Bolivia · Departamento de La Paz
Where to Stay in La Paz, Departamento de La Paz
La Paz is the seat of government of Bolivia, a high city of steep streets in Departamento de La Paz, known for the Basilica of San Francisco.
Find your area →
Where to stay in La Paz
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
La Paz stacks its neighbourhoods up and down a steep bowl, so where you sleep in the city decides how much climbing your days involve. The historic core around the Basilica of San Francisco is the base most first-time visitors want. Streets there are dense.
The old churches, the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore, and the market lanes below the Iglesia de San Pedro all fall within a short uphill walk, which makes this the part of La Paz best for sightseeing on foot and for staying close to the seat of government of Bolivia. Higher up, the ground around the Mirador Killi Killi looks back over the whole bowl and trades the noise of the centre for the quiet of the slopes, and it suits you if you prefer views and calm over being in the thick of things. Beds thin as you climb, and the grade is real, so weigh the walk before you book far from the core.
The neighbouring city of El Alto spreads across the rim above La Paz and holds the main airport, useful for early departures but well removed from the historic streets, so most travellers keep their base down in the city and treat the rim as a place to pass through rather than to stay.
About La Paz
What is La Paz known for?
La Paz is best known as the seat of government of Bolivia, the working capital where the country's institutions sit. Its skyline is a stack of church towers and museums. The Basilica of San Francisco anchors the old core, and the National Museum of Art and the Coca Museum draw visitors into the streets around it, while the Estadio Libertador Simón Bolívar gives the city its stage for football above the surrounding valley.
What are the main landmarks in La Paz?
One landmark leads. The Basilica of San Francisco is the built landmark most people come to La Paz to see, its stone facade rising over the old centre. Around it stand the churches and museums that fill the historic streets: the Iglesia de San Pedro, the Templo Santo Domingo, and the Templo de la Merced among the religious houses, and the National Museum of Art, the Coca Museum, and the Cinemateca Boliviana among the cultural halls.
Above them all, the Mirador Killi Killi gives the long view back across the city.
What is the history of La Paz?
La Paz was founded in 1548, and the city that grew from that founding became the working capital of Bolivia. Its old core still carries the marks of that long past. The Basilica of San Francisco and the colonial churches around it, the Templo Santo Domingo and the Templo de la Merced among them, stand as the built record of the centuries of religious and civic life that shaped the centre of La Paz.
Over time the city rose to hold the seat of government of Bolivia, the role it is best known for, while Sucre kept the country's constitutional capital and its high court. That split still defines the city's standing. The founding of 1548, the colonial churches, and the later arrival of the national institutions together tell the story of how La Paz grew from a colonial town into the political centre it became, a history written across the churches and museums that still fill its streets.
Where is La Paz?
La Paz sits in a deep bowl in Departamento de La Paz, the capital city set into a valley below the rim where the neighbouring city of El Alto spreads out. The ground is steep. From the high vantage of the Mirador Killi Killi the whole city can be seen laid out below, a dense grid of church towers and rooftops filling the valley floor and running up its slopes, with El Alto and its airport on the plateau above.
What is the climate of La Paz?
La Paz sits high in the tropical band of the Southern Hemisphere, so its weather owes more to altitude than to any warmth its position might imply. The seasons turn on wet and dry. The height of the city keeps the air cool and thin through the year, so La Paz stays temperate rather than hot, its days changeable and its nights sharp in a way the tropics alone would never explain.
How do you get to La Paz?
La Paz is reached through the neighbouring city of El Alto, which spreads across the plateau on the rim above the bowl and holds the main airport serving the capital. From that rim the road drops down into the city. Most arrivals land above La Paz and descend into the valley, so the journey in begins on the plateau at El Alto and ends among the church towers and museums of the historic core.
Good for
Updated July 2026