With climates and areas ranging from humid lowlands to tropical rainforests to chilly highlands, when to cruise South America depends completely on each specific itinerary and location.
However, the continent can be divided into a few sections with general rules for traveling times.
Photo by Beth Conway
Amazon
Travelers can embark on an Amazon cruise year-round. Rain, heat, and humidity should be expected no matter the season. Wildlife viewing and weather patterns only have subtle differences from one season to the next. School holidays bring larger crowds with children.
Exploring the world (Stephen Krupnick)
Southern South America
Including Patagonia, the Falkland Islands, southern Chile, and Argentina, has similar summer and winter weather to North America, however, the months are opposite due to the hemisphere difference. That is, summertime in these regions (December and February) is similar to summer in North America: warmer and dry. The shoulder months of October – November, and March-April have cooler temperatures and smaller crowds.
Penguins gathering on the shore
Antarctica
Winter months (May through September) are cold and travel is limited, particularly for cruises that include travel to Antarctica. For more information on the best travel times for Antarctica cruises, please see our When to Go: Antarctica link.
Puerta Valiesco Ibarra and the welcoming committee (Kerry Wohlstein)
Northern South America
For travel in Northern South America, including Peru, Ecuador, and the Galapagos, the weather can generally be divided into two seasons: wet and dry. Temperature is most impacted by elevation: the higher you go, the cooler it becomes. The coastal region of Peru is fairly dry year-round, with its warmest, most humid months from December to March. These are also the wettest months; however day-long rains are very infrequent. Instead, there are rainstorms interspersed with sunshine. For further information on touring Ecuador and the Galapagos, click here.
For further details on when to take a South American cruise, please contact our travel specialists to help you determine the best time to travel based on climate, wildlife viewing, and popularity of the season.
We were a group of three that initiated our research by independently searching for the best agency to help us in the somewhat complex experience of traveling to the Galapagos. We chose adventure life because they were the most responsive in the website provided the most comprehensive overview of the trip. Their reviews were also very good.
Adventure, life splits up its booking process in two parts. First Jeff, the booking agent helped us decide which experience best suited are interests. We chose a small 14 to 16 group sized yacht. Once the booking was made with Jeff, we were handed off to Coleene, who oversaw the complex process of assembling all of the necessary documents and making sure we had everything we needed to make the trip go smoothly. The adventure, life website, then becomes your personal place of reference for all things related to your trip from door to door. It’s a lot of information to assemble, especially for three travelers, but the website makes it easy and Colleen‘s gentle reminders kept us on track. In all, from the beginning, we had four months from the time we started our research till the time we departed. We felt that was, a good amount of preparation time and don’t think it would be wise to do it in less than four months. Mostly because I think you have more options with that amount of time. There were others on our trip that took six months and more from the time they started planning.
The trip itself was outstanding. We ended up on an excellent yacht (Galapagos Angel II) with a great group of guests that we were able to connect with and put together a really nice google photos album to share.
Jed
6 days ago
Mary was very helpful. Quick to reply with helpful information and closure on arrangements.
Nicola Maxwell
1 week ago
Mary Curry and Elma are always so responsive and nice to deal with.
Michael
1 week ago
I enjoyed working with Jess to put together a private N.Z. trip. Jess has been my go-to person at Adventure Life over the past several years. She listens to what my husband and I want in a trip, and is always responsive to questions. Nothing seems to be too much of a bother for Jess.
DIANNE GRAY
1 week ago
Jane was my AE agent for the 2 months of helping me decide that this will be the most amazing trip we will ever experience in our lifetime and a memorable way to celebrate our 40th!
I was also able to work with Mike from Quark who was also very helpful.
Once I had decided to go ahead with my booking Kevin took over to assist Jane while on vacation.
Kevin was able to tweak the quote even more
and truly sealed the deal! He was patient with receiving my full payment as it took time to “round up that much cash” Were booking a delux balcony and there’s no looking back
I feel confident and very satisfied that I have made the best decision choosing Quark Expeditions and look forward to a top notch experience aboard the Ultramarine.
Both Jane and Kevin are sincere, professional and courteous. They met all of our needs
to ensure my process was stress free.
I’m looking forward to all our daily excursions then enjoying a Sauna and my own cold plunge in the tub! My back up plan
to the “Antarctic Plunge”
I look forward to getting to know and dealing with Mary Rose for all the final details that will make our trip complete. Great company!
