Tourism: Travelling to South America? Here´s some usefull tips and hints:

Hey ya! I´ve been digging some info on travelling to South America and found these tips from, Travel Independent.  Full article and more at: http://www.travelindependent.info/america-south.htm           Get your gear ready!                  Allways, EV!  Some things you might want to knowin the way of backpacking, budget travel country advice, info and summaries for:South America - Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Plus shorter summaries for Argentina,Paraguay & Uruguay. For Central America go here. » It is worth looking, if you have not already, at the example layout to see the guidelines each section of information is based on - or for other travel advice and site home head for www.travelindependent.info  You don't need to be fluent in Spanish (or even know more than a good number of phases), but a basic level makes a HUGE difference in this region. The same can be said for Portuguese in Brazil. Spanish lesson are normally cheap/easy to arrange on route.  A number of South/Central American countries havecurrencies pegged/fixed to the US dollar where a better parallel (black market) exchange rate can exist. To benefit you need USD cash. Do your research before travel. This is currently the case in Venezuela and Argentina.

Intro.... From a traveller perspective, South America splits into roughly three regions. The more developed Southern countries of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile; with their European feel, political stability and relatively high standards. This is were many start/finish a trip. Then you have the less developed 'Inca and Amazon' countries - Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador/Colombia. Here you have the main concentration of travellers, drawn not only by the world famous sights, but also the significantly lower cost of travel (certainly in Bolivia). And lastly you have Brazil, which although often combined as part of a larger trip (typically Rio and/or theFoz do Iguaçu), due to its size, needs to be treated separately. South America on the whole lacks difficult border crossings and visa headaches (although Americas will run into hefty charges). Bus transport is easy to arrange and there is a very established trail of attractions. This however causes many to 'bite off more than they can chew' in terms of distances to be covered overland, not finding to time/energy to discover out of the way gems and (although good value on a world level) spending too much [money] in the Southern developed countries and/or (especially) Brazil. The most 'backpackery' countries are Bolivia and Peru with a clear 'trail' of attractions, 'party' hostels/towns/tours and lots of people to meet. Tour mentality and the type of other travellers (certainly at the budget end) you meet can jade some, certainly in the case of Bolivia where you'll find the best value for money on the continent.

What follows are only basic snap shot summaries. If you have decided these are some of the countries you want to visit and need more planning information then you are strongly recommended to complement what you find here with a planning guide. Trust us it will make life much easier. If you are set on going and need a guidebook or reading material please see a list of recommended guides/books here (go on have a look!). If you want to read fiction, you are in luck as some of the world's best writers originate in South America. All guides/books can be viewed in more detail.