Argentina travel guide

A country of mammoth proportions, it’s little wonder Argentina has no less than 46 National Parks and nature reserves.

From the high Andes in the north to the end of the world in the south, Argentina’s National Parks cover pretty much every landscape imaginable.

Ice fields, mountain passes, glaciers, wetlands, wildlife spectacles and natural wonders. It’s all covered. 

Many of the parks are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, something Argentines are rightly proud of.

Tierra del Fuego is the southernmost point in Argentine Patagonia and as far south as you can drive anywhere in the world.

Most visitors make a beeline for the city of Ushuaia, the main base for those venturing yet further south on Antarctic expeditions.

But if you’ve travelled as far as Ushuaia, you simply must visit one of our favourite Argentinian National Parks.

Hiking is best way to explore the diverse landscapes and phenomenal views the park has to offer. 

Our 3 days here had us peering into beaver dams, gazing over fjords & hiking to Chile.

This guide will allow you to plan an enjoyable stop on your Patagonia itinerary. 

One of the most remarkable things we’ve found while travelling around Argentina is how some of the country’s most marvellous National Parks are relatively unknown.

We’ve all heard of Los Glaciares National Park with Mount Fitz Roy and Perito Moreno Glacier. And who hasn’t heard of Iguazu Falls? 

But what about Sierra de las Quijadas National Park? A little like Calel Lihue National Park, it’s another of Argentina’s hidden gems.

So you want to get off the tourist trail while visiting the infamous Mendoza wine region? Here’s your chance!

Argentina is made for road trips! It's perfect way to see this magnificent country.

If you fancy a road trip, regardless of the season, Argentina’s Lake District is nothing short of spectacular.

The 7 lakes route (Ruta de los Siete Lagos in Spanish), winds through gorgeous scenery of snow capped mountains, deep, cold lakes, lush native forest and gushing waterfalls.

And if you're short on time, it's short enough to drive in just 1 day! 

Here’s everything you need to know about driving Ruta de los Siete Lagos, Argentina. 

Imposing volcanoes, deep blue lakes, hiking trails and a Swiss ski village charm make San Martin de los Andes an idyllic setting to kick off your Patagonian adventure.

Not nearly as busy or built up as Bariloche, 190 kilometres further south, San Martin de los Andes is a more laid back alternative.

Resting on the shores of Lake Lácar and surrounded by Lanín National Park, the town caters well for both summer and winter visitors. 

Artisan chocolate and handicraft souvenirs sold from chalet style stores line the main street, alongside outdoor gear shops and empanada shacks.

And with the steep mountains throughout the national park, San Martín de los Andes is a fabulous winter skiing destination too. 

We’ve visited San Martin de los Andes 3 times in the past 2 years and have explored many of its attractions. 

This is a complete guide with everything you need to know from how to get there, where to stay and things to do in San Martin de los Andes, Argentina. 

Argentina has no less than 46 national parks. 

Many are well known like Iguazu, Tierra del Fuego and Los Glaciares. But Lihue Calel National Park is relatively unheard of.

It’s remote location deep in La Pampa province, means few passers by. With no big ticket natural wonders, or nearby popular tourist attractions, Lihue Calel National Park (Lihué Calel Nacional Parque in Spanish) doesn’t even make it onto a tour bus itinerary.

Right up our street then. 

Thousands upon thousands of kilometres of roads, tracks and trails sprawl out across the country. 

From the altitude sickness inducing Abra del Acay in the high Andes to the end of the world in Tierra del Fuego. 

From the wildlife mecca of Valdes Peninsula on the Atlantic coast to San Martin de los Andes in the Lake District in Patagonia.

One of the best ways to travel in Argentina is by road. You’ll have the flexibility to take the road less travelled and see sights not on any tour itinerary. 

But what is driving in Argentina like? How do you rent a car there? What are the rules of the road and how do you stay safe?

We’ve driven thousands of miles in Argentina along highways, local roads, ripio and tracks.

Here’s everything we’ve learned on those miles about driving in Argentina so you can plan your road trip with confidence.

El Chalten is one of the best places for hiking in Patagonia. Located inside Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina’s Santa Cruz province, the town lies in the shadow of one of the most famous views in all Patagonia.

While Mount Fitz Roy is the most well known landmark, there’s a lot more to discover in the area too.

When you get to the town, you’ll see many people taking on epic day hikes and multi-day treks. 

As the trekking capital of Patagonia, there’s no shortage of hiking opportunities to suit every level of fitness.

We’ve rounded up the best El Chalten tours and activities here so you can pick those that suit you best. 

Patagonia is enormous. Covering the entire southern cone of South America, Patagonia is over a million square kilometres.

From Bariloche in the north to Ushuaia in the south is a distance of almost 1600 kilometres as the crow flies. 

It’s surrounded by the world’s largest oceans, the high Andes Mountains, the Patagonian desert and Antarctica. So the climate differs drastically across the Patagonian seasons and the different regions within it.

Finding the best time to visit Patagonia is completely dependant on what you want to do when you get there.

Patagonia is, without doubt, where every adventure traveller wants to go right now. It isn’t really that much of a surprise why. 

Patagonia offers unparalleled adventures. Incredible landscapes, unique driving experiences and fantastic hiking opportunities. Enough to keep even the most intrepid traveller satisfied.

We’ve travelled through much of the southern half of South America. Our 5 months in Patagonia will forever be the highlight. So much so, we’re about to return for the autumn and winter period!

So, if you’re heading to Patagonia, you’re in for a real treat. Knowing what to pack will ensure you have a stress-free and unforgettable trip.

Here’s the only Patagonia packing list you need for a safe, dry and comfortable adventure.

Home to almost 3 million people and with as many tourists visiting each year, Buenos Aires is busy 24/7. 

The most popular attractions and neighbourhoods span out across the city. Getting to grips with the transport system helps tackle the vast city, save money and time too.

Fortunately, getting around Buenos Aires is surprisingly easy, especially with a little forward planning before you arrive.

Buenos Aires is a fabulous city with more than enough to fill even the longest of vacations. But right on the doorstep, there’s so much more to explore. 

Within an hour or two, you can live the gaucho dream, cruise the tropical waterways of the Tigre Delta or visit Uruguay – another country altogether.

We’ve pulled together these day trips from Buenos Aires to help you enrich your itinerary and explore what else is on offer beyond the capital. 

And if you want to go further afield for more than just 1 day, we have that covered too. 

The Argentinian economy is volatile in the extreme so as travellers, you need to understand how this affects your plans, budget and access to cash.

While some years ago, travel in Argentina for foreigners was especially expensive by Latin American standards, today it’s quite the opposite.

Visiting Argentina is much more affordable now than 2 years ago.

Here’s our guide to what you need to know about your travel money in Argentina.

Visiting a cemetery may not be on the top of many holiday bucket lists but this one is different.

As one of the most visited tourist attractions in the entire city, we’re not the only ones to think a visit to La Recoleta Cemetery should be on every Buenos Aires itinerary.

It’s considered one of the world’s most beautiful cemeteries, 2nd only to Père Lechaise in Paris.

The final resting place of Eva Perón and other notable Argentinians long since passed, we visited the famous cemetery in Buenos Aires to see what all the fuss is about.

Abra del Acay is a high Andean mountain pass in the Salta Province, Argentina. Climbing to almost 5000 metres above sea level, it’s as remote a stretch of Ruta 40 as one can find.

Even the exact altitude of the pass is debatable. The sign clearly states 4895m above seal level. The official figure is 4985m and our GPS told us 5050m. Whatever it is, it’s high up here.

For us and anyone else willing to brave the trail, Abra del Acay rewards with one of the most dramatic drives in all of Argentina. 

A short but incredibly worthwhile diversion from Argentina’s epic Ruta 40, the deep gorge of Atuel Canyon splits the landscape in two. 

It entices adventurous thrill seekers with phenomenal rapids, sheer cliffs faces and blustery lakes. 

Vultures and condors soar high above a landscape sculpted by wind, rain and melt water tumbling from far off glaciers.

And a gravel track twists, turns and climbs to the rim of the gorge, crosses a huge dam before steadily descending over the other side through spectacular rock formations and otherworldly views.

Quebrada de las Conchas is one of the most iconic drives in northern Argentina. 

Incredible rock formations line a 50 kilometre route through part of Calchaquí Valley to Cafayate. Striated, rainbow painted rock faces, canyons and at sunset, the entire landscape appears to glow.

Quebrada de las Conchas, also called Quebrada de Cafayate or Shell’s Gorge, is one of those things to do from Cafayate perhaps more memorable than even the wine tasting! And that’s saying something.

Originally called Nueva Chicago, as a nod to the American city’s meat trading past, Mataderos’ Sunday market is one of the best day trips from Buenos Aires city centre.

Closed to traffic, the streets are filled with stalls selling pretty much anything you may need with entertainment, gaucho games and traditional dancing all day long.

The Mataderos Barrio was once the place where gauchos, having driven their cattle from the countryside, would meet the city slickers to trade and barter over livestock.

So naturally a slaughterhouse was eventually built and around it, a community of urban gauchos began to flourish. 

The city’s oldest barrio, San Telmo is the heart of Buenos Aires.

Evidence of its rich history remains. Cobbled streets are tough on the ankles for those not wearing sensible shoes. 

Antique lamp posts still illuminate plazas, spilling their dim light onto couples performing impromptu tango dances.

The crumbling facades of once grand colonial mansions now house antique shops, restaurants and milongas. The rest serve as apartments, hotels and conventillos.

The air is filled with the aromas of Argentinian steaks cooking over hot parrillas and pepperoni from pizza houses run by 3rd generation Italians and the occasional unpleasant scent wafting from one of the neighbourhood’s down and outs.

It all adds up to a unique bohemian atmosphere – one we imagined in our mind’s eye before ever arriving in Argentina, let alone Buenos Aires. 

Lago General Carrera is one of the most surreal places to visit in Chile, if not the whole of Patagonia.

Surrounded by the peaks of the Andes Mountain range, the turquoise waters have a surface area of over 1800 square kilometres.

The glacial lake spans both Chile and Argentina with a little over half in Chile. While it’s called Lago General Carrera in Chile, the Argentinians call it Lake Buenos Aires.

Once the Carretera Austral was built – the road connecting Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins – access to the Chilean side of the lake opened up.

And with it, a world of opportunities for outdoor lovers.

In Buenos Aires, cafés aren’t just about coffee. 

Most intersections have at least one corner café-bar and each just has that look. You know the quintessential Buenos Aires street scene? 

A corner building with tables on the sidewalk to savour the morning caffeine hit with the daily papers under the shade of a leafy tree. A couple dancing the tango beneath lamplight as onlookers sip Malbec into the small hours.

Well, it isn’t a figment of a painters minds-eye. These places actually exist.

If you wander around Buenos Aires or Montevideo on any given Sunday evening, you’re never far from the sound of beating drums. 

Montevideo holds the world’s longest carnival and for 40 days, the sound of the candombe is ever present.

In some neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, small candombe gatherings spring up like flash mobs.

As the drumming drums, the dancing picks up. The troupe grows as the contagion slowly, step by step, parades through cobbled streets, picking up passers-by overwhelmed by the beat.

This is Candombe, Montevideo (or Buenos Aires) style. 

Any visit to San Telmo would be incomplete without wandering through the century old San Telmo market.

Not to be mistaken for the Sunday Feria de San Telmo, the Mercado de San Telmo opened for business in 1897. 

Designed by Juan Antonio Buschiazzo – the same chap that designed Recoleta cemetery – the indoor market oozes 19th century Italian architecture.

Wrought iron girders support a glass and metal sheet atrium. The flagstone floor’s so worn it sports a permanent high gloss sheen.

Travel in Patagonia, Argentina is a unique experience and more than lives up to expectations. We loved every minute of our journey.

We’ve created this guide to Argentina’s Patagonia guide to help fellow travellers prepare for their own unforgettable road trip in the southern reaches of South America.

You’ll find key information here as well as links to our articles to help you plan your route.

You’ll discover the unmissable spots, guides to important practical information to know before you set off and plenty of photos to make you realise how Argentinian Patagonia really is as diverse and beautiful as everyone says.

Rewilding Iberá National Park is a long term project to return Argentina’s wetlands to its former glory.

As visitors to the northern reaches of the park, we witnessed first hand, some of the project’s early successes.

Popular among Argentinians for its annual gaucho festival, San Antonio de Areco is barely visited by international tourists.

Indeed, until a few days before we arrived we hadn’t heard of the quiet centre of the Argentinian gaucho culture only 115 kilometres northwest of Buenos Aires.

Deep in the heart of Argentina’s Pampas, San Antonio de Areco isn’t a place to come for big ticket attractions.

There’s no dramatic mountains of the west, incredible wildlife of the north or phenomenal highlights such as those in the Argentinian Patagonia.

The variety of landscapes in the Argentinian Patagonia is as extreme as the distances involved in getting there.

Between the towering peaks of the Andes and the windswept pampas plains, Patagonia is an outdoor lovers paradise. Patagonia is unforgettable.

If you’re looking for inspiration or planning a trip to Argentina in the southern summer, Patagonia should be high up on your must see list.

Take a look at these highlights and share them with someone you’d travel here with. You’re going to love this place!

Visiting Iguazu Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world, is a deserving entry on any bucket list. And with over a million visitors each year on both the Brazilian and Argentinian side, Iguazu Falls is clearly on a lot of bucket lists.

Here’s everything you need to know to plan your visit.

Planning a trip to Misiones and Corientes in Argentina?

Then start here with our northeast Argentina road trip itinerary, with suggestions on where to stay, things to see and amazing waterfalls you can’t miss along the way.

The watery world of Misiones province in northeast Argentina is home to one of the planet’s most famous waterfalls – Iguazu Falls.

An amazing place, without doubt but it also leaves in its shadow many other waterfalls that without Iguazu just up the road, would be tourist hot spots too.

On our journey through the region, we explored a few, some quite popular, others less so.

The Guaraní Jesuit missions of Argentina are located in the northeastern province they gave name to Misiones. UNESCO declared the remains of the missions a World Heritage Cultural Site in 1984.

So we set out on a mission of our own, to discover what they’re all about.

The world’s 2nd largest wetlands seeps across 13000 square kilometres of northeastern Argentina. Not so much on the tourist trail and not too easy to get to, Esteros del Ibera wetlands is a mecca for wildlife enthusiasts.

We couldn’t resist a visit on our northbound journey.

Everywhere we’ve been in Uruguay and Argentina, people clutch thermos flasks under their arms and sip from a silver straw burrowed into a cup of green leaves.

Everywhere! They’re on the beaches, boat trips, in cars and on buses. This is the South American obsession with yerba mate.