I want to travel to South America for a few weeks or so, where should I go?

Question

I want to travel around South America, but have only a general knowledge of its history and culture, and even less knowledge about its tourist attractions. Basically, for a young guy and a few friends w/ a basic working understanding of Spanish, where would you guys recommend and why?

Answer 1

For your first visit I would go to an area where there are many tourists like Costa Rica, Cusco Peru, Quito Ecuador, Antigua Guatemala. To see if you would like it. Many spanish schools in Antigua and Quito http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Sou...

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/d...

Answer 2

colombia it is the best place to go cause of the beaches

Answer 3

If you want beaches and party, go to Brazil. Rio, Recife and Bahia are your best bets. If you are looking for amazing scenery and picturesque, go to Peru were you can go from beaches at sea level, to amazing landscapes in the Andes (Cuzco, Ayacucho, Puno, Huaraz, Titicaca Lake) to the Amazon Jungle (Iquitos, Pucallpa, Tarapoto)

Answer 4

suriname- this is an unconventional south american country. it's small and on the northern part of the continent. spanish, in fact, is not spoken there much. instead a lot of people speak dutch, variants of hindi and java. the racial diversity is BEAUTIFUL. indians, indonesians, native southern americans, europeans.... there are more indians, though, so the hindi culture is pretty dominant. lots of hindu sites and all.  it's very tropical and some parts of it remind me of the big island of Hawaii. yes, there are beaches. english is also known to many of the people there, but chances are, especially in bigger cities, you'll find more and more english speaking people.

Brazil- well, shape up on some portuguese, it will be worth it when you meet some very attractive brazillian women. yes. although music and art and dancing is a beautiful part of latin america, it is different in every country and all of it in Brazil is FANTASTIC. beautiful architecture. delicious food. jungles. the amazon. beaches. majestic mountains. great cities. go for the women, (or the men...), the adventure. go for a place to chill out or go to have the greatest time of your life. you'll probably find that somewhere in Brazil. i can't think of anyone who's ever regreted a trip to that country.

Argentina- a friend of mine would go here every other year, she loved it so much! it's apparently cheap, so even though transportation is pretty crappy, you can probably get around on their buses with little financial hassle. it depends on if you want some sort of crazy adventure or not. i hear it's not worth staying in Buenos Aires too long. just a couple days should do the trick, but if you can, get out and explore the natural land. the deserts, great skiing way up and far from the city.. that sorta thing.

chile- probably one of the most beautiful countries in the world. if you are going for nature and culture, you have the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other scattered with active and inactive volcanoes, deserts here and there and lush forests here and there. the people are insanely friendly so getting to know them would be a wonderful highlight of your trip.

peru- lots of great history to be sought... lake titicaca and macchu pichu, jungles, mountains, beaches, cheap food and lodge, river rafting in the colca canyon, a lot of people rave about how great the food is, too... paragliding, incan trails....

ecuador- the galapagos islands, quito is an awesome city, beautiful jungle.... i think it's the stereotypical image of south america. great food. very very very attractive people. had this guy in my spanish class a bunch of years ago in high school and he was from ecuador. oh MAN he was hot... hahaha...  yes, the ladies are hot, too. food and dancing! beaches and breath-taking scenery.

whatever country you visit in S. America, i doubt you'll go wrong. every place has it's perks, it all depends on what you are looking for. good luck and hopefully no matter where you go, you have the time of your life!!

go to this site to do your own searching. it's awesome and will tell you many thing you might want to know about all the countries in south america: www.43places.com

Answer 5

South America has a lot  culture

I suggest this   www.iloveecotourism.com

Answer 6

I've never been to South America myself, but I've found the travel site Trip Advisor has really good advice.

Here's their general page on South America. It has details by country, attraction, hotels, etc.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g13-S...

I've also found it fun to search for places I might visit in Flickr to see pictures photos (although Trip Advisor has photos too).

Lastly you might want to checkout Yahoo Trip Planner. It lists itineraries people have made for their own travel. Here's the list for South America.

http://travel.yahoo.com/trip-search?_cru...

I hope you have a good trip!