Traveling to South America. What Route?

shanem4422

Hey all.
Im hoping to fly out to South America around the 1st of October for 3 months backpacking, ive been researching threads on here but still have not got the info I require.
firstly id like to know the routes that other travelers have taken around that area. Im proposing flying into Bogota in Columbia, then Peru, Chile, Argentina and bolivia. I hope to finish up in December in Rio Brazil. Is this Anti-clockwise route a good plan or am I hitting places at the wrong times or anything?
Im travelling on my own and have pretty much an open plan and up to 10k at my disposal.

im mainly wondering about flights and what routes have people taken, what airlines and travel agents they booked with etc.
Right now im considering a flight from Dublin to Bogata return for around 770 euro on skyscanner with us airways. I would have to make my way back to Bogata to get the return flight from brazil, this looks expensive at around 500 euro one way.
the second option is Dublin to Orlando for 470 return and then a flight for 150 with spirit airways to bogata and making my way back to Orlando in December to go home.

Any kind of input is appreciated here from people with similar experience about such a trip and anything I should be seeing on the way

thanks in advance

Shane

schemingbohemia

Might be worth having a look at this for a cheap flight to SA

http://www.holidaypirates.com/flights/cheap-open-jaw-flights-to-south-america-from-gbp-26340

I would have thought that a flight to your furthest destination in SA first might make the other flights cheaper? So fly to Chile and that's subsidised so to speak compared to flying into Bogota and then longer journeys within South America.

Meathlass

Why don't you fly into Bogota and out of Rio since that's your final destination? Why are you backtracking to Colombia again.

The classic route for you would be Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and then Rio. I did the above in about 5 months so you will have to cut down on some places to do it in 3.

I flew from Dublin via Frankfurt with Lufthansa into Caracas and out of Rio 7 months later - think it cost about €800 (travelled 8 yrs ago).

That's a okish time of the year to travel as weather can be rough in southern Chile/Argentina mountain areas in oct and nov and you could get blocked in in some places.

jocefella

My Travelling route back in 2008 was Chile,Peru,Bolivia,Argentina.Uruguayand Brazil. Peru and Argentina were by far my favourite countries I had visited.Machu Picchu is a must out of this world.Book the trek a good bit in advance.You can also get the boat from Buenos Aires to montevideo in Uruguay I think it was only 2hrs to knock off Uruguays as another country.

Challo

Definitely try fly in one end and out the other. No point backtracking over such a huge distance to save a hundred and fifty euro on your initial flight price.

Agree with Meathlass, it will be very difficult cover that much ground in three months. I was there for five months a few years ago and really just travelled around Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Northern Chile and two weeks in Brazil. Was rushed enough even at that.

FandangoRanger

I agree that it's pretty much mission impossible to do all that in 3 months unless you're only planning on doing the major cities and taking a lot of flights simply to check all those countries off your list.

On one trip I was gone for just a month and that only allowed me to see Peru and a bit of Bolivia. I started off with a stopover in Iquitos and then flew to Lima. Didn't stay there long and took the train to Huancayo, bus to Ayacucho and then flew to Cuzco (and Machu Pichu). Later went to Puno, the islands in Lake Titicaca, then over to Copacabana in Bolivia, went to La Paz and took the bus along the Highway of Death to Coroico and then back to La Paz and on to Arequipa, then back to Lima for the flight home. Not enough time to do anything else. Couldn't see much of Bolivia in that short amount of time.

On another occasion I did a 3 week trip and all I managed to do was to fly to Montevideo, go to Punta del Este, spend some time in Buenos Aires and then fly over to Santiago de Chile.

I'm not the type of person to spend one day in a place and then move on but maybe you are!