Non-motoring > Southern Hemisphere for winter ? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: legacylad Replies: 6

 Southern Hemisphere for winter ? - legacylad
The past few years I’ve spent Feb & March in Spain, but last year experienced the wettest March since 1957. Decided not to bother this year, instead heading out last minute for the odd week subject to favourable weather.

Friends out there at the moment have had two very cold damp weeks, although it’s currently warm & sunny, but tha forecast isn’t looking good.

Has anyone any experience or recommendations of spending a month touring down south ? Years ago I was fortunate to bum around Oz and NZ but now fancy S America...not a hugely expensive U.K. organised trip, nor a budget pack a rucsac and wing it on a tight budget trip.
Thought I’d discover somewhere new before old age and poverty prevents so doing.
 Southern Hemisphere for winter ? - CGNorwich
Sounds like fun but My first reaction would be that it would be a whole different ball game in terms of cost and security. Travel and health insurance would be expensive as would things like car hire, and flights, both external and internal. What country are you thinking of? Spain is a modern well ordered Western state just a budget flight away



 Southern Hemisphere for winter ? - Zero
but now fancy S America...not
>> a hugely expensive U.K. organised trip, nor a budget pack a rucsac and wing it
>> on a tight budget trip.

Depends on what you mean by "South America" As a whole its a HUGE place. Expensive to get to, difficult to travel round, littered with hostile & dangerous places, to get the weather you want you would need to target an area(s)

You'r a bit too old for it frankly.

Friend of mine last year did several months island hopping down the Adriatic, he said that was relatively cheap, easy to arrange and fantastic experience.
 Southern Hemisphere for winter ? - legacylad

>> You'r a bit too old for it frankly.

Cheek.

Not too long ago I went on a small group exploratory trip based around the Cordillera Vilcabamba, Peru. Admittedly a semi organised trip, but off the beaten track and for 10 days we met no other ‘foreigners ‘. Lived under canvas...which I’m used to.

I also had a trip around Argentina with a gf...made our own way around for several weeks in the 1990s.

Quite fancy discovering Patagonia and Chile...I expect the former would have to be on an organised tour, which is ok. What I want to avoid are organised tours from the U.K....I like meeting different nationalities. My best trips have always involved ‘local’ tour companies....on a 3 week Nepal trip we did our own hiring of cook, sardar, porters etc and had a fantastic trip.
I’ve done similar on a few occasions on long haul trips.

I’ll check out local companies rather than the (expensive) usual U.K. based ones, which normally only offer 2 or 3 week jaunts.
 Southern Hemisphere for winter ? - Ted

I believe East Borneo is very safe and pleasant.

Sorry, ruddy typos...that should read Eastbourne !

Ted
 Southern Hemisphere for winter ? - Runfer D'Hills
I spent a lot of time in South America 30 odd years ago over a six year period. Mostly in Brazil where I was working.
As others have warned, it can be (very) dodgy on occasion, but when it’s not, it’s a fascinating part of the world, mostly great people, super cheap by European standards and well worth a visit. Don’t expect a lot of people to be able to speak English outside of the major conurbations. Portuguese and slightly disturbingly, German works in Brazil, Spanish of course in most of the rest.
I found that it was wise to sort of blend in, wear locally produced clothing etc especially if off the beaten track. I’m quite swarthy skinned anyway if I’ve been in the sun and rather than hiring cars I just kept an old local one and an old motorbike to use when I was there. If you keep your wits about you it’s no problem really and a wonderful place to experience.

As I mentioned before, you don’t need much money to live well, but just don’t make it obvious that you have some. ;-)

AKA - yeah do it !
 Southern Hemisphere for winter ? - slowdown avenue
did a month in peru and boliva, maybe 12 years ago. mid december to mid jan. just avoiding the hottest prices for xmas. the weather is great in peru all year round. used cheap b and b. couldnt spend all my money . every thing cheap. great weather . great memories.brilliant. used the word amazing ,over and over. never felt in any danger. go for it. fool not to
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