Bolivia: Sucre vs La Paz

This article has been updated on March 14, 2021

One country, two different rivalling capitals, each charming in their own way. In the following post, we’ll look at some of the differences between these two cities. First, we’ll explore the Sucre vs La Paz rivalry through some historical facts. Then we’ll examine some of the measurable differences between the cities, such as population density or altitude. And finally, we’ll probe into travellers’ options, ranging from some of the major tourist attractions, dining, nightlife up to the general atmosphere each city comes with.

Why does Bolivia have two capitals?

The answer to this question depends on whether you ask in the traditionally more conservative and “old money” city of Sucre or in the more left wing-leaning La Paz. The historical facts are however quite straightforward. When Bolivia gained its independence in 1825, it was founded as a Republic in the city of Sucre. The trouble however begun with the consequent power struggle between the new political elites that emerged, which led to a bloody Civil War.

The 1898-1899 conflict, which is known as the “Federal War” broke between the pro-federative Liberal Party, backed up by tin mining money from La Paz and the republican Conservative Party and their silver mining “sponsors” from Sucre. In 1899, the victorious liberals made La Paz the seat of the Bolivian Congress. So the president, central bank, ministries, embassies and all that moved to La Paz, but as a part of a partial compromise, the judicial branch of the government remained in Sucre. In case you were interested, read more about the Federal War here on Wiki.

While the rivalry between the two cities has faded since it has never completely ceased to exist. For instance, in 2007 the city of Sucre held a campaign to reinstate all governmental institutions back south. The citizens of La Paz organised a massive march with approximately one million protesters. Sucre‘s side then retaliated with their own street protests and hunger strikes. The tensions were obviously quite high but this time the argument thankfully didn’t escalate any further.

Sucre vs La Paz: some numbers

Before we explore how does each of these two cities “feel” for a visitor and look at their respective tourism options, let’s look at some facts and numbers first. Possibly the most significant difference is that La Paz is much bigger, busier and more crowded than Sucre. In fact, it’s a beast, if compared to Sucre. Its metropolitan area also includes suburban cities such as El Alto, which has even more inhabitants than La Paz.

So when it comes to the metropolitan area of La Paz, we’re talking about nearly 2 million people that live in an urban area of 3240 km² (1 250 sq miles). In contrast, Sucre’s 300 thousand people live on 1768 km² (683 sq miles). Population density score per square kilometre is therefore La Paz: 1861 vs Sucre 170. That is quite a difference, isn’t it? I can tell you that it’s not just a number. You literally feel the difference on the streets.

Another, equally significant attribute is elevation. The altitude score as per metres above the sea level is also rather distinctive. La Paz: 3640 vs Sucre: 2810. But El Alto, the large and independent suburb, that is located on the rim of the canyon in which La Paz is located has an elevation of 4150 metres over sea level. FYI, El Alto, which literally means “The Tall”, is where you’d land at La Paz International Airport upon your arrival. I mean that the altitude effects properly kick in after about 3000m. But 4150? That is an altitude that can sometimes pose also some serious health risks.

A lot of people feel the elevation upon their arrival to La Paz almost immediately before they adjust their haemoglobin levels. The symptoms are very individual, ranging from headaches, fatigue up to vomiting or even coma in advanced cases but that is very rare. Most people are fine and/or suffer from headaches. However, people with certain health conditions, mostly of cardiovascular nature are not advised to pass certain altitudes. If that is your case, you should perhaps discuss your possible visit to La Paz with your GP. More information about altitude sickness could be found here, in case you were interested.

Sucre

Due to its preserved colonial architecture, Sucre is considered to be the prettier one of the two Bolivian capitals. Its rather picturesque historical centre has been declared a World Heritage site in 1991 by UNESCO. The traditional white colour the colonial houses are painted with earned the city its nickname “The White City”.

A wee bit of Sucre’s history

Sucre‘s history dates back to the pre-Columbian period when the indigenous site held the name Chuquisaca. In 1538, the conquistadors officially founded the city under the name of: Ciudad de la Plata de la Nueva Toledo (Silver Town of New Toledo). Since then, the Spanish renamed the city to La Plata and finally in 1840, following the Bolivian Independence, the local authorities gave the city its current name, after Antonio José de Sucre, the Venezuelan independence leader and Simón Bolívar’s chief lieutenant, who served as the 4th President of Peru as well as the 2nd President of Bolivia.

Thanks to the silver mining that was centred around the nearby city of Potosí, Sucre enjoyed a period of wealth and influence right up to the decline of the industry in the region that came after the above mentioned Civil War. Today, Sucre is the sixth-largest city in Bolivia and while its economy is not booming anymore, it is still a commercial and agricultural centre of importance. Industry-wise, quite a few locals work in oil refineries or in cement plants.

Sucre’s looks and major attractions

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Except for the juridical branches of the government, Sucre also remained to be the seat of the Catholic church in Bolivia, which covers nearly 95% of Bolivia’s population. Many of the impressive colonial churches are still standing, including the 17th-century Basílica Metropolitana or the churches of San Felipe Neri, La Merced, Santa Clara, San Miguel or La Recoleta, which also comes with great views of the city. Most of the city’s colonial buildings are however from later periods, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Among other attractions of the city, there are several museums, including the Museum of Indigenous Art, Children’s Museum Tanga Tanga as well as Casa de la Libertad, where you can see Bolivia’s Declaration of Independence. Except admiring the city’s architecture and museums, a tourist can also visit some of the villages in the region that also date back to the colonial period. Furthermore, there are also few great trekking opportunities just outside the city that are certainly not to be missed, if you’re a trekking enthusiast.

Sucre’s tourism

Although not quite as popular as La Paz, Sucre also enjoys its fair share of tourists, mainly because it also serves as one of the travel hubs to visit one of the most popular travel attraction in Bolivia, Uyuni Salt Flats. Thanks to that as well as its colonial architecture, one can say that the city has a certain international feel.

Sucre is also one of the most popular spots for travellers to learn Spanish in Latin America. Various language schools offer affordable classes and in combination with Bolivia’s let’s say very economic prices, when you can grab a meal in the local eatery from $2 only, it makes the city a good spot to take a break from travelling and learn some Spanish.

Go out in Sucre

IMHO, the best thing about Sucre‘s social life is its café scene. My fav was Condor Café but there are other places that will make you stop and order a coffee 😉 The centre of the town is also quite good when it comes to restaurants. You can find here some decent dining spots, whether you fancy local or international cuisine, with the latter including for example sushi, Italian or even German-style restaurants.

When it comes to the nightlife, I wouldn’t call Sucre a superb hotspot, that’s unless you are a reggaeton fan. Around the main square, there are few cool bars one can enjoy a drink or two, such as Joy Ride Cafe, Cafe Restaurant Florin or Goblin Bar with cool artisanal beers. The clubbing is however limited to few clubs that blast reggaeton, disco or long-forgotten tunes from the 80s.

La Paz

As I’ve mentioned above, in comparison with Sucre, Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace), which is the official name of the city, La Paz feels far busier. It is also not as pretty as Sucre, in fact, the city could appear rather gritty but at the same time, but it comes with its own special and easily noticeable (or hard to ignore?) vibrant atmosphere. Perhaps it is due to its unique topography that offers amazing views of the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Or maybe it could be due to its unique multi-kulti+indigenous vibe. It’s hard to pin down the reason why the city atmosphere feels so buzzing. I guess that this feeling is also rather individual. Let’s just say that while La Paz is not much of a UNESCO World Heritage Site material as Sucre, but its beauty lies elsewhere. Just so you know, I’m not the only person who thinks like that. In 2015, voters from around the world officially recognised La Paz as one of the New 7 Wonders Cities so there must be something to it, right?

Some basic history of La Paz

La Paz was founded in 1548, by the Spanish conquistadors at the site of the Inca settlement called Laja. The purpose of the settlement was to create a connecting point between the trade routes that led from the mining towns of Potosí and Oruro with Lima. The indigenous groups of Aymara people however hadn’t entirely given up the fight and put the city under siege on several occasions. First in 1781 and then thirty years later, which is where a local legend about the god of abundance Ekheko was born. Read more about the legend here, in case you were interested.

We have already talked briefly about some significant events tight to the history of the city, such as the 1809-1825 Bolivian Independence War as well as the 1898-1899 Federal War. Since then, La Paz witnessed its fair share of coups and wars but that is a subject of the history of a whole country and for that reason, we’ll look at the Guide to Bolivia, which is in the making (TBA). Today’s La Paz has been however enjoying relative stability and economic growth. The major industries in the city are textiles, clothing and shoes but there are also food processing factories and chemical plants that employ many residents.

La Paz’ looks

If Sucre is “White City”, then La Paz should be called the “Red City”, because the vast majority of houses appear to be without any coating, with exposed red bricks only. The whole canyon looks like a red sea of buildings, as you can see in the picture above. There’s a local architect called Freddy Mamani, who’s trying to challenge that precedent by designing the frontal parts of some local houses. He’s known for his development of the Neo-Andean architectural style (see it here), which is IMHO rather vulgar but it at least brings colours to that eternal sea of red bricks here and there.

Architecture-wise, La Paz is a rather bad eclectic mix of modern and colonial architecture. The overall feel is very messy and indicates a lack of urban planning. To be fair, there was one, designed by Juan Gutierrez Paniagua in 1549, but I’m not entirely sure if they have ever updated it which would have been a reasonable move, especially when seeing that the canyon, in which the city is located has been pretty much built over. While this unusual topography offers stunning views of the city, in combination with the absent urban planning it has been very unkind to the local traffic.

La Paz tourism and major attractions

As a matter a fact, the exceptionally bad traffic in the city led to the creation of one of the icons and major attractions of the city: Mi Teleférico (My Cable Car), which is the longest aerial cable car public transport system in the world. Think of it as the opposite of the underground in the city with amazing views, if you will. Many people consider it the most spectacular public transport system in the world.

Except for the spectacular views and multiple viewpoints, La Paz is of course also home to numerous landmarks from the colonial days. Among most iconic, there would be the San Francisco Church, the La Paz Cathedral, Plaza Murillo or the colourful Jaén Alley with nice restaurants and cafés. The city is also known for its unique markets, particularly the Witches Market in the centre.

There are, of course also plenty of museums, such as The National Museum of Art, the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore, the National Museum of Archaeology or Museum of Coca and many others. Some tourists like to check out the Cholitas wrestling parody show when Inca ladies fight in a ring, which could be fun for the first 15-20 minutes. As for outside the city, taking a bike tour on the impressive Death Road is also a popular activity.

Go out in La Paz

La Paz‘ general buzz is equally reflected in its vibrant nightlife. Except for the numerous and nearly identical and semi-soulless party hostel bars, there are quite a few cool and stylish joints to consider visiting. Whether it is the semi-alternative, semi-secretive Costilla de Adan, the cool cocktail bar Diesel Nacional, the rooftop restaurant/bar for more views Ichuri Food or various European pubs, the list is huge. For clubbing, again, like in most places in the whole Latin America expect mostly reggaeton, some disco, rarer funk but if you look hard in RA, you might be lucky to get some techno or at least house.

Some of the more “less conservative” backpackers also look for Route 36 bar. In case you didn’t know what I’m on about, please note that it is an illegal pop up establishment that serves drinks and cocaine (mostly) to young backpackers. I don’t want to disappoint you but Route 36 nothing more than just a tourist trap. Nobody supposed to know where it is, except all taxi drivers waiting outside busy hostels, who are happy to charge the excited and willing to experiment backpackers extra for taking you there. If you decide to seek this place out, please be careful, especially if you are about to try cocaine for the first time.

Always go with few friends and try not to go too crazy with the promotions like “buy two get one free”, which will start popping up after you’ve had a few at the same time as the bar manager’s scales start shrinking. Anyway. Remember that you are in an economically challenged country and here you’d be in an illegal bar run by drug dealers. This kind of places attract shady characters and it sometimes doesn’t work that well with the carefree hurray backpacking style. I mean, have fun if you’ve decided to experiment a little but keep your guards up and watch who you’re getting your drinks from.

Sort of conclusion

La Paz has far more energy and buzz if compared to Sucre. It’s bigger, it feels more cosmopolitan, it has better nightlife, more dining options and there’s more to do for a city kind of person. Sucre on the other hand feels safer and more provincial. Talking about safety, it’s not really bad in the tourist parts of town but if we talk about suburbs such as El Alto, to be honest, I wouldn’t personally go there at night alone and I’d carefully watch my bag during the day. We were even warned by a nice local lady in the cable car about watching our bags when we were going up there.

Except feeling somewhat safer, Sucre also has a more pleasant climate as well as more oxygen than La Paz. It is also prettier and calmer, with more outdoor options and a good pit stop for those who like to take some Spanish classes. I should mention that I’m talking about a trend, not about my personal preference. I would for example prefer another place to take Spanish classes, such as Valparaíso in Chile or Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. But that is a matter of personal preferences, the same was as it would be in the case of Sucre vs La Paz atmosphere comparison.

How to get there

Both cities have their own international airports, although the one in Sucre is more of a regional character. Talking about roads, I should perhaps mention the fact that Bolivia is one of the most economically challenged countries in whole South America. It is therefore reflected in the country’s infrastructure, including the quality of the road. Saying all that, I must however add that when I took the 12hr bus ride from Sucre to La Paz (for an equivalent of about €25), the night bus ride was comfy and I’ve slept all the way.

Interesting and useful links

• Altitude Sickness: Harvard’s University article about dangers and symptoms of altitude sickness
• Cable Cars: Gondola Project website about cable car public systems globally, with accurate info about Mi Teleférico in English
• Alcantarí Airport Sucre: Wiki’s page with airport’s characteristics, airlines, destinations, etc…
• La Paz International Airport: Wiki’s page with airport’s characteristics, airlines, destinations, etc…
• Death Road bike tour: a report from a brilliant memorable day on a bicycle with few essential practical tips, in case you were contemplating experiencing this attraction
• Bolivia in Britannica: a long read about the country’s history, life, fauna, flora, economy and more
• Federal War: Wiki’s page on Bolivian Civil War
• 2007 Bolivian Capitals Conflict: Simon Romero describes the issue for NY Times
• Highest cities in the world: Nicholas Gill writes about the life and challenges of people living in the highest altitude cities in the world for The Guardian
• Ekeko Legend: Mathew Grace writes about the legend for Bolivian Express Magazine
• Route 36: Jonathan Franklin writes for The Guardian about the illegal cocaine bar

Next possible destinations and/or activities in Bolivia

Death Road Bike Tour

Fancy descending from 4650 to 1200 metres above sea level in one day on a pushbike? And doing that through a stunning valley with breathtaking views? Well, those are the perks of the bicycle tour organised by multiple agencies from La Paz. In case you were wondering about the word “Death” in the nickname there, yes it does hint at danger. At some point, until its closure, Yungas Road was one of the deadliest roads in the world, with 200–300 commuters were died here in accidents each year. The bike tours are however much safer than the traffic in the past. In case you wanted to find out more details, please click here.

Lake Titicaca

If you are in the region, do not miss out on visiting Lake Titicaca, especially if you are in La Paz as it only takes about 4,5 hours to get there. We’re talking about a stunning lake that also happens to the largest in South America and 18th in the world. It also plays an important role in Incan mythology as well as general history, which is still very present nearly everywhere around the lake. Read more here, in case you were interested.

Uyuni Salt Flats

As I’ve mentioned above, arguably the most popular attraction in Bolivia, as well as one of the most surreal and incredible places I’ve ever visited, is Uyuni Salt Flats, the world’s largest salt flat with an enormous area of more than 10 000 km² (3 900 square miles). Read more details here, in case you were interested.

Salta and Jujuy Provinces, Argentina

You can also head further south from Uyuni to hit the stunning Humahuaca Valley and explore the beautiful provinces of Jujuy and Salta in Northern Argentina. You’d get rewarded by more surreal nature, vibrant colours, excellent trekking options and Argentinian hospitality. More details about those two provinces could be found here.

Atacama Desert, Chile

Well, if you are into surreal nature, then there also is the nearby Atacama Desert in Chile. We’re talking about the driest non-polar desert in the world that comes with many extraterrestrial-like views. Read more about Atacama Desert here, in case you were interested.

Latin American locations covered on Quaint Planet

Santiago de Chile ► Valparaíso ► Santiago de Chile ►Punta Arenas – Ushuaia – Punta Arenas ► Puerto Natales – Torres del Paine – Puerto Natales ► El Calafate (Perito Moreno Glacier, Arg) ► El Chaltén (Los Glaciares National Park) ► Chile Chico (Ch) – Puerto Rio Tranquillo (Marble Caves) ► Coyhaique – Puyuhuapi – (Carretera Austral) ► Puerto Chacabuco – Quellón/Castro ► Puerto Varas – San Carlos de Bariloche (Arg) ► Buenos Aires ► Colonia (Ur) ► Montevideo ► Punta del Diablo – Cabo Polonio ► Montevideo ► Salto ► Concordia (Arg) ► Puerto Iguazú (Iguazú Falls) ► Salta ► San Salvador de Jujuy ► Tilcara ► San Pedro de Atacama (Ch) ► Uyuni Salt Flats Tour (Bol) ► Uyuni ► Sucre – La Paz (Death Road Tour) ► Copacabana (Lake Titicaca) – Isla del Sol – Copacabana ► Cusco (Per) ► Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) ► Cusco ► Lima ► Máncora – Montañita (Ecu) ► Puerto López ► Quito ► Ipiales (Col) – Pasto ► Tatacoa Desert ► Bogotá ► Medellín ► Villa de Lleyva ► Santa Marta – Cartagena – Rincón del Mar Necoclí ► Capurganá ► Puerto Obaldía (Pan) ► Panama City ► Las Lajas ► Cerro Punta ► David ► Bocas del Torro ► San José (Costa Rica) ► San Juan del Sur (Nic) – Ometepe ► Granada ► Managua – El Rama – Bluefields – Corn Islans ► Léon ► El Tunco (El Salvador) ► La Antigua Guatemala – Lake Atitlán ► Lanquín (Semuc Champey) – Flores (Tikal) ► Belize City ► Bacalar – Tulum – Playa del Carmen – Mérida – Valladolid – Cancún ✈️ .