Anyone been to Argentina ?

Nothing useful but in terms of safety BA was one of the better places to visit despite the poverty we saw.

I'd love to go back and see the place properly rather than a few hours on shore, well jealous now!

The Iguazu Falls are expletiveing spectacular - really worth considering.

Buenos Aires is a great place to visit. Wouldn’t hang around in La Boca because of petty crime but pretty much everywhere else is good.

Very cheap at the moment. May as well tick off Santiago while you’re out that way as it’s a very different city but good in its own way.

BA is a great city with loads to see and do. In Patagonia, El Calfate is the main tourist town but El Chalten is a small town right at the base of Fitzroy and there is loads of good walking there. I enjoyed Ushuaia too, if only for the fact of where it is and for camping in Tierra del Fuego national park.

All my information is about 20 years old but I can dig out my diary if it helps at all. I'd go back in an instant.

Spent 3 months touring around Argentina about 8 years ago. Probably the best 3 months of my life!

Don't discount buses as a way to get around. The ones for getting between cities are kitted out like business/first class aeroplanes so definitely not slumming it.

Buenos Aires is an amazing city. So much going on it's hard to know where to start. San Telmo and Palermo were probably my favourite areas, but you can't go far wrong really (although I'd agree with comment abovd about La Boca unless you're desperate to see the football stadium).

Rosario is close to Buenos Aires (relatively) and definitely worth the trip for a slightly more chilled out city.

I also got the boat across the Rio Plata and spent a week in Montevideo, Uruguay. Lovely city, lovely people, lovely beaches!

Mendoza is a great place to go sample the local wine, and pretend to be a gaucho for a bit. Also really good access to the Andes from here if you want to feel really tiny. I think this is where I did white water rafting by moonlight. Unforgettable experience!

Salta is a beautiful little city, again with access to Andes. There's a museum on the main plaza where you can see a sacrificed kid left up a mountain as a sacrifice. Morbid, but fascinating.

Bariloche. Apart from the obvious alpine inspired centre the city isn't all that, but there's a gorgeous little tour you can do by bike called Circuito Chico. Other than that there's lots of big mountains and lakes to explore.

Iguacu is indeed spectacular, but it's a long way out and there's not much else going on nearby.

I could go on and on but F1 qualifying is about to start!

Anything in particular you're wanting to do/see? City and culture or wild and epic!?

Thanks guys, excellent tips!  One question is around when is best to go? I’ve read that autumn colours in Patagonia are a good target, but will that work out for other areas? I think MrsJ is most keen to see tango in Buenos Aires whereas I’m thinking more of seeing glaciers and Fitzroy 🙂 but the Andean villages look stunning. Also I’m wary of trying to see too much at a superficial level.

Absolutely right about not trying to do too much. For a month I'd try to pick 2 or 3 places to get stuck in to, and leave the rest for next time.

I was there February to May so caught the end of summer going into autumn. Was good to see the seasons change a bit, then come back to decent weather at home.

If either of you speak a bit of Spanish you'll almost certainly have a better time. You could get by just fine without, but the little I'd learnt before going got me places I wouldn't have got to otherwise.

September is the start of tourist season. Some flights are summer only so you might have to route via BA so I would go closer to Christmas rather than our summer. You can also expect to get your flights changed and very little help from airlines. For that reason I would book through an agent. My native Spanish speaking gf really struggled with airline ineptness.

Perito Moreno glacier is a great day trip from El Calafate but there isn’t much else there. El Chalten is good for hiking and worth going to.

Iguazu is a must visit and I would say go to the Brazilian side as well. It’s different enough to be worth doing both.

Learn about the currency black market and take dollars or euros with you. Pounds are useless.

I didn’t go to Salta but that is the one place I regret missing out on. For me the wine is better than Mendoza and there seems to be plenty to see.

In BA my favourite area was San Telmo which is pretty touristy but if you’ve not been then I think that’s ok. La Boca was also touristy in a Camden Market kind of way.

Tick...

Nothing to add but Patagonia/Fitzroy is on my bucket list so interested in other things Argentina as well.

I visited for a short break in 2016. Would love to go back. My wife had a conference in Buenos Aeres and rented an Airbnb in town which was amazing. Well worth researching. BA was great to walk round and see. Some dancing, some drinking red wine and eating steak. The Las Malvinas memorial was a reminder of how many lost their lives on the Argentine side.

Debbie had a proper polo lesson in Argentina which was great fun.

Then flew out to Mendoza. Lovely place to mooch around. Did a cycling wine tour ( they offers us a car on the day because it was due to rain about 0.3 m!) Sad that due to flying couldn’t bring back more. Just had to drink it. Then did a bus trip up into the Andes to see Aconcagua. Driver was really worried when I turned up in shorts and didn’t seem reassured that I would be fine because I was Scottish. Saw Condors, leant my puffer jacket to a Brazilian lady who was cold.

Ate more steak and drank more red wine  put on over 2 kilos in a week!

I would say knowing a bit of Spanish is a good idea as out of BA English isn’t that well spoken

Had a couple of months there back in about 2005. Enjoyed visiting Tigre and all the little waterways up around north BsAs there, definitely good for a few days. And odd to see the English parts- all rowing clubs and English language newspapers!

The posh areas all felt very safe. I also enjoyed the 'regular' suburbs like Quilmes (had a couple of great nights out there) but would hesitate to recommend them without a local guide - it's easy to wander into some pretty rough areas by accident.

Really enjoyed a weekend in Colonia, it's a couple of hours by boat but made me want to see more of Uruguay. Such an incredibly chilled atmosphere.

We went to a small town called Esquel just south of bariloche, surrounded by hills. We went skiing there but it's also good for hiking and touring around. Also a good base for visiting the Welsh villages and the National park 'los alerces' which is pretty spectacular.

And as mentioned, the buses really aren't bad. It's a while ago but in 2005 first class was cheap even for a 20-something backpacker, and very comfortable. A million times better than National Express. Consider it for the shorter journeys - as nice as it is, it still gets pretty old after 20 hours or so!!

Been a couple of times, once for our honeymoon and once with work, both around 10 years ago. Would highly recommend and would love to go back. Have done Buenos Aires, Patagonia (El Calafate), Mendoza (and up in the hills towards thr border), Colonia. All were great and still feels we only scratched the surface but it's such a big country and didn't want to cram too much in. +1 for buses to get around, we also used plane for Patagonia and some hire cars in the Andes.

Thanks once again everyone. To clarify something, and hopefully not get into the realm of "too much information", my aversion to buses is due to a guts situation - IBS - so any (delicate) advice about that welcomed !!

Get ready for a diet that is mainly steak!  Try and figure what causes your IBS before you go and avoid it when you're there.

Car rental is relatively expensive and the coaches are good but you go to their times and not your own.  With a month to play with I don't think that's such a big deal.  If you do rent a car make sure you plan to refuel as petrol stations can be 150 miles apart.

my aversion to buses is due to a guts situation – IBS – so any (delicate) advice about that welcomed !!

Trying to remember what they were like when I was there!

IIRC, first class is downstairs, there are only about 9 seats on the lower deck, and you're right next to the bog, which was - I think - reasonably tolerable. There were a couple of times when I was the only person in first class anyway.

But what I can't remember is whether the upstairs deck had their own loo, or shared that one. Anyone with better memories than me care to weigh in?