Bolivia

The world's highest administrative capital sits in a dramatic canyon surrounded by snow-capped Andean peaks. The teleférico cable car system offers stunning aerial views, witches' markets sell llama fetuses for offerings, and the Moon Valley landscape is otherworldly.

The world's largest salt flat — 10,582 km² of blinding white at 3,656m in southwest Bolivia. In wet season (Dec-Apr) a thin water film turns it into the planet's biggest mirror; dry season reveals hexagonal salt tiles to the horizon. Multi-day 4WD tours typically run 3D/2N from Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama via the Eduardo Avaroa lagoons, geysers, and flamingo-pink waters. Lithium reserves below are the world's largest.

Bolivia's whitewashed constitutional capital and the country's most beautiful colonial city, sitting at a far gentler 2,810 metres than altitude-blasted La Paz. The 16th-century UNESCO old town is a grid of low white buildings with red-tiled roofs, framed by the Cordillera de los Frailes. Casa de la Libertad on Plaza 25 de Mayo is where Bolivia signed its declaration of independence in 1825, the Sunday Tarabuco textile market draws Yampara weavers in striped ponchos from the surrounding villages, and the cement quarry at Cal Orck'o preserves the world's largest single set of dinosaur footprints — over 5,000 prints across an 80-degree wall.

A sun-bleached pilgrimage town on the Bolivian shore of Lake Titicaca, three and a half hours by road from La Paz across the Tiquina ferry crossing. The whitewashed Moorish-style Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana houses the Dark Virgin, Bolivia's patron saint, and on weekends drivers line up the length of Avenida 6 de Agosto to have new vehicles blessed with flower garlands and beer. The harbour launches small wooden boats for the two-hour crossing to Isla del Sol, the Inca creation-myth island where Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo emerged. Trout pulled fresh from Titicaca arrives whole and grilled at lakefront comedores, and the Yunguyo border crossing puts Peru's Puno just three hours further on.