A&K Sanctuary Plans Bolivia Salt-Flat Camp for Late 2027

A&K Sanctuary plans to open Samkani Camp on Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni in late 2027, putting six Airstream trailers on the world’s largest salt flat, according to Travel Weekly. Five will serve as guest suites; the sixth will handle shared dining and lounging. Camping, apparently, can involve blue Bolivian marble and a bar.

The September 9, 2026, report places the opening late next year. A&K Sanctuary, A&K Travel Group’s luxury lodge, camp and riverboat collection, is packaging the stay around more than accommodation: Each stay will include access to a private guide and driver, Travel Weekly reported.

That is the useful distinction beneath the chrome. Samkani is being presented as a stay within an A&K journey, with private guiding and a small accommodation footprint.

Inside Samkani Camp’s five guest suites

The architect-designed suites will feature blue Bolivian marble and chrome finishes, while the separate dining and lounge Airstream will have its own bar, according to Travel Weekly. The six-trailer headline therefore means five guest suites, not six bookable accommodations.

The announced design separates private accommodation from the place where guests eat and linger. A trailer is doing the work of a hotel’s communal room, while the other five provide the camp’s accommodation.

Travel Weekly also reported that Samkani’s name translates to “the one who dreams” in Aymara, an Indigenous language of Bolivia’s Altiplano region. The local references extend to the announced suite materials, with blue Bolivian marble part of the planned interiors. This is a luxury camp with a specific aesthetic, not an invitation to assume that trailer automatically means stripped-back.

Private guiding is part of the stay

According to A&K’s plans reported by Travel Weekly, more than 30 excursions will be available across the roughly 4,600-square-mile salt flat. The examples given are volcanic-cave visits and stargazing, with some experiences reserved exclusively for A&K Sanctuary guests. The company says its dedicated Bolivian team will lead them.

The wording deserves attention before anyone mentally books the entire activity menu. Access to a private guide and driver is an announced inclusion; the excursions are described as available. Those are not interchangeable promises, and Travel Weekly’s report does not establish that every excursion comes included in the stay.

How Samkani Camp will be booked

Guests will be able to book through an A&K Tailormade journey or a Small Group Journey to Bolivia, according to Travel Weekly. These are the two announced routes into a Samkani stay, placing the accommodation within a broader Bolivia journey.

The on-sale date was still pending in the September 9 report. A review of that report also leaves prices, suite occupancy and stay length unconfirmed. For anyone watching a travel budget, that leaves the central calculation unresolved. Marble is a design detail, not a cost breakdown. The eventual journey price and its inclusions will matter more than the novelty of sleeping in an Airstream.

The camp also has an operational backstory. Travel Weekly reported that A&K acquired Bolivia specialist Crillon Tours in fall 2025, including its destination management company, DMC Bolivia, and its Airstream fleet. At the time, A&K said it intended to invest in those trailers to bring them up to A&K Sanctuary standards. Samkani’s planned opening follows that acquisition and announced investment plan.

A camp stay is not the whole Uyuni circuit

Travelers comparing Samkani with other ways to see the region should keep the geography of an itinerary in view. In Search of Everywhere describes a one-day trip from Uyuni that visits the train cemetery, Colchani, the salt hotel and Isla Incahuasi before returning for sunset. Its three-day circuit crosses the salar first, then heads south through the Eduardo Avaroa reserve to lagoons, geysers and hot springs.

Those southern-circuit stops should not be read into Samkani’s excursion announcement. A camp on the salar and a multiday regional circuit are different itinerary choices, even when both sit under the broad label of a Bolivia salt-flats trip.

Season also changes the setting. In Search of Everywhere describes the shallow water that creates Uyuni’s mirror effect from December until April, while noting that flooding can make parts of the flat inaccessible and cut access to Incahuasi. The guide describes May through November as offering dependable roads and views of the cracked, hexagonal salt crust. That is regional context, not confirmation of Samkani’s seasonal operating arrangements.

Another kind of small luxury stay

Samkani is not the only intimate accommodation concept associated with this landscape. Aracari describes Casa Gastón as a 10-suite hotel-museum at the foot of Tunupa volcano on the salar’s northern rim, developed from artist Gastón Ugalde’s final vision and carried forward by his son Mariano and the family.

That offers a useful distinction, not a price comparison: an artist-led hotel-museum facing the salt flat versus A&K’s planned trailer camp with private guiding. For Samkani, the decision will ultimately rest on the journey around the room. The chrome gets attention; the itinerary has to earn the booking.