Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat, located in Bolivia.

TOUR BACKGROUND

The "standard "tour is conducted in 4x4 vehicles (usually Toyota Landcruisers) with 6 or 7 people, with the driver often times cooking. Most 3- and 4- day tours have the same itinerary for the first 2 1/2 days, a day on the salt plains, then heading south to the southwest corner of Bolivia, and then splitting off from there. The specific sites that are seen can be dependent on the tour, but group input can define which sites are visited and how much time will be spent at each.
Accommodation is usually provided in basic refuges and the weather can be very cold, but it is well worth it for the amazing scenery. Avoid tours that offer a night in one of the salt hotels - they are illegal as, not being part of the water grid, they pollute the environment.

Other Tour Options
Ending on the Chilean Border - Another alternative is to do the three day tour and be dropped at the Chilean border before taking at connection to San Pedro de Atacama, or do the entire tour from there. No attractions are missed by leaving the tour at the Chilean border before it heads back to Uyuni.
From San Pedro de Atacama - There is also the opportunity to do this tour starting in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile and ending in Uyuni on the third day or returning to San Pedro the following day. The advantage is that you get to see the Salar on the final morning, getting to see the sunrise over the Salar. There are several tour operators along the main street in San Pedro. However, you have to take attention booking with tour operators in Chile, since all the tours in Uyuni (Bolivia) have to be guided by Bolivian tour-guides, Chilean tour guides are not authorized to conduct tours in the Uyuni salt flat.

On the first day you will visit the salt flats. In the dry season this will be a hallucinogenic white landscape. In the rain it is mostly submerged and will show a perfect reflection of the sky.

Uyuni Plaza Arce - Most trips start here next to the train station at 10:30am, although hotel pickup is usually available.
Train Graveyard - Usually the first thing of the tour, but some operators prefer to finish the tour with it. A place with a lot of wrecked old steam locomotives.
Colchani, Bloques de Sal - a village 7 kilometers north of Uyuni that survives off of the processing of salt. Salt souvenirs are available, a salt museum that has carvings of animals created with salt (they make you pay the fee upon exit), some examples of furniture and home-building techniques using salt.

Salt-Mining Area - an area where salt is dug from the plane into piles weighing a ton each, and left to dry in the sun before transport to a refinery then to your table.

Salt Hotels - Several hotels made completely out of salt. It is necessary to purchase a candy-bar to go inside.

Isla de los Pescados, or Isla Incahuasi - The name originates from the fish-like appearance of the island's reflection in the wet season. There is a fee of BOB30 to visit this island of fossilized coral covered in 1000-year-old cacti in the middle of the Salar. These cacti (the highest of them being 9-10 m) grow at a rate of 1cm per year, so you can easily calculate their age. You may see a Viscacha or two here, also. Most tour groups eat lunch on the western "shore" of this island.

Accommodation can be found at San Juan, though for a real treat try to get the agency to use to accommodation closer to the Salar: you will then be able to get up before dawn and reach the flats by 4x4 to see the most spectacular sunrise of your life. The more basic "salt hotels" may have showers for 10B and a camera recharge station.