cheap, Cheap???

Latin America extends from Mexico to Chile. You don't even give a clue where you are flying from since you hide behind the Thorn Tree World listing. How do you expect any help?

Yeah, hey please, people, take the moment to fill out your TT Profile: it can be of benefit to you in a case like this, plus, if you ask me (and you didn't), it just seems like the decent thing to do here on a forum where we're trying to honestly be of service to each other.

im sorry. i will fly from London. :)

We understand how many europeans are ashamed of their national origin..but it makes certain types of questions impossible to answer. For Mexico and Central America, flying to Cancun or Mexico City is usually cheapest. Often the cheapest of those will be routing through the US...Miami being the gateway city. From Mexico there is excellent bus service into Central America. Frequent and cheap bus service is the norm in Central American countries while first class buses will take you between the nations. There are no trains so don't ask. In South America... Peru may be your best bet. Don't base it just on cost. You people have a great deal of trouble understanding the distances involved. A cheap flight to Venezuela is no good if Chile is your goal. Peru is popular...hence relatively large number of flights. A plus is it's central Andean location so circle itineraries make sense. When checking for flights also look into flights via Spain.

If you have questions it helps to be specific about interests, budget and timeline. Way too many newbies come on here expecting to see Central and South America in a month. OH.. don't lie.

Hi, princess...here are three personal highlights from one trip to Mexico/Central America:

Mexico - San Christobal de los Casas, where the Zapatista rebels hail from - more big churches than you can shake a stick at - and not far away a Mayan town called San Juan Chamula, where the Mayan/Christian customs are both bizarre and on full display...

Guatemala - The ruins of Tikal, with ocellated turkeys running all over the place while coatimundis steal crackers from the backpacks of unsuspecting German tourists...

Belize - swimming with sharks, rays, and manatee on an offshore coral reef. (Downside - Belize City. Can you say "nasty"?)

Getting there is what will cost you mmoney. Once you arrive, it isn't expensive. I don't want to sound like I have any of the '-isms". That is racism, sexism, et cetera - but a 19 year old woman travelling alone in a pretty macho part of the world ought to keep her wits about her. I guess you know all that, so don't take it personally.

Have fun - hopefully you will parlay your experiences into a way to pay back that student loan.

Recently returned from Mexico--flew into Cancun as it's cheap. Mey lot of young Europeans who also flew into Cancun for same reason. I was al over from San Christobal to Chetamel and met a lot of Europeans headed to Belize, Guatemala, etc who were basically going to circle around and end back in Cancun.

Since June is the Off Season for Cancun I'd bet your best bet for a cheap flight is going to be Cancun. From there you can take excellent buses to all points South or you can stay in Mexico. I found buses to cost about $4 an hour in Mexico; about $1 an hour in Guatemala last year.

For what it is worth I talked to a guy from London who told me he could have flown to Argentina for a little more than he paid to fly to Cancun.