5 weeks in South America, help!

Hi,

We are looking to travel South America from next February and are looking to travel for around 5 weeks, would love to do longer but work commitments say no!

I've travelled quite alot in the past but never to South America i'm a bit lost on where we should visit with the time we have available.
From speaking with friends that have already been there i've been given this itinerary, we are trying to decide whether to visit Chilli or Equador towards the end of the trip...jungle or salt flats..cant decide!!

We are also thinking of getting to rio for the carnival, is this worth it? i take it the prices for flights and accommodation will go up drastically around that period?

Ok here is our propose itinerary so far..

Fly into Rio – Travel down to Buenos Aires via Iguazu waterfalls, (2 weeks)

Fly up to Lima - (2 Days)

Coach to Cusco – Manchu Pichu (Inca trails a week)

Then either..
Bus up to Equador and go into the Jungle from there (1 week)
or
Bus down to Chilli (San Pedro de Atacama) (1 week)

Does this seem feasible?

Many thanks in advance!
Adam

Can anyone help? South America is such a vast place and quite daunting if you have never been there
I'm sure lots of people would like advice on this

Adam

Hi Adam,

I know there are members here who definitely can be of help to you. Sometimes, it takes a few days before they are able to respond so please have patience. Everyone's trip is an important one, which means receiving thoughtful responses is better than getting hasty ones. If you are subscribed to this thread (which you should be upon posting it unless you unchecked the "subscribe" box at that time), you'll be notified via e-mail that a response has been posted.

Have fun planning your adventure!

Speaking for Brasil only. Check prices to Sao Paulo to fly to. Usually it can be quite a savings, then either bus it or fly with Gol Airlines. Prices for hotels in Rio during carnaval triple. No joke and usually one night or 2 nights is NOT accepted. Best bet with quite a bit of time to reserve is to stay at Ibis (its cheaper) in Rio.

Bus- 5,5 hours about $50 each way in comfort or $80 for a sleeper ( if go at mightnight, no hotel needed).
Plane 50 mins about $170 r/t.... can be cheaper during sales.

[ Edit: Edited on 23-Apr-2010, at 11:52 by way2goeh ]

Thanks for your replies Isadora and way2goeh

I've checked flights to sao paolo and they do seem cheaper so we may fly there instead and get the bus as you have suggested. Since posting I have done some research on prices at carnival and it does look like they triple so we have decided to do carneval on another trip and start out trip in November instead.

My friend did his trip around south america in november and said the weather was good in most places he went to, is novembera good time to start?

Thanks again for your responses

Adam

I can't offer much help on your route but I would recommend seeing Iguacu Falls from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides as you will get 2 very different perspectives of the Falls. I was in Iguacu in mid-October and the weather was perfect - sunny but not too hot, so November should be ok.

I've been checking out the seasons on the parts of south america we have been looking to go, if we go in november there's a chance that machu pichu will be full of fog when we go up, to make sure we get nice weather in Brazil and Argentina and get a good view up machu pichu it looks like leaving in march is the best time to go so we hit machu pichu in april.

Using the travel tool on this site ive come up with these dates which leaves 2 weeks after machu pichu for more things to see, does anyone have any recommendations on where to go after machu pichu and include enough tfavel time to get to a major city for a flight back to the UK?

Also are the times i've put down feasable? looking at the bus times between the places it looks to be around 20 hours and we are going to fly buenos aires to lima to save time.

Ok here's what we've com end with..

[16 Mar 2011] London, United Kingdom
Fly
[17 Mar 2011 - 20 Mar 2011] Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Bus
[21 Mar 2011 - 22 Mar 2011] Puerto Iguazú, Argentina
Bus
[23 Mar 2011 - 27 Mar 2011] Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fly
[28 Mar 2011 - 29 Mar 2011] Lima, Peru
Bus
[30 Mar 2011 - 05 Apr 2011] Machu Picchu, Peru
?

What do you all think?

Adam