Ultimate South America

We enjoyed our 19 Day Ultimate South America Tour. The highlights of the tour were certainly Iguassu Falls and Machu Picchu. We were fortunate that the weather cleared for our afternoon visit to the Brazilian Side of the falls. Unfortunately the weather was not in our favour the day when we visited the Argentinian Side of the falls but our spirits were not dampened and we put on our rain ponchos and proceeded to explore. The gods were also with us when we explored Machu Picchu. Wow! this was certainly...read more a big tick for the bucket list.
The tour manager did a great job of organising our group of 34 people with airport check in and baggage collection. The local guides were very knowledgeable and passionate about their local area. In general the hotels were good. We particularly liked the resort at Iguassu Falls and the hotel at Machu Picchu. All included excursions were very good and the included meals were mostly good. Our flight from Lima to Cusco was delayed about 3 hours due to weather so rather than miss out on the markets scheduled for that afternoon the guide rearranged the following day to make sure that we didn't miss out on anything.
We found drink prices in Brazil and Argentina quite reasonable but they are a bit more expensive in Peru. It is a good idea to check prices before ordering drinks. We only did one optional excursion to Petropolis in Rio de Janeiro. We had booked the Bird Park Excursion but this was cancelled due to weather conditions. We tended to do our own exploring in the cities. It is possible to walk to the base of Sugarloaf Mountain from the hotel but we chose to share a taxi with a couple of other guests (taxis are quite reasonable in Brazil and Argentina but avoid taxis in Santiago). As we are over 60 we were able to purchase senior tickets for the cable car.
If you want to see the main highlights of South America without a big price tag then this Cosmos Tour is for you. Thank you to Georgie for organising this tour for us and for making sure that we received our travel documents 3 weeks prior to departure. I particularly like the checklist that Global Journeys use. However, I do think that Cosmos need to change the meeting time for the 1st day of the tour as 2pm in the afternoon is too early in the day. I also think the tour manager needs to email all guests a week out to confirm meeting time.

Excellent trip which includes a lot of the highlights of South America. We had an excellent Tour Director and top quality local guides. The accommodation was very comfortable and breakfast was included. I would recommend this tour for active people as there is a lot of travel (6 internal flights) and a lot of walking, it was actually quite exhausting. At Machu Picchu a second guide is provided for people who do not want to walk around which I thought was very good and they didn't miss out on too...read more much. Highly recommend booking airport transfers through Cosmos as Rio is very dodgy, plus the Cosmos transfer rep assists you with checking into the hotel and when you leave stays with you at the airport until you go through security. This is most helpful as the language is a barrier if you don't speak Portuguese or Spanish.

This was an action packed tour that really did cover the highlights of South America in 19 days. The tour director was amazing! He negotiated 33 participants through 7 internal flights. We had daily typed updates on meeting times, and details on what to watch out for. Expect early morning starts but also some free mornings so that a more leisurely start to the day is possible. I did this tour at the end of September and early October and the weather was just right. ...read more
Carefully think about the offer of optional and additional side tours. I would not recommend you pre-book these. There is a lot to see and digest already. No good to have booked a dinner when you are feeling unwell or too tired to enjoy the tour. I rated accommodation a bit lower as the Puna hotel was quite ordinary and outside walking distance to restaurants and shops. The tour was well thought out, covered 80% of city highlights and I would recommend it to my family and friends.

We really enjoyed this holiday it was a dream come true. Our tour director was fantastic and bent over backwards for all of us. Having been on previous tours this meant a lot. The tour itself was well planned and we had enough free time. A beautiful part of the world and beautiful people live there. Lets hope Cosmos will send more and more visitors.

Very good coverage of the three countries visited. Iguasu Falls was wonderful. The Argentinian side having the better view. Waiting to cross into Argentina was slow. But believe that it was due to the Argentinian Authorities slow pace. Crossing into Argentina twice could have been avoided if hotel accommodation was made available in Argentina rather than having to return to Brazil on day 1. Hotel accommodation on the whole was good except for some Bath adapted showers could have been maintained...read more and built to a better level. Peru was great and of course Macchu Pichu brilliant- a must see. Altogether good value for nineteen days packed with lots of sightseeing. Be prepared to walk! Victor the Tour Leader was very informative and knew his job.