Top TRIPS by Culture Trip for a South American Adventure

On this eight-day South American adventure, you don’t have to choose between a visit to the Andes or the Amazon. See them both as you navigate the country’s volcanic landscape. Fall in love with every aspect of Ecuador as you nibble on sensational chocolate and cycle to majestic waterfalls. This loop-tour starts and ends in Quito, but these immersive eight days could only amount to part one of your South American adventure.

Looking to reconnect with nature? There are few destinations as remote and wild as the Galápagos, and you can experience this unusual archipelago on a five-day journey over land and sea. You’ll be following in the wake of Charles Darwin, as you see first-hand the endemic species that inspired the Theory of Evolution. This is one for the budding naturalists and adventurers out there – as you snorkel with sea lions and penguins, plod alongside giant tortoises and spot Darwin’s finches swooping overhead.

This eight-day adventure begins in cosmopolitan Bogotá with a graffiti tour of the cobbled old town, La Candelaria. After getting to know the capital, you’ll go river rafting in the Magdalena River Valley, and head into the Colombian coffee growing region Zona Cafetera where you’ll taste the best coffee in the world. Have cameras at the ready as you hike in the picturesque Cocora Valley and limber up for a few rounds of the Colombian sport of tejo. Finish in Medellín to discover how this dynamic city has reinvented itself in recent decades – before gearing up for the second leg of your Colombian adventure.

From the Andes mountains to the palm-fringed beaches of the Caribbean Coast, Colombia is a thrill seekers’ dream. This eight-day trip departs after our Colombian Andes adventure and includes canoeing through mangroves in La Boquilla, trekking through the dense jungle of Tayrona National Park and river tubing on the Río Don Diego. All that excitement will be offset with some needed downtime on the Rosario Islands – whether you’re horizontal on the white sand, cocktail in hand, or snorkeling through coral reefs and shoals of tropical fish, underwater GoPro in hand.