Give Santa Cruz three days. Spend the first in the centre: Plaza 24 de Septiembre, the cathedral bell tower, Lorgio Vaca's mural at El Arenal and breakfast at Los Pozos market. Spend the second outdoors at Biocentro Güembé or on the Lomas de Arena dunes. Use the third for Samaipata and El Fuerte. May to September is dry; add nights for the Jesuit missions.
Santa Cruz de la Sierra is Bolivia's largest city and its richest, a lowland boomtown at about 416 metres built on concentric ring roads. The colonial grid survives inside the first ring; the reasons to come are the forests, dunes and mission towns within a few hours of it.
The square takes its name from the uprising of 24 September 1810, and General Warnes has stood at its centre since 1920. The cathedral, the Casa de la Cultura and the arcaded streets of the old grid all start here, so it is the natural first hour.
Felipe Bertrés designed the brick basilica, begun in 1838 and consecrated in 1915. The bell tower gives the only high view of the old centre, and the sacred-art museum inside keeps four rooms of silver, vestments and carved wood.
A nature park across the Piraí with a butterfly house, an orchid house, an aviary and a chain of natural pools. Entry covers the pools, kayaks and a guided walk, so it fills a whole day and is the city's best answer to the heat.
Pale dunes and seasonal lagoons in a regional park protected since 1991, about 12 km south of the centre. Sandboarding is the reason to go, and the light late in the day is the reason to stay.
The traditional central market, on the north-east edge of the old town, and the place to taste the lowlands' fruit. Rough Guides calls it arguably the best food market in Bolivia.
Noel Kempff Mercado founded the zoo in 1979, and it keeps only South American species: about 2,000 animals of 250 species on 6.6 hectares. It is the easiest place to see the jaguars, tapirs and macaws of the region's forests.
A lagoon park a few blocks from the plaza, with Lorgio Vaca's bas-relief mural of the history of the Bolivian east on its island. Vaca began it in 1969 and rebuilt it after a 2010 explosion wrecked it.
The municipal botanical garden is mostly native forest, about 200 hectares of it, east of the city on the Cotoca road. Toborochi trees and a tropical greenhouse are the set pieces; the forest trails are the reason to come.
The state university's natural history museum, founded in 1986 and named for the biologist murdered in 1986 while surveying the park that now carries his name. Its collections are the clearest introduction to the lowland forests before you go into them.
A carved sandstone ridge above the town of Samaipata, a ceremonial site of the 14th to 16th centuries and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. The road climbs about 120 km into the hills, two to two and a half hours each way.
About 24 hectares of lawns and paths, the city's busiest green space at weekends.
The state university's natural history collections, founded in 1986.
The university's regional history rooms, in a family house finished in 1920.
Bolivian ingredients cooked with Asian technique, high above Equipetrol. Book ahead.
Peruvian and Nikkei cooking with a pisco bar, on Latin America's 50 Best 51–100 list in 2022.
Cafés, restaurants and bars from the Cristo Redentor to the Palacio de Justicia.
Mountain forest from Andes to lowland, a national park since 1984. Enter via Buena Vista.
Comparsas, a corso in the Cambódromo and three days of street water fights. The dates move with Easter.
Processions in the Chiquitos mission towns, with their own baroque music. Moves with Easter, March or April.
Baroque and Renaissance music in the mission churches and the city. Every even year; the 2026 edition ran 17 to 26 April.
International theatre across the city, in the odd years between the baroque festivals. Late April or May.
Bolivia's biggest trade fair, with over 2,000 exhibitors across ten days in the second half of September.
The department's anniversary, marking the 1810 cabildo abierto, with a civic parade and a public holiday.
On 1 and 2 November families gather at the cemeteries, and children sing at the tombs for coins.
Hundreds of thousands walk overnight to Cotoca for the 8 December Mass to the patroness of the east.
Bolivia's busiest airport, about 15 km north of the centre. BoA flies to Madrid and Miami from here, and Copa, Avianca, LATAM, Gol and Aerolíneas Argentinas connect the region.
One terminal for long-distance buses and the Ferroviaria Oriental trains. The Expreso Oriental to Puerto Quijarro on the Brazilian border restarted in May 2026, leaving on Fridays.
Minibuses and buses on more than a hundred numbered routes at a flat fare. They cross the anillos fast but take practice; ask your hotel for the line.
Seasoned rice with shredded charque or chicken, a fried egg and fried plantain.
A hearty Cruceño soup of hen, rice and squash.
Mashed yuca and cheese, grilled on a stick or baked until golden.
Green plantain or yuca pounded with charque. A breakfast dish.
A small, chewy bread of yuca starch and fresh cheese. Best warm.
Beef marinated in sour orange, garlic and cumin, slow-roasted, with yuca.
Fried chunks of surubí, the big catfish of the lowland rivers.
A cold, sweet drink of maize simmered with cinnamon and cloves.
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