Arrive in Buenos Aires. Transfer to hotel

You will be met at the airport and escorted to your hotel in the arty district of San Telmo by one of our local representatives.

Buenos Aires is an elegant, cultured and cosmopolitan city famed for its interesting museums and the fascinating port district of La Boca, with its cobbled streets and brightly painted houses. It was here that the tango was born, and Diego Maradona honed his footballing skills.

At leisure

Visit Argentine side of Iguazu Falls

Full day guided tour of the Argentine side of the falls. Visit the National Park Visitor Centre, where there is a display  illustrating the biodiversity of the region’s tropical rainforest, and from here a little train chugs  to Cataratas Station where the Upper Walk begins. This sequence of causeways and passarelles links dozens of tiny basalt islands at the top of the sheer rock face and the walkways cross the myriad of streams of the Iguazú River as they cascade over the lip of the precipice:  the water thunders on to the rocks below.

Fly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Guided transfer across the border into Brazil. Fly to Rio de Janeiro (2 hrs) and transfer to your hotel in Copacabana. Rio is the most beguiling, seductive, intriguing and beautiful city on the continent. Rio enjoys a truly awesome location among towering jungle-clad granite mountains, fringed by white-to-toffee coloured sandy beaches that swoop down into the Atlantic surf.

But it is a multi-layered place: the gulf between the rich and the poor is the greatest of all Latin American countries. Sumptuous apartments overlook the sparkling bays against a backdrop of half-built slum dwellings, favelas, which cling precariously to the hillsides.

At leisure

There are many optional excursions to keep you entertained in this fascinating city. Don’t miss a trip to Pão de Açucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain). Take the cable-car up the domed granite mountain that protrudes from the ocean. This is especially magical at sunset when the twinkling lights of the city are coming on and you can enjoy the magnificent views back over Copacabana beach, Botafogo Bay and into the lush mountains beyond.

Also within a short taxi ride from your hotel are the very pleasant, recently refurbished botanical gardens. Further afield you might take a day trip on a schooner down the coast to the tropical islands off the Emerald Coast, each with its pretty sandy bay. There’s an al fresco lunch and you can swim in the warm, calm waters.

If you still have the energy, you may choose to enjoy a lively samba show, or a dance in one of Rio’s many nightspots.