LATIN AMERICA
Andes peaks, Amazon green, Caribbean blue.
Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail, Iguazu and the salt flats, Cartagena’s walls and Rio’s beaches, Buenos Aires tango and Colombian coffee. Day trips and bucket-list trips across nine countries.
Worth the flight
The trips you cross a continent for.
City tours and beach days you can find anywhere. Standing in the Inca citadel at dawn, walking out over two countries’ worth of waterfall, stepping onto a salt flat that mirrors the sky — those belong to this continent alone.
The lost city
Machu Picchu
The Inca built it on a ridge 2,400 metres up, and the cloud forest hid it from the outside world for four centuries. You climb the same stone terraces at first light, before the mist lifts off the Huayna Picchu peak behind it. Reached on foot along the Inca Trail, or by the valley train out of Cusco.
- 1 From Cusco: Full-Day Group Tour of Machu Picchu
- 2 Cusco: 4-Day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with Accommodation
- 3 From Cusco: 2-Day Trip to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu
The great water
Iguazu Falls
Two hundred and seventy cataracts strung across nearly three kilometres of jungle, loud enough to feel in your chest. The Devil’s Throat tips the Iguazu river off a cliff that Brazil and Argentina share, and the catwalks run you right out over the lip of it.
- 1 Foz do Iguaçu: Brazil/Argentina Sides Iguazu Falls Day Tour
- 2 From Foz do Iguazu: Brazil Iguazu Falls & Macuco Safari Boat
- 3 From Foz do Iguaçu: Brazilian Side of the Falls with Ticket
The white mirror
Uyuni Salt Flats
The largest salt flat on earth: ten thousand square kilometres of blinding white left behind by a dried prehistoric lake. In the wet months a skin of water turns the whole plain into a mirror, and the horizon vanishes in every direction you look.
- 1 From La Paz: Uyuni Salt Flat Tour & Overnight Roundtrip Bus
- 2 From La Paz: 4-Day Trip to San Pedro de Atacama w/Salt Flats
- 3 From La Paz: Uyuni Salt Flats 2-Day Tour with Bus Transfers
Start here
Start with the trip everyone books.
More travellers book this than anything else on the continent. If it’s your first time south, it’s a good place to begin the planning.
The classics
Latin America’s Most Popular Trips
Cartagena’s islands, the tango halls of Buenos Aires, the road to Machu Picchu, Rio’s beaches. The days most travellers fly south for.
By country
Nine countries, one continent.
From the Guatemalan highlands down to the bottom of the world. Pick a country and start with the trips it’s known for.
Where to start
Mountains, cities, or coast?
The continent splits roughly three ways, and most first trips lean into one of them. Here’s what each is for, and where to dive in.
The Gringo Trail
The route everyone ends up on.
Cusco to the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu, then south to Lake Titicaca, La Paz and the salt flats. The well-worn Andean backpacker route earns its name: it threads the continent’s biggest sights into one overland run, and it’s where most first trips through South America actually happen.
Cusco & the Sacred Valley →The border falls
A waterfall two countries share.
The Iguazu river falls off a two-mile cliff between Brazil and Argentina, 270 separate cascades thundering into the jungle. Stand right over the Devil’s Throat on the Argentine side, or take the wide panorama from Brazil. Most people cross the border and do both.
Iguazu Falls trips →The Caribbean coast
Walled city, warm water.
Cartagena de Indias has stood behind its stone walls on the Colombian Caribbean for nearly five centuries, all balconies, bougainvillea and squares that fill up once the heat drops. Twenty minutes offshore, the Rosario islands swap the old town for white sand and water the colour of a swimming pool.
- 1 Cartagena: Rosario Islands Catamaran with Lunch and Snorkel
- 2 Cartagena de Indias: 2-Hour Sunset Cruise
- 3 2-hour tour in Cartagena Sunset View in party boat
By city
Pick a city to start.
Buenos Aires for tango and steak. Cartagena for the walls and the islands. Cusco for the Inca trail. Rio for the beaches. Bogota for the cold-mountain capital. Antigua for the volcanoes.
By experience
Or pick how to spend the day.
A tango show or a cooking class. The Inca trail or the rainbow mountain. A coffee farm, a wine tasting, a city by bike, a boat out to the islands.
Plan the trip
Three classic routes.
Most trips through Latin America follow one of these. Pick the one that fits your weeks and your wishlist.
Just added