South America

[homework]

Hi looking at travelling in July / august ( kids summer holidays) with my then 15 yr old son . He really want to go to amazon , we have roughly five weeks and a budget with flights of roughly 8 to 9 thousand pounds for two of us to include flights , accommodation , travel and sightseeing , with some meals throw in too , if possible . Looking for help to pull together a safe , but adventurous trip , that includes history , culture and loads of wildlife. Help please .

I took my DC to Rio for six days ( as we all have a love for cities by the sea with mountains) and then flew to Iguassa, staying on the Argentine side for 4 nights in the rain forest and would definitely recommend both places. I booked the trip myself but copied an itenary I saw in a Virgin holiday brochure.

we went to Venezuela and up into canaima. fantastic trip. could also go out to the islands as well as caracus. never been but have always wanted to visit Chile. have you thought about one of these tailor made excursion type things to help you get the most from your time/money.

Hiya Homework

Just saw this. I'm doing the same!

I'm travelling to Peru and Ecuador with my DD (12) in July & August. We're going for 4 weeks and have a budget of £5.5k. (Possibly £5k depending on how mean I am at Christmas!)

I started out with very grand plans, but have narrowed it down now to:

Peru - Macchu Piccu (must learn to spell this by next summer!)
Ecuador - 5-day stay in an eco lodge which I haven't chosen yet, followed by 5-day activity trip incl kayaking in the rain forest.
Galapagos - 8 days but just on land, not on a cruise, and staying on 2 islands.

I did really want to go to Rio, Patagonia, the volcanoes in Chile, Bolivia and Manaus, but our budget is pretty tight for the two of us so they will have to wait for another trip.

So far we have booked flights out there. The cheapest way to get there was via New York, so we're having a 48hr stop over there. I've booked accommodation in NY, Lima for one night and Cuzco.

I'm getting even more excited just typing it out.

I have tons of research done, so feel free to PM me if you want to discuss further.

South America is huge! Maybe first of all try to decide if you want to fly around and visit several areas/countries or whether you would prefer to travel around one area/country in more depth. Do you want to travel overland a lot or would you rather stay in a few places and do day trips? Why don't you get some tour brochures - things like Explore Worldwide, journey latin america. Even if you don't book with them you can look at their itineries to give you ideas.

You could start from Bolivia and work your way up through Peru to fly back from Lima - you could fit in Lake Titicaca, Salt plains, Macchu Piccu, Amazon trip from Cuzco, Nazca Lines, Colca Canyon etc.

If you want loads of wildlife have you thought about Costa Rica instead?

We have been to Ecuador and Peru,but at separate times. I would suggest you look at combining two holidays from Family Adventure Holidays or similar because you will get extremely good accommodation from these types of companies but at a reasonable price. As part of our Ecuador trip we visited Quito, Avenue of the Volcanoes, Otavalo and the Galápagos Islands. Personally I would not stay on land, even on two islands, in the Galapagos because it would be impossible to see a variety of wildlife and biodiversity that only exists on individual islands. This is to rather miss the point of going. I would say a 4 day voyage is the minimum but a week is much better. All the boats must have a naturalist on board so you gain such a lot from the shore excursions. We stayed at Sacha Lodge in the Oriente region of Ecuador (Amazon Basin) which was truly amazing. This trip was with a fairly upmarket company.
Peru, on the other hand, was with one of the family holiday specialists and that, too, was great. We visited Araquipa, Lake Titicaca, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and so much more. The accommodation was more homely and had character. We also went to the Peruvian Amazon via Puerto Monaldo. I highly recommend this too, but Sacha Lodge was better!
I am not sure I would organise such a trip myself, however, as I think the agents out there might get better deals and the complex travel arrangements in Peru would be quite difficult to organise. We had cancelled trains, strikes which then resulted in a last minute long minibus trip and I was ill. Luckily our guide got me a Dr quickly so all got sorted. He accompanied us throughout in Peru, which we truly valued, and he went to extra lengths to show us things of interest. The family holiday companies have teen departures too so these may be of interest. I am not sure how far your budget will go, but whatever you do, these countries are fantastic.

I went to Peru in May and it was amazing. Spent a few days in cuzco which was a fabulous city, we were really lucky as there was a festival on whilst we were there. Paddys bar is a must.
Spent 4 days trekking the Inca trail before arriving in macchu picchu. If you want to do the trail you have to book and get visa months in advance as the trail is limited to 500 per day including tour guides, Drs and porters. A very difficult but once in a lifetime experience

Hi mrsbobhale will pm .

Thank you everyone for your advice , I'm in process of looking though various companies to see if can recreate there ideas for myself .

G adventures have some great south Anerica tours, I went to Peru with them but they also have trips that cover more than one country. I like to look at the website to get itinerary ideas as well even if I don't end up travelling with them. If you do the Inca Trail please be very selective about who you book with, some of the porters are not treated as well as others.