So you’ve got a backpack, a guide to Spanish and a bad case of wanderlust; South America’s mountains, jungles and chaotic cities are calling. But the continent is vast and to make a backpacking trip work, you need to prioritise what you want to see.

Peru and Ecuador are a good place for beginners to start, offering some of the highlights of the region and being cheap and easy to get around by bus.

The Galapagos might seem like a stretch on a backpacker budget, but it can be done. This six-week-long trip outline has been road tested (it works!) and will jump start your travel plans.

Week one

Fly into Lima and hit the ground running by visiting the main sites; the catacombs of San Francisco, the Malecón promenade, the Plaza de Armas (main square), the Larco Museum and the Pantanos Nature Reserve. Get your first fix of papa a la huancaina (spicy potatoes), ceviche (seafood dish) and humitas (dough and corn, slowly steamed or boiled).

The brave can risk a ride on the roof of a train to the Devil’s Nose

It is then possible to bus it to Cusco but most people take an internal flight. You’ll need at least two days to acclimatise before you attempt the Inca Trail (book well in advance). Spend it exploring this Incan city and the Sacred Valley sites of Pisac and Sacsayhuaman before doing the classic four-night Inca Trail.

Week two

Take a flight (or long and scary mountain bus trip) to Puerto Maldonado, frontier gateway to the Amazon. You can book a rainforest lodge independently and hitch a lift upriver from Puerto, or just take a package.

Spend a couple of days exploring the rainforest, searching for giant river otters, jaguars, tapirs and enjoying the largest number of bird species on earth.

Make sure your trip includes a visit to the colpa, a clay lick which attracts hundreds of parakeets, parrots and spectacular macaws.

Week three

Fly to Arequipa. After a day in the city, book a trip to the Colca Canyon, where you’ll get spectacular views of the Andean Condors rising out of the depths of the Canyon on early morning thermals.

Bus it on to Nazca, where you can do the cheapskate view of the Nazca lines by bus or splash out for a flight over them.

Now you’re heading north again via Ica to see the Incan mummies with evidence of ancient brain surgery called trepanning. Try sandboarding at the Huacachina oasis, or hit the dunes in a sand buggy.

Squeeze in a trip to Pisco to try Pisco Sour in its hometown and visit the nature reserve of Paracas for pelicans, penguins, cormorants, Peruvian boobies and Inca terns. Head back to Lima for a night on the town.

Week four to five

On your way north to Ecuador, don’t miss Trujillo’s fascinating pre-Columbian archeological sites; the adobe city of Chan Chan, a World Heritage site, and the adobe pyramid temple of the Sun and Moon.

At Tumbes, you’ll cross the border in Ecuador and can travel on to Guayaquil. There’s little to linger for here, so book your flight to the Galapagos Islands immediately (it’s usually cheaper here than from Quito, but you should try to get your return flight back to Quito). Yes, it’s expensive but it’s oh-so-unforgettably worth it; cut corners somewhere else.

While you’re waiting for a space on the flight, head to the adventure capital of Ecuador, Baños. It’s at the foot of the active volcano Tungurahua and a great place for waterfalls, hiking, horse riding, rafting, alarmingly rickety homemade cable cars and hot springs. Try the melocha, a toffee that gets pulled, beaten and twirled against the door frame.

You will walk metres away from albatross, see the lumbering giant tortoises, swim with sea lions and turtles and experience some of the best snorkelling in the world

Once you reach the Galapagos, the only sensible way to see the islands is on a cruise. You can sometimes pick up a bargain, especially in low season, by waiting for a boat which needs to leave but has a couple of free spots.

While you wait, there’s plenty to do on Santa Cruz, such as the Charles Darwin Research Station. A typical five-night cruise will take you to at least five unique islands.

Not only will you wake up to seascape of radically different volcanic scenery every day, but you will also walk metres away from albatross, see the lumbering giant tortoises, swim with sea lions and turtles and experience some of the best snorkelling in the world.

It’s also a paradise for bird watchers, particularly for seabirds and Darwin’s finches. Fill your memory full of sun-drenched days of phenomenal wildlife watching.

Week six

On to Quito, where you’ll spend a day or two checking out the beautiful colonial centre, before heading to Riobamba to climb Ecuador’s highest peak, Chimborazo.

The brave can risk a ride on the roof of a train to the Devil’s Nose.

Lastly, leave just enough time to head to the rainforest in Mindo, near Quito. The forest hiking is the draw here and if you’re lucky, a guide will help you to find the iconic cock of the rock birds wooing their ladies in a lek.

Ideally, you would now fly out of Quito, otherwise you face a long bus ride back to Lima.

How to budget

You can survive in Peru on about €20 a day for the basics (food, accommodation and transport), but you’ll need to be very thrifty.

That means internal flights, partying and anything approaching a luxury item will be out.

A budget of €30 is more realistic, but you should still budget more if you intend to fly (internal flights are fairly reasonable though) and remember that you need to cover the cost of tours like the Inca Trail.

If you have a relaxed time schedule, you can spend less money by spending more time on the road. Ecuador costs are similar but an extra €5 a day will make things more comfortable.

The Galapagos is another story however; prices are deliberately high to deter mass tourism and protect the islands.

The park entrance fee is €86, and flights from Guayaquil hover around €240 (low season) and €300 (high season). Cruises booked from Quito or Guayaquil can go for around €500 for five nights.

However, once you’re on the boat, everything is included (unless you want to do additional dives).

After the cruise, it’s possible to find budget accommodation for around €12 a room on Santa Cruz (groceries are expensive though; consider taking tinned or packaged food with you).

All that said, the Galapagos is a once-in-a-lifetime trip and you should seriously consider saving up some extra money specifically to do it; after all, how likely is it that you will ever be that close again?