10 Best Places to Visit in Latin America

The best places to visit in Latin America include Machu Picchu, Patagonia and the Perito Moreno glacier, the beaches and Carnival of Rio, colonial Havana, Mexico’s Riviera Maya, and wildlife in Costa Rica and the Galapagos. Here are 10 of the best, with the season for each.

1. Machu Picchu, Peru

Best months: Apr–Jun · 17–21°C days · dry (ERA5 climate data)

The Inca citadel on its Andean saddle, reached by the Inca Trail or the train from Cusco. Dry season runs May to September; permits sell out months ahead.

2. Patagonia, Chile & Argentina

Best months: Sep–Nov · 13–21°C days · some rain (ERA5 climate data)

Granite towers, ice fields and wind-scoured steppe — the W Trek in Torres del Paine is the continent’s signature hike. Go December to February.

3. The Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

Best months: Sep–Nov · 13–21°C days · some rain (ERA5 climate data)

One of the few advancing glaciers on earth, calving house-sized ice into the lake below, with walkways right up to the face.

4. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Best months: May–Jul · 19–25°C days · some rain (ERA5 climate data)

Beaches, granite peaks and Carnival — Copacabana and Ipanema below Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer. Best December to March.

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5. Havana, Cuba

Best months: Dec–Feb · 19–27°C days · some rain (ERA5 climate data)

Classic cars, crumbling colonial grandeur and live son in every bar — a city genuinely unlike anywhere else.

6. The Riviera Maya, Mexico

Best months: Dec–Feb · 7–23°C days · dry (ERA5 climate data)

Caribbean sand, cenotes and Mayan ruins along the Yucatan, with the world’s second-largest reef just offshore.

7. Costa Rica

Best months: Jan–Mar · 16–26°C days · dry (ERA5 climate data)

Rainforest, volcanoes and two coastlines packed into a small, easy country — the region’s best all-round adventure destination.

8. The Galapagos, Ecuador

Best months: Jul–Sep · 7–19°C days · some rain (ERA5 climate data)

Wildlife with no fear of people — giant tortoises, marine iguanas and blue-footed boobies across a volcanic archipelago.

9. The Atacama Desert, Chile

Best months: Nov–Jan · 14–30°C days · dry (ERA5 climate data)

The driest place on earth: salt flats, geysers and the clearest night skies anywhere for stargazing.

10. Iguazu Falls, Argentina & Brazil

Best months: Sep–Nov · 13–21°C days · some rain (ERA5 climate data)

Two hundred and seventy cascades thundering through subtropical rainforest on the border — best seen from both sides.