La Paz Walking Tour: Local Routes & Witches' Market

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Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/8

Duration2h–3h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN · ES

Mobile ticketAccepted

See the city the way locals do, not the way guidebooks say to.

Be a Local is a walking tour of La Paz led by an English-speaking guide who takes you through the old town's hidden routes and alleyways, stopping at Plaza Murillo, San Francisco Church, the Witches' Market, and the food market at the city center. The tour runs two to three hours and operates on select days, with an extended version on Thursdays and Sundays that adds the Teleférico cable car, the flea market, and a Cholitas Wrestling show. Children from age five are welcome.

2h–3h

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore La Paz city highlights

Visit Plaza Murillo in old town
Explore La Paz central food market
See San Francisco Church landmark
Browse Witches' Market for potions
Observe San Pedro Prison area
Walk through El Prado gardens
Stroll along Avenida Camacho avenue

The Experience

The tour starts in La Paz's Casco Viejo, the old town, where your guide walks you through paths most tourists skip. You'll stand in Plaza Murillo, the lively plaza framed by the city's most important political buildings, then move through the center's largest food market before reaching San Francisco Church, one of La Paz's most historical landmarks. The route is built around what a local actually knows about the city—the corners, the stories, the rhythm of how people move through it.

The Witches' Market (Mercado de las Brujas) is where the tour opens onto something genuinely unusual. Vendors sell dried llama fetuses, medicinal plants, potions and spells—some for altitude sickness, some for other ailments, some for spiritual purposes. Your guide explains what you're looking at and why it matters to the city. You'll also pass San Pedro Prison, located meters from Plaza San Pedro, where around 1500 inmates run shops and restaurants within the prison itself. El Prado, with its manicured gardens and statues, and Avenida Camacho, one of La Paz's traditional avenues running from the Obelisk Square toward the former Municipal Zoo, round out the walk.

On Thursdays and Sundays, the extended tour adds the Teleférico cable car system, the flea market, and entry to a Cholitas Wrestling show—the tour expands but the same local perspective carries through. Bring comfortable shoes, sunglasses, sunscreen, water and a camera; the altitude is significant and the walking covers ground. An English-speaking guide leads the whole thing, and children from five years old can join.

What’s included

An English-speaking local guide who teaches from a resident's perspective.
walking access to Plaza Murillo, San Francisco Church, the Witches' Market, and the city's central food market.
on Thursdays and Sundays, the extended tour adds Teleférico cable car access, the flea market, and Cholitas Wrestling show entry.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPublic transport nearbyNot for heart conditions

Operated by Altitude Travel

Is this one for you?Move through La Paz's unseen routes and alleyways the way locals do, discovering what actually matters to the city beyond the standard tourist stops.