Tour companies serving South America

Odysseys Unlimited does a great job. We have done their Peru and the Costa Rica tour and both were fantastic. We have also done 2 safaris with them, Alaska and Scandinavia. We are doing another safari with them in August and India and Nepal in November. We have always had very good experiences on their tours. The groups are small. You will need to tip the guide. Odysseys handles your luggage and stays in nice more upscale hotels. The food is always good. The price quoted will be with air included. They generally only offer economy or business class flights so we typically book our own. If you want to book your own air, ask for the land only price. We don’t use their travel insurance but book our own. Also if you book your own air you will more than likely have to get yourself from the airport to the first tour hotel as they usually only transfer those who have booked their air with them.

We have been on 8 tours with Trafalgar, 7 in Europe and 1 Australia/New Zealand. All have been fantastic. They also do South America, and Asia. Trafalgar owns several travel companies each of which provides differing levels of service/cost/targeted age.

we did an Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) tour to Peru last last year and it was amazing. OAT can be problematic administratively, but their tours have always been top notch (this was our 3rd OAT trip). Not as "hands-off" as Rick Steves tours, but still plenty of free time and choice, trip leader is local and they use lots of local guides. We have had them book our airfare, as it has been competitive with what we can book and you get transfers to hotel included that way.

"Rick Steves equivalent" in many other parts of the world is very hard to come by IMHO. I took a GAdventures tour of Ecuador and Peru (essentially two separate tours combined together, no longer a current offering on their list). It was a tour labeled a "National Geographic Journey" but not specifically sponsored by that organization. It was a relatively small group and went to the interesting places I wanted to see. Both guides (different person for each country) were very good, most accommodations ok (but not RS quaint/charming), quite decent food, mostly nice tourmates (though the RS light travel mantra did not apply to any of them - many, many heavy suitcases). GAdventures has a huge presence in Peru specifically. Be sure to note their tour styles, some cater specifically to the younger set (not me) and for solo travelers their single supplement was pretty steep (I did not enjoy my matched roommate - YMMV).

I also investigated using Intrepid for that particular trip - similar itineraries and costs. But I have no personal experience with that company.

I've done 3 Odysseys Unlimited tours, and will do more in future for non-Europe trips. Rick Steves is still my favorite, but OU does a good job and has small groups.

Gate 1’s Discovery Tours.

Although I've not been to Central or South America with them, I've done a lot of Road Scholar tours and mostly been happy with them. I would travel with them again. I've done a total of 13 programs with them - 8 in Europe, 5 specific activity ones in the US (birding, hiking and genealogy).

@Carol now retired, are tips included on Gate1 Discovery tours?

@ Mary and LIZ, thanks for the info on OU. I'd like to go on some trips to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and having a reliable tour operator is very helpful.

Thanks to all who have responded for your suggestions; I’ll buy the first round when our paths cross.

Kind regards,
Bob