La Paz: The Best Things to Do
La Paz sits in a bowl at roughly 3,640 meters, with El Alto rising another 400 or so meters above the rim, so pace your first day or two before diving into the list below. Here’s what actually earns a place on it.
1. Ride Mi Teleferico
This is the world’s largest urban cable car network, around 11 color-coded lines stitching the city and El Alto together. A single ride runs only a few Bolivianos, but the turnstiles do not take cash, so buy or load a card at any station first. The Yellow Line has the best overall panorama; the Red Line delivers the most dramatic single span, dropping from El Alto into the city with Illimani framed behind it.
2. Browse the Witches’ Market
Calle Linares is an active Aymara market supplying real spiritual and medicinal needs, not a novelty stop for tourists. Dried llama fetuses, sold as Pachamama offerings for house foundations, come from miscarriages, and the herbal remedies on sale are used daily by locals. Ask before photographing vendors.
3. Explore Plaza Murillo and Calle Jaen
Plaza Murillo holds the Palacio Quemado and the National Congress building, whose clock, the Reloj del Sur, runs backwards on purpose. From there, Calle Jaen is the best-preserved colonial street in the city, lined with small museums covering gold and precious metals, local costume, and musical instruments, most with entry under $2.
4. Visit Iglesia de San Francisco
Built in 1548 and rebuilt between 1743 and 1772, the church’s carved facade blends Spanish colonial and Andean motifs into what’s often called mestizo-baroque. The plaza outside functions as the city’s real social hub, day and night.
5. Take the cholita wrestling show seriously
Cholita wrestling, staged mainly in El Alto, grew out of domestic-violence-survivor support circles and has become a genuine point of pride for Aymara women, not just a quirky photo op. Check listings locally since match schedules shift.
6. Walk Valle de la Luna
About 10km south of downtown, wind and rain have carved the soft clay here into spires that genuinely resemble a lunar landscape. The loop takes 30 to 60 minutes; go for morning or late-afternoon light.
7. Catch El Alto’s Feria 16 de Julio
One of South America’s largest open-air markets runs on Thursdays and Sundays in El Alto, above the city at around 4,150 meters. Go slow if you haven’t fully acclimatized yet, since the market itself sits higher than downtown La Paz.
8. Bike Death Road, but only with a vetted operator
The old Yungas Road built its deadly reputation on decades of vehicle traffic before a 2006 bypass rerouted through-traffic away from it. The descent itself, roughly 61km from cold highland to warm cloud forest, is genuinely spectacular, but the real risk today is operator quality, not the road. Book a reputable mountain-bike company with good equipment and a support vehicle; never attempt it unguided. Budget roughly $80-130 per person.
9. Day-trip to Tiwanaku
About two hours from La Paz, this UNESCO World Heritage Site predates the Inca by centuries. The Gate of the Sun and the Kalasasaya temple are the highlights, and the site museum is worth the extra ticket.
10. Visit a viewpoint for free
Mirador Killi Killi gives a wide, easy, free panorama over the whole city bowl, no cable car required, and works well any time of day.
11. Get to Lake Titicaca, but plan for an overnight
Copacabana, on the Bolivian shore of the world’s highest navigable lake at roughly 3,810 meters, is a tight but doable day trip; an overnight, with a boat out to Isla del Sol, is genuinely better.
12. Get around by registered radio taxi only
Street hails carry a real risk here: the fake-police scam and express-kidnapping schemes specifically target tourists, especially near markets. Call a radio taxi by phone or app instead, and never hand documents to anyone claiming to be plainclothes police.
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