Four Latin American Tour Packages, From $548 Per Week

Bargain-priced air-and-land packages are becoming available from tour operators eager to lure Americans to Latin American countries this fall. Check out these four choices for November and early December (all based on double occupancy).

* Belize: Spend a week in an offshore (and English-speaking) paradise for just $548, including air fare.

Central America’s lone Anglophone country has an island-strewn coast full of thin, sandy barrier islands known as “cayes.” The epitome of these laid-back getaways is not the better-known (and increasingly developed) Ambergris Caye but instead the homey, undeveloped Caye Caulker, with its three-street town, wooden hotels and scruffy innkeepers.

From Nov. 1 until Dec. 10, Capricorn Leisure Services, telephone (800) 426-6544, will send you to a colorful waterfront hotel on Caye Caulker on a five-night package combining round-trip air fare and lodging for $548 from the West Coast. (Two caveats: Add $50 for weekend departures and another $45 or so after Dec. 10.)

* Chile: Five nights in this sophisticated, friendly Latin democracy start at just $887, including air fare from Los Angeles.

Latin America specialist Intervac Tours, tel. (800) 992-9629, is making history with the first truly budget-oriented package to this far-south country, now approaching its summer season. (Chile enjoys seasons in reverse of ours.)

You stay at the pool-equipped, 50-room Majestic Hotel in the center of the vibrant, European-style city of Santiago, with visits available to the wine country and the seaside resort of Vina del Mar.

The hotel/air package price is available from Nov. 1 until Dec. 10, and includes transfers and daily continental breakfast.

* Buenos Aires: Enjoy this sophisticated, sensual city for $759 from New York.

Heavy competition among a number of airlines has led to this really remarkable November-early December price for the town of the tango, impossibly broad boulevards, late-night hours and the best beefsteaks you’ve ever had.

The $759 gets you round-trip air fare from New York on Aerolineas Argentinas and five nights at the centrally located Luey Hotel (along with daily breakfast, round-trip transfers and a half-day city bus tour) if you book through Intervac Tours, tel. (800) 992-9629.

Intervac recommends that L.A. travelers find their own budget fare to New York, but Intervac can arrange an itinerary from L.A. to Buenos Aires for $933, on Avianca Airlines via Bogota, Colombia.

* Costa Rica: A week in Central America’s most popular destination for only $827 (double occupancy) includes round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, lodging and a dollop of adventure in the form of a four-wheel-drive vehicle for your entire stay.

Your hotel for six nights is the charming beach-side Sugar Beach Resort in Guanacaste, where you’ll have use of that four-wheel-drive for exploring the nearby beaches and jungle. The dates are from Nov. 1 through Dec. 11; after Jan. 3, the price rises for that month by about $185.

The tour operator is again that specialist in the area, Capricorn Leisure Services, tel. (800) 426-6544.