Is there a bus running from Uyuni, Bolivia to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile?

Question

I am planning to travel down from La Paz (Bolivia) to Uyuni (Bolivia) by bus and do a 4 day tour to Salar de Uyuni and return back to Uyuni. At the end of the trip, I would like to catch a bus to San Pedro de Atacama (Chile).

Is that possible to do it, can you catch a bus or you have to do a tour?

I have read somewhere that there is a tour available from Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama? What do you guys suggest: (Uyuni to Uyuni) or (Uyuni to San Pedro)?

Answer 1

If your objective is to get to San Pedro, it makes sense to do an Uyuni to San Pedro tour, instead of doing an Uyuni to Uyuni tour, followed by a trip to San Pedro. Both are readily available from plenty of tourist agencies in Uyuni.

There is no public transport from Uyuni to San Pedro (besides the multi-day tours). You would have to first take a bus from Uyuni to Calama (several bus companies do the journey a few times a week, but on the same days), and then from Calama take a bus to San Pedro.

Answer 2

Very easy. There are tours in both directions - I went from San Pedro to Uyuni, and they go back as well. You join up to a 2 night tour, for example, and then it finishes in San Pedro de Atacama itself - and the town is tiny, so you can walk from one side to the other very simply. I went with Tierra Mystica, and aside from claiming to have an English driver (he spoke only Spanish) they were fine. Be careful about the altitude though, and drink lots of water.

If your tour returns to Uyuni, I don't know - there are ways to bus to San Pedro but it won't be through the fun part - you'd have to go up to La Paz, out to Iquique and back inland to San Pedro (2-3 days?) - it'd be FAR, far simpler to just do a tour that ends in San Pedro de Atacama.

If you'd like to see what happens on the tour, I did blog about it (albeit from San Pedro to Uyuni - so the reverse direction for you) - look for the Salt Flats posts about half way down my trip page.