Latin American Savings in High Season

Winter is the best time of year for a vacation in Latin America. The weather is usually good in the Central American countries, and the climate is at its most sultry in South America, which enjoys seasons in reverse of ours. Although vacation prices tend to climb in the winter, there remain enough soft spots in the price picture to satisfy the most avid budget traveler.

Costa Rica: Barely touched beaches, incomparable rain forests and gracious people are some of the highlights of this highly accessible Central American nation. Just after the New Year’s holiday, you can have winter weeks on the country’s Pacific coast for a song.

From January through mid-March, Solar Tours, telephone (800) 388-7652, e-mail [email protected], will fly you to San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, and transfer you to the Pacific-side Jaco Beach Hotel for a six-night stay. The package costs $789 per person, double occupancy, from Los Angeles.

Panama: This emerging budget champ can give you a winter week’s stay (with round-trip air fare) for $816 from Los Angeles, per person, double occupancy. The hotel is the Golden Tulip Costa del Sol, an all-suites property. Included are daily breakfasts, a city tour and a visit to the canal locks.

Solar Tours offers this six-night package from Jan. 7 through the end of March.

Brazil: There’s a short window of opportunity for enjoying low rates in high season in the scintillating city of Rio de Janeiro. Right in the middle of the Brazilian summer, traffic to Rio slows between New Year’s Day and Carnival, which occurs March 4 next year.

Major bargains have emerged for that still-torrid time, specifically Jan. 11 to Feb. 23. From Moment’s Notice, tel. (718) 234-6295, the cost is $629 for round-trip air fare to Rio, five nights in the Royalty Copacabana hotel, breakfasts and sightseeing. That’s the fare from New York, Philadelphia or Boston. There’s a $325 add-on for travelers from L.A., but West Coasters might find a better deal on their own for a flight back East to pick up the Rio connection.

A similar package at $629, plus $200 for air fare from L.A., is offered by Intervac Tours, tel. (800) 992-9629. And Brazilian Vacation Center, tel. (800) 342-5746, has a week in Rio for $599, plus $185 for the connecting flight from L.A. to Miami or New York.

Alternatively, during the same dates, Internet-only packager Go-today, https://www.go-today.com, offers six nights at the seafront Hotel Debret with round-trip air fare starting at $749 per person out of New York and Boston.

Belize: This English-speaking Central American nation claims the Northern Hemisphere’s longest barrier reef, a dream spot for scuba enthusiasts.

From Jan. 10 through mid-March, Capricorn Leisure, tel. (800) 426-6544, will fly you to Ambergris Cay, put you up for five nights at the Tides (a modest but new beachfront property) and provide three days of double-tank dives, all for $915 from Los Angeles or San Francisco. If you’re not diving, subtract $135 from the price (per person, double occupancy).

Chile: In the middle of South America’s summer, an air/hotel package for $1,065 from L.A. is pretty hot. For that price, Intervac Tours will fly you to Santiago, Chile’s capital, and put you up in the Ciudad Vitoria Hotel for five nights.