In Bolivia, more than 20 bus companies are available to travel across the country, but only a handful of them have good enough services to be worth mentioning. Bad bus companies involve more inefficiency and risks. For example, they don’t depart on time, are less safe, have fewer routes, and also have more accidents. Anyway, some buses stand out in their services.
3 bus companies can be cataloged as the best in Bolivia to travel across the country, these are 1) Bolivar, 2) Trans Copacabana S.A., and 3) Trans Copacabana M.E.M. 1. These bus companies have fewer accidents, more routes, also are safer and used by many Bolivians and tourists.
Here we’re going to show you the top 3 best bus companies available in our country Bolivia. We’ll give you all the details about why they are the best, and also why many people from inside and outside the country just prefer them. Additionally, we will give you some tips to choose the best bus company by yourself, and also other bus companies to travel specifically to Oruro City.
The top 3 bus companies to travel around Bolivia
Bolivia has a regulation for bus companies, their price can’t go beyond or below certain levels. These policies have damaged the market fair competition that these companies once had. Ultimately, it has ruined the service that most of them provide, mining its quality. But despite this, there are still 3 companies worthy of mention as good ones available in Bolivia. As we show you next.
1) Bolivar
By far, this is the best company available in Bolivia to travel between cities and major regions within the country. This is the go-to bus company for the majority of medium and high-income Bolivians, and also for most of the tourists that visit our country. This company is huge and has hundreds of buses that normally travel between many different routes, connecting mainly major cities and also other places.
On a normal day, almost each half an hour, several buses of this company leave the bus station to travel to their destinations, normally other main cities of Bolivia. So, with this bus, every half an hour you’ll have the option to depart from the main city you’re currently in.
Bolivar is the best bus company currently operating in Bolivia because:
- It has fewer accidents than average.
- It has more modern buses, with more comfort.
- It covers many routes, mostly between major cities.
- It departs almost every half hour to principal destinations.
- It is a little bit safer than other buses.
- It arrives and departs on time.
Destinations covered
The cities and destinations that this bus company covers in Bolivia are (round trip):
- La Paz – Cochabamba
- La Paz – Santa Cruz
- La Paz – Potosí
- La Paz – Sucre
- Cochabamba – Santa Cruz
- Cochabamba – Potosí
- Cochabamba – Sucre
- Santa Cruz – Trinidad
- Santa Cruz – Yacuiba
- Santa Cruz – Sucre
You can see more information about the routes this bus company covers here:
Unfortunately, the Bolivar bus doesn’t have a system to buy tickets online or in advance of traveling.
Other aspects
The Bolivar bus company is always a little bit more expensive than the rest of the bus companies available in Bolivia (around 20% to 30% more expensive). But generally, a one-way trip between most cities will cost from $7 to $25 with this bus company, for almost all destinations currently available.
Furthermore, it is very common to see tourists and people from overseas traveling with this company. As we said before, Bolivians from the middle and upper classes normally travel with Bolivar.
2) Trans Copacabana S.A.
This is the 2nd best Bolivian bus company, from our perspective, and also the largest one as a unique company. It has the highest number of routes and destinations available to choose from. It’s also a very well-known bus company that is used by a lot of tourists and high-income Bolivians.
This bus fleet also offers its clients better comfort, a less accident rate, newer buses, and also way more routes available than the rest of the companies that work in this field in Bolivia. We normally see a lot of tourists using Trans Copacabana S.A., hundreds of buses available, and departure times that fill each half an hour.
Destinations covered
The cities and destinations that this bus company covers in Bolivia are (round trip):
- La Paz – Cochabamba
- La Paz – Santa Cruz
- La Paz – Sucre
- La Paz – Potosí
- La Paz – Tarija
- Cochabamba – Santa Cruz
- Cochabamba – Oruro
- Cochabamba – Sucre
- Cochabamba – Potosí
- Cochabamba – Tarija
- Santa Cruz – Oruro
- Santa Cruz – Trinidad
- Santa Cruz – Yacuiba
You can see all the routes and destinations available for Trans Copacabana S.A. here (Spanish):
Also, you can buy your ticket online with a credit or debit card in this bus in advance. To do it, just follow the above link (Spanish), choose your destination, fill in your personal data, and pay for the tickets.
Other aspects
This bus company is a little bit cheaper than Bolivar, charging from $5 to $20 for a one-way trip for most of its routes and destinations. So, in general, for the average prices it charges, this bus company has the best services you can find in the industry.
Is worth mentioning that this bus company (Trans Copacabana S.A.) with the next one (Trans Copacabana M.E.M. 1) are unique companies that have completely different owners, they are only related to each other by their names.
3) Trans Copacabana M.E.M. 1
The 3rd best bus company in our opinion (we have traveled a lot in Bolivia and have seen many things of these companies), we can say you that this is also a go-to for Bolivian people, but isn’t the go-to company for tourists, we haven’t seen too many of them traveling with it.
But it has and offers a lot of comforts, not too many destinations to choose from, a decent amount of departure times, and also modern buses of different types. Maybe through the years, because of its name, this bus has been chosen more, making it at the end be as good as Trans Copacabana S.A.
But anyways, this bus company gets fewer accidents than average, like the other 2 mentioned before.
Destinations covered
The cities and destinations that this bus company covers in Bolivia are (round trip):
- La Paz – Cochabamba
- La Paz – Santa Cruz
- La Paz – Sucre
- La Paz – Potosí
- Cochabamba – Santa Cruz
- Santa Cruz – Oruro
You can see all the routes and destinations available for Trans Copacabana M.E.M. 1 here (Spanish):
Also, you can buy your ticket online with a credit or debit card in this bus in advance. To do this just follow the above link (Spanish), click on “Comprar Pasajes”, fill in your personal information, and pay for the tickets.
Other aspects
This company is also a little bit cheaper than Bolivar, and has almost the same prices as the rest of the bus companies in Bolivia, offering a range from $5 to $20 for most of its routes, but with better services, several routes, newer buses, and enough comfort.
The “Trans Copacabana” name has been used by 2 bus companies in Bolivia, we don’t know why it is, maybe because it’s a sticky, memorable, name, but at least, the 2 bus companies that use this name also are 2 of the best ones available in the country.
Best bus companies to go to Oruro
You may have realized that the bus companies mentioned above don’t cover the La Paz – Oruro route.
This is not a coincidence, it’s because Oruro is a quite small city, and also because it’s very close to La Paz. Then, only some bus companies have specialized to serve this route, which by the way, can last 3 hours of traveling by ground.
Currently, there are only 2 good enough bus companies that serve this route, Naser and Imperial, from La Paz to Oruro and vice versa.
A) Naser
Naser has many destinations and it’s not the best option to travel across Bolivia but is the best option to travel from La Paz to Oruro. This is a decent company that will offer a good travel experience between both cities. With modern enough buses and several departure times.
You can know more about Trans Naser in the following direction (Spanish):
For traveling on this route, it will charge you between $4 to $7 almost always for a one-way ticket, but when Oruro Carnival is near, prices will increase to between $7 to even $15 for a one-way ticket.
B) Imperial Potosí
Another bus company that mainly offers routes from and to Potosí, but it also has many departure times between la Paz and Oruro. It can offer you good enough services and good buses to travel the 3 hours between these 2 cities. It’s worth mentioning that this bus company is less known and less used than the Naser company.
You can know more about Imperial Potosí in the following direction (Spanish):
This bus company will charge you almost the same as Naser for traveling the La Paz – Oruro route, between $3 to $7 almost all the year for a one-way ticket, and between $7 to $15 when Oruro’s carnival is near.
The following bus companies shouldn’t be your 1st option
The following Bolivian bus companies are not highly recommended, only travel with them unless the options we recommend above are not available:
- Cosmos
- Bolivia (bus company)
- Urus
- El Dorado
- Naser (for travels other than to and from Oruro)
Why aren’t these good options?
Well, because they generally have more accidents, also less quality of traveling conditions, with less comfort, older buses, departing sometimes too late, the attention from employers you receive is not the best also. But in summary, throughout the last few years, they have lost the competition against brands like Bolivar or Trans Copacabana.
They also have fewer routes to choose from, and fewer departure times available. Anyway, they charge just a little bit less than the better companies mentioned before.
How to choose a bus company in Bolivia
Next, we will show you some tips to choose by yourself in Bolivia the best bus companies available in a given location.
The good ones have
You should always look for clues about if a bus company offers or doesn’t offer good services. These good signs are:
- It has a lot of departure times to many destinations.
- It is located very near to the entrance door of the bus station.
- It has many tourists buying from and waiting in line.
- When you see its buses, they are new and look more modern than the rest of the companies.
- It normally is more crowded than its competitors.
The bad ones have
A bad bus company normally has some features and aspects that will tell you it’s not going to offer a good service:
- It is located in such an inaccessible place inside the bus station.
- It doesn’t have too many destinations and departure times.
- You won’t see any tourists buying from this company.
- Its buses look old and not properly cared for.
- Its offices look not properly cared for, also, more empty than competitors.
Conclusions:
In this guide about the best bus companies available to travel within and across Bolivia, you learned that indeed only 3 bus companies stand out from the crowd. These are Bolivar, Trans Copacabana S.A. and Trans Copacabana M.E.M. 1.
You saw that the Bolivar bus company is the best one today in the country, having the most modern buses available, fewer accidents, and many routes to choose from. Also, most tourists and high-income Bolivian people use this company to travel between major cities of Bolivia. You also saw that it will charge you a little bit more, from 20% to 30% more.
Additionally, you have seen that Trans Copacabana S.A. is the company with the highest number of routes and destinations available to travel within Bolivia, it’s also very comfortable, has new buses and fewer accidents, but with an average price. Furthermore, Trans Copacabana M.E.M 1 has fewer routes, but almost the same quality of traveling services as the other 2 ones.
Finally, you learned that to go from La Paz to Oruro and vice versa, you have 2 good options which are Naser and Imperial Potosí. Additionally, you should always look for some good and bad clues that signal if a company will give you good services when traveling with it, depending on the state of its buses, where its offices are located, and the number of tourists waiting there, along with other clues.
We hope this information has helped you, and if you want to know which are the safest buses to travel across Bolivia, visit our dedicated guide in the next direction, where we talk deeply about this side of the services that bus companies offer in the country: The safest bus companies of Bolivia, all you need to know.
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