The Cost of 7 Months in South America

An unforgettable South American travel experience

You’re considering doing it – quitting your job, selling all your belongings and hitting the road for some adventure. Where to go? South America has to be at the top of your list. It’s large, diverse, the people are wonderful, the transportation is easy enough and last but definitely not least, it’s affordable. What’s the cost of 7 months in South America anyway? First, I’d like to provide you with some context on our budget and familiarize you with our style of travel.

The Budget

The goal was to spend approximately one month in each of seven South American countries living a somewhat comfortable yet economically sustainable lifestyle with a budget of $28,000 total or $14,000 per person. For more on how we arrived at this number, take a look here.

Style of Travel

Accommodation: We’re a married couple in our 30s. Days of loud hostel dorms were behind us, at least on a nightly basis. Having a private bedroom and a decent bathroom were priorities. We certainly had our share of hostel stays, most of which were private rooms, but the majority of our stays were in private Airbnbs. In South America, Airbnbs are far more affordable than in the U.S., as is most everything. Our style of travel was also a bit slower, spending 1-2 weeks in bigger cities, which usually got us ~10-15% discount on our Airbnb stays (most offer discounts for stays greater than one week or one month). Of course shared hostels remain the cheapest option, so electing for this option would definitely save you some cash.

Transportation: We elected to travel by bus as often as possible for multiple reasons: to get the transportation experience of a local, to appreciate the landscape of an area and to save money. Flights were significantly more expensive than bus travel across the continent so the decision to bus was a no-brainer.

Although traveling by bus definitely had its drawbacks, it was guaranteed to be entertaining. At nearly every stop, men would place pieces of candy in your hand, walk off and later return expecting you to place money in theirs. Although this got a bit annoying after a while, the novelty never did. Women and children would walk on board selling everything from bread and empanadas to suckers with ants inside. If you were hungry you wouldn’t go hungry for long. In a remote town in Peru, one man got onto the bus with a boom box on his shoulder rapping Eminem from 8 Mile. He was incredible! I thought hard about pitching him on me being his hype man and bringing him back to the States to make a run at the music industry. Months later I was still bringing him up in conversation. It was these unique experiences that made the long, winding, often nausea provoking bus rides well worth it.

Dining: This was one important way we were able to keep the cost of 7 months in South America manageable. Breakfast was prepared at home daily and typically consisted of some variation of eggs, toast, avocado, fruit and coffee.

Lunch was prepared at home most days and was usually comprised of a salad and fruit. When dining out, the Menu del Dia was the go-to, which is $3-7 meal of some form of meat, rice, vegetable and juice.

Dinner was close to a 50-50 split of cooking at home vs dining out. When dining out, the cuisine was typically local and cheap, similar to lunch. However there were a few splurges, namely in food meccas such as Lima, Peru or Buenos Aires, Argentina where the cuisine is top notch.

Entertainment: We stuck to as many free options as possible but paid up for the main attraction of most cities or towns. Of the notable free options, free walking tours were a staple, both allowing us to acclimate to the area and meet people right away. We found that visiting local parks was a great way to sense out the vibe of a city or town.

A few examples of entertainment that we splurged on: in Bolivia we paid for an Amazonian jungle excursion with a skilled local guide (because why wouldn’t you want to be with a skilled local guide trekking through the Amazon?). In Ecuador, we chose to visit the Galapagos Islands, which we knew would be expensive but was something we felt we’d regret skipping 10 years from now. It was indeed remarkable and turned out to be a big highlight of the trip. In Peru, we paid up for two days at Machu Picchu (worth it) as well as a home stay with a family on a secluded island on Lake Titicaca. In Mendoza, Argentina we allowed ourselves some winery tours and tastings. And last but definitely not least was a 7 day stay in Patagonia, visiting both the Chilean and Argentinian sides.

Now let’s look at a country by country breakdown of expenses.

Expense Breakdown by Country

Below we take a look at the amount of money spent by two people in each of seven countries with a goal of spending approximately one month in each country. Expenses are broken down by category. Listed beneath each country’s pie chart is the average cost per day, per person.