Bolivia Travel Guide

Unlike many countries on the continent, citizens of most countries can obtain a visa on arrival or visit the country without having to apply for a visa in advance. Citizens of Mercosur member states ― Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru ― enjoy freedom of movement in Bolivia. They can just enter with their National ID card.

The national currency is the Boliviano (ISO code: BOB), denoted Bs. (with dot). Bills come in denominations of Bs. 200, 100, 50, 20, and 10; coins are in Bs. 5, 2, and 1, and 50, 20, and sometimes 10 centavos (1/10 of a Boliviano). Bills larger than Bs. 50 can be hard to break with smaller stores or vendors, other electronic stores or such dealing with larger amounts will be able to change them for you.

Bus transportation in Bolivia is a nice cheap way to get to see the beautiful scenery while traveling to your destination. Unfortunately the buses often travel solely at night. Keep in mind that roads are occasionally blocked due to protests, often for several days. So ask several companies at the terminal if you hear about blockades, unless you are willing to spend a few days sleeping on the bus.

Bolivia has 37 official languages, of which Spanish (often called Castellano), Quechua, and Aymara are the main ones. Bolivian Spanish is very relatively easy to understand, since they speak relatively slowly and do not swallow syllables, you will feel the differences especially if you arrive to the country from Argentina or Chile, where the people there speak fast and difficult to understand if you are not native speaker.

The plain-clothed police officer scam

This can occur in this region and especially in cities like La Paz, Cochabamba and Sucre, basically everywhere where to expect larger amounts of tourists, but especially near plazas and in the center. In remote regions of Bolivia you should be safe from it, because there are too few tourists to target and travelers to remote regions are generally more aware.

Some parts of Bolivia like La Paz (3,650 m), Potosí (4,010 m), Oruro (3,950 m) and the Lake Titicaca region (3,400 m) are high altitude, so adequate precautions against "sorojchi" altitude sickness should be taken.

Bolivians, like their counterparts on the continent, have a casual view of time. For example, you can expect your Bolivian counterparts to be a few minutes late for an appointment. This is completely normal. That said, you should be on time for business appointments.