South America. You Really Should Give It A Try.

 

Most of us fly northeasterly from North America all the time as its most popular, but South America is not to be overlooked, you should really give it a try.

 

The countries on the continent are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

 

I still have three more to visit down there. How about you?

 

Health and Visa Requirements

 

Before you visit any country, its essential that you check health and visa requirements. The Passsrider Health page can help you here. Yes, some countries do require a visa and have health requirements. Some of these requirements are waived for U.S. citizens so most of you are in luck. You can find detailed information on the U.S. State Department‘s Web site. You may also get the information from the Timatic Web site.

 

At present, countries requiring visas for U.S. citizens are Bolivia and Brazil (until June 17, 2019)

 

 

Airlines Serving South America

 

Several airlines have nonstop service from the U.S. to South America. The flying times from say Houston, TX to select South American destinations is just about the same as Houston to Europe 🙂 and the vacation cost is cheaper and the time change may be just an hour or two. Just remember that the seasons are flipped in comparison to the Northern Hemisphere.

 

 

 

One thing to remember too, is that oftentimes the airlines have what’s called tags between major cities in different countries. For example, you can fly KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL) from Santiago, Chile (SCL) to Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) as the flight is heading back to Amsterdam Schipol, Netherlands (AMS). Air Canada (AC) also flies this route as a tag.

 

However, you may not be able to passride on a flight from say Sao Paolo, Brazil (GRU) to Rio, Brazil (GIG) as that violates the cabotage rights if the carrier is not local to Brazil.

 

 

 

 

Other carriers on this route are Santiago-based low cost carrier SKY Airlines (H2) and Buenos Aires-based carrier Aerolineas Argentinas (AR) and Santiago-based LATAM (LA) and Brazil-bases Azul (AD).

 

Head over to the Advanced Schedule section of Passrider.com for more details.

 

 

The following carriers have service to the major South American cities from one or more of their hubs:

AeroMexico (AM), Air Canada (AC), air europa (UX), Air France (AF), Air New Zealand (NZ), American Airlines (AA), Avianca (AV), Azul Brazilian Airlines (AD), British Airways (BA), Copa Airlines (CM), Cubana Airlines (CU), Delta Air Lines (DL), Eidelweiss (WK), Ethiopian Airlines (ET), Emirates (EK), GOL (G3), Iberia (IB), interJet (4O), JetBlue (B6), KLM (KL), LATAM (LA), Lufthansa German Airlines (LH), Qantas (QF), Qatar Airways (QR), SKY Airlines (H2), Spirit Airlines (NK), TAME (EQ), Turkish Airlines (TK) and United Airlines (UA).

 

 

 

Larger Cities in South America

 

Here’s a list of the larger cities in South America. So you can plan on flying into these cities and then taking a local flight to your next destination. As the countries are in close proximity of each other, the flights are short. If you like you may also look into taking buses:

 

1. Asuncion, Paraguay (ASU)
2. Bogota, Colombia (BOG) – home of Avianca (AV)
3. Buenos Aires, Argentina (AEP, EZE) – home of Aerolineas Argentinas (AR)
4. Georgetown, Guyana (GEO)
5. La Paz, Bolivia (LPB)
6. Lima, Peru (LIM) – home of LATAM Peru (LA)
7. Rio de Janiero, Brazil (GIG, SDU)
8. Montevideo, Uruguay (MVD)
9. Paramaribo, Suriname (PBM)
10. Santa Cruz, Bolivia (VVI)
11. Santiago, Chile (SCL) – home of LATAM (LA)
12. São Paulo, Brazil (CGH, GRU)
13. Quito, Ecuador (UIO) – home of TAME (EQ)

 

 

Where have you been in South America?