Salt & Seven Colours

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Trip Highlights

Description

This is one of our most popular tailor-made tours which combines the historic UNESCO site of the Quebrada de Humahuaca with the Salinas Grandes salt flats of the Altiplano mountain plateau and the colourful and barely populated canyon of Quebrada del Toro.

For wine lovers among you, there are some excellent new producers in the emerging wine region of Jujuy province, as well as great places to hike, horseride or even trek with llama.

We can often combine this trip with our Classic Wine route by taking the mountain pass of Abra el Acay, the highest road crossing in the world outside the Himalayas, at just under 5,000m altitude.

Read my blog for more information about the wineries in the Quebrada de Humahauca.

Click here to view map route.

Tour info

Duration
3 days
Group Size
1 to 4
Price starts at
$375
Languages
English, Spanish
Meeting Point

We can pick you up direct from Salta airport or from your chosen hotel in the city.

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Dropoff location

To be discussed upon booking

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Why take this tour?

We head north along the mountain road from Salta to San Salvador de Jujuy, a taste of the verdant sub-tropical forest to the east of the Andes mountain range, rising into the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a canyon gouged out of the landscape with the eruption of the Andes between 12 and 15 million years ago.

The Quebrada de Humahuaca is remarkable not just for its great multi-coloured landscape, but its pre-Inca ruins, numerous old colonial churches, and characterful indigenous markets. It is also developing into Argentina's latest wine region, so let us know if you'd like to visit some of the world's newest boutique wineries. And of course, there’s the famous Seven Coloured Hill in Purmamarca which we’ll see in its best (morning) light, climbing up to a superb viewpoint which takes us away from the crowds.

From Purmamarca, we climb 2,000m in altitude in a winding 30km drive up the Cuesta de Lipan: a spectacular ascent of the outer Eastern range of the Andes, before descending to the Salinas Grandes, one of the most beautiful salt flats in Argentina.

Here you’ll see miners digging crystal salt from high altitude pools in temperatures of 30°C plus. You’ll also meet ex-workers who, thanks to tourism, now make a living carving salt block into ornamental llama and cacti, and etching impressive carvings on slates from the surrounding hills.

After a night in the high-altitude town of Susques (3,615m), we travel along the iconic Route 40 which runs all the way to Patagonia. We travel through stunning Altiplano scenery, including a close view of Tuzgle volcano, before emerging at La Polvorilla viaduct, the final destination for the Train to the Clouds near the mountain town of San Antonio de Los Cobres (at an altitude of 3,770m), where the sky is always blue and clear and the sunsets are spectacular.

On our final day, we’ll visit the pre-Inca ruins of Tastil and discover the mysterious story of the community who lived here, before returning to Salta through the multi-coloured and sparsely populated Quebrada del Toro.

On the four-day trip, we can also take a hike along a rugged and little-explored section of the Inca trail.

Included

  • Bilingual tour guide

  • Private tailor-made tour

  • Vehicle and guide costs

Excluded

  • Food

  • Accommodation

  • Wine tasting fees

Things to know

Accommodation & Food

Double rooms at the privately owned B&Bs and small hotels we work with start from US$50 per night. You can eat well in some of the simple rustic places we use where you will be rubbing shoulders with the locals for less than US$15 per person. And splashing out on a three-course meal with wine in ...

Double rooms at the privately owned B&Bs and small hotels we work with start from US$50 per night. You can eat well in some of the simple rustic places we use where you will be rubbing shoulders with the locals for less than US$15 per person. And splashing out on a three-course meal with wine in a smart restaurant is unlikely to set you back more than US$40 per person.

Pricing

Headline price based on four people travelling together in one of our 4x4s with an English-speaking driver/guide.

Below are our DAILY rates PER PERSON excluding food and accommodation: valid to end 2024.

One person - US$350
Two people - US$200
Three people- US$150
Four people (one vehicle) - US$125
Four people (two vehicles) - US$200

Headline price based on four people travelling together in one of our 4x4s with an English-speaking driver/guide.

Below are our DAILY rates PER PERSON excluding food and accommodation: valid to end 2024.

One person - US$350
Two people - US$200
Three people- US$150
Four people (one vehicle) - US$125
Four people (two vehicles) - US$200

Group Size

We operate with comfortable 4x4s which can accommodate up to four people, but if you’re travelling with a larger group, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate.

We operate with comfortable 4x4s which can accommodate up to four people, but if you’re travelling with a larger group, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate.

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