By Constance Abad — Founder and director of Qwerty Travel
When someone asks us how we organise a three-week trip to South America, they almost always expect us to start talking about destinations.
We start by talking about energy.
Not because it’s an abstract concept. But because after designing dozens of itineraries across the continent, it’s the variable that most determines whether a trip ends up being extraordinary or merely correct. Choosing between Rio de Janeiro, Iguazú, Buenos Aires, Patagonia or Machu Picchu is usually the straightforward part. The complex part is deciding how much time each place deserves, in what order to visit them, and how much movement a 21-day trip can absorb before the accumulation of transfers starts to erode the experience.
This is what we have learned.
When someone contacts us to organise a South America trip, the conversation rarely starts with a map. There are other things we need to understand first.
Because two people with exactly 21 days available can need completely different itineraries. Some travellers love changing destinations every two nights. Others need to settle into a place for at least four days before they feel they’ve really been there. Neither approach is better than the other. What matters is building a route that fits the person who is going to live it, not what someone imagines they should do.
It’s the mistake we see most often. And it’s understandable. Many travellers who contact us have already been researching for some time. They arrive with a carefully built list — Rio, Iguazú, Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Atacama, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Cartagena, Galápagos — and the conversation revolves around how to fit all of them into 21 days.
The problem is that every destination added to an itinerary doesn’t just consume days on the calendar. It consumes something that doesn’t appear on any map: energy.
There comes a point where the trip stops being about experiencing places and becomes about moving between them. That’s why a large part of our work involves removing destinations, not adding them. That conversation, though it’s the most uncomfortable one, is usually the most useful.
Over the years we have identified five elements that appear, without exception, in every itinerary that has worked well.
In three weeks we typically work with between four and six main stages. More is possible, but for most profiles, more than six stages starts to compromise the quality of the experience at each one.
It’s the most overlooked variable in itineraries designed without experience of the continent. Cusco sits at approximately 3,400 metres above sea level. Machu Picchu at 2,430 metres. Flying in directly from Europe or from Buenos Aires and attempting to hike the following day is one of the most common causes of discomfort for first-time travellers.
In itineraries that include Peru, we recommend spending at least 48 hours in Lima before ascending to the Andean zone — giving the body time to adjust gradually.
A three-hour domestic flight doesn’t consume three hours of travel. When you add the airport transfer, check-in, boarding, waits and the transfer to the hotel on arrival, that flight consumes between eight and ten hours of usable day. In a 21-day trip, the real cost of each internal flight needs to be factored in from the start.
The rhythm of experience is what prevents a trip from becoming exhausting or monotonous. After several days in a major city, the body welcomes open spaces. After days of intense nature, a city brings back stimulus and variety. When this is managed well, the traveller arrives at each new stage wanting to be there.
Probably the hardest variable to quantify and the one that most influences the final result. A well-paced itinerary shows because the traveller stops thinking about logistics and simply lives the trip. When the pace fails, everything else suffers — even if the destinations are extraordinary.
Something that consistently surprises travellers when we work with them is discovering that the same destinations can produce completely different experiences depending on the order in which they’re visited.
When we design a route we don’t only think about the destinations. We think about how each stage prepares the next one. What state the traveller arrives in at each place. And what memory remains from each experience when they’re back home. That’s precisely where the difference lies between a correct itinerary and one that stays with you for years.
To illustrate this, we take the most common profile we see: a couple between 40 and 55, experienced travellers within Europe, visiting South America for the first time with 21 real days available from when they leave to when they return.
One of the combinations that has consistently produced the best results with this profile is:
Sample itinerary — first trip, 21 days
Not because it’s a formula we repeat. But because it maintains a balance that is very difficult to achieve: there is nature, there are cities, there is gastronomy, there is culture, there is historical heritage — and the pace remains manageable for two people who work and want to come back rested.
Every modification to this base framework — adding Patagonia, extending Buenos Aires, incorporating the Sacred Valley — has concrete implications for the rest of the itinerary that we evaluate carefully before proposing any change.
This is usually the most difficult conversation to have. Nobody wants to give up places they have been imagining for months. But in a first three-week trip, adding Patagonia to a route that already includes Brazil, Argentina and Peru almost always harms the overall result.
The same applies to the Galápagos, the Atacama or Colombia. They are extraordinary destinations. Precisely for that reason, they deserve time. Chilean Patagonia requires a minimum of four or five days to even introduce Torres del Paine properly. The Galápagos have their own flight from Quito and their own internal logic. When they can’t have the time they deserve, we prefer to leave them for a second trip rather than turn them into a 36-hour stopover.
After years of designing routes, we’ve learned to recognise the indicators that an itinerary is going to work.
When all of this comes together, something happens that is the best indicator of all: the traveller stops thinking about logistics and simply lives the trip.
We don’t work with standard routes that we adapt to each person. Every itinerary starts from scratch, from a detailed conversation.
Some travellers prioritise gastronomy. Others look for nature. Some travel to photograph. Others want exceptional hotels, or experiences they can share with their children. Some want a guide at every stage; others prefer complete freedom with only the accommodation arranged.
Our work is to translate those priorities into a coherent route, with real timings, verified flights and accommodation that fits the profile. South America offers an enormous number of possibilities. Precisely for that reason, designing it well matters so much. The best trips don’t come from a list of destinations. They come from understanding how those destinations connect with each other — and who is going to live them.
Constance Abad — Founder and director of Qwerty Travel
She has spent over fifteen years designing tailor-made trips across South America, working directly with local operators and guides in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. She builds itineraries from first-hand knowledge of access routes, seasons and real on-the-ground conditions. She has designed routes for over four hundred travellers — from honeymoon couples to families with children and groups of friends with very different profiles.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/constance-abad
Between three and four countries allows a comfortable pace. Within that range it's possible to go deeper into each destination without flights and transfers dominating the calendar. Five countries in 21 days is possible, but almost always means sacrificing quality of experience in at least one of them.
When an itinerary exceeds two internal flights per week, we review whether each one genuinely adds value. Every flight consumes between eight and ten hours of usable day when transfers and waiting time are included. In a 21-day trip, that has a concrete impact on the time available at each destination.
Yes — and it's one of the things most often ignored when people plan independently. Cusco is at 3,400 metres altitude. We recommend spending at least 48 hours in Lima (at sea level) before travelling to the Andean zone. Many travellers who skip this step experience altitude sickness symptoms — headache, fatigue, nausea — that affect their first days in Peru.
It depends on the specific itinerary, but in most routes with a transatlantic entry from Europe, starting in Brazil and ending in Peru makes more logistical and narrative sense. Finishing the trip at Machu Picchu also tends to have a stronger emotional impact than visiting it in the first days, before the traveller has had time to connect with the continent.
Rarely. Patagonia is one of the most extraordinary destinations in the world, but it requires time. To make even a proper introduction to Torres del Paine from Puerto Natales, you need between four and five days minimum. If the itinerary already includes Brazil, Argentina and Peru, adding Patagonia turns it into a window-display visit. Our usual recommendation is to leave it for a second trip focused on the Southern Cone.
Yes, especially if the trip is limited to one or two countries with solid tourist infrastructure. The more countries, flights and regions you combine, the more complex the planning becomes and the greater the impact of a design error. In three-week itineraries with four or more destinations, the difference between a well-designed route and an improvised one is usually significant.
Every trip starts with a detailed conversation: what you want to see, when you’re travelling and at what pace. From there, we put together the itinerary that fits best — no standard routes, no pre-packaged tours.
First consultation, no commitment: we’ll tell you exactly what you will — and won’t — see based on your dates and travel profile.
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