How much money do I need to spend a month or so in S. America?

Question

I've never been out of the country alone before. I'm a 25 yr old girl. I want to travel to South or Central America. Not sure where yet. Mostly to learn spanish and learn to tango. I want to stay at decent/nice hotels. But am not planning on shopping. Just hotel, sights, travel, etc. I'd like to spend a month or more if it's affordable. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You can spend less than $1000 easily, not including plane tickets there.  But many countries are more expensive than others.  Here's my little breakdown of what I know (soo not comprehensive):



more expensive: Mexico, Ecuador, Brasil (in the tourist spots at least), Chile, Argentina

moderate: Peru, Colombia

least expensive: Bolivia

You'll hear bad things about Bolivia, but I absolutely love it.  Way fewer tourists, but still plenty for tourists to do!  There is a lot to see, from the salt flats to the rainforest, cities to the old Aymara and Quechua Indian towns, the highest lake in the world (Titicaca)... A very cool place, and very cheap.  A nice hotel in La Paz near the bus station (for convenience) will cost you around $10, and anywhere else that's nice but affordable (so not super deluxe) will be comparable.  A great city is Cochabamba, where you can eat at the nicest place in town and get drinks, a meal, and dessert for two people for $8.  I highly reccommend it!

Answer 2

Costa Rica is beautiful and safe... don't know about the tango tho!! Look for hostels - like hotels but you share a bathroom in the hall, these are usually cheaper.  You can eat for like 3 or 4 bucks a meal there too.  Not one of the cheapest countries but one of the safest.

For the tango you may have to take Argentina!!

Have fun!

Answer 3

What do you mean by affordable, and what's your limit? If you want to stay a decent/nice hotel it can cost you like $100 a night so you might want to take that into consideration. You werent THAT specific as to what it is exactly that you plan on doing, but I"m gonna say it could cost you between $2000-3000.

Answer 4

for a month or so. I would be looking at maybe over 3000 dollars. also you have to think about food and stuff like that.

good luck on your trip have fun!

Answer 5

to be honest, south america is the cheapest place to go these days because of the exchange rate with the american dollar.

if you want to go learn to tango, you MUST go to argentina. thats where the dance originated. i suggest spending your time in buenos aires, the capital of argentina. people are friendly and things are pretty cheap and you'll be forced to learn some spanish because not alot of people speak much english.

i was there visiting family a few weeks ago and spent less than 40 bux per nite at a hotel called "los dos congresos" smack in the middle of downtown. its definitely affordable to spend a month or two in argentina and you could probably even find cheaper hotels to stay in.

i suggest doing some research online to find places. i guaratee that the most expensive thing you'll have to purchase is your plane ticket...

Answer 6

hi, i´m from venezuela. my country has beautiful places to visit and it´s not expensive at all, because we have a restrained change of money change, that means that for us we can only change a pre-established amount of money a year in foreign money. for people from other countries is an advantage because you´ll know exactly how much the value of your money is going to be along your trip. for instance right now 1$ is equal to Bs. 2.150,00. In order that you get a cost-value relation a night in a decent hotel is around Bs. 150.000,00 ($69,70) and a regular meal Bs. 20.000,00 ($9,30). if you want to stay in the capital city Caracas, of course, in other cities is cheaper. here in the capital you can find several kinds of curses in beautiful colleges and universities, even tango! enter www.uniment.edu.ve that's a great college, and universidad simon bolivar, as far as i know they have some special curses for foreign people too.