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When to cruise to South America

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February			August	No
March			September
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May	No		November
June	No		December

South America Cruise Season Guide »

All you Need to Know

by Travel Journalist Tony Peisley

Transfixed by the sight, we watched half a dozen pairs of albatrosses go at it with their beaks like crazed swordsmen. Then one pair suddenly walked off in different directions with one actually brushing past me.

It is not often you get the chance to shout out: "watch out, albatross coming through." A revelation to Darwin, the Galapagos Islands are now the latest highlight of a growing range of cruises around South America.

The day of our close encounter with the mating albatrosses, we also saw the bizarre blue-footed and masked boobies, land and marine iguanas, lobos (sealions), pelicans, sea hawks and turtles, flightless cormorants, eagle rays, swallowtail gulls, frigate birds and some ancient giant tortoises.

South America is full of exotic wildlife as well as some of the most thrilling cruising experiences around.

Just a hundred years ago, the prospect of crewing a ship around Cape Horn was still giving sailors nightmares; now it's a favourite experiences for cruise passengers looking to spice up their holiday with a little authentic adventure.

It still blows pretty hard down there but today's ships are designed to give passengers as smooth a ride as possible and who wants to round the notoriously hairy Cape in a flat calm, anyway?

Some passengers have even been known to carry their own GPS monitors to check that the ship's captain really has passed the Cape before heading back for the nearby shelter of Beagle Channel off Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego.

From there, your ship will likely sail for Chile's Punta Arenas where I can recommend an excursion to visit a sanctuary for 50,000 breeding penguins - a breathtaking sight.

The port is also gateway to another eerie experience - silent passage through the icy Chilean fjords en route to the sunshine of Puerto Montt and Valparaiso, the port for Santiago. These two-week Round the Horn cruises usually run between Buenos Aires and Santiago during our winter months.

Alternatively, some year-round Caribbean cruises include a South American port or two - usually in Venezuela, while the vibrant Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is a highlight of many world cruises, with visits often timed to coincide with its fabulously colourful - if slightly scary - carnival.

There are also occasional round-South America cruises including the unmissable chance to visit Peru's "lost" Inca city of Machu Picchu, which still retains a certain magic despite the tide of tourists it now attracts. Equally atmospheric is the mighty Amazon - the largest and second-longest river in the world.

Most cruises cover more than 1,000 miles to the state capital Manaus, famous for its 19th Century Opera House built Renaissance-style with stone from Italy and wrought-iron from Scotland. But even that is only a quarter of the river's length.

The stats about the Amazon basin are mindblowing: about a fifth of the world's oxygen is produced by its rain forest and 17 of its tributaries are more than 1,000 miles long. In fact, to get the best out of an Amazon cruise, you must leave the mother ship to join trips on smaller boats along the narrower inlets.

Here you will get the true flavour of the place, the rich diversity of marine and wildlife and the daily struggle for survival of the people who live on and off the Amazon. The experience of being paddled through the complete blackness of an Amazonian night on a dug-out canoe in search of the elusive cayman alligator will remain long in your memory.

DOS and DON'TS of South American Cruising

Do take some excursions – unlike on cruises in Europe or the Caribbean, here it is rarely cheaper or better to travel independently ashore.

Do pack layers of clothes for round the horn cruises, as a typical itinerary will take you through all four seasons in two weeks.

Don’t be afraid to haggle in markets or even proper shops – outside major city department stores, this is welcomed.

Don’t expect English to be easily understood everywhere. If you can learn a little Spanish or Portuguese before you go, it pays off.

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