Santa Cruz works best as a base. The city itself is short on sights, but within a few hours' drive lie some of Bolivia's most spectacular landscapes and cultural sites.
The closest escape is Lomas de Arena, a 14,000-hectare protected park of towering sand dunes and seasonal lagoons just 12 km south of the city — a half-day by 4x4. West of the city, Amboró National Park covers more than 4,400 square kilometres where the Andes meet the Amazon, with over 820 bird species and terrain ranging from cloud forest to lowland jungle. The mountain town of Samaipata, a three-hour drive up into the Andean foothills, is the park's most accessible gateway and also the base for visiting El Fuerte, a UNESCO-listed pre-Inca ceremonial rock. Both Amboró and Samaipata work as full-day or one-night trips.
The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos, a UNESCO World Heritage circuit of six restored 18th-century mission churches scattered across the plains east of Santa Cruz, need at least four days to do properly and reward a week. Further afield, multi-day tours run into the Pantanal wetlands toward the Brazilian border and north to the Beni jungle around Trinidad and Rurrenabaque.
Closer in, two waterfall trips fill a day without leaving the department. Jardín de las Delicias is the bigger of the two — three falls in the Amboró foothills, two and a half hours out on a road that needs a 4×4 and crosses rivers that close after rain. Espejillos, an hour and a half south-west near Porongo, is the natural rock-slide and swimming spot Cruceños go to at weekends.
