La Paz

La Paz has no beach life. Bolivia is landlocked and the city sits in a canyon at about 3,600m. The nearest big water is Lake Titicaca, roughly two hours away, and at around 12°C it is for boat trips and views, not swimming. Visitors who want to swim need a heated hotel pool. Anyone who wants sand on the trip should plan a separate leg on the Peruvian or Chilean coast.

Eating in La Paz starts in the morning on the street. Salteñas, juicy baked pastries filled with spiced stew, are a mid-morning ritual. Early risers drink hot purple-corn api with fried pastries, and after dark anticucho grills set up on corners. The covered markets, such as Mercado Rodríguez and Mercado Lanza, sell more than a hundred kinds of potato, Andean grains and tropical fruit brought up from the Yungas. Market counters serve soups and set lunches at long shared tables.

Above that, a small group of restaurants in Sopocachi and the southern zone cook ambitious food from Bolivian ingredients such as quinoa, llama, amaranth and Amazonian fish. Bolivian wine from Tarija and the grape spirit singani are worth trying. The overall range is narrow, and much of the everyday cooking is heavy and fried. At this altitude many visitors also lose their appetite for the first day or two.

The colonial core is small and the city around it is chaotic, but La Paz has a strong character of its own. The carved stone front of the Basilica of San Francisco is a fine example of mestizo baroque, where Andean motifs mix with Spanish forms. Plaza Murillo holds the cathedral and the seat of government. Calle Jaén is the best-preserved colonial street, a short cobbled lane lined with small museums. The national art museum and the ethnography museum, strong on Andean textiles and masks, are the most rewarding collections.

Much of the interest is in the streets themselves. In the Witches' Market, dried llama foetuses and offerings are sold for rituals that people still perform. Cholitas in bowler hats and layered skirts are part of everyday life. Up in El Alto, the brightly decorated cholet mansions are a striking piece of Aymara architecture. The cable cars give a view of the whole bowl-shaped city with Illimani behind it, and that view is one of the city's main sights.

Going out in La Paz is low-key. Sopocachi is the main area, with small bars, craft beer and cocktail spots, and cafés that stay open late, used by students and young professionals. The streets around Sagárnaga and the old centre have bars full of travellers, many of whom have just come off the Death Road or a climb. Bigger clubs are in the wealthier southern zone at weekends. Nights are cold all year and the altitude makes alcohol hit harder, so most visitors make it an early night. Take taxis rather than walking far after dark.

Few cities have a setting like this. La Paz fills a deep canyon cut into the Altiplano, and the snowcapped Illimani stands over the southern suburbs. The glaciers of the Cordillera Real are close enough for a day out, and Huayna Potosí, at about 6,088m, is among the most accessible six-thousand-metre peaks in the world, usually climbed in two or three days. Closer to the city, the eroded clay spires of the Valle de la Luna and the high moonscape of Chacaltaya are half-day trips.

The best-known outing is the mountain-bike ride down the old Yungas road, the Death Road, which drops from the snowline into humid cloud forest in a single day. There is also trekking near Condoriri and in the Zongo valley, and boat trips on Lake Titicaca. The limit is altitude: everything starts above 3,500m, so the first days need to be gentle. The dry season, from May to September, has the clearest skies.

The essential day trip is Tiwanaku, about an hour and a half across the Altiplano. It was the centre of a pre-Inca civilisation, and its Gateway of the Sun, sunken temple and carved monoliths make up one of the major archaeological sites in South America. Most other outings are further away. Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca, and the Inca ruins on Isla del Sol take three to four hours to reach and are better done with an overnight stay. The same goes for the subtropical towns of Coroico and Sorata. El Alto, directly above the city, is the easiest half-day, especially on its big market days.

This is a hard city for young children. The airport in El Alto is at about 4,000m, and altitude sickness is a real risk for small children, who also struggle to say how they feel. The streets are steep, pavements are narrow and the traffic is fierce. Very little is made for children. Riding the cable cars over the city is the main treat, and the municipal zoo in Mallasa, near the Valle de la Luna, makes a calm half-day. Families with teenagers who can handle the altitude will enjoy the landscapes and the markets. With younger children, a lower base in Bolivia or elsewhere is the safer choice.

La Paz has one of the most unusual transport systems in the world. Mi Teleférico is a network of urban cable-car lines that links the centre, the southern suburbs and El Alto, gliding over rooftops with a view of the mountains. It is the easiest way for a visitor to get around. Beyond that there is no metro, only shared minibuses and micros with destinations called out from the door, plus taxis, which are cheap and usually simpler. The centre can be walked, but the streets climb steeply at an altitude where even short hills leave visitors breathless. Traffic jams are a daily fact of life.

Shopping here is about markets and Andean crafts, not fashion. The lanes around Calle Sagárnaga and Linares are lined with stalls and small shops selling alpaca and llama knitwear, woven textiles, silver and musical instruments, alongside the herbs and charms of the Witches' Market. The quality ranges from mass-produced to genuinely fine, so look carefully. Further in, the Mercado Negro district is a maze of everyday trade. On market days, the 16 de Julio fair in El Alto spreads over dozens of streets selling everything from car parts to antiques. Malls in the southern zone cover the basics, and there is no luxury shopping to speak of.

La Paz is one of the cheapest cities in the Americas to visit. Market set lunches, salteñas, cable-car rides and taxis cost very little, and comfortable hotels in the centre or in Sopocachi are a fraction of what they would cost in most capitals. Museums and Tiwanaku charge modest fees. The main costs are guided activities such as mountaineering on Huayna Potosí or the Death Road ride, where it is worth paying for a reputable operator with well-maintained equipment, and a meal at one of the city's few high-end restaurants.

The most rewarding live music here is folkloric. In peñas around the centre, groups play Andean music on charangos, panpipes and drums while dancers perform the morenada, caporales and diablada. Some of these shows are staged for tourists, others for locals. The historic Teatro Municipal and the National Symphony Orchestra provide a modest classical and theatre programme. Every year the Gran Poder festival fills the streets with tens of thousands of costumed dancers and brass bands, the city's great performance of the year. Opera, big touring productions and jazz are rare.

La Paz is not a place to unwind. There is no bathing tradition in the city, spa options are limited to a few hotels and massage studios, and the centre is loud, crowded and full of exhaust fumes. The altitude adds strain of its own: sleep can be poor for the first nights, and the main restorative ritual is coca tea and an early bed. The quietest corners are the leafy streets of Sopocachi and the lower southern suburbs. The Urmiri hot springs, about two hours away, are the nearest thermal pools.