ABOUT US

WE MAKE IT PERSONAL

No-one knows South America like we do

At South America Tours, we specialise in crafting bespoke, privately guided journeys tailored entirely to your preferences. Simply tell us where you’d like to go, what you’d like to experience, your preferred style of accommodation, and the type of cruise you wish to embark on, then our team will design a seamless and unforgettable South American holiday.

While private tours are at the heart of what we do, we also offer a carefully curated selection of small group itineraries for those who enjoy travelling with like minded, seasoned travellers.

Our team, predominantly from South America and now proudly based in Australia, brings authentic local insight combined with trusted on the ground expertise ensuring every journey is both deeply immersive and flawlessly executed.

Whether you’re looking to explore Peru, the Galapagos Islands, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, or Antarctica individually, or combine them into one extraordinary journey, we’ll bring your vision to life.

“Let us help you plan the trip of a lifetime and take care of you while exploring South America”

Nicholas Samuel / Founder

Our Difference

Hand-picked, local, expert guides to enrich your journey

We consider our guides to be an extension of our team, our most important brand ambassadors and the key differentiators between taking you on just another tour and one that will be treasured for a lifetime. That’s why we hand-pick each one, working closely with our partners to ensure that only the best local guides are with you every step of the way. It’s no wonder that our expert guides feature so prominently in our customer testimonials, consistently praised for their professionalism, passion and knowledge.

Our smaller size brings bigger benefits

Big isn’t always better, especially when it comes to ensuring authentic travel experiences and customer satisfaction. As an agency we are small by choice, only hiring true destination experts to guarantee clients the highest quality of service. Likewise we only use low capacity, boutique vessels that only operate small-group guided excursions, for a richer, fuller cruise experience, and when it comes to our land tours we go even smaller, only operating private tours and transfers for the most intimate and personalized of vacations.

The best, most authentic lodging

Collecting points by staying with a famous global hotel chain is all well and good, but it won’t add to your immersion into a different destination or culture. We go to great lengths to discover, review and inspect the best accommodation available for inclusion in our list of trusted providers, carefully selecting those that not only comply with our quality standards but also have an authentic ambiance that reflects the culture, history and energy of the region, and often some of the most stunning vistas imaginable.

A meticulous attention to detail

The beauty of life and indeed travel is in the small details. To create exceptional experiences, we meticulously consider every detail of your journey. It may be selecting the right seats on a train ride to Machu Picchu for the best views, a welcome gift in your room, or maybe choosing the quietest cabins on your cruise. We excel in creating seamless, stress-free and inspirational itineraries based solidly on expert destination knowledge and those small personal touches that can make such a difference.

Make meaningful connections

The richest travel experiences are all about making connections. Those connections begin with a discovery call with our advisors to understand your travel dreams and desires and will continue on your trip – close-up wildlife encounters will give you a new appreciation for the natural world, you’ll share extraordinary, often life-changing experiences and form special bonds with your fellow travelers, crew and guides, and partake in real and positive social exchanges with the locals you’ll meet

Explore with experts

Whether it’s the local, expert advice of the destination specialists who live in and extensively travel throughout our destinations, personally inspecting every cruise vessel and boutique accommodation we offer, the quality cruise and tour operations of our trusted pioneering partners to ensure the highest service levels, or the expert local naturalist and cultural guides with you every step of the way to enrich your journey, you can relax, safe in the knowledge you’re in expert hands.

A celebration of diversity

Diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We fully embrace and promote diversity, inclusivity and respect for our staff and our clientele. Our destination portfolio in itself is a celebration of the most biologically diverse marine and terrestrial habitats on South America & Antarctica. Perhaps most importantly of all, diversity means understanding that each and every traveler is unique, and that’s why our advisors will always curate an itinerary 100% personalized to you.

Our focus on responsible travel, conservation and giving back

Tourism has the potential to create both positive and negative impacts on people and places. At South America Tours, we are deeply aware of the role we play and take our commitment to responsible travel seriously through how we operate, manage our supply chain, work with local communities and encourage guests’ responsible behavior.

True, unparalleled adventure

The most biodiverse, remote, adventure-filled regions in South America are waiting to be explored and deliver the richest travel experiences you could ever imagine – intimate wildlife encounters, stimulating history, diverse landscapes and exquisite natural beauty. Whether you are a nature-enthusiast or bucket-lister, we have an expedition for you, an excursion to a remote corner of South America that yields unparalleled adventure in every sense of the word.

The most diverse fleet in small-ship expedition cruising

Our curated portfolio of boutique expedition vessels provides clients with the widest array of elite expedition cruises in South America. Every vessel has been optimized, and in many instances custom built, for travel in their area of operation, range from just 8 to a maximum of 150 passengers capacity and boast exceptional levels of comfort and customer service to provide an excellent home base for exploration and adventure.

Client Testimonials

TRAVELLER STORIES FROM SOUTH AMERICA

John and Rhondda Coffey

Recently my husband and I travelled to South America organised by South America Tours.  Nico was our main contact and was always readily available and approachable and he had wonderful back-up staff.  We had an excellent trip visiting Santiago, Easter Island, Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides, Quito and the Galapagos. All of our plans went like clockwork.  Hotels, locations and transport were all thoughtfully and so well chosen.  Pick-ups from airports and guides were exceptional.  Our guides were very well informed and able to pass on their knowledge to make our trip so very interesting. We had a wonderful trip and would thoroughly recommend Nico of South America Tours.

Regina and Christian Chan

We would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to Nico & Paula of South Americas Tour for organising our tours/air travel to South America in April/May 2017.  It was a memorable holidays for all of us, our group of 24 members! We cannot emphasised how much patience Nico & Paula have with us changing our itineraries (over 11 times!) and air travels with the places we wanted to visit and the knowledge & experiences of South America.  With Nico’s knowledge of South America, he was able to customise/guide us where to visit first thus leaving Peru last so we can get acclimatised to the high altitudes. The choices of hotels were excellent and the transportation & tours that Nico have in his network are amazing.

Miss Nola Chromiak

The tour organized by Nico of South America tours for myself and three companions was amazing. We listed places we wanted to see and our time frame and Nico took over from there. The experiences he included in our itinerary were varied and thoroughly enjoyable. His organization of all of our transfers enhanced our tour. The people who met us ensured we arrived at our accommodation, understood the currency and customs of the place we were visiting and then assisted us in all aspects of the processes for our ongoing flight. Our tour was stress free as depicted my one of the seals we encountered. Thank you Nico I will definitely recommend you to my friends and others who plan to visit this amazing continent.

And Remember … Our Price Promise

South America Tours Pty Ltd offer amazing value for money. Tailor-made does not mean expensive, it simply means attention to every detail of your trip arranged by a true expert. We do not make money by charging you more than the price you would get if you contacted the hotels and guides direct. Plus, we have exclusive deals with some partners meaning it will cost less than booking direct. So take advantage of our expertise. It doesn’t cost you a thing, and could even be cheaper

What you get for free – that you wouldn’t get if you booked direct or with our competitors:

From staying at hotels, cruising excursions, exploring areas, living in the countries. We love Latin America and Antarctica and we try to get ourselves there as often as possible. Tap into our amazing knowledge to create a superb holiday.

To email or phone or visit us and ask for a specific independent opinion about a lodge, hotel, cruise, area, attraction, site or your holiday as a whole. We are not tied to any hotel or lodge or cruise or airline.

For your holiday and tweak it as many times as you like. We do all the leg work.

Hotels, transfers, flights, guides activities, dinner reservations, Tango tickets, helicopter flights, glacier trekking to name just a few. We can arrange it all.

Passed on from our overseas partners. As a Latin America and Antarctica specialist we have exclusive deals with a number of lodges, hotels and cruises and are often the first to hear of any special offers.

We know how it works on the ground. We know the guides that speak the best English, the vehicles that have air-con and a purring engine and the transfers that will get you where you need to be at the right time without crazy driving.

We love holidays and we like to get excited about them for months before we go. We find a beautiful looking itinerary sat on our coffee table helps the anticipation

With everything you need including itinerary, country information, phone numbers, luggage labels will be sent to you a week before you go.

Just in case anything goes wrong. For example, frustratingly sometimes flights can be delayed. You will always be able to contact us or one of our representatives and we will re-arrange everything so it has as little impact on your holiday as possible.

Discover Latin America

Get a Quote

When it comes to our South American holidays, the possibilities are almost endless. Tell us more about your vacation aspirations and our travel experts will be in touch to help design your perfect trip.

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