Move over USA - Hello Argentina! aka how to make your pesos go further!

cubegame

I'm not being paid by the Argentine government to post this....honest....but I thought I would share.

Our summer holidays over the years have largely taken to the USA....tempted by the glorious sights, the lure of the open road and all that lovely American food (which I admit can get too much after a week).

However, as a couple of years ago, we'd done it all......ticked off everywhere we wanted to go to in the USA and were left with the prospect of having to retrace our steps or moving through the other continents.

Last year, we went to Thailand.....all very lovely, even better food but the scenery was a bit meh! It's nice for a beach holiday but it wasn't the USA......move on we must.

South America was very much on the list but we weren't sure where to start. Peru is often stated to be the "easiest" country to start with.....but this all changed when an error fare to Buenos Aires on BA came up and I grabbed us two cattle class tickets for just over a couple of hundred quid each.

So I took to planning two weeks. Buenos Aires was a natural place to spend a couple of days....lovely city....a bit rough around the edges but loads of glorious buildings and a really intriguing mix of old and new.

Next......Iguazu Falls....this was the main reason my partner wanted to go to Argentina and boy it didn't disappoint her or me. The scale and size was unbelievable....having been to Niagara we were very much on the side of Eleanor Roosevelt.

That was nearly a week....and my first instinct afterwards was to head South to Patagonia...another bucket list item. However, it was soon obvious that the internal flights to make this happen were going to take too much out of our holiday (the fact the G20 in Buenos Aires has closed the main internal airport was the cause!).

So for the last week I chose to take us to Salta in the North West....and wow...was this the right choice. Hiring a car we took took two nice loops. First to the South, taking in Cachi and Cafayete (wine country) and then to the North from where we struck across the border into the Atacama Desert crossing the Andes via two high passes.

Now I return to the idea of USA....we'd seen scenery there we thought would never be beaten. How could you compete with likes of the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Yellowstone, Monument Valley, Yosemite? We'd seen them all and thought we'd probably peaked too early.

No says North West Argentina (with a little help from Chile)....I will give you more scenery, I will make it never ending, I will feast your eyes with colours of landscapes which makes you think it was built by Dulux, I will make the scenery change around every corner and around every sweeps of the roads. I will make you see geysers, vast desert landscapes reminiscent of the moon, smoking volcanoes, unimaginably large salt flats......and I'll let you feast on a steak as big as your head every day for less than a fiver.

Do I need to go on?

Seriously, if you're looking for inspiration for an epic holiday, don't look much further than the North West of Argentina....it WILL NOT disappoint you!!!

cubegame

And more practical hints.

Driving.....safe and easy. Argentines are forceful, confident drivers but not dangerous. Chileans appear to take their time. It will cost you extra to arrange the paperwork to take a car across the border but not too much in the grand scheme of things. Fuel up at any station when you're lower than 3/4 full....sometimes the petrol stations run out of gas.

Money.....Argentina is a cash economy....card use is growing but you'll get 10% (or more) discount for cash. Chile is easier to use cards in (although I got ripped off at a petrol station). Argentina is cheap cheap cheap (one of few places in the world where the £ will buy you more than it did before Brexit). Chile is expensive (even if you don't get ripped off).

Safety....perfectly safe. There are some obviously ropey bits in Buenos Aires but other wise the Argentines are friendly and outgoing. English is not generally spoken at all so a smattering of Spanish will help. They do speak quite slowly compared to Spaniards so this helps. Probably best if you don't mention the Falklands.

z1a

Sounds interesting. Are you writing this from some time in the future though? "Brexit" hasn't happened yet.

cubegame

z1a wrote: »

Sounds interesting. Are you writing this from some time in the future though? "Brexit" hasn't happened yet.

My bad.... I meant the Brexit vote! Before that you'd have got 18 pesos to pound. You'll now get 48 ish.

cubegame

I had another tip I forgot about.

Internal flights

Argentina used to have residents only airfares due to government policy. This practice has now ended BUT the airlines continue to charge a premium on flights bought overseas (ie on the .com or .co.uk websites). This sharp practice can be avoided by navigating to the Argentine websites and paying in Pesos. We used Latam and Aerolineas Argentinas each saving £120 and £260 respectively.

chiny

Just back from a month in Chile and Argentina, so can only agree with the waxing lyrical. As both are massive countries, it is hard to avoid airlines, although the hardy can use buses. On one flight, Sky Airlines did decide to charge all foreigners (about £29 on my Halifax Clarity) for luggage; we'd already paid so annoying.

It was quite tricky making anyone speak Spanish; almost all locals wanted to practice their English. I actually got tackled twice re Las Malvinas (Falklands not mentioned), pleasantly enough, although I was pre-prepared with answers. Definitely best avoided.

Mrs Chiny managed to lose her plastic; no issue in reporting online (wifi not expensive roaming) and full marks to Halifax for a very fast re-issue.

michele-p

Thanks for the report cubegame, I may have to have a look at a possible South American Adventure. We love a roadtrip holiday, and have enjoyed the East and West Coast of the USA, so may enjoy similar things to you. Having just got back from an epic tour of Sri Lanka we decide our next holiday would be a little more "westernised" rather than having to negotiate for each and every thing, and everything to be a bit more "finished" is that makes sense!

How was the various accomodation standard and prices? What drew us to Sri Lanka was that it's so cheap when you're there, a good meal and couple of beers for around £10. We started with a few air b and b's but by the end splurged a bit on really good higher end hotels (booked on the day when on special offer!).

cubegame

michele-p wrote: »

Thanks for the report cubegame, I may have to have a look at a possible South American Adventure. We love a roadtrip holiday, and have enjoyed the East and West Coast of the USA, so may enjoy similar things to you. Having just got back from an epic tour of Sri Lanka we decide our next holiday would be a little more "westernised" rather than having to negotiate for each and every thing, and everything to be a bit more "finished" is that makes sense!

How was the various accomodation standard and prices? What drew us to Sri Lanka was that it's so cheap when you're there, a good meal and couple of beers for around £10. We started with a few air b and b's but by the end splurged a bit on really good higher end hotels (booked on the day when on special offer!).

Accommodation in Argentina was western standard and probably about half the price of what you would expect in Europe. The exception to this rule was the Buenos Aires which was pretty expensive, although you can pick up nice hotels in the slightly more dubious areas (not an issue if you take the super cheap taxis). We booked them all ahead having done lots of research and we got the schedule bang on. It wouldn't be the easiest place to try and find a hotel every day if you didn't book. Neither would it be that wise to try and book online everyday as the internet signal is fairly useless outside towns (in the Northwest anyway!).

We stayed one night in Brazil near Iguazu Falls, also cheap and a high standard.

Our main accommodation disappointment was in San Pedro De Atacama in Chile. It's an unashamed tourist trap and the prices reflect it.

If you love the USA, then it won't disappoint you!

We fancy Sri Lanka ourselves. Did you self-drive?

michele-p

hi, the general advice is not to self drive in Sri Lanka, though we have done it on every other holiday. The drivers are manic!

We used trains for a few of the days, which are just so cheap. A 6 hour trip one day was just £1.50 each, it turned into a 9 hour epic as our engine broke down and we had to wait for another! Other days we used local drivers to take us from place to place. There's a general route most people take at this time of year. We thoroughly loved it!

If you want any advice or have a good 10 mins spare, feel free to read my Trip advisor report: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293961-i8983-k12123810-o10-Trip_report_it_s_a_long_one-Sri_Lanka.html#96647726

benjus

Glad you enjoyed Argentina. South America in general is an amazing place to visit and there's so much to see. My wife is from there so we go fairly regularly, and generally try to combine a trip to visit her family with a visit to some other part of Argentina or another country in South America.

If you liked the North West of Argentina you might like to give Bolivia a try in a future trip.

blindman

cubegame wrote: »

Our main accommodation disappointment was in San Pedro De Atacama in Chile. It's an unashamed tourist trap and the prices reflect it.

We're going to SPde atacama in Feb next year.

I see you hired a car, any tips re DIY touring in that area?

I may have to join a tour:eek: though would prefer to DIY drive for the 5 days we are there.

Staying in a Hostel for £50 per night, so as you say it is not cheap there.

Cheers