La Paz is one of South America's easiest cities to arrive in alone: hostels on Calle Comercio run their own bars, free walking tours leave twice daily from Plaza San Pedro, and market counters are built for eating shoulder to shoulder with strangers.
Irish-run hostel in a colonial mansion with a glass-roofed courtyard bar where solo arrivals get name tags at breakfast. Coca tea is free all day, which helps while your body adjusts to 3,640m before you walk anywhere.
A tiled municipal market off Avenida Camacho where office workers share long stainless counters, so a single seat is normal rather than awkward. Order plato paceño or api con pastel; open roughly 07:00-17:00 Monday to Saturday.
The best-preserved colonial street in La Paz: one ochre-walled block holding four small municipal museums — Costumbrista, Litoral, Metales Preciosos and Casa de Murillo. One combined ticket covers all four at your own pace.
A fenced 360-degree viewpoint on a rock spur above Villa Pabón, about 15 minutes by taxi from the Casco Viejo. Benches, joggers and paceño families make it comfortable to sit alone while the basin's lights come on below.
Bolivia's original free walking tour leaves Plaza San Pedro twice daily, guides in red caps covering San Pedro prison, coca leaf and cholita dress. Groups of 15 to 30 travellers make it the fastest route to lunch companions.
A 1970s-style diner on Plaza del Estudiante open 24 hours, all mirrors and waistcoated waiters working a laminated menu of forty dishes. Two-seat window tables suit eating alone; sopa de maní and llajua-loaded lomo are the regulars' order.
On Sunday afternoons, Aymara women in bowler hats and layered polleras body-slam each other in a municipal hall in La Ceja. Tickets include a drink and popcorn, foreigners are seated ringside, and being pulled into the act is part of the show.
A cramped, poster-plastered bar where paceño students and musicians pack in for live folk, jazz and rock from around 21:00. Standing room and shared tables mean a solo drinker ends up in conversation whether or not that was the plan.
Eroded clay spires 10km south of the centre with two railed loop trails of roughly 15 and 45 minutes — signposted, busy and entirely doable alone. Open 08:30-17:00; minibus 231 or 273 from Avenida Arce takes about 40 minutes.
A Bolivian coffee-chain branch in leafy Calacoto, 600m lower and noticeably warmer than the Casco Viejo. Fast wifi, a long communal bar, salads and sandwiches — the default laptop-and-lunch stop for solo travellers in the Zona Sur.
The Devil's Molar, a volcanic plug above Pedregal, is a two-hour out-and-back climb on a clear, well-trodden path with other hikers most afternoons. Minibus 288 drops you at the small cemetery where the trail starts; no entry fee.
Sopocachi's central square is where the neighbourhood ends its day: benches under mature trees, dog walkers, chess players and cafés on every corner. Comfortable to sit alone into the evening, with dozens of restaurants five minutes away.