Tag: South America

The hardest decision that faces most gap year and career break travellers is not choosing between Africa, Asia, Europe or South America. Nor is it, packing the complete world travel guide (just in case) or a lifetime supply of insect repellent. Choosing whether to travel with friends or to go it alone is actually the most important decision youll ever make, and its one that will affect every aspect of your trip.

Whether youre 17 or going on 70, if you havent ever been away by yourself before, it can seem like the most terrifying thing in the world. Though it seems incredibly daunting, boldly going where youve never gone before can be a fantastically liberating experience. Travelling alone gives you the freedom to go wherever you want and do whatever you want; all you need to do is make sure that you make the most of every opportunity and experience along the way!

A little soul searching

Spending time away from everything and everyone youre used to will give you the perfect opportunity to not only do new and exciting things, but to learn a lot of things you never knew about yourself. Relying on your own abilities may seem a little too Bear Grylls but youll be surprised by your newfound sense of capability and independence.

Travelling is a great way to learn about new cultures and challenge yourself, and that doesnt necessarily mean eating unidentified bugs. From climbing Everest to teaching a class of 200 in northern Africa, going it alone will open up a whole world of new experiences that you never thought you could cope with, and give you a whole new set of skills to bring home with you.

A social extravaganza

Travelling with friends can be an amazing experience, but it can also be a limiting one. Setting off with your buddies or your partner might feel comforting, but its all too easy to end up relying on each other so much that you miss out on opportunities to meet new people. Without your trusty friends at your side, youll be far more likely to make an effort to seize each chance to make new friends and youll get to know a lot more people.

Whether youre travelling independently or with a company you will come across people from all walks of life; staying in hostels, interacting with the locals and even as you travel from place to place, its guaranteed that youll meet some like minded people along the way, and almost certain that youll find a few lifelong friends. Dont forget that there are hundreds of travellers out there who have decided to go it alone and they will be just as keen as you are to make new friends.

If you want, a cast-iron guarantee that youll see a few friendly faces when you get out there, the best solution is to go through a company. Travelling as part of a group or volunteer project, you can be certain that there will be other people there and quite a few of them will be solo travellers too. Companies like Real Gap send out a buddy list a few weeks before you go, which gives contact details of all of the travellers going on the same trip as you so you can get in touch before you leave, swap packing tips and maybe even arrange a group flight.

A chance to be selfish

Travelling on your own gives you the chance to be utterly and completely selfish. You can plan to do exactly what you want, where you want, and for however, long you feel like doing it. There will be no need to compromise on which famous sites you want to see and how long or how short your trip up the mountain is; your itinerary will be completely up to you. You might miss your friends for a little while but youll soon appreciate the freedom of choice you have without them.

Youll also be able to make the most of any opportunities that come your way; if you make some new friends and decide that you want to tag along with them for a few weeks or fall in love with a place and want to stay there a little longer, you can. If youre travelling with a company and decide that you want to change your trip or project, there will be no other feelings to consider than your own, so you can always do whats right for you. After all, if you cant make your trip of a lifetime all about you, when can you?

Top solo travel tips

If youre travelling alone, there are a few essential things you need to do to get the most you possibly can out of your gap year or career break trip, here are the top 3.

Be outgoing

Life as a traveller is nothing like life at home, while you wouldnt strike up a conversation with the person next to you in Tesco, thats exactly the kind of thing that will win you friends overseas. Now is the time to get yourself down to the hostel bar, take part in the optional activities and try out your phrase book on the locals! Travelling alone is the best possible cure for shyness, and you will definitely get back what you put in!

Be aware of your personal safety

Through travelling is probably the only situation where its good to talk to strangers, you still need to be aware of where you are and what youre doing. Personal safety may not be the most exciting of things but it is important when youre in an unfamiliar country with not altogether familiar people. Making new friends is great but make sure you dont get too intoxicated, and keep any eye on your valuables when youre out and about. Its a good idea to keep your loved ones updated on how youre doing by sending emails or writing an online blog, that way theyll be able to track of where you are and whats going on.

If youre keen on safety issues, companies like Real Gap offer specialised safety courses that will help you to prepare for any eventuality and give you a lot more confidence about setting off on your own.

Manage your expectations

When youre travelling to a new country youre likely to experience a little of whats known as culture shock. The best way to make sure you get the most out of your trip is to be prepared; do some research into your destinations cultures, traditions and history. Its important to respect the culture of the country youre visiting; different countries have different social rules and different standards of life, its your job to fit in and knowing what to expect will make it a lot easier.

If youre travelling with a company youll get a pre-departure pack full of country and trip information, it might seem tedious but its a good idea to read every single page. Youll definitely be wishing youd read up a bit more if youre the only one who turns up in shorts and a t-shirt in monsoon season!

A lot more people, particularly younger people, are now travelling and seeing more of the world than many of our parents or grandparents have ever seen with destinations as varied as South America and the Far East being particular favourites when it comes to backpacking and spending a gap year doing something exhilarating and life-changing.

With many parents having anxieties when it comes to their offspring flying the nest it can be made much more worrying when they are on the far side of the world and not easily contactable. When packing for such as journey and trying to keep your rucksack full of all of the essentials it is easily done to forget one or two important items and being faced with difficulties whilst travelling. This could be medication or particular items of clothing that will be needed but you havent planned on needing.

Fortunately there are possible ways to get important items to your child, friend or any other relative that are out travelling the world and that is by using a leading international parcel delivery firm or courier company. These companies are able to ship parcels quickly and carefully making them ideal when you want to send parcels to someone travelling, in particular where they may not be able to stay in the same place for extended periods of time.

The nature of backpacking is that the person will often be travelling and not staying in one place so sending a parcel quickly is a very important aspect to any delivery these companies carry out and means that people back home can send parcels knowing they wont be inconveniencing you with waiting around for a parcel and potentially marring your own travel plans and itinerary.

Many international couriers have offices and depots throughout the world and make it very clear that they can deliver parcels much quicker than in the past with other services such as the general postal service here in the UK. As well as this there is the benefit that your parcel will be handled by one system so there is no chance of handover issues where one company loses the parcel as it is handed off by another.

In fact with online tracking offered by these delivery services you can even track the parcels progress and make sure that it arrives on time or if the person who is meant to receive the parcel wants to know when to expect the parcel then they can also go online and armed with the unique tracking code they can see where the parcel is and when it has been delivered.

Argentina is unique and special country spreading on over 1 million square miles over the South America. In such a big country there are plenty different and interesting things that you can do like skiing, fishing, horse ridding etc. What ever you like to do, you can do it in Argentina.

First you have to decide which part of Argentina would you like to visit (the mountains, the sea or maybe country side?) cause Argentina is really big country. Than decide what would you like to do, and after all that start thinking about prices, accommodation and transportation.

What is the weather like?

The weather in Argentina varies from subtropical to winter cold; it depends in what part of the country you are. Its hard to speak generally about the weather in Argentina because its different in different parts of the state. But I will try to inform you about the weather you can expect in different time of the year.

The important thing to remember is that Argentina is placed in the Southern Hemisphere which means that the seasons are inversed (when the winter is in the US, in Argentina is summer). The weather there can be very tricky and rapidly changing, especially in the parts that are close to the Andes. The weather there is really unpredictable so you should be careful cause the rainfall and floods are often and extreme heat or even snow are not rare either.

Mostly Argentina is really nice country with nice weather but there are parts that you may avoid. The south is very cold and winters can be brutal there so you should be careful. There is no need to go far south (unless you want to for some reason) because most of the hotels and attractions are closed.

Of course, the seasons with most attractions are summer and winter. Especially nice is Patagonia. It is very mild during the year with many attractions, but it can also be very unpredictable and it can change drastically without notice.

Few things you should try to remember is that the seasons are reversed which means that the summer lasts from December-March and the winter lasts from June-July. If you are looking for the most enjoyable weather that you should absolutely come in March, April, September, October and November.

Crowds in Argentina

Unfortunately the crowd is hard to avoid, unless you want to go in the low season. Yes, the high season and in the time of holidays the crowd is unavoidable. So, if you dont like crowds than dont go during the summer, winter or holidays. Or if you must try to stay somewhere out of town.
Fun time in Argentina

The choice is yours because there are no things that you can not do in Argentina. Really, there is something for everyone. To help you get started, here are some things that you can do by season:

Autumn (Apr-May)
Patagonia – sightseeing, especially in the north part
Northwest – trekking, horse riding
Northeast – visiting Iguassu Falls

Winter (Jun-Aug)
North Patagonia/Mendoza – skiing
Northeast – Iguassu Falls
Northeast – visit the subtropical forest (yungas)

Spring (Sep-Nov)
Buenos Aires – the most beautiful season, especially in November with the jacarandas in blossom
Patagonia – The whales come to Peninsula Valdes
Cuyo – great weather to visit the vineyards and taste the wine
Pampas – Visit the estancias and taste great barbecues (asados)

Summer (Jan-Feb)
Patagonia – trekking, horse riding, sightseeing in general, fishing
Parana River – fishing
Beaches – do nothing
Andes – trekking, alpinism, horse riding
Cordoba – enjoying the hill country

The best time to save money

Like every other country Argentina too has parts of the year that are more or less crowded and more or less expensive. If you would like to save money than try to avoid high season (Dec-Feb and Jul-Aug). Also, try not coming in Argentina during the holiday cause prices goes up. If you want to enjoy in your vacation for a lower price than I recommend you to come during the low season (September, April and June). Dont worry; weather is good during the low season too.

Final words

Ok, you know the important things. Now just fix the rest, like your accommodation and transport and youre done.

I wish you a nice and safe trip to Argentina, and a pleasant time staying there.