Basics - The Rough Guide to Bolivia - page 42

abroad offer excellent and increasingly exciting itineraries, ranging from mountain climbing,
trekking, mountain biking and wildlife safaris to less strenuous city tours and countryside ex-
cursions. Tours tend to cost around Bs350-490 ($50-70) per person per day, depending on
the nature of the trip, the degree of comfort and the number of people going along.
Most tour agencies are based in La Paz, where you can arrange almost any trip in the coun-
try, but for the more popular wilderness excursions it's easier and cheaper to arrange things
with local operators: in Uyuni for the Salar de Uyuni and Reserva Eduardo Avaroa, for ex-
ample, and in Rurrenabaque for the Pampas del Yacuma and Parque Nacional Madidi. Rel-
evant agencies are listed in the guide under each destination.
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ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation in Bolivia is generally very good value, though standards in all price
brackets are variable. In the larger cities you'll find a broad range of places to stay,
including top-end hotels charging well over Bs700 ($100) a night. In smaller towns,
however, there's not much choice, particularly in the mid- and upper price ranges,
though there are usually plenty of decent budget places.
Roomratesgenerallyrepresentexcellentvalueformoney.Inareaspopularwithtourists,rates
rise slightly duringthe high season (July-August) andprices inanytowncan double ortreble
during a major fiesta. In addition, room rates in resort towns popular with Bolivians increase
at the weekend. These are also the only circumstances in which reserving a room in advance
is necessary. Prices also vary by region: accommodation in big cities tends to cost more (not-
ably in Santa Cruz), whereas smaller towns that see a lot of budget travellers - Coroico, Co-
pacabana, Rurrenabaque - tend to have a good range of inexpensive places to stay.
Accommodation names - hotel , hostal , residencial and alojamiento - mean relatively little
in Bolivia. Virtually all high-end accommodation will call itself a hotel , but then many ba-
sic places do so as well. Smaller and cheaper hotels - also known as hostales , alojamientos
or residenciales - tend to offer basic rooms with shared bathrooms only, but they still vary
widely in price, cleanliness and comfort. Cabañas are self-contained cabins or bungalows,
sometimes with their own kitchenettes, usually found away from big cities. Note that a motel
is not an inexpensive roadside hotel, but a place where unmarried couples go to have sex,
while a pension is a cheap place to eat, rather than somewhere to stay.