Gravity Bolivia — Local services in La Paz

Long story short, we felt deceived, cheated, and ripped off by their Death Road tour. This is NOT an honest business. AVOID them.

Purely by coincidence, the date we chose to go on the tour, was also the date of Gran Poder - the biggest festival in La Paz. As one could imagine, the festivities bring the entire city to a halt, and make the tour a logistics nightmare. While that’s not Gravity’s fault, not telling us definitely is. The tour date was a Friday, and when I went to the office to book on Wednesday, the girl didn’t mention anything. But then when I went in again on Thursday, all of a sudden Gran Poder became a big issue, and their van couldn’t come to our hotel anymore. Really? Who could’ve seen that coming, huh?

I really hate to make these assumptions, but here I do think Gravity deliberately hided the Gran Poder part, because they were afraid to lose our business. But actually, if they told me beforehand, I would’ve chosen to go on Thursday instead, and they’d still make my money. Oh well, I guess they didn’t know.

Now onto the most infuriating part. Because of the Gran Poder street closures, on Thursday, they asked to walk 1.5km the next morning and meet the van at 6:30am. To put it into perspective, the original plan was to pick us up from our hotel at 7:15am. Obviously, we were not happy about this, so the girl offered a compromise: the driver would message us in the morning, “see how the traffic is and decide where to meet”. Sounds like a silver lining, right? Oh boy was that wrong. Only an hour after leaving, at 6pm on Thursday, they decided “pick up is not possible, please walk to the plaza far far away”. I couldn’t help but think the girl only said that to get us out of her office.

And guess what happened the next morning? Streets were empty and cars were driving around freely. They absolutely could have picked us up from the hotel and saved us from walking 20 minutes in the dark.

Same thing happened on return as well, we had to be dropped off on the other side of the valley, take the teleférico, and walk another 20 minutes back to our hotel. In the end, the “hotel transfer” is even more exhausting than the tour itself. Again, Gravity should have told us about this beforehand, not blaming everything on Gran Poder. Instead, they chose to take our money first, and then deliver all the bad news they already knew.

Oh and not only did they take our money, they even overcharged us! We shared the tour with two other travelers, who told us that they paid $90/person, including a zipline ride. The price we paid was $120/person, with no zipline. Now, I don’t care for the zipline at all, but if you take off this $32 extra option, the other guests essentially paid less than half of our price. It’s absolutely the worst feeling when you’re already mistreated, and then found out you’re also ripped off. And did I mention they also got hotel pick-up/drop-off?

All in all, I can’t believe these issues are mistakes anymore, because an honest business would never do things this way. When I emailed Gravity after the tour, the owner played everything off as “poor communication”, but I don’t buy it at all. Don’t be fooled by the good reviews online, and don’t think their expensive price means good service. Just don’t book with this...

Our experience of the Death Road cycle with Gravity was fantastic! Our guide Kenneth and driver Guillermo were both brilliant! My partner is a more competent and confident cycler so his decision to do Death Road was an easy one, for me it was more difficult but once we visited the Gravity office and got walked through the detail of the ride, the company’s focus on safety and the guides support for nervous riders I was sold!

Right from the start Kenneth was really reassuring, talking us through each section of the ride, sharing tips for me to best approach the changing terrain and giving advice to keep safe at all times. I never felt any pressure to push myself more than I felt comfortable and Kenneth set a pace he knew I could handle when leading the group. As the road progressed and my confidence grew I could really start to enjoy the ride, pick up some speed and take in the amazing scenery. The equipment was brilliant and we felt totally safe throughout.

We were kept energised with a good amount of snacks throughout and a full meal at the end. Gravity is the only tour to end at La Sende Verde animal sanctuary where you can freshen up and you have the opportunity see the animals the sanctuary has saved from trafficking, a very worth cause to support!

A lot of detail but hopefully this encourages others who are on the fence to do the ride. Gravity is more expensive than others, but you feel like you get your moneys worth through the expertise of the guide and the quality of the equipment so we couldn’t recommend Gravity...

One of the best tours/activities/excursions I’ve done.

Omar was a true gentleman when booking the tour.

Our guides and drivers did a top job on the day - thanks Noah, Marco, Gilla! The tour started with a nice hot cup of coffee on the bus. Noah and Marco were super friendly from the start. They delivered excellent safety briefings, and clear instructions/briefings for each section of the descent down Death Road. Even when we were faced with multiple landslides they quickly came up with a safe plan and let us know the details so we always knew what was going on.

All the bikes were in tip top condition and Noah and Marco frequently checked the tyres to make sure everyone had the best conditions to go down.

Overall the ride was structured really well. starting off on a tarmac road to build confidence going down hill at speed. Then little parts with bumps so you start trusting the suspension of the bike. 100m off road stretch around the tunnel to get a feel for death road. Then onto death road itself - staring off with a short stint then increasing gradually to build confidence. And of course frequent stops to take pictures and get a briefing on how to do the next section safely.

Best of all...once you’re down you can see the animals in the sanctuary and take a nice shower with towels provided!!

Finally, loved the effort Gravity Bolivia make to be environmentally friendly. No plastic on the sandwiches and reusable flasks (which you get to keep).

Hands down one of the best experiences on...