How Much Does a South America Holiday Cost?
One of the first questions we’re asked when speaking to our guests is: “How much does a trip to South America cost?”
It’s a great question, because there isn’t one simple answer. Our experts can design tailor-made trips at different budgets, and just as importantly, we can advise where we think your money is best spent to create a genuinely memorable, once-in-a-lifetime trip to South America.
Pricing guide
From around £3,500 per person, you can have an incredible adventure. Increase your budget to £5,000, £7,500 or £10,000 per person and we can start adding more specialist experiences, remote lodges, private guides and longer, more immersive journeys.
At £15,000+, the possibilities become even more extraordinary, including expedition travel to Antarctica and extended trips lasting several weeks or even months.
Here’s what we think you can expect at different budgets.
South america Holiday costs at first glance:
| Budget | What it can offer |
| £3,500 pp | Adventure, comfortable accommodation, shared experiences |
| £5,000 pp | Combining locations, guided private trekking, comfortable hotels |
| £7,500 pp | Specialist wildlife experiences and lodges, fully private guiding, multi-country trips |
| £10,000 pp | Luxury lodges, private experiences, exceptional food |
| £15,000 + pp | Antarctica, extended trips, sabbaticals and once-in-a-lifetime experiences |
What Can You Get for £3,500 Per Person?
Our tailor-made trips to South America around £3,500 per person can often be some of the most exciting and adventurous.
At this price point, our experts look at different ways to travel and different types of accommodation to make the budget work, while still creating genuinely exciting and memorable holidays.
£3,500 tends to be around the minimum we can work with without compromising on our quality standards and minimum standards on the ground.
One way to keep costs down is to use buses in certain countries. In Argentina, for example, linking larger cities by safe, reliable buses rather than private car transfers can make a significant difference to the overall budget. You can check the FCO for up to date travel advice.
All our holidays are tailor-made, but in some destinations we can also incorporate shared small-group experiences. Our Galápagos Island Hopping Adventure, for example, is an 8-day trip from £2,720 per person. We book you onto a set departure date with a maximum of around eight other guests. If nobody else books onto your date, the departure still goes ahead, meaning you could potentially have a private island-hopping adventure at a fraction of the cost of one of our fully tailor-made trips.
We can also offer the Inca Trail in Peru as a shared small-group experience. You still get the same incredible trek, but with a few more like-minded travellers along for the experience, helping to keep costs down.
Examples of our Trips around £3,500 Per Person?
- Classic Highlights of Peru – 14 days from £2,950 pp
- Brazil Rio and Beach Adventure – 14 days from £2,900 pp
- Highlights of Costa Rica – 14 days from £3,237 pp
Tips for Keeping Your Budget Around £3,500 Per Person?
- Choose shared small-group day tours where appropriate.
- Use buses and trains where they make sense.
- Consider set group departures and shared guiding.
- Think about travelling in shoulder season. Our experts can advise where quieter periods can offer better value, and where rainy season doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t go.
What Can You Get for £5,000 Per Person?
A good mid-range budget for a South America holiday starts at around £5,000 per person. At this level, we can really start to include more unique and varied experiences.
A great way to include amazing experiences, spectacular scenery and something active such as trekking is to choose comfortable, functional hotels rather than luxury accommodation.
Patagonia is a great example. Many of our guests want to experience Torres del Paine National Park and its incredible hiking routes, but many of the lodges inside the park are expensive and all-inclusive.
Instead, we work with properties that are more basic but put you right where you want to be, surrounded by incredible scenery and with walks straight from the door. Lago Grey Hotel is a good example.
If a hiking holiday to Patagonia has always been on your wish list but you have a budget of around £5,000 per person, don’t waste money on fine dining and lodges with Jacuzzis. We’d suggest spending your money on comfortable accommodation in the right location instead.
Our Patagonia experts can also include the W-Trek on a camping and small-group basis. It’s a great way to save costs while still taking on one of South America’s greatest treks.
Our Patagonia Highlights Holiday – 16 days from £4,185 pp – is a great example of how choosing functional hotels can still deliver the holiday of a lifetime.
Examples of our Trips around £5,000 Per Person?
- Argentina Hiking, Landscapes and Glaciers – 17 days from £4,637 pp
- Colombia Active Holiday – 18 days from £5,100 pp
- Ecuador and Galapagos Active Adventure – 17 days from £4,300 pp
Tips for Keeping Your Budget Around £5,000 Per Person?
- Don’t compromise on the experience, but consider entry-level hotels.
- Slow travel: fly less and experience more. Domestic flights in South America can quickly eat into your budget. Focus on fewer areas and explore them more deeply.
- Think about room types. If your heart is set on a high-end wildlife lodge, ask us which room categories offer the best value.
- Consider breakfast-only accommodation and small-group guiding in places such as Chile. You can enjoy the same experiences without paying for an all-inclusive price tag.
What Can You Get for £7,500 Per Person?
With a budget of around £7,500 per person, we can start designing longer, multi-destination holidays, giving you the chance to experience more of South America.
This budget also allows us to include more specialist wildlife-focused lodges and experiences.
In Ecuador and the Galápagos, for example, wildlife and birding enthusiasts can stay at incredible specialist lodges such as El Monte, or perhaps spend a night or two at the world-famous Mashpi.
A higher budget also opens up some wonderful wildlife cruises in the Galápagos. Our Responsible Galápagos Island Cruise is an 11-day trip from £7,100 pp, allowing you to sail around this extraordinary archipelago with expert guides and enjoy a higher level of comfort.
At this price point, we can also start combining two different South or Central American countries. For example, you could explore the Ruins, Rainforests and Reefs of Guatemala and Belize for around £7,500 per person.
If you’ve always dreamt of spotting jaguars in the wild, it tends to be more expensive to secure the best lodges with the best access to these incredible big cats. Our Brazil experts can put together something really special, combining expert wildlife guides, private safari experiences and delicious food and drink to finish the day.
Examples of our Trips around £7,500 Per Person?
- Patagonia Wilderness and Wildlife Holiday – 18 days from £7,616 pp
- Combine Ecuador, Galápagos and Colombia – 21 days from £7,700 pp
- Luxury Peru Adventure – 14 days from £6,500 pp
What we would recommend at £7,500 Per Person?
- Specialist guides for private wildlife experiences.
- Get off the beaten track and experience a different side of South America. This budget gives you the chance to stay in more remote wilderness lodges, star-gazing hotels and incredible vineyards.
- Choose the best wildlife lodges. They come with a price tag, but this budget allows you to include them where they really add value.
- Include private transfers for your own pace and timings.
- Take longer trips and include more places. A higher holiday budget can allow you to experience South America at a slower, more meaningful pace.
What Can You Get for £10,000 Per Person?
A budget of around £10,000 per person allows our experts to suggest some genuinely unique experiences, specialist lodges and memorable activities across South America.
For food lovers, South America really delivers. With a higher budget, we can include bespoke private food experiences with top chefs, expert local guides, cooking classes, cocktail-making and other immersive cultural experiences.
A bigger budget isn’t simply about choosing luxury hotels. It’s about letting our experts guide you towards where we think spending more is genuinely worthwhile.
That might mean choosing a top boutique lodge rather than a flashy five-star hotel, selecting a room with the best view, a suite with a private pool overlooking waterfalls, or a beach hotel where you can snorkel straight from your door.
We focus on value, not just price point. Our job is to use our experience to guide you towards the options that suit you and are genuinely worth spending more on.
Budgets of around £10,000 per person work particularly well in the Galápagos if you’re looking for a smaller, more luxurious cruise, with a higher staff-to-guest ratio, incredible cuisine on board and perhaps even a hot tub to relax in after a day hiking amongst the wildlife.
All-inclusive options in Chile can also work well at this budget. Your guiding and experiences are included in advance, while you have an à la carte choice of daily activities, allowing you to decide what you feel like doing each day.
You could go star-gazing and horse-riding through the Atacama Desert on our Luxury Chile Journey – 14 days from £9,178 pp – or opt for a dive-specialist boat in the Galápagos, with expert dive guides on board.
Examples of our Trips around £10,000 Per Person?
- Luxury Journey through Argentina – 15 days from £11,802 pp
- Patagonia Luxury Holiday – 15 days from £10,930 pp
- Classic Antarctica – 16 days from £10,905 pp
What we would recommend at £10,000 Per Person?
- Tell us your interests and we’ll select the very best private tours with hand-picked guides.
- Choose rooms with the best views and memorable foodie experiences.
- Include more places, but travel at a slower pace, taking time to experience the real South America.
- Include multi-day private excursions with your own guide.
- Add private sundowner spots and exclusive lunch experiences.
What Can You Get for £15,000 + Per Person?
At £15,000+ per person, South America opens up some truly extraordinary possibilities.
This is the sort of budget where an Antarctica holiday becomes possible. A trip to Antarctica really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, where you can discover a land of extremes, sail past immense glaciers and icebergs, and encounter some of the rarest wildlife on Earth.
This is expedition travel at its best – and one of the most expensive travel experiences you can undertake.
Don’t expect much change from £15,000 per person for a three-week Antarctica trip including flights. It isn’t a cheap destination, and nor should it be.
But £15,000+ can also give you something completely different: time.
A budget at this level can fund a sabbatical or longer career-break trip of a month or more. Travel Differently specialises in longer, extended trips to South America, where you could explore Argentina and Chile in depth – for example, our 54-day trip from £18,800 pp – or spend one to two months travelling across much of the continent.
Our experts can suggest the best route, order, logistics and pace to make the most of a longer sabbatical or career-break holiday.
Think off-the-beaten-track scenery, unique hiking routes, cultural immersion, lodges tucked away from it all, world-class dining and some of the best guides in South America.
Examples of our Trips around £15,000 + Per Person?
- Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands – 28 days from £21,341 pp
- Ultimate South America Sabbatical – 55 days from £17,800 pp
- Antarctica and Patagonia Wilderness Holiday – 22 days from £19,945 pp
What we would recommend at £15,000 + Per Person?
- Give yourself time: a minimum of three to four weeks allows this kind of budget to buy you more time away rather than simply more expensive hotels.
- Consider expedition travel: reach the ends of the Earth in Antarctica.
- Include it all: longer sabbatical and career-break trips mean you can take your time and experience more of what South America has to offer, without constantly rushing from one place to another.
So, How Much Should You Budget for a South America Holiday?
There really is no single answer.
At around £3,500 per person, you can have an exciting, adventurous South American holiday by being smart about how you travel.
At £5,000–£7,500 per person, you can start adding more specialist experiences, wildlife lodges, private guiding and multi-country journeys.
At around £10,000 per person, the focus can shift towards truly bespoke experiences, exceptional accommodation and private guiding.
And at £15,000+, you can look at extraordinary expedition trips, longer sabbaticals and once-in-a-lifetime combinations such as Antarctica and Patagonia.
Final recommendation:
The most important thing is that we don’t believe in spending more simply for the sake of spending more.
Our role is to understand what you want from your trip and use our knowledge of South America to work out where your money will make the biggest difference.
Sometimes that’s a five-star lodge.
Sometimes it’s a private guide.
Sometimes it’s an incredible wildlife experience.
And sometimes it’s simply staying somewhere comfortable in the right location and spending the money on the experience itself.
Tell us your budget, what you’d love to see and how you like to travel, and our experts can help you work out what’s possible. Contact our experts to start planning your trip of a lifetime.
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