Argentina - any tips?

cubegame

We've decided to go to Argentina for our winter holidays. Going in the last two weeks of November. This is our first visit to Latin America.

So far I've got a couple of return flights to Buenos Aires booked and a strong desire to go to Igazau Falls.

Other than that we've got two weeks to kill. We'll fly up to Igazau and then on to somewhere else. We originally fancied Southern Patagonia but I now think it's to far considering we only have a fortnight. Now I'm torn between the North West or heading towards the Argentine and Chilean Lake Districts. We'd be hiring a car and driving wherever we decide to go.

Spectacular scenery is a must but where would any experienced hand recommend.

PompeyPete

cubegame wrote: »

We've decided to go to Argentina for our winter holidays. Going in the last two weeks of November. This is our first visit to Latin America.

So far I've got a couple of return flights to Buenos Aires booked and a strong desire to go to Igazau Falls.

Other than that we've got two weeks to kill. We'll fly up to Igazau and then on to somewhere else. We originally fancied Southern Patagonia but I now think it's to far considering we only have a fortnight. Now I'm torn between the North West or heading towards the Argentine and Chilean Lake Districts. We'd be hiring a car and driving wherever we decide to go.

Spectacular scenery is a must but where would any experienced hand recommend.

Sounds fab.....but a quick visit to Waterstones, or your local Library might help fit the MSE criteria.

richardw

Iguazu is great, there is just something amazing about the falls.
You can usually redeem avios on Latam flights. There is a city airport in Buenos Aires called AEP Aeroparque which is very convenient.
I like Buenos Aires, it really is an enormous city. If you like dancing, find a real Tango bar. BA also has a good choice of apartments to rent.

Another trip to Argentina and a first trip to Chile is on my bucket list, inspired by Dave Stringers blog, this will include Mendoza, so perhaps look at that area.

Double check the climate situation in the differing regions, it may have only just started warming up in November.

Also check the money situation, not sure what is happening at the moment.

benjus

The North West (Salta and Jujuy provinces) is a very interesting area, and gives a rather different experience to other parts of Argentina. In some ways it's more like Bolivia than the rest of Argentina - you see many more indigenous South American people than in most of Argentina.

We stayed mainly in the small town of Cachi as we have some friends with a house there - I'm sure it could be part of a longer tour of the area. Cachi itself is lovely, although as it's a small place you probably won't want to spend long there. Driving is not too difficult (except maybe for the Cuesta del Obispo between Salta city and Cachi, which should be fine in dry weather - you just need to take it carefully).

I'm not sure if you're planning to drive everywhere in Argentina, but distances are very large and roads are mostly not particularly fast. You'd be better off taking some internal flights (or overnight coach trips if flights are too expensive) and just hiring cars locally. On the subject of internal flights - beware the special subsidized tickets for residents of Argentina as they may refuse to check you in without residence documents if you buy one of these. International flight checkers probably won't display them at all, but you might see them if you use the airline website directly.

benjus

As far as money goes, the USD/ARS exchange rate has been going crazy lately, so don't hang on to Pesos for longer than you have to.

It's hard to go wrong with USD cash in Argentina, if you're OK with the risk of carrying large amounts of cash with you (Buenos Aires is not a massively dangerous city, but there is still more crime than we're used to in most of Europe). Take care where you change it, as there are lots of unscrupulous money changers around the tourist areas like Calle Florida who will give you fake notes.

ATMs are generally fine and are pretty widespread; however they will charge you at least 4% on any withdrawals on top of anything your bank charges (this was the case 18 months ago at least - I believe it's still the case now). Acceptance of cards in shops, restaurants etc is fairly widespread these days, although they often offer a discount of more than 4% for cash payments, so it may be better to pay cash even if you have to pay to withdraw it.

Ballard

You need to see Iguazu from both sides so a day trip into Brazil is a must. No paperwork was required when I crossed the border back in 2005. We actually had to wait 20 minutes for someone to come and stamp our passports (we needed this as we were staying in Brazil).

The Chilean Lake District is lovely but it’s a long way from northern Argentina. I don’t know enough about Argentina to suggest any other options but I think that Mendoza is a fair distance too (although I’ve heard that it’s gorgeous).

cubegame

The intention would be to fly about and hire cars as and when we need them. We would so one way hire cars but it's probably cheaper to buy a car than the prices I've had quoted.

I just need to choose my areas of focus. Wish we had a couple of months!

benjus

I haven't been to the lake district but it sounds very beautiful.

However, if it's your first time in Latin America and you want more of a quintessential South American experience, personally I'd go for the north west.

cubegame

We settled on a couple of days in Buenos Aires to relax after the flights, followed by flying to Iguazu Falls for a couple of days and then heading to the North West for the remainder, where we'll be driving around and probably heading over the border into the Atacama desert as well.

Flights all booked now and the only irritation is that LATAM already rescheduled one.....

We'd originally hoped to a morning arrival at Iguazu (Argentina side), which would have allowed us to go and view the falls from Brazil the same afternoon. We're going to stay for two nights so that leaves us a full day for the Argentine side before heading to Salta on the 3rd day.

The LATAM reschedule now gets us to Iguazu two hours later which leaves not much time! Grrrr.