Cafeography
Bolivia

Cafés in La Paz from llaucha to pour-over

Café paceño in Sopocachi’s old houses, roasters on San Miguel’s Gabriel René Moreno, and traveler cafés on Calle Sagárnaga.

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159Cafés listed
0Open by 6am
11Open past 10pm
8Specialty & roasters

La Paz has a coffee of its own. Café tradicional paceño (La Paz-style coffee) is brewed slowly in an enameled iron pot, the way generations of paceño households served it.2 The classic breakfast partner is the llaucha, a cheese-filled pastry sold from covered baskets in the morning and eaten with api, tea or coffee; vendors were already selling it in the 1940s.3

The center’s café culture is old too. The bookshop at Calle Comercio 1270 first opened in 1907, founded by the brothers Francesc and Esteve Arnó from Mataró, and later took the surname of one of its employees, Gisbert.10 The Writers Coffee opened inside Librería Gisbert in early 2015.11 Specialty roasting arrived farther south: Roaster, in San Miguel, had been open six years in 2018 and roasts beans bought from several farms in the Yungas.9

The city drops as it runs southeast. Central La Paz sits at about 3,600 m and the Zona Sur at about 3,250 m, where it is milder, and the rain falls mostly between November and March.7 Mi Teleférico, the cable-car network, links the levels: it runs 06:30–22:30 Monday to Saturday and 07:00–21:00 on Sunday, and in January 2026 a ride cost Bs 3, with transfers at Bs 2.8

Start with a barrio

La Paz by area

The streets around Calle Sagárnaga climb from the San Francisco basilica to the Witches’ Market on Calle Linares.13 Sopocachi, south of the Prado, has been the city’s artistic and bohemian quarter since the mid-19th century.14 The Zona Sur, home to San Miguel, lies some 350 m below the center.7

Casco Viejo

Plaza Murillo’s colonial grid: a café inside a 1907 bookshop, Calle Jaén’s museum-street cafés and HB Bronze.

21 cafés

Sagárnaga & Rosario

Uphill from San Francisco: traveler cafés on Sagárnaga, Linares and Murillo, the Witches’ Market and coffee until 01:00.

24 cafés

El Prado & San Pedro

Avenida 16 de Julio from Plaza del Estudiante: Aliño open until 22:00, Ancestro from 07:30 and San Pedro’s side streets.

14 cafés

Miraflores

Garden-suburb streets east of the center: Amanita on Avenida Busch, Ristretto on Plaza Uyuni and vegan plates on Avenida Argentina.

12 cafés

Sopocachi

Republican-era houses, Plaza Abaroa and Avenida Ecuador: café paceño, a feminist collective’s café and cafés open past 22:00.

33 cafés

San Miguel

The Zona Sur café strip on Avenida Montenegro and Gabriel René Moreno: Roaster’s coffee lab, 21grs, waffles and bakeries.

32 cafés
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Café de especialidad

Specialty coffee

Yungas and Caranavi beans by V60, Chemex and siphon: San Miguel’s roasters, Sangre y Madera and HB Bronze.

8 cafés
Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi from Sagárnaga’s traveler cafés to The Writers Coffee in Librería Gisbert and Blueberries in Sopocachi.

24 cafés
Confiterías y pastelerías

Bakery cafés

Confiterías by Plaza Murillo, pastelerías in Sopocachi and San Miguel, and the breads La Paz eats with coffee.

14 cafés
Vegetariano y vegano

Vegetarian & vegan

Plant-based plates around Sagárnaga, on Avenida Busch and Avenida Argentina in Miraflores, and in Sopocachi.

17 cafés
Abierto hasta tarde

Open late

Coffee after 22:00: Sol y Luna on Calle Murillo, Blueberries and Café Ciudad in Sopocachi, and Sagárnaga’s café-restaurants.

11 cafés

Casco Viejo 21 cafés

More about cafés in Casco Viejo

Sagárnaga & Rosario 24 cafés

More about cafés in Sagárnaga & Rosario

Max Paredes & Gran Poder 2 cafés

El Prado & San Pedro 14 cafés

More about cafés in El Prado & San Pedro

Ancestro

  • Calle Otero de la Vega 258
  • Daily 07:30–20:30
  • 70526920
  • Wi-Fi
  • Indoor seating
  • Card payment
  • Smoke-free indoors
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Miraflores 12 cafés

More about cafés in Miraflores

Sopocachi 33 cafés

More about cafés in Sopocachi

Obrajes 1 cafés

Irpavi 2 cafés

San Miguel 32 cafés

More about cafés in San Miguel

Calacoto 6 cafés

Achumani 6 cafés

Cota Cota & Chasquipampa 6 cafés

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Coffee chains in La Paz

Branches by area

Before you sit down

How to order coffee in La Paz

Specialty cafés use the international names. On Sangre y Madera’s 2026 menu in Sopocachi, an espresso costs Bs 15, an americano Bs 18 and a cappuccino Bs 22, and a V60 pour-over of washed Catuaí Bs 28.1 The same menu lists café tradicional paceño at Bs 20 for 207 ml and Bs 25 for 300 ml, next to café de olla, an americano spiced with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and cardamom.1

Api is a hot, thick drink of purple corn with ground yellow corn, sugar, cinnamon and clove, of pre-Hispanic origin and drunk across Bolivia’s Andean departments.4 Its usual partner is a pastel, a fried cheese empanada; Sangre y Madera sells the pair for Bs 20.1 Llauchas have a runny filling of cheese sauce, are brushed with ají amarillo (yellow chili), bake on the oven floor and measure 15–20 cm.3

Later in the morning comes the salteña, a baked empanada around a sweet, slightly spicy stew that melts in the oven. Paceños eat them mid-morning, above all on Sundays; vendors sell from about 07:00 to noon, and most run out well before.5 At street festivals such as San Juan in June, the drink is sucumbé: hot milk with cinnamon and clove, frothed or topped with beaten egg white and laced with singani, the Bolivian grape spirit.12

Tipping is discretionary. BBC Mundo described it in 2018 as not a custom in Bolivia, and a tip there does not go above 10% of the bill.6

What coffee costs in La Paz

DrinkTypical price
Café tradicional paceño
Slow-brewed La Paz coffee, 207 ml		Bs 20
Sangre y Madera, Sopocachi, 2026
Espresso
Espresso		Bs 15
Sangre y Madera, Sopocachi, 2026
Americano
Espresso with hot water		Bs 18
Sangre y Madera, Sopocachi, 2026
Cappuccino
Cappuccino		Bs 22
Sangre y Madera, Sopocachi, 2026
Api con pastel
Purple-corn drink with a fried cheese empanada		Bs 20
Sangre y Madera, Sopocachi, 2026

Prices as of 2026, from the digital menu of Café Espacio Cultural Sangre y Madera in Sopocachi, where a filter coffee costs Bs 25–35 depending on the method, from AeroPress to siphon.1

Sources

  1. Carta de Sangre y Madera (digital menu), Café Espacio Cultural Sangre y Madera, via MyBakarta, accessed October 2026
  2. Menú: café de especialidad y gastronomía paceña, Café Espacio Cultural Sangre y Madera, accessed October 2026
  3. Llaucha, Wikipedia (Spanish), accessed October 2026
  4. Api (bebida), Wikipedia (Spanish), accessed October 2026
  5. Salteña, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  6. De dónde viene la palabra propina y cuánto se deja en los países de América Latina, Prensa Libre / BBC Mundo (July 9, 2018), accessed October 2026
  7. La Paz, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  8. ¿El teleférico de La Paz y el tren de Cochabamba operan en el feriado de Año Nuevo?, eju.tv (January 1, 2026), accessed October 2026
  9. Coffee in the Veins, Bolivian Express (Sophia Vahdati, April 26, 2018), accessed October 2026
  10. Un cognom alcoià enmig de la crisi boliviana, VilaWeb (Martí Crespo, November 15, 2019), accessed October 2026
  11. HB Bronze: coffee with identity below the surface, Bolivian Express (Marianthi Baklava, February 17, 2017), accessed October 2026
  12. Sucumbé, Wikipedia (Spanish), accessed October 2026
  13. Mercado de las Brujas, Wikipedia (Spanish), accessed October 2026
  14. Sopocachi, Wikipedia (Spanish), accessed October 2026
FAQ

Cafés in La Paz: common questions

How much does a coffee cost in La Paz?

On Sangre y Madera’s 2026 menu in Sopocachi, an espresso costs Bs 15, an americano Bs 18, a cappuccino Bs 22 and a 207 ml café tradicional paceño Bs 20. Filter coffee runs from Bs 25 for an AeroPress to Bs 35 for a siphon, and api with a fried cheese pastel costs Bs 20.

Which neighborhood of La Paz has the most cafés?

Sopocachi and San Miguel have the most cafés, followed by Sagárnaga & Rosario. Sopocachi and San Miguel each have about a fifth of the cafés, ahead of the streets around Sagárnaga and the Casco Viejo.

What is café tradicional paceño in La Paz?

It is La Paz’s household coffee, brewed slowly in an enameled iron pot the way generations of paceño families made it. Sangre y Madera in Sopocachi serves it in 207 ml and 300 ml cups, at Bs 20 and Bs 25 as of 2026.

What do people in La Paz eat with coffee in the morning?

Breakfast is often a llaucha, a pastry with a runny cheese filling sold from baskets in the morning and eaten with api, tea or coffee. Later comes the salteña, a baked empanada with a sweet, slightly spicy stew, eaten mid-morning and especially on Sundays; vendors sell from about 07:00 to noon.

Do you tip in cafés and restaurants in La Paz?

Tipping is discretionary in Bolivia. BBC Mundo described it in 2018 as not a national custom, and when people do leave a tip it does not go above 10% of the bill. With a cappuccino at Bs 22 on Sangre y Madera’s 2026 menu, 10% comes to about Bs 2.

What are the La Paz teleférico hours and fares?

Mi Teleférico, the cable-car network, runs 06:30–22:30 Monday to Saturday and 07:00–21:00 on Sunday. In January 2026 a ride on the first line cost Bs 3, and each transfer to another line Bs 2. It links central La Paz, at about 3,600 m, with the milder Zona Sur at about 3,250 m.

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