SOUTH AMERICA TRAVEL GUIDE

The mighty Amazon River, and the surrounding rainforest, is South America's calling card. Almost slicing the continent in half, it winds its way through Peru, Colombia and Brazil, its tributaries reaching out like fingers into neighbouring territories. Around this network of waterways, the Amazon Rainforest is a destination for treks amid wildlife, from the elusive jaguars to scarlet macaws, as well as being home to remote communities that have little contact with the outside world.


Yet, South America is also a place to visit for its cities, whether it's Rio de Janeiro, which hosts its famous annual carnival, Lima, with its world-class food scene, or Buenos Aires, with its European-style architecture. And then there are incredible natural attractions beyond the Amazon, from the dramatic glaciers and lakes of Argentina and Chile's Patagonia region, to the peaks of the Andes, the world's longest continental mountain range, running almost the entire length of South America.

EDITORS' PICKS

Photo story: from crop to cup in Colombia's Andean coffee region

A city guide to Buenos Aires, Argentina's inventive capital

Ceviche: the surprising history behind Peru's raw fish dish

A guide to Lima: South America's culinary capital

Parrots, piranhas and pink river dolphins on a cruise through the Peruvian Amazon

PAID CONTENT

Five UNESCO World Heritage Sites to visit on a 2023 cruise

Meet the adventurer: photographer Sebastião Salgado on reviving the forests of Brazil’s Vale do Rio Doce

Discover pink river dolphins and Indigenous culture in the Colombian Amazon

Explore Nat Geo

  • Animals
  • Environment
  • History & Culture
  • Science
  • Travel
  • Photography
  • Space
  • Adventure
  • Video

About us

Subscribe

  • Magazines
  • Disney+

Follow us

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society. Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved