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| Lets Fly Away, Lets Fly! Lets Fly! Lets Fly! |
Ok, first post! Brief Introductions: I am a British male (Essex Boy!) married to a beautiful Bolivian, and we have a son together. We have a house in Santa Cruz De La Sierra. Since my first visit to Bolivia I was amazed by the lack of correct and up to date information for the independent traveler. Bolivia is a fascinating country and my blog is designed to give you the latest and correct information possible, a virtual guide as it were, to get the most from your Bolivia experience.
Bolivia is a big country roughly the size of France and Spain combined, yet if your travelling the country by road you will often feel as if your travelling an area the size of Western Europe! There are a number of reasons for this including the quality of the roads, in places, and the topography of the landscape. For example from Santa Cruz to La Paz by coach it is almost 15 hours of going up hill! You may think that it's a good opportunity to the see the country but the reality is most journeys take place at night and most often, even as a deep sleeper like me, you will have real difficulty sleeping in a 'cama' seat and spend most of the next day recovering rather than enjoying your new found destination!
So why not do as old blue eyes suggests and 'lets fly away, lets fly, lets fly, lets fly!' This option takes your journey time down from 15 hours to 1 hour on the Santa Cruz - La Paz route.
Now I am not suggesting that internal flights in Bolivia are cheap, but I found out that they are not as expensive as some tour guides make out.
Say for example you were living in London and was planning a trip by air to Edinburgh on a tight budget.
Now you wouldn't go straight to British Airways, would you? No, you would check out Ryanair or Easyjet.
The same could be said in Bolivia.For a trip from Santa Cruz to La Paz, if you had money to burn, then you would go on Aerosur ( The Bolivian version of a British Airways!), yes they have a friendly multi lingual website and pretty looking ticket agencies in airports and cities throughout Bolivia but a single will cost you approx $122 US. That's about 75 pounds.
Compare this to the TAM Bolivia (not to be confused with the Brazilian National Carrier!), I like to think of these as the Bolivian Ryaniar. The airline is owed and run by the Bolivian Air force, it's their civilian operation.
They operate a Boeing 727-200 which still carries the now defunct airline livery of the former national carrier LAB (Lloyd Aereo Boliviano) and a couple of BAE-146-200, a good old British jet aircraft. They also run a few turboprops for flights to smaller towns and cities. The quality of service may not be to the same level, but what do you really want from a one hour flight? The cost on the same Santa Cruz-La Paz route is currently 699 Bolivianos. About 60 pounds. This may not seem a big saving but I can assure you 15 pounds will go a long way in Bolivia in as far as sorting you overnight accommodation and food! TAM Bolivia is not quite Ryanair as there are no hidden extras, they still give you the same baggage allowance as Aerosur, 15kg, an inflight snack and drink as well as dedicated seating. They also fly from and to the same airports. With the added bonus of flights to Sucre and Tarija leaving from the Santa Cruz's small city centre airport of El Trompello.
One excellent tip is that the bonus with TAM Bolivia is their ticket prices are fixed so even if you don't buy now ahead of your trip you will still pay the same price if its a last minute purchase. Giving you greater flexibility, and ultimately a plan B!
So when planning your trip around Bolivia don't rule out the option of flying, it may be a luxury, but if required ensure you take the cheaper options!
NB - When considering booking flights with TAM Bolivia it may seem a little daunting and not as straight forward as other airlines. Have no fear! Your Bolivian Buddy is here contact me and I'll be happy to help.
