This day trip covers all of the main sites that the other tours do. We are picked up just after 7am and travel for about 90 minutes before we make a quick stop to get snacks/coffee and visit a well stocked ATM at a gas station, (which was quite a relief as we had trouble getting money in Salta the night before). Back on the bus we continue until we reach our first major stop, Purmamarka. We're given 45 minutes to explore the town, which really isn't much time at all. It's a really pretty town with cobblestone streets and lovely architecture and of course the painted hills. You can wander up Florida street until you get to a small hill that you can climb to get a great view of the painted mountains and the town itself for a minmal fee. We wander around the market in the main square that seems to be there every day for tourists looking for a souvenir.
Our next major stop is to Pukara De Tilkara a pre-incan fortification, where we're given 60 minutes to explore the ruins, we run out of time, then quick photo stop at the Tropic of Capricorn, before our lunch stop at Humahuaca.
We're given over two hours at Humahuaca where most people opt to go for the buffet lunch and judging by the number of people queued to enter it's the main attraction. We opt to go somewhere else, whilst we're very happy we did there's not a whole lot to do in Humahuaca so we found we had way too much time there, we would have preferred to spend it elsewhere. Most of the group were ready and waiting for the bus to arrive 15 minutes before the expected departure time. We then get back on the bus where we only stop for a quick picture at Maimara and a snack/drink stop.
The bus itself was very spacious and comfortable. Prior to our stops our guide would give us details about where were stopping and what we should see/do which suited us. Throughout the day we were given lots of commentary regarding where we travelling and it was consistently done in several languages
It's a long day, left at 7am and arrived back in Salta at 7.30pm, could have cut 60 minutes from lunch in Humahuaca and spent the time elsewhere but when I did my research the tours all seemed to cover the same territory.