Computing the optimal road trip across South America

By popular request, I've created another follow-up to my posts about computing optimal road trips across the U.S. and Europe. This time, I made an optimal road trip around South America. If you'd like to get into the nitty-gritty of how these road trips are created, check out the first post about the U.S. road trip.

South America is yet another massive and diverse continent, so again there's no way I'll be able to pick a series of stops that will please everyone. However, by combining recommendations from TripAdvisor and Huffington Post, I was able to create a trip with a nice mix between beautiful outdoor sights and lively cities across the entire South American continent. Below is the optimized route between those stops.

This trip ended up mostly following along the coastline of South America, covering roughly 18,148 miles (29,206 km) of driving, ferrying, and flying. You should plan to spend 3 or more months on this trip if you want to really enjoy it.

Google Maps isn't routing between Colombia and its neighboring countries, so I drew direct lines between Quito <--> Bogota & Santa Marta <--> Isla Margarita that may need to be taken by plane instead. Your best bet with this trip is to start at Isla Margarita, Venezuela and follow the route south from there.

Here's the full list of stops in order:

1. Isla Margarita, Venezuela
2. Angel Falls, Venezuela
3. Jericoacoara, Brazil
4. Fortaleza, Brazil
5. Natal, Brazil
6. Salvador, Brazil
7. Trancoso, Brazil
8. Belo Horizonte, Brazil
9. Buzios, Brazil
10. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11. Sao Paulo, Brazil
12. Curitiba, Brazil
13. Florianopolis, Brazil
14. Gramado, Brazil
15. Punta del Este, Uruguay
16. Asuncion, Paraguay
17. Buenos Aires, Argentina
18. Torres del Paine, Chile
19. El Calafate, Argentina
20. San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
21. Santa Cruz, Chile
22. Santiago, Chile
23. Vina del Mar, Chile
24. San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
25. Nuestra Senora de La Paz, Bolivia
26. Lake Titicaca, Bolivia/Peru
27. Arequipa, Peru
28. Urubamba, Peru
29. Cusco, Peru
30. Lima, Peru
31. Mancora, Peru
32. Quito, Ecuador
33. Bogota, Colombia
34. Cartagena, Colombia
35. Santa Marta, Colombia
36. Taganga, Colombia

Make your own road trip

If you'd like to customize your own road trip, I've released the Python code I used in this project with an open source license and instructions for how to optimize your custom road trip. You can find the code here.

Happy exploring!