First of all can i say THANK YOU for this extremely informative site Mark - I have been blindly searching the net for weeks to find a helpful forum such as this and you have so much knowledge; thanks for sharing
Myself & my partner are travelling to South America for 3 months from early Feb 2010, (probably flying into Buenos Aires) and are trying to travel between countries as cheaply as possible whilst enjoying everything S.A. has to offer at our leisure. I have a few questions:
- I understand that in larger cities over Carnaval that accomodation & living expenses sky-rocket; I would love to have the full experience of Carnaval without the price tag and i am told smaller towns are the way to go. Are there any you would suggest? I am told Paraty & Ouro Preto are good, yet affordable; would you agree?
- I am looking for a cheap airline that will fly from Australia (most fly from Sydney, which is fine) to ANY country in South America, which ever is the cheapest; is there any airlines you could suggest? Aerolineas Argentina is the cheapest I have found, but I am told they are prone to rescheduling and "you get what you pay for" - are they still recommended; Or is there another you could suggest?
- As for getting around the different countries, would you suggest an "Airpass"(paying a set price and being able to travel around for up to 30days to a number of destinations)? Is this the cheapest option or should we just book flights as we go?
- We are very keen to visit Machu Picchu and i have read that it is quite expensive - can you provide a rough estimate of a price? Perhaps the approx charge p/night in budget accomodation, and what expenses (at what rate) we should expect?
- We would like to end our visit to South America with a brief visit to Mexico and head up to Las Vegas and fly home to Australia from North America. Are there any airlines you would suggest that are reasonably priced to fly us from S.A. to North America (Mexico)?
Sorry for the millions of questions, I thank you for taking the time to answer them. Great site, thanks again.