Get carried away in the surreal surrounds of the Salar de Uyuni salt flat

If you’re a budding photographer, don’t miss the chance to head out across the Salar de Uyuni salt flat.

It’s a surreal landscape of blurring horizons, vivid colours and mind-warping landscapes. The best place to book a tour is in the small town of Uyuni perched on the border of Chile high on the altiplano. Most tours go for four days and cost around $100 for all food and basic lodging. The driver cooks and if you pay a bit extra, you can stay in a salt hotel made entirely out of - you guessed it - salt.

The weather can be positively Arctic, so be prepared. During winter’s dry months, the salt flats are an unbroken expanse of intense white. During summer, rain floods the flats, creating an endless mirror reflecting the sky.

Sightseeing stops on most tours include the salt mining area where locals heap salt into one tonne piles to dry in the sun before being carted off to a nearby processing plant.

Isla de los Pescados is an island of fossilised coral covered in cacti rising out of the white plain.

Laguna Colorada is the breeding ground for several South American flamingo species, adding to the surreal landscape. Hot springs and geysers provide a welcome hot dip at the end of day three, and the final day visits a number of fluorescent blue, green and yellow lakes coloured by the abundant minerals of the area.

Make sure you take plenty of memory cards and fresh batteries for your camera, and some dark sunglasses.

Many tours will also drop you off at the Chilean border from where it's a 40-minute bus ride to the desert town of San Pedro de Atacama. Your bags will be searched thoroughly at the border - make sure you throw any seeds, food, coca leaves or illicit substances in the garbage before you get here.