Planning a 2-Year Trip to Latin America

You could be going on a weekend break to Paris, a 2 week all-inclusive beach holiday to Spain, or spending a year backpacking India. Whatever type of trip you go on, people always ask you the same question: ‘What are you planning to do?‘

I have always been a planner. When I went to Egypt for 2 weeks I had every single day planned out. When I went to the Balkans for 1 month, I knew exactly where I would be and what I would be doing before I left the airport. I have always tried to plan things as thoroughly as possible. But in that trip to the Balkans, my plans had to change. It seems stupid now that I didn’t think that plans could change, but they can, and they do.

So, when people ask me what I have planned for my trip to Latin America, I can honestly say, I don’t really have one.

Aside from the fact that planning a trip this big would take me absolutely ages, I want to arrive in Mexico City with endless possibilities. I want this trip to be as freeing as possible. And a plan would ruin that.

However, that isn’t to say I’ve done no thinking whatsoever. That would be an equally stupid move. So here are some of the things I have been thinking about to have the best trip I can have.

1. Where am I planning to go?

I’m going to be travelling through Latin America. That means basically everywhere between Mexico and Patagonia. As I’m sure you’re aware, that’s a pretty large amount of space to cover. But luckily, in the 1800’s some Europeans divided that space into various countries. They European conquistadors didn’t do a whole lot of good but that makes my life easier.

My first task was to choose which countries I wanted to go to. That was pretty easy for me. Ideally I would visit them all, but I’m aware that some of the countries can be very unstable. So as things progress I will be avoiding some for safety reasons.

Within those countries, I knew there would be classic tourist things to go and see, so I made a list of all of those (using my fave travel blog The Broke Backpacker). Whilst some of them will be ridiculously busy and expensive, they are popular for a reason. Aside from those, I have not done any research into any other places. Here’s my thinking …

It will be so easy to get recommendations from fellow travellers and locals when i’m actually on the ground. My main source of information will come from the hostels I’ll be staying in. If someone mentions a place that sounds exciting, I’ll just head there and see what all the fuss is about.

Should be simple!

2. Where will I Sleep?

This one is easy. Hostels. They are cheap, fun and the perfect place to meet fellow travellers.

The beauty of hostel life is, a lot of the time you can just rock up to one and book a bed. I won’t need to plan in advance which days I will be in which towns. I can just turn up on any given day, and find a bed to sleep in.

Usually, I do like to book my bed one day in advance just in case I arrive to a town and there are no beds. So what I do is, before I get on the bus, or train, or plane, or whatever mode of transport, I take a look on hostelworld and book a night in a nice looking hostel.

Again, should be simple!

3. How will I get around?

Transport can be a tricky one. In most developing countries, there is no point planning transport in advance. That is just because the public transport is so unreliable. So the best way, which I have tested out, is to just see what happens. Ask someone at the hostel, walk to the station and ask a driver, ask locals on the street. This is almost always a foolproof plan.

Whichever mode of transport I end up taking will be decided when I want to leave a town. I’m sure buses will be the best form of transport across Latin America, but who knows.

This may not be quite as simple, but as with everything, it’ll work out fine in the end.

Off I go

That’s pretty much it to be honest. I haven’t done any other planning / thinking outside of the things I have just described. So the only thing that’s next is to just go.