ALTIPLANO PRIVATE CROSSING

PERU & BOLIVIA

This is a private crossing of the Andean spine, from Peru into Bolivia, on a route that treats the mountains as connective tissue rather than a wall. You'll move through Incan heartland, isolated Altiplano villages, and salt flats that don't look like they belong on this planet, before dropping into the edge of the Amazon. Nothing here is incidental. The Andes, revealed as the living system they actually are.

Note that everything you see here is an example of what your trip could look like. Your adventure will be tailored specifically to you.

WHEN TO GO

DURATION

MAY - SEP

10 NIGHTS

LANGUAGE

SPANISH, QUECHUA

CURRENCY

SOL, BOLIVIANO

ESTIMATED COST

$12,800

per person, excl. int'l flights

(based on two adults sharing)

Why this adventure

The Andes don't divide a continent so much as narrate one. Follow that narration long enough and you start to see how altitude dictates everything: what grows, who settled where, how people adapted or didn't. This crossing traces that logic on foot and by vehicle, from stone terraces still worked by hand to windswept plains where the horizon stops making sense. We've built in private guides, considered lodging, and no rush. Because the point isn't checking off sights. It's understanding, even briefly, what it means to build a life at the edge of what altitude allows.

Journey flow

You'll start in Peru's highlands, in valleys the Inca engineered with a precision that still holds up centuries later. From there, the elevation climbs and the land opens up, until Titicaca and the Bolivian Altiplano stretch out ahead of you in a way that's hard to describe accurately. The days are built around small, private moments: a village visit, a viewpoint nobody else is standing at, long stretches of quiet you didn't know you needed. Then the descent begins, and stone gives way to jungle. Every shift in the landscape feels like it's been earned, because it has.

Take it farther

For travelers who want to go deeper, we can arrange private access to archaeological sites with a specialist Andean historian, or build in a dedicated sunrise session on the Salar de Uyuni, timed for the light and the silence rather than a crowd. We'd also point you toward extending the trip with several nights at an Amazon lodge, with guided wildlife immersion, so the descent into the jungle isn't a final stop but its own chapter.

Customize this itinerary

Every trip we design is built around you: your pace, your curiosity, your definition of a good day. No set departures, no group tours, no one-size-fits-all anything. If this itinerary sparks something in you, let's talk about what that could look like for you specifically.

START YOUR JOURNEY

Adventure highlights

AMAZON BASIN TRANSITION

The descent from high Andes into Amazon fringe is abrupt in the best way. Thin air gives way to dense green, silence gives way to noise, and the ecological arc of the whole trip finally closes.

UYUNI SALT FLATS & HIGH DESERT

Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni doesn't photograph as strange as it actually is in person. Mirrored horizons, volcanic silhouettes, and a scale that's easier to feel than explain. Best experienced without a crowd, and we make sure of that.

LAKE TITICACA & ALTIPLANO COMMUNITIES

Cross the highest navigable lake in the world and spend time in highland villages where old traditions aren't performed for visitors, they're just how life works. Deep water, wide sky, and conversations that stay with you.

SACRED VALLEY TERRACES & INCAN PATHWAYS

Walk agricultural terraces and ceremonial sites that are still in daily use, not preserved behind glass. Private guides explain how ancient engineering keeps functioning, right now, under some of the most demanding topography on the continent.

How it unfolds

DAYS 1-3

SACRED VALLEY

The journey opens in the Sacred Valley, where Ollantaytambo and Pisac still function as working towns built on Incan foundations, not staged recreations of them. Days here move between guided walks through agricultural terraces still farmed using techniques centuries old, quiet mornings in villages that don't organize themselves around visitors, and enough altitude adjustment to make the days ahead easier on the body. The pace is deliberately unhurried. This is where the trip's real thesis gets set: elevation shapes everything here, and you're about to watch that play out for ten more days.

DAYS 4-6

TITICACA & THE BORDER CROSSING

From Cusco, the route drops to Puno on the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world and considerably stranger in person than in photographs. A private boat crossing brings you to Copacabana on the Bolivian side, with time in Uros and Amantani communities along the way, before the overland leg to La Paz. The city sits at close to 12,000 feet in a canyon carved into the Altiplano, and the descent into it, mountains rising on all sides, is one of the more disorienting arrivals in South America. Good disorienting.

DAYS 7-9

UYUNI & THE SALT FLATS

A short flight puts you in Uyuni, gateway to the largest salt flat on earth. The Salar doesn't behave like a normal landscape. It reflects sky with enough precision to erase the horizon entirely, and the volcanic islands and mineral lagoons that surround it look like they belong to a different planet. Private timing means sunrise on the salt without another vehicle in sight, which is the whole point. Days here alternate between the flats themselves and the high desert communities that have made a life on their edges for generations.

DAY 10

AMAZON TRANSITION

A flight back through La Paz sets up the final descent, from the thin air of the Altiplano into the Bolivian Amazon at Rurrenabaque. The temperature and humidity shift within the hour it takes to fly there, and the terrain changes just as fast: stone and altitude give way to river and canopy. It's a short but deliberate close to the journey, a taste of the basin rather than a full immersion in it. For travelers who want more, this is exactly what the Amazon lodge extension is built to solve.

Where you could stay

EXPLORA UYUNI

Set at the threshold of the world’s largest salt flat, Explora Uyuni blends minimalist elegance with elemental Patagonia-style exploration. Thoughtfully designed spaces frame wide horizons, while guided salt-flat treks, sunset viewpoints, and expert naturalists bring the surreal landscape into cinematic focus without sacrificing comfort.

TITILAKA

Remote and luminous, Titilaka sits on a private peninsula where the world feels distilled to water, wind, and sky. Suites face sunrise or sunset, and days unfold at a contemplative pace shaped by local rhythms. Guides are storytellers as much as naturalists, revealing lake culture as a continuum, not a relic.

SOL Y LUNA

A Relais & Chateaux property near Urubamba, set across 25 acres of immaculately manicured gardens that feel like a private oasis, with 43 individually decorated casitas built from local stone. A working ranch with Peruvian Paso horses, a women's textile co-op and market, and a pottery workshop set among the property's stunning Andean location. Cultural showcases including traditional Peruvian music and Paso horse displays are part of the regular program, and the wellness center draws on Andean healing traditions using local herbs.

Ready to start planning?

All Peregrine trips include:

Every trip we design starts from scratch, built around how you travel and what you're actually after. No fixed routes, no shared departures, no compromises. If something on this page resonated, that's a good place to start a conversation.