Discover South America

A continent of extremes — the world's longest mountain range, its largest rainforest, and some of its most dramatic coastlines and glaciers all sit within thirteen countries and a handful of overseas territories.

South America rewards travelers who want landscapes and cultures that feel genuinely distinct from one region to the next: Andean highlands, Amazon lowlands, Patagonian ice fields, and colonial cities all within reach of each other, connected by a shared (if regionally varied) Latin American culture.

South America stretches from the Caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela in the north to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Argentina and Chile — roughly 7,000 kilometers of latitude, more than the distance from Norway to South Africa. That range gives the continent an unusual density of distinct environments: tropical rainforest, high-altitude desert, temperate wine country, and sub-Antarctic wilderness are all part of the same landmass.

Thirteen countries plus a scattering of smaller territories (French Guiana, the Falkland Islands) share the continent, the large majority Spanish-speaking, with Portuguese-speaking Brazil alone accounting for roughly half of South America's total land area and population. Indigenous cultures — Quechua and Aymara in the Andes, hundreds of distinct groups across the Amazon — remain a living presence rather than a historical footnote, particularly in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

For travelers, this translates into genuinely different trips depending on where on the continent you go: an Andean itinerary built around Inca history and high-altitude trekking looks nothing like a Patagonian trip built around glaciers and long-distance hiking, or an Amazon-focused trip built around river travel and wildlife.