The surprising top tourist sites in Latin America.

You’ve just touched down for three days in a new city. While in town, you need to find a nice hotel, good places to eat, and maybe a sight or two to visit.

And if you’re like us, Google Maps is likely the first place you’ll check for all of these.

Which got us curious about the most-visited places in each Latin American country, something we’ll track by measuring which sites have gotten the most reviews on Google. We did decide to exclude shopping malls and other commercial spaces.

Unsurprisingly, the region’s two largest cities top the list. But some landmarks making it to the top did surprise us

Bar chart comparing the most Google-reviewed places in LatAm countries, where Mexico's Plaza de la Constitución has the most reviews.
Most Google-reviewed places in LatAm countries

Mexico City’s Plaza de la Constitución, the Mexican capital’s main square and home to the National Palace wherein presides the country’s president, is – with over 300K reviews – the most-visited site in Latin America. It’s followed up closely by São Paulo’s sprawling Ibirapuera Park, a “green oasis in a concrete jungle” which has been free to the public since it opened in 1954 (and which has a higher overall rating than the Zócalo).

From there, we see that other landmark gathering sites and monuments, such as the famed Obelisk of Buenos Aires or Bogotá’s main square of Plaza de Bolívar, are well-represented. We expected Machu Picchu, but were unfamiliar with the Malecon 2000 in Guayaquil.

And if you’re wondering, the most-reviewed sites in the world include the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Islam’s holiest mosque, as well as India’s famed Taj Mahal and Rome’s bustling Trevi Fountains. Clearly, Latin America has got some competition.