South America Cruises
A Breakdown of Cruise Ship Travel in South America
As Europe becomes more expensive and the Caribbean too crowded, cruising South America has become a viable option. Here we breakdown the most common sea routes.
As many tire of the same cruise destinations that are often ruined by the cruise ships themselves, South America has become an alternative of increasing popularity. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and many other big name lines are here now, as well as hundreds of smaller independent operations that take you to the most isolated and little traveled locations. Here is a list of the most popular cruises offered on the South American continent:
PacificCoast
Cruises on South America’s Pacific coast have picked up in recent years as more and more people are choosing to discover locations such as Manta, Ecuador; Trujillo, Chiclayo, Lima, and Mollendo, Peru; and Arica and Valparaiso, Chile. These cruises often travel between Miami, Florida and Valparaiso with one day of travel between Panama’s famous canal and occasionally stops in Central America.
Galapagos Islands
For wildlife watching, there is no place more unique and no place where you can get so close to the action than the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.You can fly from Ecuador to several of the islands, but to see much wildlife nearly all visitors sail on small vessels (anywhere from 2-200 people) to different islands. Most will stick to just a few islands, but the highlights are some of the more isolated islands where the wildlife has developed even more unusual than the main group. It is possible to hire a boat from the islands, and the best deals are found this way, however, it is risky and most will arrange with a tour operator before setting foot on the island.
Buenos Aires, Argentina to Valparaiso, Chile. This is one of the standard South American cruises and is perhaps the most readily available and has the most competition, thus deals can almost always be found, especially in the shoulder season when the weather can be hit or miss. Some of these cruises will make stops at South Georgia Island or the Falklands Islands.
The Cruceros Australis cruise ships make the trip between Punta Arenas, Chile and Ushuaia, Argentina. This is a luxury cruise that stops in locations such as Cape Horn, Ainsworth Bay, Tucker Islet, and has mainland connections to Torres del Paine National Park and the Perito Moreno Glacier.
Cargo ships would take on adventurous passengers for years and finally caught on that they could make some money by adding a few basic amenities. Just one operator makes this 5-day trip regularly during Chile’s summer. The boats travel back and forth between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales and make stops at glaciers, small islands, Chiloe, and an indigenous village.
An Antarctic cruise is a once in a lifetime experience that many are willing to shell out thousands of dollars for. The scenery is untouched, unspoiled, and unlike anything you have ever experienced. These expeditions often have top amenities and have top of the line equipment that make seeing wildlife and onto shores easy.
Formerly only small ships would make this passage on the world’s greatest river, now there are major lines such as Norwegian that take ships from the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil to the city of Manaus and back. The ship will make stops, but don’t expect to see much wildlife from the boat, as the large ships scare it away and much of the wildlife is found in smaller tributaries of the world's largest rainforest where humans are rarely seen. Smaller sleep in ships still ply the waters in some of the more pristine jungle areas of Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia.
Some Caribbean cruises are now making stops on South America’s Northern Coast, especially Cartagena, Colombia, where cruise traffic has picked up incredibly as Colombia’s safety situation has stabilized dramatically.
