8 grand journeys across Latin America

From camping along alpine meadows in Patagonia to cruising the Amazon, these are the best Latin America journeys to tick off your bucket list.

1. The Q Circuit in Patagonia

Travelling with: Emma Ventura

A turquoise lake surrounded by snow-capped peaks at Patagonia’s Torres del Paine National Park. (Image: Getty/ MBPROJEKT_Maciej_Bledowski)

Tolkienian peaks, pristine lakes and snow-bloated rivers are highlights for most visitors spending a couple of days in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. But for the more intrepid, the real rewards come from a 10-day solo circumnavigation of the Q Circuit, camping along tracks that become more sparsely trodden the further you head into the park’s astonishingly diverse landscape – think glacial passes and granite spires, alpine meadows and forest paths. Five-star lodges might provide a break from Patagonia’s infamously feisty weather, but there’s nothing like carrying your own kit, a chance encounter with an elusive puma, and a crackling wood stove in a remote refugio for delivering the kind of fulfilment that money just can’t buy.

2. The jungles of Central America

Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall

The Mistico Hanging Bridges in La Fortuna are perched above the forest floor.

Emerging from the seas millions of years ago, the isthmus that is Central America is a tropical sanctuary of jungle-clad volcanoes, thunderous waterfalls and mist-shrouded rainforests, fringed by coral reefs. At its heart, Costa Rica is the land of pura vida (pure life), a tiny country that is home to six per cent of the world’s biodiversity – think toucans, macaws, anteaters, tapirs, jaguars, sloths – with verdant rainforest carpeting more than half the country. It’s a land to explore on two feet, two wheels and with two paddles. Do all three on Intrepid Travel’s eight-day Costa Rica: Hike, Bike & Raft tour and G Adventures’ 16-day Costa Rica Adventure.

A rainbow-billed toucan in the rainforest of Costa Rica. (Image: Getty/Freder)

3. Dance across Latin America

Travelling with: Elizabeth Whitehead

Put on your dancing shoes in Latin America. (Image: Getty/Pollyana Ventura)

Don your tassels and get flirty cha cha-ing in Havana. Feel the heat dancing Argentine tango at a milonga in Buenos Aires. Hear the pulse of percussion as you samba in Rio. In Latin America, movement is an expression of culture, celebration and passion. You don’t have to be a professional to partake, and there are plenty of dance schools where foreigners can learn the basics. It’s easy as one-step, two-step, cha-cha-cha.

4. Hike to Colombia’s Lost City

Travelling with: Sarah Reid

The Lost City is Colombia’s best-kept secret. (Image: Getty/Charly Boillot)

Reaching the ancient ciudad perdida (‘Lost City’) of Teyuna hidden within the steamy jungles of northern Colombia is a surreal moment, amplified by the challenging three-to-five-day return trek to get there. Built by the Indigenous Tairona People around 800 CE, this labyrinthine complex of stone staircases and circular platforms has only been partly excavated since treasure looters stumbled upon it in 1972. Limited tourism infrastructure adds to the Indiana Jones vibe. Intrepid Travel’s new Lost City Trekking in Colombia tour includes a respectful visit to a Wiwa community to learn more about their Tairona Ancestors and traditional way of life.

5. The Galápagos Islands

Travelling with: Carla Grossetti

Visit the remote Galápagos Islands on a Silversea cruise.

Expect the brackish air around the Galápagos Islands to be mixed with the gritty odour of bird droppings and pungent tang of sea lion BO. Twist your binoculars until the black eye of the giant Galápagos tortoise fills the other end, and you might imagine yourself to be quite the adventurer centuries after the inhabitants of these islands inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Get onboard a cruise with operators like Silversea, HX Expeditions, Celebrity Cruises and Metropolitan Touring to see the remote archipelago of 19 islands loom into view just 900 kilometres off the coast of mainland Ecuador.

A blue-footed booby on the Galapagos Islands. (Image: Getty/Bruce Campos)

6. Pantanal, Brazil

Travelling with: Carla Grossetti

Spot a jaguar in the world’s largest tropical wetland. (Image: Getty/ Dgwildlife)

Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland and a UNESCO World Heritage site, is reportedly one of the best places on Earth to spot jaguars. This vast landscape of flooded plains and savannahs also shelters more than 650 species of birds (such as the toucan and hyacinth macaw) as well as various reptiles including the yellow anaconda and cold-blooded caiman (a type of crocodilian). Add capybaras, giant anteaters, maned wolves, giant river otters and South American tapirs to your wildlife bingo card, too. And find a tour that includes piranha fishing, if you dare.

7. Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia

Travelling with: Carla Grossetti

Immerse yourself in the world’s largest salt flats. (Image: Getty/ Olga Gavrilova)

Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni covers more than 10,500 square kilometres, making it the world’s largest salt flats. The salt flats of Uyuni were formed more than 40,000 years ago when several prehistoric lakes dried up and left a bed of rich minerals behind. Stay at Luna Salada, where the walls and furnishings are made from dense bricks of packed salt, so you can immerse yourself in this ethereal landscape. Visit southern Bolivia during the dry season when the salt crystallises into mesmerising shapes and patterns.

8. The iconic sites of Peru

Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall

The Amazon is home to diverse birdlife such as wild scarlet macaws.

Hiking the Andes. Cruising the Amazon. It’s the stuff of legends. From the vast expanses of Lake Titicaca to the archaeological wonder of Machu Picchu to the Amazon Basin, one of the greatest remaining wildernesses on Earth, you can stitch Peru’s epic sites together on tour with andBeyond or Abercrombie & Kent. To sweeten the experience, both luxury operators are launching new state-of-the-art vessels on the Amazon River in September 2025 and July respectively.

Stay in a superior suite onboard andBeyond Amazon Explorer.