South America
Andean peaks, Amazon rainforest, Patagonian ice and Rio’s rhythm — raw nature and irrepressible colour from Machu Picchu to the end of the world.
The Andes run the entire length of it
One mountain range defines South America from top to bottom — from the Caribbean coast of Colombia to the wind-scoured south of Patagonia. Everything else arranges itself around it: the rainforest on one flank, the high desert and the Pacific on the other, and a chain of old colonial cities strung along the valleys between. It is a continent that rewards choosing one region and going deep, rather than trying to cross it.
For travellers from India it is also the furthest the world gets. There is no non-stop service, so the journey connects through the Gulf, Europe or Africa and runs well beyond a day door to door. The seasons are inverted too — our winter is their summer — which makes South America one of the few places that is at its best precisely when it is hardest to leave home.
Where to begin in South America
Every country in South America has a place here, and the guides are written one at a time. 6 destinations are currently available, with more being developed.
Where most first journeys begin
Almost everyone starts in the high country, and with good reason: the Inca heartland, the altiplano and the salt flats sit close enough together to travel as one route. It is high ground, though, and the mountains set the pace — Cusco is high enough that most travellers give themselves a day or two before doing anything strenuous, and the itineraries that ignore that are the ones people remember for the wrong reasons.
The seasons run opposite to ours
South America is long enough that no single month suits all of it, and the hemisphere is reversed, so the familiar instincts do not transfer. The Andes are driest and clearest through the middle of the year, which is when the mountains and the classic trekking routes are at their best. Patagonia runs the other way entirely and opens up only for its short summer. The Amazon has no dry season worth planning around — it has wetter months and less wet ones. Brazil and the coast are at their warmest and liveliest over the southern summer.
However you want to experience it
Four ways into a continent that gives more to travellers who pick one region and stay with it.
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