Travel South America

TigerLily7

I really would love to do a tour of South America and my research has shown it to be fairly expensive, real gap.com do a 21 day tour for £1444 excluding flights. Would anybody have any reccomendations on how to go about this? It's a long standing dream of mine!! Thank you!

benjus

Do you mean that you want to travel independently and avoid paying for a tour? You should certainly be able to save some money doing it this way. You can then use local travel agencies to book any tours that interest you. Some things (e.g. the Inca Trail) can only be done through a tour company.

To start with, you need to decide where in South America you want to go, as this will impact your budget. Living costs in Bolivia are much lower than in Brazil, for example. It's also a huge continent - much bigger than the whole of Europe (western, central and eastern). Surface travel is cheap but slow, while air travel within South America is expensive. So if you've got three weeks you will need to pick out some specific places you want to visit.

Try visiting the South America forum at http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/ to get some ideas. Come up with a shortlist of what you want to see, and plot a route on a map. Don't try to cover too large a route with limited time - cut out any places that would require a long detour from the main route.

Also bear in mind that the cost of flights from the UK varies quite a lot depending on where you want to go. For example, flights to somewhere like La Paz, Bolivia can easily cost double the price of flights to the Atlantic side of the continent.

richardw

Depends when you want to go, avoiding high season will save a lot of money.

It is a massive continent, so a bit of a preference of where you want to go to is a good starting points.

There are direct flights from London to Sao Paulo and Rio, some charters to Natal. BA also fly to Buenos Aires with a stop in Sao Paulo, no need to change planes. There is more choice via Madrid, Paris, Miami, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Porto.

Voyager2002

That tour sounds massively expensive, unless it includes flights within the region. Otherwise, just buy a guide book and do it yourself. Ecuador is cheap and easy; Colombia is wonderful but can be dangerous. Changing 'planes in Bogota is fine, and Avianca (the Colombian airline) is excellent and flies to most of the continent via Bogota.

puffinmuffin

I agree that this seems very expensive, let us know what you want to see! I spent 3 weeks travelling solo in Peru and Bolivia last year and in total spent about £1200 including flights and the Inca Trail. Most things in SA are priced in US$ so the £ goes a long way.
I am totally in love with South America, you won't regret going but if you try to do too much you will barely scratch the surface!

Blue264

TigerLily7 wrote: »

I really would love to do a tour of South America and my research has shown it to be fairly expensive, real gap.com do a 21 day tour for £1444 excluding flights. Would anybody have any reccomendations on how to go about this? It's a long standing dream of mine!! Thank you!

Mine too.

Depending on how fit you are and how you want to experience the continent, you could look at charity websites to see which ones are doing sponsored treks to S.A. The charity quote a price and you raise sponsorship to cover the cost, and hopefully make some extra for the charity.
A group of doctors and nurses at my local hospital did this 2 years ago and a couple of my friends went with them. They had a fantastic time and it was hard work too but they felt totally safe.

I see ads for charity treks from time to time in The Metro free newspaper like this...

http://www.charitychallenge.com/cc/charitychallenge/index.jsp

TigerLily7

Wow! Thanks for all responses. I think my first thing to decide it whether to do this trip via tour groups or whether to buy Lonely Planets guide books and go my own way ( well there are 2 of us ) I think my main concern is safety as we are two females. Am I just paranoid?!

Amy83

Personally I'd say buy the guidebooks, research on the web loads, and just do it all independently (possibly with a few tours thrown in when you need them - ie the Inca Trail/Machu Picu you can only do with tourguides)

I'm in the same position, my friend and I (both females) will be travelling in South America next year, so long as you exercise a bit of caution and don't take unnecessary risks you'll be fine! We're still considering whether to go to Columbia or not, as from all the reports it can be quite dangerous. While you can't make your route 100% safe (just like going to any town or city in the UK isn't 100% safe) if you research enough at least you'll know the likely risks to evaluate whether you want to go.

Happy travels :beer:

pboae

If you do want to do a tour have a look at http://www.intrepidtravel.com they tend to be cheaper. Watch out for the local payment you have to make though, it can add a lot onto the price, and also remember that they don't include airfare there, though you can buy some of then through virgin holidays with flights included if you want to.

lynzpower

Ive travelled solo in south america and the carribbean and was totally fine. You just need to not be too flashy, take cabs afer dark in major metropolises and just enjoy yourself and dont get too hammered drunk on the cocktails :eek:

Youl have the time of your life.

On the downside I know a few people who have been on these tours and really disliked them, as they have been whistlestop ( 6 hours in Rio anyone?!) you have to put up with A LOT of bus travel, sometimes when you least feel like it ( picking your own itinary is infinately better IMO) and sometimes some of the people on the tour wont be your sort of people ( same with any group travel I suppose)

I would also say travelling independently you will get a real flavour of the country and speak to locals etc. One mate I know of was told not to speak to locals in case of XYZ happening and they would all sit together of an evening speaking english & watching fiilms on Ipods.

Whatever you do DONT MISS VENEZUELA - Its stunning, the people are fantastic and caracas is WILD! ( although ever so slightly dodgy after dark, but there is 2 of you so Id reckon you are fine iof you dont parade wealth)

bring1t

I am actually going to go the other way on this one, i recently got back from a 31 day tour with GAP of Peru and Bolivia, we had a great group and a great time. I know people do do this on their own, however i could not have imagined trying to get around without speaking Spanish!! Literally no one speaks english out in the sticks (which is pretty much everywhere).. The benefit (some may think disadvantage) of the tour is being told where to sleep, eat, and travel, all the hassle removed and more time spent on seeing rather than organising travel and accomodation.