Lima for 3 days and Cusco…..

Bogota and Medellin. 2 days in Bogota, 5 in Medellin with a day trip to Antioquia.

With just one week, I might stay farther north to minimize the travel time. Cartagena+beach would be fun.
Or, you could do valle sagrado and jungle in Perú (though that is swapping archaeological sites for city)

If you do Brazil, you can do Rio then either fly down to Iguaçu, go to Ilha Grande/Paraty or any of a number of other places. checks all the boxes.

Anonymous wrote:Argentina would be great. Buenos Aires for a few days and then head to Iguaza Falls.

This is OP - this itinerary is what my initial googling/research came up with, so I'm glad to hear multiple people mention it! We're definitely thinking something along those lines - just was wondering if there's something obvious I was missing

Anonymous wrote:Argentina would be great. Buenos Aires for a few days and then head to Iguaza Falls.

OP, I have done Buenos Aires and Iguazu. We also drove across to Montevideo, but that might be too much with the amount of time you have. It was a really wonderful trip. Iguazu is unbelievably beautiful.

She said in the OP:
- A destination that would include 3 days in a city, 3 days of nature/ruins.
- travel time of 1 day to get there, 1 day back
- somewhere in South America
- has teens who are good travelers ( wont sleep one whole day like my elementary kids )

Anonymous wrote:South America is a big continent. It might be helpful if you could narrow it to a country.

And if you narrow it to Brazil, any Spanish you learn will be of very limited utility.

+1. You aren't going to be able to do "South America" in a week. What exactly are you interested in. Ancient cultures. Cities/Museums/architecture/shopping. Wildlife/Nature. Beaches. Then people can give suggestions.

Anonymous wrote:Go big- it’s with it! Go to Punta Arenas and visit Parque Torres del Paine. Beautiful!! There are also tours where they take you to see penguins in their natural habitat. So awesome!

Not nearly enough time.

OP, I love Rio. You could do that plus Iguazu Falls. Haven't been to Buenos Aires but that would probably work as well.

Go big- it’s with it! Go to Punta Arenas and visit Parque Torres del Paine. Beautiful!! There are also tours where they take you to see penguins in their natural habitat. So awesome!

Argentina would be great. Buenos Aires for a few days and then head to Iguaza Falls.

South America is a big continent. It might be helpful if you could narrow it to a country.

And if you narrow it to Brazil, any Spanish you learn will be of very limited utility.

No advice on locations but wanted to note that you have lots of time to learn some Spanish before Spring 2025!

OP again - seems like it might be important to mention based on the Bogata thread, that none of us speak any Spanish beyond what we learned on Dora the Explorer.

We're in the very early stages of a spring break trip to somewhere in South America for Spring 2025.
Any suggestions for best places to visit? Thinking one city for ~3 days and one more nature/active place for ~3 days. Kids are very good travelers, so it doesn't need to be totally easy/touristy, but we also don't need to be off-the-beaten-path just to say we were.