South America Cruise Ports

South America holds 129 cruise ports, 8.2% of the 1,572 we track. 15 of them are departure ports. The most visited cruise port in South America region is also its busiest departure port: Cartagena, Colombia, appearing in 1,106 upcoming itineraries.

Ports here are grouped into 2 sub-regions: South America is the largest with 94 ports, Galápagos the smallest with 35. Its ports span 9 countries, most of them in Ecuador, Brazil and Chile.

South America cruises on the southern summer, roughly November to March. That is when the Cape Horn and Chilean fjord routes run between Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Valparaiso, and when Antarctic sailings leave from Ushuaia. Cartagena is the exception at the top of the list: it sits on the Caribbean coast and appears mostly on Panama Canal and southern Caribbean itineraries rather than South American ones, which is why it takes more calls than any port further south.