South America Travel Guides

Big Travel Web offers travel tips written by Latin America travel specialists. Our holiday destination guides concentrate on Central and South America, with boutique and luxury hotel advice to match.

You'll find tips on the best hotels, advice on flights and airpasses, a run down of tourism highlights and discount travel tips. If you know where you're going, browse the country categories on the left. Alternatively, see the South America travel tips blog for general, less country specific advice as well as recent trip reports on Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia.

Where to Visit in Central & South America?

Each country in Latin America has unique travel attractions. Personal preferences including culture, archaeology, beaches, nightlife, wildlife, natural landscapes, indigenous tribes plus more should influence where you choose for your vacation. Let BigTravelWeb's Latin America travel guides help you:

Mexico has one of the widest ranges of travel attractions of all countries in Latin America. There's fantastic beaches, and luxurious resorts, on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. Mexico's interior is scattered with beautiful colonial towns, cosmopolitan modern cities, deserts to the North and rainforest to the South. Add to all this a range of ancient Mayan and Aztec ruins, indigenous tribes and beautiful natural scenery - Mexico offers something for everyone, and is a great family vacation destination. Don't be put off by the recent bad press - Mexico is still a wonderful country to vist!

Belize has some of Latin America's best diving, in addition to lovely beach resorts, and some of the continents best jungle lodges. A tiny English speaking country with a high biodiversity, Belize is your best option if you want to combine rainforests with beaches with ease.

Guatemala is one of Central America's most fascinating cultural travel destinations, and is also excellent value for money. There's few decent beaches here - a vacation is all about the highland towns and indigenous markets, charming colonial towns and jungle clad Mayan ruins.

Costa Rica's well developed tourism infrastructure, low crime rate and beautiful natural attractions means it's often the first choice for family vacations to Latin America. A popular ecotourism destination, there's countless jungle lodges and wildlife viewing opportunities, volcanoes to climb (or watch erupting) and some wonderful beaches and upmarket resorts on the Pacific Coast.

Panama has recently been dubbed Latin America's up & coming travel destination - and with such a huge range of attractions, it's easy to see why. There's some lovely beaches and wonderful islands on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, pristine rainforests and beautiful Swiss-like highland scenery.

Colombia has traditionally had a bad image - people mistakenly imagine it as a dangerous country. A huge proportion of people who have travelled extensively in South America regularly cite Colombia as their favourite country of all. Why? Maybe it's the beautiful friendly people, the stunning tropical beaches, the excellent scuba diving, the wildlife watching and pristine rainforests, the stunning trekking routes and natural scenery (deserts to rainforests to snow capped peaks), the romantic colonial towns, the mysterious archaeological sites or the buzzing cosmopolitan cities. No other country in the region has the range of attractions offered by Colombia - and it's time (2012) has come. Colombia is the "in", trendy destination to visit in 2012.

Venezuela is often overlooked, and while you get much better value for money in neighbouring countries, it's a great adventure sports destination, there's some fantastic beaches and of course there's the highest waterfall in the world - Angel Falls.

Ecuador's great range of attractions means it's often first choice for visitors to South America. The fearless wildlife of the Galapagos Islands are the top travel highlight, but on the mainland tourists find rainforests and luxury jungle lodges, indigenous markets and spectacular volcanic scenery amidst the Andes.

Peru is South America's most frequently visited tourism destination. A vacation to the "Land of the Incas" is always a cultural one - involving tours to highland towns and markets set in beautiful natural scenery, plus plenty of amazing Inca ruins to explore in addition to some excellent rainforest lodges.

Brazil's huge Atlantic coastline offers destinations to keep beach worshippers occupied for close to a year, whilst inland there's huge swathes of Amazon rainforest to experience, some fantastic wildlife viewing in the Pantanal wetlands, in addition to the amazing waterfalls at Iguassu, which borders with....

Argentina, the land of the tango, and a country with a distinctly more European feel to it. Capital city Buenos Aires is considered to be the "Paris of South America", whilst to the North one finds beautiful wine growing regions as well as some fascinating highland towns. To the South, Argentina's Lake District (Patagonia) is an outdoor enthusiast's dream.

Chile's natural attractions range from deserts in the North to volcanoes and freezing landscapes to the South. A trekkers dream, this is one of South America's best outdoor activities destinations, with the mysterious statues of Easter Island the top cultural attraction.