The Expreso del Sur

Bolivia is one of the few countries left where the train is still a real journey rather than a museum piece, and its finest ride runs down the spine of the Andean altiplano — the high, cold, treeless plateau that sits at nearly 4,000 metres above the sea. This is the line of the Expreso del Sur, run by the Empresa Ferroviaria Andina, and it is the way travellers have long reached the most extraordinary sight in the country: the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on earth.

The train sets out from Oruro, an old mining city, and runs some 650 kilometres south to Villazón on the Argentine border, calling at Uyuni — the gateway to the salt — and the red-rock canyon town of Tupiza along the way. It is not a luxury cruise; it is an ordinary, comfortable, inexpensive service train, with reclining seats, a dining car and the heating you badly want when the altiplano night drops below freezing outside the glass.

What makes it unforgettable is the country it crosses. For hours the window fills with salt pans, llamas, distant volcanoes and mud-brick villages under an immense sky; then, in the far south, the grey plateau gives way to the astonishing red rock of Tupiza. Ride it as the Bolivians do, wrapped up against the cold with the plateau sliding past, and you have one of the last great train journeys of the Andes.

The journey begins at Oruro, the railhead of the Bolivian altiplano and the terminus of the passenger line south. In the days before departure the station fills with travellers, traders and their bundles; then the blue-and-yellow train pulls out into the vast, flat, straw-coloured plateau, and the long run to the border begins.

For the first hours there is a hypnotic sameness to the altiplano — pale grassland, salt flats catching the light, flocks of llamas and alpacas, the occasional adobe hamlet with its church, and always, on the horizon, the cones of dormant volcanoes. The train runs high and steady at around 3,700 metres, and as the afternoon fades the cold comes down hard; this is when the heated carriage earns its keep.

By evening the train reaches Uyuni, and most travellers get off here. This wind-scoured town on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni is the reason the line is famous: from Uyuni, 4x4 tours strike out across the blinding white salt to the cactus islands, the coloured lagoons and the flamingos beyond, and on the town's edge the rusting engines of the train cemetery stand as a monument to the railway's own past. It is worth breaking the journey here for days.

Those who stay aboard press on through the night, deeper into the south. In the small hours the country changes utterly: the flat plateau crumples into the deep, glowing red gorges of the Cordillera de Chichas, and the train winds down to Tupiza, a frontier town straight out of a Western — it was near here that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made their last stand. A little further and the line reaches Villazón, on the Argentine border, where the rails of one country meet those of the next. It is a journey that begins on the roof of the Andes and ends among red canyons — and never once stops giving you something to look at.

The line is worked by Empresa Ferroviaria Andina (FCA) with two trains: the faster Expreso del Sur, which makes only the main stops, and the all-stations Wara Wara del Sur. Between them they run most days of the week, but each runs only on set days and largely overnight, so the timetable needs planning.

Expreso del Sur (Ejecutivo & Salón class), as of the 2026 timetable — confirm before travelling:

Wara Wara del Sur (adds Popular class; calls at all halts) runs Oruro → Villazón on Wed & Sun, departing Oruro 19:00 and reaching Uyuni about 02:35 and Villazón about 11:50; and Villazón → Oruro on Mon & Thu, departing Villazón 15:30.

Good to know:

• For the Salar, aim for Uyuni. On the Expreso del Sur from Oruro you reach Uyuni around 21:20 — a civilised evening arrival for the salt-flat tours. It is the single most popular stretch of the line.
• It runs into the night. Both trains cross the coldest, highest country after dark; bring warm layers even in summer, as carriages can be chilly and station stops are freezing.
• Getting to Oruro. Oruro is linked to La Paz and Cochabamba by frequent buses (about 3–4 hours from La Paz); most travellers reach the railhead that way and pick up the train there.

Times as of the 2026 FCA timetable and subject to change. Confirm the current schedule and days of operation with the operator before you travel — see the Tickets section below.

This is an ordinary, affordable railway rather than a tourist special, so buying a ticket is simple and the fares are low. The Expreso del Sur offers Ejecutivo, with the fullest reclining seats, and Salón; the all-stations Wara Wara del Sur adds a cheaper Popular class. Ejecutivo is worth the small extra on the long overnight legs. Tickets are sold at the stations and through Ferroviaria Andina, and your passport is needed to book.

Book ahead around the peak salt-flat months and Bolivian holidays. Bring bolivianos in cash, food to supplement the dining car, and layers — the altiplano nights are genuinely cold. The most popular plan is to ride Oruro to Uyuni, break for the Salar, then continue south to Tupiza and Villazón; the line rewards taking it in stages.

This is a line that strings together some of the most remarkable places in Bolivia, and it rewards breaking the journey rather than riding straight through. The stops below are the ones worth building days around.

Two things on the route do not get a card of their own. On the edge of Uyuni stands the Cementerio de Trenes — a plain of rusting nineteenth-century locomotives left where the old mineral railway died, a short walk or a cheap taxi from town. And at the far south, Villazón is chiefly a border crossing into Argentina, its twin town La Quiaca lying just across the frontier; from there this journey can flow straight on into the great railways and landscapes of the Argentine Northwest.

Most people give the Salar and the Eduardo Avaroa reserve two or three days on a 4x4 tour out of Uyuni, taking in the coloured lagoons, the geysers at Sol de Mañana and the desert rock formations together. Almost nobody regrets it.

Where you sleep on this journey depends on how far you break it, but the natural rhythm of the line makes the choices easy.

In Uyuni you will find the widest range, from simple travellers' hostels to a handful of memorable salt hotels — lodgings built partly from blocks of salt out on and around the flat itself, an experience in their own right. Uyuni is where most people spend a night or two before and after the Salar tour, so book ahead in high season.

In Oruro, at the start, are straightforward city hotels handy for the evening train and, if you have timed it right, for Carnaval — for which rooms are scarce and expensive, so reserve far in advance.

In Tupiza, in the red-rock south, there are relaxed guesthouses and small hotels geared to travellers heading out on horseback into the canyons — a warmer, gentler place to rest than the freezing altiplano towns further north.

As with all our journeys, we point to the shape of the trip rather than specific bookings: a salt-built room in Uyuni for the Salar, a night in Oruro for the train (or the Carnaval), and a canyon guesthouse in Tupiza — with the long altiplano ride linking them together. Wherever you stay on the plateau, pack for the cold: nights above 3,500 metres are bitter, and heating is not a given.