Destination
South America
South America is a continent of dramatic contrasts—from the wilds of Patagonia and the mystery of the Amazon, to the vibrant rhythms of Brazil and the colonial charm of Andean cities. Traveling by small ship offers a seamless and immersive way to explore South America's diverse coastal regions, river systems, and remote islands—connecting you with culture, nature, and history in ways land-based travel cannot.
At Small Ship Travel, we curate exceptional small ship cruises throughout South America aboard intimate vessels. Whether you’re sailing past glacial fjords, navigating the Amazon River, or tracing ancient trade routes along the Pacific coast, we match you with cruise lines that prioritize access, enrichment, and authenticity.
South America’s rich biodiversity, geographic extremes, and cultural layers are ideally suited to small ship exploration. With smaller vessels, you can sail closer to wildlife-rich coastlines, dock in lesser-visited ports, and access ecologically sensitive areas such as the Amazon, Tierra del Fuego, and Chilean fjords.
These cruises also provide a more authentic and flexible experience than traditional travel, combining immersive excursions, onboard education, and meaningful cultural interactions. Whether you’re retracing Inca trade routes, watching glaciers calve into the sea, or spotting pink river dolphins, small ship cruises open a deeper window into the continent’s soul.
South America’s vast geography means that the best time to cruise depends on the region and the style of journey.
At Small Ship Travel, we believe in matching you with cruise experiences that are culturally meaningful, expertly guided, and thoughtfully curated. Each of our South American cruise partners has been vetted for exceptional service, local expertise, and sustainable practices.
We offer exclusive perks through our trusted partnerships, including cabin upgrades, onboard credits, and private shore excursions with insider access. Our team also assists with custom pre- and post-cruise land extensions to iconic destinations such as Machu Picchu, Iguazu Falls, and the Galápagos. From initial planning to your return home, we provide dedicated support to ensure a seamless and enriching journey.
Reach out to our travel concierges today to create your perfect journey.
Get in the mood for cruising by reading our travel guides, recommendations and cruise reviews.
The first international trip is the one that determines whether international travel becomes a lifelong practice or a one-time adventure. The small ship cruise — with its managed logistics, its built-in cultural education, and its community of experienced travelers — is one of the best possible formats for a first international experience.
Romance in travel isn't a category. It's a quality. It's not produced by a sunset dinner package or a rose-petal turndown. It comes from being somewhere extraordinary with someone you love, in conditions that remove the noise of daily life and replace it with beauty and time. Small ships do this better than almost any other form of travel.
A hotel barge carries 6 to 20 guests. It moves at walking pace along canals so narrow that branches brush the hull. The chef bought the cheese from the producer's farm that morning. The wines are from the vineyard you visited after lunch. At 5 PM the barge ties up for the night in a village with a restaurant that has been open since 1952. This is the most intimate, most food-centered, and most genuinely French form of travel available.
For four centuries, the Northwest Passage — the sea route through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans — was the object of the most determined and most deadly quest in the history of exploration. Ships were lost. Men died. The Passage defeated everyone who attempted it until Roald Amundsen succeeded in 1903, taking three years to complete what expedition ships now do in three weeks.
Cabin selection on a small ship is more consequential than on a large ship for a simple reason: you'll spend more time in it. When a ship carries 92 guests rather than 4,000, the common areas are more intimate, the cabin is more frequently a retreat, and the proportional difference in quality between cabin categories is more pronounced.
The Galapagos Islands are the only place on Earth where a marine iguana will walk across your feet without breaking stride, where a blue-footed booby will perform its mating dance three feet from your camera, and where a sea lion pup will follow you along the beach out of pure curiosity. This is not wildlife viewing. This is wildlife coexistence.