Hey guys,
I have 3-5 weeks in late August/September to travel and am looking for your input. As background, I'm an American guy in my mid-20s. I'm relatively well-traveled and have already been to northern Chile/Argentina and much of the Balkans. I want this trip to be partly urban (cities with a cool art/music scene, friendly people, good food) and rural (deserts are awesome, mountains are cool, short multi-day treks are ideal). For what it's worth, two of my favorite places are Belgrade (great people, nice energy, good food) and Salta (nice to walk around, great access to outdoors, again good food). Budget is pretty flexible, but I'd be staying in hostels/eating relatively cheaply/doing cheap day tours or otherwise solo.
With that in mind, which of the following would you think is more up my alley? Any suggested activities in the area? If you have other destinations that come to mind, I'm more than open.
1: Buenos Aires/Uruguay/Rio de Janeiro: 1-2 weeks in Buenos Aires/La Plata/Colonia, 1-2 weeks in Uruguay, 1 week in Rio. Alternatively I might switch Rio with the Iguazu falls. My main concern is that I don't want to feel burned out with so much time in such large cities, and my impression is that there's not much in the way of hiking outside of BsAs and Rio. It's also probably gonna be pretty chilly at the end of August/beginning of September.
2: Macedonia/Kosovo/Albania/Montenegro: a few days in Ohrid, a little over a week in Kosovo (Pristina, Prizren and Gjakova), a week in Tirana/Shkoder, then Podgorica/coast/Durmitor. I know these aren't huge cities, but they do have the advantage of being near some more scenic areas (Ohrid, Montenegrin coast, Durmitor national park). There are no "major" concerns I have about these places, though it's a bit more inconvenient for me to fly into the region.
Another consideration worth mentioning is that I don't know when I'll have a large block of time to travel. I'm probably more excited about the South America plan, but I feel like it would be easier to visit Buenos Aires or Rio during some week off, whereas it's relatively more difficult to fly to Montenegro for a week.
Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.