Advice for planning trip to South America

SpaceCowb0y

Hello

I am just looking for some advice from people who may have already been to South America regards itineraries, estimated cost for travel etc.

Myself and my friend are hoping to do two weeks maybe 16 days including flights to and back from South America in late September

We are hoping to start in Peru and Visit Machu Picchu and Cusco and possibly Puno before heading to Boliva, we would like to see Lake Titicaca and on to La Paz hopefully having the time to visit the salt plains.

We are unsure how long this would take, would that take the entire two weeks or would we have the time to visit one more country in the 2 weeks? If so we are undecided on Argentina or Brazil but assume it would be cheaper to fly home via brazil?

At this stage we are just researching our options, looking at if it's better to book everything via a service like USIT or some other specialist travel agency for SA or if perhaps we can do it cheaper on our own etc so any information anyone has would be a great help.

We are looking to do this as cheap as possible and don't mind staying in hostels etc, in fact we encourage it as i think will will enjoy ourselves more meeting fellow travellers like us there.

Thanks in advance

imme

You seem to have your itinerary or maybe wish list made up OP

Nothing wrong with that

Do you have to go so fast
Is your time limited to 2 weeks
You're​trying to do a lot in 2 weeks

Of course depends on how you travel

Where will you begin,will you fly via BA and not stop there but fly on to Cusco

Lonely planet or rough guide are handy for including some itineraries
Their book for south America should have a few sample itineraries

Hostels will be widely available you can book the next one online, they will all be listed on hostelbookers or hostelworld
There'll be a mix between party hostels and more small independent type places

Obviously in smaller towns etc there mightn't be that choice

There've been a good few threads on south America on boards over the years, might be worth searching them

Antar Bolaeisk

Having just come back from Peru two weeks is just nowhere near enough. To be fair I spent five of those days on the Inka Trail/Machu Picchu.

I heard a lot of good things about Peru Hop while there, a bus service run by two Irish guys (there were loads of Irish people in Peru), that travels to various spots around the country.

Cost wise I found things very reasonable, obviously there's tourist rates in the central areas but outside there things were very cheap. Try to have an idea in advance of what taxis are going to cost otherwise you'll be paying the gringo rate.

Definitely stay in hostels or hospedajes.

The highlights for me were the Inka Trail/Machu Picchu and a trip down in to the rainforest. Peru is amazing and I'm already planning to go back.

SpaceCowb0y

Hey thanks for the input folks

i think 16 days in total would be the max either myself and my travel companion could get off work, i'm factoring that in as a day lost either side flying to and from South America so leaving us with 2 full weeks to travel.

Yes i agree it's not long but its the best we can do unfortunately.

I think we will probably fly into Lima, spend a day there and then travel straight to Cusco. We won't be doing the Inca trail and will instead opt for the train just to save time and spend maybe 3 days in total in Cusco before moving on a gain to Puno.

Perhaps this is still a little rushed i'm not sure? Maybe we should scratch the idea of visiting a third country and spend a week in Peru and a week in Bolivia? I'm not sure how easy it is to fly back to Ireland from Bolivia though?

cooker3

As the others have said you are trying to do a lot. I spent 2 months in Peru and 1 month in Bolivia to give you some idea.

Is there anything in La Paz in particular you are looking to do?

I spent 2-3 days in Puno. It's fine but I personally didn't think it was mind blowing.

To get to the salt flats it's around a 12 hour bus journey from La Paz to Uyuni and then you have to get wherever city you fly out off to go back home which will likely you mean you need at least 1 internal flight along the way maybe more if you want to fit that all in.

As for travel agencies there is no real need to use them to sort everything out. It's all fairly straightforward and is likely cheaper.