SA VacationsReviews of savacations.com

Martha at South American Vacations put together an amazing trip to Chili and Argentina for my husband and I. We do a lot of traveling and this was by far the easier traveling experience for us. Booking all our flights, hotels and tours with South American Vacations turned out perfect. Martha knew the best locations and the best variety of tours that would be good for what we wanted out of our trip. I would highly recommend this travel company.

With the assistance of South American Vacations, I planned a special trip to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu with my son for his senior year in high school. Unfortunately, the trip was planned for March 2020, just as the world closed down for the Covid pandemic. Alan and Martha were unbelievably helpful. They got us refunds for what was refundable and got us credits for what was not. Two years later, in the spring of 2022, they graciously rebooked the Machu Picchu portion for us, but we had decided to abandon the idea of post-pandemic cruising. They found a way for my daughter and a friend to use our credit to visit the Galapagos islands. Once again, for the Spring of 2023, they rose to the occasion and planned the perfect trip for them. In all, they planned THREE vacations for us, and never asked for an extra dime. I cannot thank them enough. What grace, generosity of spirit and ingenuity! I cannot recommend them strongly enough!!

Our Patagonia trip was fantastic. First, we needed (as always) more time. I wish we would have had 4 full days in Buenos Aires. The location in Recoleta was perfect and the Westin was fine. The bus tour was only OK. Too much driving and not enough stopping at some of the great spots. Our best day was spent walking and in the cemetery that was amazing. I had heard so many good things about the Bariloche area. It was beautiful but our days there were jammed with people and traffic. The bus tours were greatly delayed in heavy traffic and we had little time to see any of the sights. The boat trips also had long bus travel but the boat stops and short walks were very nice. The long travel day with 4 buses and 3 boats from Bariloche to Puerto Varas turned out to be wonderful. Great guides and the entire day was a remarkable adventure crossing the border into Chile. Puerto Varas/Puerto Montt/Chiloe was fine on our own and the hotel was nice. The town tours were worthless and skipped almost all of the major sites that we enjoyed walking to. Fortunately, our guide for Chiloe was fantastic. He actually asked us what we wanted to do so we skipped what was described and took a boat to see penguins and then had lunch as scheduled - excellent day. Torres del Paine was just like our dreams. The hotel was wonderful and all of the day activities whether hiking, riding, or boating exceeded our expectations. The guides were some of the best we have ever seen and everything was beautiful beyond belief. We wish we could have had another 2-3 days there - 5 were not enough. Punta Arenas was a fun, walkable town on our own. The Australis trip was amazing. We had never been on a cruise and this was amazing every single day. The sights were unbelievable and the guides, programs, food and drink, and meeting others from around the world were highlights of the trip. We made it to Cape Horn and were able to spend the (stormy and windy) day on the island seeing all of the sights. We felt like little children living a dream. All of your arrangements and the transfers were almost perfect. This is usually the stressful part of travel but all of the transfers were on time and, except for one, we had a text confirmation the night before so communication was perfect. In retrospect 2 more days in Buenos Aires, 3 more days at Torres del Paine, and skipping Bariloche completely would have made the trip better. Bariloche is a back-packers paradise but it cannot be seen on a bus and the town itself is a touristy dump. Our opinion... Thanks for all of your help. It was the trip of a lifetime.

We recently took a trip to Patagonia & nearby towns, Iguazu Fall and Brazil and were very impressed with SA Vacations and Martha who put together the itinerary for us. Since the trip was over 3 weeks long with numerous international and internal flights and hotel stays and tours, we were concerned at first but Martha did an excellent job in organizing the trip. We were met by courteous and professional guides at various airports who drove us to our hotels and picked us up for excellent tours. Everything was executed flawlessly and we were very impressed with Martha and the company. Since this was the first time we used SA Vacations, we had lot of questions for Martha and she answered them patiently and thoroughly. We also had to make changes during the planning stage and she was able to modify the trip to fit our needs promptly, thanks to their extensive knowledge and experience on South America. SA vacations and Martha have far exceeded our expectation and we’ll definitely use the company again for our next trip to Galapagos and Amazon. We highly recommend this company!

On short notice, Martha was able to put together a dream trip all around Argentina. I took 6 different flights just inside Argentina, and every connection, every driver, and every hotel was perfect. I changed my mind multiple times during the booking process, and Martha was able to work around my new wish list. Can't recommend South American Vacations enough!

Fantastic trip! Galapagos has always seemed like an unreachable destination that you only get to hear in the history books. South American Vacations turned that dream into a reality for us and with absolutely no complications or speed bumps along the way! Everything was perfectly executed - from booking us great airfare tickets for a more than reasonable price, offering a full-packed itinerary including a city tour of Quito and providing us with great accommodations for the entire trip including our hotel in Quito and the cruise line we ended up going with to the Galapagos which was a small, intimate but luxury cruse ship, but still for a fair price since the cruises in the Galapagos account for most of the cost for the trip. The cruise was clean, staff was friendly, and the excursions were nothing short of amazing. I highly recommend South American Vacations if you are planing to vacation in Ecuador/Galapagos. Thank you for an epic experience!

My husband and I, with a family friend, traveled to Galapogos and Rapa Nui [Easter Island], with stops in Quito and Santiago. The whole trip was absolutely remarkable! We were amazed by the wildlife and scenery in the Galapogos and enthralled with the history and ancient stones/heads on Rapa Nui [Easter Island]... and Quito and Santiago were bonus sites! I can't say enough. The trip was extremely well planned and organized. The guides were knowledgeable and from the places in which they worked - giving local perspectives. The accommodations were excellent. I don't have anything bad to say. It was just an incredible trip - a quite remarkable journey. I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to see both sites!!

On short notice, South America Tours setup a pre-cruise trip for March 1-4, 2023 in/near the Panama rainforest near Panama City, Panama. Our Norwegian cruise departed Colon, Panama on March 4. South American Tours worked with Panama Trails who picked us up at the airport gate where we received priority exit thru customs which was extremely nice and took us to our rainforest hotel and checked-in without a hitch. Panama Trails drivers picked us up each day on-time and took us to our tour each of the next two days. We toured the canal on the lake one day and using a long-canoe style boat we visited the Embera Quera tribe in the rainforest. We made arrangements and were transported to the cruise ship docks in Colon. We had a great Panama experience. We have previously used South American Vacations to coordinate our 10-day Galapagos trip and 3-week Peru trip in 2018, and highly recommend them and we will continue to use them as we recommend them to our friends and other travelers.