Asia vs Latin America
Replies: 2 - Last Post: Sep 20, 2012 5:39 PM Last Post By: mikechurm82
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Asia vs Latin America
Hello,My girlfriend and I went travelling for 5 months through Southeast-Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) about two years ago and we loved it. Ever since we got back we want to go travelling again.
We consider leaving in about a year for 6-9 months (not sure yet) but we don't really agree on our destination(s).
- My girlfriend wants to visit Latin America and has a preference for Central America.
- I consider combining parts of Latin America with parts of Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar all very much appeal to me).
- We agree on definitely going to Mexico and Cuba.
The things I loved about Southeast-Asia were the culture, the food but also the good, laid back life (just to make sure: I'm not really the party kind of guy). For some reason I have the feeling that Central and South America can't match up to Asia for those parts and that's why I want to divide our trip in e.g. 6 months Central and South America and 3 months Asia.
1) Is it correct to assume Latin America isn't the 'backpacking paradise' (culture, food, way of life) Southeast-Asia is? (This question is mainly aimed at people who visited both parts)
2) We loved the slow pace of travelling so what's feasible within let's say 6 months Latin America? Is it possible to start in Mexico and end up in Colombia across land (Cuba included, as an exception of course)? We don't want to 'hop around' countries by airplane with the risk of spending too much money, travelling too much and seeing too few. Or would you recommend 9 months for this trip?
3) We intentionally left out most of South America (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia,...) but are there good reasons to focus on this part instead of Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala,...)? We think it could be too much for one travel and we thought Peru for instance can easily be visited as a single three or four weeks vacation. We're also afraid it'll cost more than Central America.
Or would you recommend a full nine month travel through Central AND South America?
I realize this question may not be very well defined but I love to hear any suggestion or remark.
Advice on budget and other practicalities is also warmly appreciated.
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1) Is it correct to assume Latin America isn't the 'backpacking paradise' (culture, food, way of life) Southeast-Asia is?I've not only visited both, but lived in both. I prefer SE Asia BY FAR. Latin America has its own culture, food, etc. but, for me, SE Asia is better. As far as backpacking goes, there are some hostels, but also plenty of cheap hotels.
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Solohobo has pretty much given you all the information you need so I needn't add to that but I'll give you a personal account of my experience if that will help your decision.We're currently in the middle of doing Central and South America, Baja California to Rio, and we have a window of around 8 months for this section of our trip. When we left we thought we had a pretty short time period, but we've met so many people who are doing the same trip in anything from 3 months upwards, so fear not, you have plenty of time to do both Central and South.
We spent 6 months in South East Asia on our last trip and like you we absolutely fell in love with the place, and as good as Latin America is I think we'll always prefer SEA.
The majority of this trip is all within the same area and as good as it is to get deeper into one particular region I do miss the refreshing changes you get from a RTW trip when moving from region to region.
If you heart lies with seeing more of Asia then there's always a danger that you won't get fully into the trip should you stay in Latin America so I'd probably advise to break it up, pick either Central or South America and a segment of Asia and enjoy a bit of both.
There is one slight complication in doing this though, the cost of flights. Where are you flying from and back to? Getting from Latin America to anywhere bar the States and (depending which L.A country you fly from) Europe, costs can be staggering. We tried to find a one way flight from South America to New Zealand and it was the equivalent of a RTW ticket, so I'd look into your costs before making a decision.
Mike
