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I'm planning on going to South America next month sometime, but I still need help with the planning parts. My girlfriend and I are going and we don't need to return to the Seattle until late June. We're not in any hurry to see as many places as we can, and our itinerary is very open. We're most interested in just getting to meet local people, having some new experiences, and just wandering around. We were thinking of flying into Colombia and then heading south from there; possibly going through Ecuador and then to Peru and Bolivia, and if we have time Chile, Argentina and Paraguay. We'll bus a lot of it and stay in hostels and couchsurf. I was just thinking of getting a round trip ticket from Colombia, with the return trip being in late June, so then wherever we are in South America we can just buy one way plane tickets to Colombia. Is this feasible? We saw a travel agent today and she suggested getting an open-jaw ticket where we fly into Colombia and fly out of Buenos Aires, and that this would probably cost about $1300 a person. Is this cheaper than doing my earlier plan? What do most of you guys use for buying plane tickets?
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Dec 9, 2008 02:49
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:37 |
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DustingDuvet posted:In terms of airfare, it may be cheapest if you buy a one way flight to Colombia (I bought a one way flight from Miami to Bogotá for $112 last week). Then book a one way flight from the last country you end up in, when you get there (this won't work if you are in a few countries such as Bolivia because flight to the US are extremely expensive). Thanks for the ideas. I would love to just buy a one way ticket to Colombia, and then a one way ticket whenever I'm ready to leave at whatever location. However, my one concern was how easy it would be to cross borders without proof of onward travel. How much of a hassle would this be? Also, do people recommend getting pay as you go phones while you travel? How easy and expensive is it?
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Dec 9, 2008 23:21
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DustingDuvet posted:Doing that is no hassle at all so long as you print out a fake itinerary. This is a link to one that pretty much explains how to do it. But its really only ever a problem when flying because the airlines usually check since they would be responsible for transporting you back to your home country if you cannot support yourself. Crossing the border by land is rarely a problem as the officials rarely check. Thanks for the help, but I ended up just buying a ticket out of Santiago to Miami one way for $500 each, so we'll have proof of onward travel now. I'm excited. We're flying into Colombia in mid-January through Spirit Airlines like you suggested, and then flying out of Chile at the end of June. We're thinking about doing the Machu Picchu trek maybe in April. Has anyone here done it before and have any recommendations for guides?
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Dec 15, 2008 08:59
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I've got another question for everyone who has traveled Colombia. We're going to arrive in Bogota on the 17th of January, and we've decided we want to go to Barranquilla for Carnaval, which isn't until February 20-24. From there, we'd like to head south to Ecuador, but we would like some advice on how to do so. We could take a plane from Cartagena to Quito, but after airline taxes it ends up being about $320 a person with Copa airlines. I've looked around a little, and it doesn't seem to be any cheaper to fly from Bogota to Quito. How easy, safe, quick, and cheap is it to bus from the top of Colombia down to Ecuador? Looking at maps, this would be like going from Seattle to San Francisco in terms of distance, which I'm not sure would be that great to do in a short period of time, nor do I have any knowledge of what the roads are like. Thanks and any other advice is appreciated.
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Dec 27, 2008 07:42
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DustingDuvet posted:It must be a small internet. Did you just post in the Couchsurfing Barranquilla group? If so, I actually posted the thread you responded in Yes, and it's smaller than you think. I looked through the pictures of the guy that replied to you and hosted about a dozen people last year and I'm actually acquainted with one of his guests from then. We used to live on the same dorm floor our freshmen year of college and we breakdanced together. It would be cool to be in Barranquilla for at least one of the days, but if not it won't be the end of the world. I talked to a girl yesterday from Medellin and it sounds like the rest of Colombia has pretty good celebrations as well.
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Dec 28, 2008 23:25
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