Before this trip, packing felt like a bit of a guessing game. Multiple climates, long flights, internal travel, and the vague hope you won’t regret what you’ve shoved into a 23kg suitcase. Now that we’ve done it, and home, sorted through the suitcase to what was worn and what wasn't - across places like Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Lima - there are a few clear winners (and a few things I’d leave at home next time). This is the reality, not the internet version.

There’s a certain type of traveller who gets off the plane in a new country armed with nothing but a credit card and blind faith in contactless payments. And then there’s the rest of us, wondering how much cash is too much, too little, or completely unnecessary, and how the credit card traveller has the balls to take his approach. We found on our travels that the truth is, the cash vs card debate when travelling isn’t clear cut. It changes city by city, sometimes street by st

If you're like me, there is a very specific moment in any flight that I don't enjoy. You’ve landed. You’re tired. You’ve queued for immigration & customs. Your bag eventually appears. And now all you want is a simple, seamless airport transfer. You've had the warning about the taxi scams, and you enter the arrival hall to face the onslaught of drivers claiming to be uber, grab, official, best price, official etc etc... I'll take a train, metro, bus, or pre-book a transfer if

If you’re doing the classic South America loop, you’ll likely tick off some combination of Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro. On paper, they’re all “big Latin American cities”. In reality, they couldn’t feel more different. First Impressions When we landed at each of these cities - I went through a familiar set of emotions. Concern - moving through immigration, customs, finding transport to the hotel The journey from airport to hotel - together with the sights an

If you’re doing a South America trip and flirting with the idea of going “a bit further” for something special, but restrained by time or money, you’ll probably end up weighing up the Galápagos Islands versus Easter Island. They’re both remote. They’re both expensive. They both look incredible on Instagram. But beyond that, they’re completely different experiences—and picking the wrong one for your travel style may feel like a very costly mistake. Here’s the honest view - we

Planning a long-haul trip to South America can be complex, especially when trying to combine multiple countries efficiently. This 33-day South America itinerary covers five countries—Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil—plus two of the continent’s most unique destinations: the Galápagos Islands and Easter Island. This guide breaks down the route, flights, travel times, and costs , making it useful for anyone planning an extended South America trip. Overview of the Rou

Day 1 - Arrival in Rio de Janeiro We flew up to Rio de Janeiro with British Airways. By this point we’d grown used to LATAM Airlines, where announcements came in Spanish first, then English, and sometimes a third language if needed. Good old BA mostly stuck to English. When the crew had to deal one-on-one with “Johnny Foreigner”, they either hunted down the one Spanish-speaking colleague, reached for a translation app, or—failing both—resorted to pointing and raising their vo

People on planes are pigs

Day 1 The flight with LATAM from Santiago was uneventful, and we got lucky breezing through immigration and customs. Before long, we were in an Uber for the fairly long drive into the city — and just in time to catch the last hour of happy hour in the hotel lounge. The Hilton Buenos Aires is well located in Puerto Madero, a smart and pleasant part of the city. Most people know Buenos Aires for tango, football, and culture. I, however, know it as one of the first cities to be

Day 1 Arriving at the Santiago departures area, we were immediately met by the ever-present onslaught of taxi drivers and their various slightly dubious offers. It was a bit easier to find our way around the airport this time as it was actually now our third visit - we had used the domestic terminal to access Easter Island, so we were starting to relax a little more and not everything was shiny and new to us. We avoided the chaos and hunted down an Uber instead — it’s a known

Day 1 The flight from Lima, followed by an overnight stay in an airport hotel in Santiago, was fairly uneventful – mostly just a lot of waiting around. The only thing of note was that the Chilean wine was good, but the local dish called Pastel de choclo  wasn’t really for me. It is made of sweetcorn ground into a paste with beef, chicken, raisins, black olives, onions and slices of hard-boiled egg - this all sounded fine, but why, in God’s name, was there sugar sprinkled on t

Leaving the airport for the hotel, we were hit immediately by the heat and humidity. Even at 11pm on a Saturday night, the traffic was chaotic — endless beeping in near standstill conditions, cars edging forward together but going nowhere. The driving style felt… optimistic. Vehicles squeezed into impossibly small gaps and travelled so close together that I was genuinely surprised not to see more accidents. Cars were a mix of shiny new cars and ageing veterans, and from what

Hotel – Hotel Ninfa (Puerto Ayora) Hotel Ninfa was OK. Actually, probably better than OK. It’s a budget hotel, and for a budget option it did very well in terms of comfort, facilities, and price. One minor issue: beetles would occasionally come under the door. However, whatever they’d sprayed around the doorway meant those were the insects’ final few minutes of life. The bar was quiet and reasonably priced. The pool was small and deep — perfect for cooling off after a hot day

Like Madrid, Quito was simply an overnight airport stop. We booked the Holiday Inn Quito Airport  on points, mainly because it offered a shuttle bus. Immigration was painfully slow — one of those queues that barely seems to move. By the time we finally emerged, we were exhausted. Thankfully, the shuttle was waiting right outside, which felt like a small but significant win. In hindsight, we probably should have chosen the Courtyard by Marriott Quito Airport , which was walkin

Madrid Our first stop en route to South America was Madrid — primarily to take advantage of a direct flight to Quito, Ecuador. Avios prices were very reasonable too, which made the decision even easier. It was our first time travelling within Europe on our Irish passports, and the exit from the airport couldn’t have been smoother. The non-EU queue, on the other hand, was enormous — so we felt quietly smug. Uber works brilliantly at Madrid Airport, with a specific car park lev