrid (or Barcelona) - they tend to be cheapest. Then look at Ryanair to those cities. I've done it twice (from Stockholm) and saved about € 200 each time.

#1
I've heard about ridiculously cheap flights out of Miami but only to Cartagena, Colombia and Guayaquil, Ecuador.

agree with fieldgate , go via madrid and use connecting cheap airline from uk,

BOA and Air Europa both fly from madrid to santa cruz (boa can go onto la pa\ with connection also) for around 1000usd both ways. You can get easy jet flights fro about 40/50usd per flight from various ariports in the UK to madrid, Ive just recently come in with BOA and connected to Gatwick with a 5 hours wait and will fly back to madrid next week from Liverpool.
One thing to be careful with doing this is to allow plenty of time between flights and best to have insurance covering changes and cancellations as it is two separate flight bookings and the airlines wont be responsible for flights missed due to delays or changes.

Many thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply. I hadn't heard of BOA and found a good option from Madrid to La Paz. The Ryanair / Easyjet connection options sound fine. Can't seem to figure out if Air Europa fly to La Paz or Santa Cruz from Spain - no flights coming up on search. Cheers!

I forgot about BOA from Madrid to Santa Cruz.

American Airlines Miami-La Paz, then La Paz-Santa Cruz-Miami? Only in grave need will I take this route again - a quasi-monpoly and it shows. Cattle class on ageing 757s, with grumpy flight crews who can barely find the energy to water the livestock. :-((
Try AirEuropa London LGW-Madrid-Santa Cruz, with onward connexion to La Paz by Amaszonas in agreement with AirEuropa. May cost more than BoA Madrid-Santa Cruz plus budget airline London-Madrid, but you're less likely to get stranded.
But beware - immigration and customs procedures in Santa Cruz are chaotic and can take forever, so allow plenty of time for connecting flight.

Ran into many Brits in Bolivia back in June. Most flew into Santa Cruz. Few flew into Rio and then took buses across Brazil. Those people said that Brazil is more expensive than London and would never do the bus route again. Other Brits came north out of Paraguay.

Met one young woman who got a deal -RT Paris to Lima for 200 Euros --she then took buses to Bolivia. Look for deals-I recently returned from Mexico and was really surprised at low cost that a lot of Europeans obtained flights to Mexico.

Can't seem to figure out if Air Europa fly to La Paz or Santa Cruz from Spain - no flights coming up on search. Cheers!

They fly to Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Viru Viru airport) out of Madrid. They also fly from London Gatwick to Madrid so you could get a single booking with them for all the route from London Gatwick to Santa Cruz (changing planes in Madrid).

BTW, if you plan to take a flight from the UK to Madrid and a separately booked one from Madrid to Bolivia, be aware that if you miss your flight from Madrid to Bolivia due to a late arrival of your flight from the UK (or to a cancelation of your flight from the UK), you would need to look for alternatives on the spot and they wouldn't be cheap.

London - Lima - Bolivia
London - Buenos Aires - Bolivia
London - Panama - Bolivia

There aren't non-stop flights from London to Lima and there aren't non-stop flights from London to Panama. The option London-Buenos Aires-Bolivia would mean British Airways from London to Buenos Aires and either Aerolíneas Argentinas or BOA from Buenos Aires to Bolivia.

There's also the option of flying from London to Sao Paulo and make a separate booking from Sao Paulo to Bolivia with Gol or BOA.

P.S.: Out of Madrid, Avianca changing planes in Bogotá is other option (in this case to La Paz). And there are other options from Madrid to Bolivia changing planes along the way like LAN or Aerolíneas Argentinas.

Yeah...that AA #922 from Miami can be brutal. Lucky for us though Copa now flies from our hometown so we've been using them for the past few trips.

Thanks again for your comments everyone.

My original plan was to return to London and then fly to Bolivia from there. But, seeing how expensive it mostly is, I might now try to go 'direct' from where I reside (Beirut, Lebanon). It seems there are a few carriers who fly to Brazil and Argentina and then I could bus it to Santa Cruz from there.

Any thoughts on this new route would also be greatly appreciated. For example, you - xinloi - say the buses in Brazil are expensive so that might put me off, and with the world cup on in the summer i'm sure prices will RISE again, although it would be nice to soak up the atmosphere.

Many thanks again!

I might now try to go 'direct' from where I reside (Beirut, Lebanon)

As you plan to go in summer, Vueling from Beirut to Barcelona and Air Europa from Barcelona to Santa Cruz (changing planes in Madrid) could be an option you could consider. Or Vueling from Beyruth to Madrid (changing planes in Barcelona) and either Air Europa or BOA from Madrid to Santa Cruz could be another one.

Thanks anillos_de_saturno - a good suggestion