The continent is enormous and the classic overland route works because it follows the Andes south, gaining altitude gradually and ending in Patagonia as its short season opens.
Getting the timing right is the whole exercise. Start in Colombia around July and finish in Patagonia in December and both ends of the trip are in their good season. Do it in reverse, or start in January, and you will be in the Andes during the rains or in Patagonia when it is shut.
Weeks 1–3: Colombia
Cartagena for the walled colonial city and the Caribbean heat, then out of it before it becomes expensive.
Minca and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta for coffee and cloud forest. The Lost City trek — four days to a pre-Columbian terraced city — is the alternative to Peru’s Inca Trail and requires no permit lottery.
Medellín, which has one of the more remarkable urban recoveries anywhere, with cable cars serving hillside neighbourhoods.
Salento and the Cocora Valley for wax palms and coffee farms.
Bogotá to fly on, with the Gold Museum, which is one of the great collections in the Americas.
Weeks 4–5: Ecuador
Small, cheap and high.
Quito at 2,850m, with a superb colonial centre. This is where acclimatisation begins.
The Avenue of the Volcanoes south — Cotopaxi, Quilotoa’s crater lake, Baños for waterfalls and adrenaline, Cuenca for the prettiest colonial city in the country.
The Galápagos if the budget stretches. Land-based island-hopping is a fraction of a cruise’s cost and gets you most of the wildlife.
The Amazon at Cuyabeno is the cheapest jungle access on the continent.
Weeks 6–9: Peru
The longest stop, and the one people underestimate.
Lima for two days and the food.
Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca — the best trekking in Peru and skipped by almost everyone in favour of Cusco. Laguna 69 as a day walk, the Santa Cruz trek over four days.
Arequipa and Colca Canyon.
Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, with a week for it. Book the Inca Trail six months ahead if you want it.
Lake Titicaca with a homestay night on Amantaní.
Detail on the ordering is in the three-week Peru and Bolivia route.
Weeks 10–11: Bolivia
The cheapest country on the continent and the one with the most intact indigenous culture.
La Paz at 3,600m, arriving over the rim of the bowl.
Sucre and Potosí — the white colonial capital, and the silver mountain that funded the Spanish empire and killed an appalling number of people doing it. The mine tours at Potosí are genuinely uncomfortable and worth doing.
Salar de Uyuni and the three-day tour across the southern altiplano, ending at the Chilean border.
Week 12: northern Chile and the Atacama
San Pedro de Atacama — geysers at El Tatio, the Valle de la Luna, salt lagoons with flamingos, and the clearest night skies on earth, which is why the world’s large telescopes are here.
Then the long move south. Fly Calama to Santiago, because the alternative is two days on a bus through desert.
Weeks 13–14: Chile and Argentina’s lake district
Santiago and Valparaíso, the hillside port city of funiculars and murals.
The Chilean lake district — Pucón, Villarrica volcano, hot springs — and across to Bariloche in Argentina.
Weeks 15–16: Patagonia
The end of the trip and the reason for the timing.
El Chaltén for free, unbookable day walks to Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre.
El Calafate and the Perito Moreno glacier.
Torres del Paine — book the refugios a year ahead if you want the W or the O, or do the Base de las Torres day hike if you did not.
Ushuaia at the bottom, if you want to say you got there.
What this route leaves out
Brazil, which is enormous and deserves its own trip, and which is a different climate cycle again.
The Amazon proper — Manaus, Iquitos, the Bolivian Pampas.
Venezuela and the Guianas.
Uruguay and Paraguay.
Three months is not enough for a continent this size, and the value of this particular route is that it is coherent rather than complete.
Practical
Buses are the backbone and the premium overnight services in Argentina, Chile and Peru are genuinely comfortable. See the overnight travel guide.
Internal flights are worth it on the Calama–Santiago and Lima–Cusco legs, and in Argentina where distances are continental.
Altitude governs the first half. Do not fly from sea level to Cusco or La Paz.
Costs vary enormously: Bolivia and Peru are very cheap, Chile and Argentina are not. Argentina’s currency situation has been volatile for years and changes what advice is even useful — check current conditions.
Spanish is worth a week of classes in Quito or Sucre, both of which have cheap schools. Brazil is Portuguese; the rest of the route is not.
Protests and road blockades are a normal part of political life in Peru and Bolivia and will occasionally close a route with no notice. Build in slack.