Jordan Harvey Named Travel & Leisure’s A-List Travel Advisor

Travel and Leisure Winner Travel and Leisure Knowmad Adventures

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!

Read Full Post

SIMPLY THE BEST: 2023 KNOWMAD PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

Award winning photos and travel quotes

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…

 

Read Full Post

Top Ten Unique Things to Do in Buenos Aires

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.

Read Full Post

Extend Your Argentina Trip With An Exploration of Uruguay

Three photo layout of best places to visit in Uruguay including Colonia, Uruguay, horseback riding and the coast.

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.

Read Full Post

Condé Nast Traveler Top Specialists

Knowmad team members working together to create an itinerary, pointing at a map, with a Condé Nast Traveler 2023 seal on the lower left.

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.”

Read Full Post

Knowmad Founders Adventure Series: All Things Brazil

It’s been thirteen years since Jordan and I founded Knowmad Adventures. We’ve spent years in South America, built an office and a team in Minneapolis, had babies, moved to the ski town of Telluride, weathered a pandemic, and are, just finally, getting into a travel routine that not only melds with our work and kids’ schedules, but brings us to out-of-this-world destinations, creating lifelong family memories and phenomenal recon missions for Knowmad trip ideas. Discover how adventure travel company founders explore: this year, we travel to Brazil.

Read Full Post

Parting Shots: An Inside Look at an Epic Antarctica Expedition

In the vast Antarctica wilderness, Ron and Russel cross off a significant milestone and discover word-defying beauty. These two are no strangers to Knowmad, they took their first trip with us in 2014 to Peru and have done three other trips since (including Antarctica). They’re fantastic writers and their kind, adventurous spirits are apparent in all the stories they’ve sent us after their trips. We caught up with them from their home in Connecticut after 31 days of adventure. Read their story below.

Read Full Post

Simply the Best: Knowmad Photo Contest Winners

We’ve brought it back after a two year pandemic hiatus; a travelers all-time favorite, the Annual Knowmad Photo Contest. It’s not only the striking images from our favorite South American destinations that keep us inspired, it’s the stories that come with them. Submissions span categories from landscape to wildlife to portrait and capture moments unequaled; the quiet puma in Patagonia’s wild, the sheepish smile of a local child, a rainforest orchid blooming brilliantly. All category winners will receive Knowmad gear and the overall Knowmad Adventures Grand Prize Winner wins a 2-night/3-day stay at Hacienda Zuleta in Ecuador.  Keep scrolling for the results!

Read Full Post

An Insider’s Guide and Review of Awasi Santa Catarina, Brazil

Awasi Santa Catarina Brazil

Since opening what have now become iconic lodges in Atacama and Patagonia, the Awasi lodges brand has made its name by offering extremely intimate lodges set in spectacular wilderness with privately-guided outings, along with Relais & Châteaux food and wine experiences. As a long-time partner of Knowmad, I jumped at the chance to be one of the first to visit and review their newest property set on a remote white-sand beach nestled amongst Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest, Awasi Santa Catarina.

Just a one-hour flight and another hour driving from São Paulo, at Santa Catarina you find a destination hidden away from any crowds, where adventure seekers and spa lovers alike can have a tailored experience of both Brazil’s coastline, and the surrounding rainforest.

Read Full Post

Property in Focus: A Whole New Tierra Atacama

Tierra Atacama Lodge

First Impressions

Have you ever walked into a hotel and felt instant relief and comfort, almost as if you were being welcomed into a friend’s home? That’s what it felt like to arrive at the recently renovated Tierra Atacama lodge earlier this year. I’m an Operations Specialist at Knowmad, and I was lucky enough to visit Tierra Atacama in June with my colleague and Knowmad Trip Specialist, Olivia. The level of warmth, comfort, and friendliness that we felt immediately upon arriving had us even more excited for our time at Tierra – not just because of the excursions we were about to do in the Atacama Desert, but because the property itself felt like an experience.

Read Full Post