Whether you are heading to hike the base of Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, exploring the Martian-like landscape of the Atacama, or basking in the glow of wine country, Santiago is an inevitable entry or exit point for your adventure. So what should a traveler do in Santiago, Chile in 48 hours?
Colombia is filled with diverse regions, and packed with opportunities for adventure and experiencing incredible natural and cultural wonders. When work brought two friends to Medellin, they decided to extend their trip and have their husbands join them to uncover more of the country’s gems and create their very own adventure in Colombia.
As with most beginnings to an amazing adventure, this custom Antarctica and Patagonia exploration for two couples began with that tantalizing question: “What if we…?” After having to postpone their trip during Covid, Joe, Bev, Mike, and Claudia wrote to their Knowmad Operations Specialist with the email subject line starting out with “What If,” and ending in them asking what it would take to re-book their Patagonia trip to include Antarctica as well.
We here at Knowmad Adventures pride ourselves on crafting awe-inspiring South American adventures, helping folks be travelers rather than tourists. Our team of knowledgeable Trip Specialists make creating your own authentic and innovative trip stress-free, using your tastes and interests as a compass to create a unique, custom itinerary.
And as the new year begins to take hold, we’d like to take a moment and look back at some of those incredible adventures Knowmad travelers experienced in 2023; from island hopping in the Galapagos to hiking into the heart of Patagonia, and everything in between. See what our returning travelers have to say about their trips, and reach out to one of our Trip Specialists today to plan your own South American adventure!
A huge congratulations to our Founder, Jordan Harvey, for being named one of Travel & Leisure’s A-List Travel Advisors for the 12th year in a row! It wasn’t just last year’s adventures that got Jordan this honor, but years of perfecting travel in South America alongside an incredible team. Without our core group of knowledgeable and helpful Travel Specialists, it wouldn’t have been possible, and of course, collaborating with our amazing travelers always leads us to craft better and better trips. Check out his feature from Travel & Leisure here, and reach out to one of our amazing Trip Specialists today to plan your own South American adventure!
It’s time for everyone’s favorite newsletter of the year, the Knowmad Annual Photo Contest! So many travelers have returned from their 2023 custom adventures in South America with incredible stories and photos to share and inspire. We’ve categorized the photos into a wide variety of topics to give you a little taste of it all. From breathtaking landscapes, to heartwarming and hilarious traveler portraits, to jaw dropping encounters with local fauna, Knowmad travelers have experienced it all this year. All category winners will receive Knowmad gear and the overall Knowmad Adventures Grand Prize Winner will win a three day stay at Hacienda Zuleta.
Scroll down to see the results and ignite your wanderlust…
Buenos Aires is one of the most charming cities in South America and is home to incredible architecture, art, culture, wines, and food. While the “highlights” are essential to understanding this vast city, there are so many other special experiences and things to do in Buenos Aires to get an in-depth view of the city. Here are ten ideas for unique things to do in Buenos Aires, all recommendations from the experts on our Knowmad team.
Just thirty miles away from Buenos Aires, Uruguay is a country that often gets overlooked by travelers heading to South America. Without the name recognition of sites like Machu Picchu, the Galapagos, or Patagonia, the country ends up as a hazy gray spot on the map, perhaps known to exist but any other information about it still shrouded in mystery. Here at Knowmad Adventures, we strive to fill in those spots on the map for you and create lifelong memories in amazing destinations, even ones you may not know much about yet. Uruguay, being so close to the world-renowned metropolitan city of Buenos Aires, works wonderfully as an extension to a trip to Argentina, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks long.
Not one, but two Knowmad Trip Specialists have earned a spot on the Condé Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialists list! A big congrats to Jordan Harvey and Renee Davies for their continued excellence. See their travel planning profiles to find out why Knowmad travelers describe our Trip Specialists like this, “I’m not sure which metaphor to use to describe your travel knowledge – you are like a chef or a magician or an artist in the way your mind works.”
A relaxing, enjoyable stay in Chilean vineyards can turn an excellent trip into something extraordinary. In my 20 years in Chile – many spent working in the travel industry – I’ve had the opportunity to explore vineyards from north to south, and one winery hotel truly stands apart: The Clos Apalta Residence.
What makes Apalta’s Residence stand out is how it combines the beauty of the Chilean countryside with excellence in winemaking and cuisine as well as its spacious, comfortable, and well-thought-out accommodations, which, altogether, make for an unforgettable experience. It’s not the first result that Google pulls up, but if you are coming to Chile and love great food and wine, you have to consider it.
At Knowmad, we’ve been including stays in the original casitas at this winery hotel for years. But with the addition of six spacious villas to build on its offer, on my recent visit, I set out with the mission to experience these new spaces and to update our understanding of how to work this into our custom trips to Chile.
An up-and-coming destination in South America, Colombia is still relatively unknown and unexplored by international travelers. That being said, it has so much to offer visitors:
Connect here with a Knowmad Adventures Trip Specialist to help you create a custom travel experience throughout Colombia that is as unique and authentic as you are.
The Knowmad 2024 Photo Contest Winners are in! This past year was full of incredible stories and images from our Knowmad travelers. The pictures and comments that were sent in inspire us to keep exploring. Thanks to all who shared their impressive pictures throughout the last year.
To give you a little taste of it all, the winners have been broken down into 7 different categories; adventure, culture, landscape, cityscape, portrait, flora, and fauna. All category winners will receive Knowmad gear, and the overall Knowmad Adventures Grand Prize Winner gets a 2-night/ 3-day stay at Hacienda Zuleta in Ecuador. Scroll down to see inspiring Knowmad traveler stories, from connecting with locals to jaw-dropping wildlife encounters, and find inspiration for your next South American adventure below.
Journey through the rugged and otherworldly terrain of Southern Bolivia, exploring lagoons, volcanoes and Uyuni salt flats before ending in the capital of La Paz, perched atop the Andes Mountains, stopping at the historical rich communities of Potosi and Sucre along the way. Ideal connection with Chile’s Atacama Desert or start and finish in La Paz.
Our trip was everything we dreamed it would be and more. Your group did a great job everywhere we went. We especially loved our guide Paula, and Explora was top notch too. All perfect.
By traveling alongside Knowmad you will be taking part in culturally and environmentally sustainable travel. You will be spreading the love, and the wealth. You will be doing Good Works. Learn more about Knowmad’s eco-travel efforts.
The Knowmad team put together the trip of a life time for us. Everything was perfect, from the guides to the accommodations to the activities, and your extensive knowledge of the area and personal relationships with the people we met in Chile were invaluable. We can’t recommend Knowmad highly enough.
After traveling to Chile two years ago with Knowmad Adventures there was no question as to who was going to help plan my trip to Peru! Thank you so much to Knowmad Adventures. The places they recommended, connections, and knowledge of these regions were impeccable. I highly recommend using Knowmad Adventures to plan your next trip to Peru or Chile!
Our trip was everything we dreamed it would be and more. Your group did a great job everywhere we went. We especially loved our guide Paula, and Explora was top notch too. All perfect.
Please don’t ever change the way you operate. You fulfill lifelong dreams and provide people with the chance to live what they thought could only be read about.
You put together a one-of-a-kind vacation for my group that I’ll long remember and enthusiastically recommend. I thank you and look forward, with much anticipation, to my next adventure with you.
We got back last night and I must say that the organization of the entire trip was AMAZING. We all loved Peru and thanks to Knowmad we even enjoyed it a lot more. Thanks a lot Jordan for everything as we had sooooo much fun. I’ll definitely recommend you to anybody that wants to experience Peru.
Journey through the rugged and otherworldly terrain of Southern Bolivia, exploring lagoons, volcanoes and Uyuni salt flats before ending in the capital of La Paz, perched atop the Andes Mountains, stopping at the historical rich communities of Potosi and Sucre along the way. Ideal connection with Chile’s Atacama Desert or start and finish in La Paz.
