Trying To Travel South America This Summer

Duffman'05

So I've unfortunately never gotten many opportunities to travel (never been outside Europe:o)

A friend and I are looking to travel as much of South America as possible sometime over July and August 2010; we were thinking six weeks but longer if necessary.

I just have no idea how to start planning such a monumental trip. We are hoping to start off in the north west (Costa Rica? Panama? Venezuela? Colombia?) and work our way down the west coast - hopefully to the very bottom so we can pop over to the Antarctic:rolleyes:. Then back up along the east coast to cap it of in the Amazon (really want to see that!).

Of course I realise this trip may be somewhat...big... but like I said I have almost no experience in travelling and hence am almost totally ignorant in terms of how long this kind of travel takes when going to as many countries as possible so any comments or suggestions that people who have seen much of the continent would be greatly appreciated

Randomly specific queries would include...

- Cheapest place to fly to and home from if we were to do this trip around the whole perimeter?
- Info on those boat trips to the Antarctic?
- Cheapest way to get around South America - Trains? Flying?
- Cost of living and travelling in general?
- How to find out where to go or what routes to take and what to do in countries as big as Chile, Argentina and Brazil without any real knowledge on them as of yet?

So if any experienced travellers of this region have a few minutes to kill - I'm all ears!:D

Cheers!

southsiderosie

Duffman'05 wrote: »

So I've unfortunately never gotten many opportunities to travel (never been outside Europe:o)

A friend and I are looking to travel as much of South America as possible sometime over July and August 2010; we were thinking six weeks but longer if necessary.

I just have no idea how to start planning such a monumental trip. We are hoping to start off in the north west (Costa Rica? Panama? Venezuela? Colombia?) and work our way down the west coast - hopefully to the very bottom so we can pop over to the Antarctic:rolleyes:. Then back up along the east coast to cap it of in the Amazon (really want to see that!).

Of course I realise this trip may be somewhat...big... but like I said I have almost no experience in travelling and hence am almost totally ignorant in terms of how long this kind of travel takes when going to as many countries as possible so any comments or suggestions that people who have seen much of the continent would be greatly appreciated

Randomly specific queries would include...

- Cheapest place to fly to and home from if we were to do this trip around the whole perimeter?
- Info on those boat trips to the Antarctic?
- Cheapest way to get around South America - Trains? Flying?
- Cost of living and travelling in general?
- How to find out where to go or what routes to take and what to do in countries as big as Chile, Argentina and Brazil without any real knowledge on them as of yet?

So if any experienced travellers of this region have a few minutes to kill - I'm all ears!:D

Cheers!

Six weeks is a short period of time to do a HUGE continent! Latin America is AMAZING, and it is worth traveling slowly to soak things up a bit rather than racing about.

I'd suggest picking a slice of the region (Central America or Ecuador/Peru/Chile or Argentina + Brazil). I'd also suggest taking the bus once within the region - flying can be pretty expensive. So you could do something like flying into Managua and working your way down through Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama (and maybe over to Colombia, but you would have to take a ferry or fly from Panama)...Or fly into Bahia in Brazil, and work your way south to Rio, Sao Paulo, maybe Iguassu Falls and into Buenos Aires and fly out from there. You didn't mention your budget; Central America will be the cheapest (especially Nicaragua), but it is definitely poorer than Brazil or Argentina.

Also something to think about: the southern tip of the region will be FREEZING that time of year...and it will be hurricane season in the Caribbean basin (i.e. 35+ with oppressive humidity and thunderstorms every afternoon). The Pacific side isn't quite as brutal that time of year...and some of the cities in the mountains will be quite cool.

Lonelyplanet.com is a good resource for up-to-date travel info; check the thorntree posts.

dory

First off go to your local library/Eason's and read as many Lonely Planet guides as you can.
South America has a very defined trail and you'll pretty much go the same way as everyone if you want to see the cool things. Myself and my brother both went there and have absolutely identical photos.

Next up antartica, trips start at $3000 and take a few weeks in themselves, and if you want to get to the starting point by bus from Buenos Aires that's about 3 days non-stop. I almost got a spot crewing someone's boat but for this you have to be very flexible and hang around waiting for someone to go.

For that trip you're talking about there I would say 5 months, and that would be rushing it.

The place you want to start in isn't South America. To get from Panama in Central America to South you have to get a 5 day boat, weather permitting, or fly. It's great though so if you can I would recommend starting in Central.

Next up learn Spanish. Can't stress this enough. My brother didn't listen to me on this one and is struggling big time. If this is a trip in a lifetime for you you might as well make it good! It'll be a thousand times better if you can understand what the people are talking about. Else you're just going to have to mingle with Mikey from Athlone. Twud be nice to meet new people.

The trip I would suggest would be to fly into Lima. HEad to Cusco, then onto Bolivia. Down through there into Santiago (if you can afford it - expensive!), then into Argentina down to glacier area and up to BA. The up to the waterfalls and over into Brazil. Trying to fit anything else in would really not be a fun trip.

For cheap flight you just have to keep checking things like kayak.com, but that's to check, don't book through that. The actual airline website is usually cheaper.

For budget, 1000 a month is normal, less in Bolivia, more in Chile so it all evens out.
Have fun!

darrenh

As everyone else had said, that is a huge undertaking. Everyone can advise you lots here but you need to sit down with a Lonely Planet and see what makes you tick. Write them down and then try and join the dots as best as possible! You will have to leave some out.

4 weeks in the south of Argentina and Chile would be just about enough time.

If you had money and flew, my highlights would be,

Rio - Iguassu Waterfalls - Buenos Aires - Perito Moreno Glacier Argentina - Salt Flats Bolivia - Inca Trail Peru. That should take about 5 or 6 weeks.
There is also a life times worth to see in between all that.

I haven't been to the north of South America and everyone who has says that Columbia is the best in the whole of South America.

Enjoy planning it. It's half the fun!