22-Nights Grand South America

Luxury Gold

Grand South America
Set out on the grandest of South American tours as you discover Lima, the City of the Kings, explore the salt pans of the Sacred Valley and see the mysterious Machu Picchu up close, with an expert-led tour of the lost city before it opens to the crowds. Cruise Lake Titicaca to the Uros Floating Islands, where locals collect reeds to create their floating homes and pause in the Casablanca Valley for a wine tasting at the boutique Kingston Family Winery. In Buenos Aires, take in the balcony made famous by the former First Lady of Argentina, Eva Peron, and adventure onwards to the thundering cascades of Iguassu Falls. Across the Brazilian border in Rio de Janeiro, dial down the pace with cocktails on Copacabana Beach and an authentic lunch at a local churrascaria, a traditional Brazilian steakhouse and quintessential Brazilian experience.The Activity Level of this tour is Balanced, meaning there is 1 to 3 miles of walking per day which may include some uneven surfaces such as cobblestones and stairs.


Dining Summary

• 11 Dinner (D)
• 22 Breakfast (B)
• 14 Lunch (L)

Choice Highlights

• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Lima: Take a guided visit of the Monastery and its catacombs.
• Lima: Visit the historic Torre de Tagle Palace and the Central Reserve Bank museum.
• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Machu Picchu: Visit a working tea plantation.
• Machu Picchu: View the world's largest private collection of indigenous orchids around your hotel surrounded by the Cloud Forest.
• Machu Picchu: Embark on a twilight nature walk where your guide will point out medicinal plants, sacred Pre-Inca pictographs, and an enchanting waterfall in the Cloud Forest.
• Machu Picchu: Seize the opportunity to return to Machu Picchu a second time on this Personalize Your Day option. After exploring the ancient Inca citadel with your Local Expert earlier in the day, you can personalize your experience and create and savor your own moment at this enigmatic fortress.
• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Cusco: Visit the ruins of Tambo Machay and enjoy a leisurely 3.7 mile (6 km) downhill walk back to Cusco as you pass the ruins of Puca Pucara and Quenguo.
• Cusco: Return to Cusco by vehicle and visit San Blas church and the surroundings of this fascinating artsy neighborhood of Cusco. After San Blas, continue to San Pedro market for some local shopping and insight into Peruvian produce.
• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Santiago: Enjoy a Chilean seafood lunch with Wine. Mestizo Restaurante has incorporated aspects of international gastronomy to Chilean cuisine to create delicious ceviches, main dishes and desserts.
• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Buenos Aires: Meet the local gauchos and learn about the traditions of these South American Cowboys on a horseback ride.
• Buenos Aires: Explore the beautiful ranch on a leisurely walk, learning all about the gaucho lifestyle.

Additional Included Highlights

• : Enjoy seamless personal assistance throughout your journey. From securing exclusive reservations, to organising transportation, your Travel Concierge ensures every aspect of your travel is tailored to your tastes and preferences.
• : In select destinations, our network of Local Expert Guides will illuminate your journey on a deeper level.
• : Included at all hotels.
• : Hotel taxes, porterage and tips, as well as tips for included dining experiences, are included.
• : Enjoy breakfast every morning, and an array of incredible dining options throughout your journey, infused with discovery and adventure.
• : On days where a Relaxed Start (RS) is indicated, you can select to indulge in breakfast in bed.
• : Enjoy complimentary hotel WiFi. And, on select coaches, onboard WiFi may also be available.
• : Transfers are included on your journey start and end dates, and where additional accommodation has been booked in advance through Luxury Gold. Transfers to train stations or alternate hotels, in the same start or end city as the itinerary, may be requested.

Curated Experiences

• Lima: Visit the home of local artist Victor Delfin, known for his monumental El Beso sculpture at his workshop in the city's trendy Barranco district.
• Cusco: Savor a Pachamanca feast in the Sacred valley. This traditional way to slow cook local vegetables and meats using hot stones and clay pots underground is a communal rite in the Sacred Valley that dates back to pre-historic times. It is a way to celebrate and show gratitude to Pachamama, "Mother Earth".
• Lake Titicaca: Join a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience a you as you meet a local family on Amantani Island. Home to about 4,000 inhabitants, you'll discover how the traditions and language of the Inca culture are being kept alive on this remote location not commonly visited by tourists.
• Ipanema: Meet Local Expert Cecelo, a local guitarist, music aficionado, and studio owner from Ipanema. Join him on a walking tour of Ipanema, the birthplace of Bossa Nova in the 1950s. Enjoy the sounds and sights of the place that inspired this new genre of samba music. After your tour, head back to your hotel where Cecelo will play you some Bossa Nova classics over a caipirinha cocktail.

Exceptional Dining

• Lima: You can relax before meeting your Travel Concierge at 18.00 for a Welcome Dinner where local flavors and contemporary culinary techniques highlight the pillars of Peruvian cuisine.
• Lima: Enjoy a fantastic seafood restaurant in the trendy neighborhood of Barranco in Lima. This restaurant offers Peruvian classics in a great outdoor ambiance underneath the lush trees.
• Sacred Valley: Experience a caj

  Featured Destinations

  Iguazu Falls (Iguacu Falls) Iguazu Falls (Iguacu Falls) Iguazu Falls are greatest waterfalls in the world in their spectacular panorama, situated on the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay in South America. The falls consist of 275 cascades spread nearly 2 miles including the famous 'Devil's Throat'. The biggest and most brilliant rainbow in the world around Iguazu falls provides fantastic experience. Also, the nature of 'The Iguassu Natural Park', listed as World Natural Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1986, is also mysterious, where thousands of wonderful trees, birds, and animals are abundant and easily seen.	Destination Guide
  Santiago Santiago Santiago is a huge city of nearly five million inhabitants surrounded by immense Andean peaks creating a spectacular backdrop. The city centre is quite manageable with a collection of wide avenues, squares and parks all laid out in a grid pattern. Chile has a distinctly European flavour and Santiago will bring this home to you as you visit the churches, monuments and museums all designed in a certain familiar style.	Destination Guide
  Lake Titicaca (Peruvian Coast) Lake Titicaca (Peruvian Coast) Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake, is a world unto itself—a definite must-see. It's located 560 mi/900 km southeast of Lima, on the Peru/Bolivia border, at an altitude of 12,500 ft/3,812 m. One way to see Titicaca is on the 12-hour train ride from Cuzco to Puno through the Andes, a trip that reaches an elevation of more than 14,000 ft/4,265 m as you pass by farms, people's backyards, waterfalls and bleak but wondrous scenery—clear blue sky, deep blue water and dry, barren landscape. This is an expensive tourist train and runs three or four times a week; the local train, which was notorious for thievery, no longer operates. Tourist buses also cover this route, stopping at major sights en route. They are faster and have English-speaking guides. Peruvians and tourists on a time limit take normal buses between Cusco and Puno, usually a six-hour trip. Don't neglect the attractions on the Bolivian side of the lake. Stop overnight in Puno, an uninspiring town near the border that's one of the best places in Peru to buy Andean handicrafts—alpaca sweaters, rugs, ponchos and tapestries. (The town is also known for its colorful fiestas and folk dances.) Then continue by bus or car to Copacabana, just across the border, for Bolivian customs formalities and to tour the cathedral or take a day trip to the Isla del Sol and Isla de la Luna. With its small-village atmosphere and charm, this town is a nice overnight stay from which you can see more of the lake. From Puno, tours or public transport are available to Taquile Island (small Inca ruins and very nice woven goods), Sillustani on Lake Umayo (to see chullpas, the funerary towers of the ancient Colla people) and the Floating Islands (actually enormous floating reed mats that support the Uros people's villages of reed huts—you can buy reed souvenirs there).	Destination Guide
  Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazilians say that God made the rest of the world in six days, and devoted the seventh to Rio. The jagged Sugarloaf rises from dark blue Guanabara Bay, with legendary beaches like Copacabana and Ipanema in the foreground, forested mountains behind. This great city has an enticing atmosphere of samba and fun, and its locals are as joyous as they are beautiful.	Destination Guide
  Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Dynamic and bustling, a city which seems never to sleep, Buenos Aires is one of the most exciting cities in Latin America. Tango was born here, restaurants serve an all manner of world cuisine, bars play the latest music, cafés spill on to the streets and nightclubs allow dancing throughout the night. Cultural hub of a society which traces its roots to European immigration, it is famous throughout South America for its theatres, museums and galleries. Gucci, Armani, Prada, to name a few, line the boulevards catering for the fashion conscious porteños, their offerings as stylish as anything found in the cities in Europe or North America.	Destination Guide
  Puno Puno Puno lies on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This area is the cradle of the Aymara civilization and the birthplace of the Inca Empire.
  Cuzco Cuzco The Cuzco (Cusco) region of Peru combines Inca legacy with Spanish colonial architecture in an atmosphere at once provincial and sublime. The chaotic marketplaces where campesinos barter grain or potatoes for multi-colored fabric belie the mute spirituality of the Lost Cities, where Inca stonework conveys order and balance. Such diversity enhances this inspiring nine-day adventure. The blue sky radiates with an intensity achieved only at high altitudes (the city of Cuzco lies 11,150 feet above sea level), while the landscape offers its unique pattern of exacting agricultural grids and tangled jungle masses.	Destination Guide
  Machu Picchu Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a fortress city of the ancient Incas, in a high saddle between two peaks 50 miles NW of Cuzco, Peru. The extraordinary pre-Columbian ruin consists of five sq. miles of terraced stonework link by 3,000 steps; it was virtually intact when discovered by Hiram Bibghan in 1911.	Destination Guide
  Sacred Valley Sacred Valley The Urubamba valley is also named the Sacred Valley. It begins in the Urubamba's village and continues to Macchu Picchu.
  Lima Lima Lima, "the City of the Kings," became the effective capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, established 1560. Today, a visit to Lima may serve as a unique Peruvian experience that offers a glimpse into the Andean world, Spanish tradition and the country's modern aspect. Visit handsome old buildings and baroque churches that testify to the city's religious background and the Plaza de Armas, shared by the realms of the Catholic church, municipality and national government. The pre-Inca ruins of Pachacamac lie a short distance south of the city. Once a ceremonial site, Pachacamac has been the most important religious center of the Andean world since before the age of Christ. Stop and admire The Temple of the Sun and the Moon, Lima's outstanding museums, and Machu Picchu - a "Jewel in the Mist."	Destination Guide

  View Full Itinerary

  Valid Date Ranges

  October 2024

  10/05/2024

  10/27/2024

  $15,775 per person

  Prices are per person, based on double occupancy, and subject to availability and change without notice. Prices reflect land only accommodations, airfare is additional. Blackout dates/seasonal supplements may apply. Trip prices and dates are correct at the time of the website going live, however are subject to confirmation at the time of booking. Itinerary and map subject to change. Tour prices and dates are correct at the time of the website going live, however are subject to confirmation at the time of booking. Prices displayed reflect available discounted rates such Early Payment Discount or Red Hot Deal (discounts are not combinable). Discounts may be withdrawn at anytime, book early to confirm space.

  All fares are quoted in US Dollars.