Latin America · Five Countries
Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires to Santiago to Machu Picchu to Cartagena — Latin America without compromise, arranged through relationships that do not appear on any website.
About This Expedition
“Latin America is the continent that rewards those who resist the surface and insist on depth.”
Twenty days. Five countries. One continuous thread of wonder that moves from the sensuous rhythm of Rio de Janeiro to the vast silence of Patagonian wilderness, from the anachronistic grandeur of Buenos Aires to the sacred geometry of Machu Picchu, ending in the walled colonial splendour of Colombia's Caribbean coast.
This is Latin America as it was designed to be experienced — not as a checklist of UNESCO sites, but as a series of deeply personal encounters with the extraordinary. Every experience in this itinerary carries a story of access that ordinary travel simply cannot replicate.
We have been placing clients here for fifteen years. The relationships we hold — with the restaurateur whose table has a three-year waiting list, with the Belmond Sanctuary Lodge that holds one reservation per day before public access — are the foundation of everything.
What Is Included
Day by Day
Every day has been sequenced to create a natural rhythm — arriving rested, departing enriched, and never once conscious of the machinery moving beneath you.
“The best journeys are felt in the body before they are understood by the mind.”
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Belmond Copacabana Palace occupies the finest address on the finest beach in the world — its white façade unchanged since 1923, its pool the most famous in South America. A private helicopter circumnavigates the bay on Day 1: the Sugar Loaf, the Christ statue at eye level, the curve of Ipanema from the air. On Day 2, dinner at the private chef's table of a favela-born restaurateur whose tasting menu has a three-year waiting list — unless you are arriving with Martins Travel. Day 3 is at leisure: Ipanema at golden hour, a caipirinha at the bar where Jobim wrote The Girl from Ipanema, and an evening samba performance in Lapa for those who wish.
Belmond Copacabana Palace, Rio de JaneiroBuenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires receives you at the Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt — a French neoclassical palace on the Avenida Alvear, whose private art collection rivals the city's finest museums. A private session with a master tango teacher in a 1920s salon in San Telmo unfolds on Day 4's evening: not a tourist performance, but a lesson in the language of the dance from a woman whose mother danced at the Teatro Colón. Lunch at Don Julio on Day 5 — reserved, naturally — followed by the Recoleta Cemetery at dusk, guided by an architectural historian who explains why Argentines consider it the most beautiful building in the country. Day 6: the Tigre delta by private launch.
Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt, Buenos AiresSantiago & the Atacama, Chile
From Santiago's W Hotel — the city's most design-forward address, perched above the Vitacura district — a morning flight delivers you to San Pedro de Atacama, where the altitude is 2,400 metres and the sky is a shade of blue that has no equivalent at sea level. explora Atacama arranges a private stargazing session on a salt flat at 10pm, under an astronomy guide who has spent thirty years mapping this sky. The Milky Way casts shadows. A dawn horseback ride on Day 9 traverses a valley that has seen no rain in recorded human history — the silence is so complete you can hear your own heartbeat.
explora Atacama, San Pedro de AtacamaMachu Picchu, Peru
A private charter from Cusco — where you overnight at the Palacio del Inka to acclimatise — descends into Aguas Calientes at dawn. By arrangement with the Ministry of Culture, your party enters Machu Picchu at 5:45am, a full forty-five minutes before the public gates open. In that window, the sanctuary belongs entirely to you. Your archaeologist guide — a professor at the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad — walks the citadel in silence, allowing the stones to speak. By the time the first tourist buses arrive, you are already at breakfast on the terrace of the Belmond Sanctuary Lodge — the only property permitted to exist within the historic sanctuary itself.
Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, Machu PicchuPatagonia, Chile
explora Patagonia occupies the most remote position of any luxury property in South America — at the northern tip of Lake Pehoé, surrounded by the Torres del Paine massif on three sides and accessible only by private transfer from Punta Arenas. The architecture is deliberate in its simplicity; the landscape is not. Private treks to the base of the Torres, which glow orange at dawn and rose at sunset. A private catamaran through the grey glacier waters of Lake Grey. Fly-fishing in rivers that have never seen a commercial operation. On the final afternoon, a private hike to a mountain lake above the tree line, where condors with three-metre wingspans circle in the thermal above your head.
explora Patagonia, Torres del PaineCartagena, Colombia
The journey concludes in the warm amber light of Colombia's Caribbean coast, where the old walled city of Cartagena — built in 1533 and barely changed since — glows gold at 6pm. Casa San Agustín, a converted 16th-century colonial mansion within the walls, occupies the most intimate address in the city. On the first evening, a private dinner in its courtyard: bougainvillea overhead, candlelight, a musician playing vallenato in the corner of the colonnade. Day 19: the walled city on foot with a private historian who was born inside its walls and who knows which door leads to which family's private courtyard garden. Day 20 returns you to the world, rested, altered, and already planning the return.
Casa San Agustín, CartagenaWhere You Will Stay
Signature Property · Brazil
Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro
The grande dame of South American hospitality since 1923. The pool, the beach, the white neoclassical façade — icons of a city that understands pleasure better than anywhere else on earth.
Signature Property · Peru
Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary, Peru
The only hotel permitted to exist within the Machu Picchu historic sanctuary. Forty-five rooms. The most exclusive breakfast view on the planet. Early access to the citadel arranged exclusively through Martins.
Signature Property · Chile
Torres del Paine, Chilean Patagonia
The defining luxury property of South America's deep wilderness. explora's guides have spent entire careers in these mountains. Every excursion is private, adapted to ability and desire, and unlike anything offered anywhere else.
Private Enquiry
This itinerary is a point of departure, not a fixed schedule. We will adapt every element to your preferences, your travel party, and the season of travel. Submit your details and a Martins Travel advisor will respond personally within 24 hours.