Hotel de Sal Luna Salada

Luna Salada's advantage over its rivals is elevation. Built of salt blocks on a low rise above the salar's northeastern shore near Colchani, the hotel looks down and across the white immensity rather than at it edge-on, and its glass-walled lounges and corridor windows turn the whole building into a viewing platform—sunset from the salon, with coca tea in hand and the flat turning rose and violet, is the house ritual.

Rooms carry the salt theme through walls, floors and furniture, softened with Andean textiles in bright accents, and heating and hot water are dependable—no small matters at 3,700 metres. The restaurant, one of the better kitchens in the region, works quinoa, llama and altiplano vegetables into a menu that exceeds expectations for somewhere this remote, and a spa with a salt-room and massages eases post-excursion aches.

The hotel sits minutes from the salar access ramp, ideally placed for dawn drives onto the flat, Incahuasi island and, in season, the shallow floodwater mirror. Staff coordinate 4x4 programmes with local operators. Between the view, the warmth and the kitchen, Luna Salada is arguably the most comfortable of Uyuni's salt hotels, ceding only the 'original' romance to its older neighbour.