The best canyon roads in Spain. Highest asphalted roads of Europe. The world's northernmost road ends. Most hairpinned roads in the world. Periodically flooded roads around the world. Australia's best 4wd tracks. Top haunted roads on Earth. Pan-American Highway, the longest road in the world. A real adventure with a lot of risks The travel is a real adventure, and there are a lot of risks. The old Tremola road to Gotthard Pass First-time cruiser? If you have a right-hand drive vehicle, note that you may have some difficulty traveling through Central America, especially in Costa Rica.
It is illegal to drive RHD vehicles in Costa Rica so many people end up shipping their vans from Guatemala into Colombia, skipping most of Central America for this reason. Our Promaster van is a front wheel drive. We have driven across some of the most rugged roads in Guatemala and through the sketchiest mountain passes in Peru with no issues. Personally, we find it almost impossible to provide one single answer when someone asks us what our favorite country or place has been on this trip.
However, there certainly are some places that stand out more than others. Here are some of our top highlights from 15 months of traveling along the Pan-American highway. We started our trip in Mexico and our plan was to spend 2 months there, at the most. After realizing how much cool stuff there is to see and do, we threw that plan out the window and we ended up spending 5 month traveling through all of Mexico.
We swam in turquoise waterfalls in La Huasteca Potosina , snorkeled in underground cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula and drove through remote mountain roads to get to some unreal hillside thermal pools , all for only a few bucks each at the most. Thinking of countries that left a lasting impression on us, Mexico is definitely on top of that list. After leaving Mexico we ventured into Belize that offers some of the best snorkeling in the world.
Although Belize technically is not part of the Pan-American Highway, we just had to visit it. Our main mission in Belize was to find the top snorkeling sites. Here we swam with sharks, eagle rays, octopus and other incredible sea creatures for half the price and half the crowds. Guatemala is also known for beautiful markets filled with colorful textiles. We have 5 blankets to prove it. Another one of our favorites was Costa Rica. Costa Rica is known for its beaches, surfing and some unreal wildlife that looks like a scene from The Jungle Book come alive.
While we certainly enjoyed searching for waterfalls in the jungle, our favorite part was seeing all the monkeys, sloths and macaw birds along the trails.
Overall we loved Central America , but at the same time, the heat and humidity was making sleeping and cooking in our van almost impossible. Colombia turned out to be one of the most diverse South America destinations with colorful colonial towns, lots of history, culture, amazing coffee, and unique adventures. After spending 2 months traveling through Colombia, here are 15 of our top Colombia destinations that we highly recommend for overlanding.
Besides visiting the world-famous Machu Picchu ruins , Peru is home to one of the tallest waterfalls in the world, incredible mountain hikes and a cool oasis city Huacachina hidden between giant sand dunes in the Peruvian desert.
And last but not least there is Patagonia , the most southern region of the continent. We could really go on forever sharing all about of our favorite Pan-American destinations, but if you want to read more about our trip highlights, check out our Destinations page here.
This is one of the topics that we get asked about the most and something that our friends and family were really concerned about when we started the trip. One of the worst things that happened to us was getting my backpack stolen in Colombia at a Starbucks from all places while I was working on my laptop and not paying attention.
There are some areas, however, that are known to be more prone to crime along the Pan-American highway and travelers should use more caution while driving through:. We decided to only bring the bare necessities which helped us keep the van light for better gas mileage. Along with everyday necessities like clothing and kitchen utensils, here are some things that you should bring along on the Pan-American road trip :.
There are a few countries along the Pan-American highway that require vehicle insurance for international drivers.
US and Canada have reciprocal car insurance laws so if you have insurance in either country, you can use it in the other as well. In the US, Mexico, and Chile we purchased our vehicle insurance online, but most of the time you can purchase the car insurance right at the border. Peru was the only country where we had to cross the border and drive into the next town to purchase it.
We love the Schwab Debit Card because it is free, charges no overseas withdrawal fees, and refunds any ATM fees that we were charged by other banks at the end of the month. Getting this money back at the end of the month has been pretty sweet. For this trip, you will also need a VISA credit card. For us, this app was a total life saver. The iOverlander app was created by other Pan-American overlanders as a place to note all the best campsites, attractions, gas stations, laundry spots, and other useful places while traveling.
Over the years it has grown extremely popular and is based solely on reviews left by other travelers. There are also a couple of map apps that can make life on the road so much easier. We also like using Maps. We also recently found out about the app WiFi Map.
WiFi Map lists tons of open WiFi networks in the surrounding areas and for someone like me who works a lot online, this app is super helpful. Instead of purchasing local cell phone chips in each new country, Google Fi automatically connects your cell phone to the local cell providers so you never lose reception while traveling, all at full LTE when available. We use just about all of 15 GB of available data every month. But we also work online, stream shows and slightly obsess over Instagram so most people tend to use a lot less than that.
During our trip along the Pan-American highway, we brought along our indoors cat Minka. We made some special arrangements for her in the van but overall we found that traveling with a pet through Central and South America is very easy. It took her a couple of months to get used to being in new environments every day but now she absolutely loves it.
As soon as we stop she hops out of the van, runs around a bit, eats some grass, looks at the farm animals from the distance but mostly just naps. She has traveled through 15 countries in our van and every new place is like a new adventure for her.
Before crossing any borders check iOverlander for any requirements. All of the information in iOverlander gets constantly updated by other travelers so this has been our best resource for border crossings with pets.
I also joined a Facebook group called Animal Travelers specifically created for people that travel with pets. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info. Very helpful, thank you. Brit going to do the journey. No mention of buying US 3rd party insurance here though, any ideas?
Thanks Andy. Personally, we have not used travel insurance and have gotten pretty lucky with never having any issues on our travels so far. But it is something that I am looking info for future travels and I have heard that the World Nomad insurance is a pretty popular choice. First of all, thanks a lot for this great info!
I have the following questions, any info would be greatly appreciated! Do you think is doable in months starting from Florida?
How much did it cost to ship the car from Ushuaia back home? There are many overlanders selling their cars in South America for cheap after they finish their trip, maybe buying one of those and doing a few months in SA would be a good idea. There are no shipping options south of that. This is highly dependent on where you stay, what you eat, and your fuel efficiency.
Border crossings are all over the place but usually not bad. Nicaragua was the worst by far because they were so slow, unorganized, and inspected everything, but the other ones were quick and we rarely got inspected or questioned. Traveling from the top of Alaska to the tip of Tierra del Fuego , this is the tire-testing, jawdropping, gas-guzzling journey that will impress all your friends.
The idea never amounted to much but years later, at the Fifth International Conference held in Chile in , a Pan-American Highway was proposed. First off, there is no one route. Environmental concerns and the opposition of local people have consistently put a stop to any road building in the area, meaning that this stretch can only be covered by plane, with your vehicle traveling separately in a shipping container.
However, 14 years later it was destroyed by local indigenous tribes. The Gap continues to be as wild today as it was during the days of the conquest. Environmental concerns, however, have been significant to stop any effort in that direction. In , planning to construct a road link through the area started with the help of USA funding, only to be suspended three years later after concerns raised by environmentalists.
Another attempt to build a road began in , but in a United Nations agency argued that the road would cause extensive environmental damage. Other ideas included the implementation of a short ferry link from Colombia to a new ferry port in Panama, along with an extension of the existing Panama Highway, and the construction of a combination of bridges and tunnels.
None of these were put into place. It was argued that a link would jeopardise rainforest protection, the containment of the spread of tropical diseases, the protection of the livelihood of indigenous peoples, the prevention of drug trafficking and associated violence, and the prevention of foot-and-mouth disease from entering North America. For the time being the gap can only be crossed through an occasionally running ferry or by plane — by bike or on foot is not advisable because of the wild terrain and the risk of being kidnapped or robbed by local gangs.
The route then heads south to Peru, and follows Peru Highway 1. On its way from Peru into Chile, drivers or cyclists encounter the third significant challenge, the Atacama Desert — the highest non-polar region in the world.
0コメント