Argentina

Argentina is big, and one trip will not cover it. Readers usually arrive here with a flight already bought or nearly chosen, and realize that a whole country lies between the capital and the southern parks. You need to decide how many days to give Buenos Aires, whether to head south to the glaciers and mountains, and what to pay for in advance. Distances here are long, and getting the order of your transfers wrong costs time. We have gathered guides that help you work through these decisions one by one.

Most of the guides are about Buenos Aires. There is a one-week city itinerary with tickets and practical advice, and a short selection of five places for a first visit. A separate piece explains how to arrange the trip without a tour operator: the flight, transport within the country and the neighborhoods of the capital. Another guide covers souvenirs and where to look for them in the city. These pieces are enough to plan the city part of your trip.

The second large part of the section deals with nature parks. We go through the trails to Fitz Roy from El Chaltén and how paid entry to the park works. The guide to Los Glaciares describes tickets, the road to the Perito Moreno Glacier and an overnight stay in El Calafate. There is also a piece on the Valley of the Moon: tickets, opening hours, the route around the grounds. Each park has its own entry rules, and we describe them separately. For a general introduction to the country, try the collection of facts about Argentina.

Every guide opens with a short answer to the main question, and the details follow below. Practical information is set out in separate blocks: tickets, getting there, time needed for the visit, what to pay for in advance. Next to every price and timetable we give the source and the date it was checked. We are direct about the downsides: long transfers, paid entry, mountain routes that depend on the weather. The texts are light on adjectives, but they make clear what to do once you are there.

The section is meant for people who plan their trip independently and want to understand the logistics before they fly. It is useful both for a first visit to Buenos Aires and for preparing hiking routes in the south of the country. If you are looking for a ready-made guided tour, these guides are unlikely to suit you. We write for those who put together their own route and buy their own tickets.

We suggest starting with the guide to traveling without a tour operator. It gives the overall picture: how to get there, how to get around and which neighborhood of the capital to stay in. Then open the one-week Buenos Aires itinerary or the selection of places for a first visit, depending on how many days you have. After that, move on to the parks and pick the ones that fit your time frame. The piece on souvenirs is best read last, closer to departure.

Argentina belongs to the "South America" section, which in turn is part of the general "Destinations" section. On the same level you will find the sections "Brazil", "Peru" and "Venezuela". If you are building a route through several countries on the continent, it makes sense to look at those too. That makes it easier to compare logistics and work out how many days to leave for each country. Argentina has no subsections, and all the guides are gathered in a single list.

Park entry prices, timetables and visiting rules change, so we come back to the texts we have published. When updating, we check the details against the official websites of the parks and carriers and set a new verification date. If we could not confirm something, we say so in the text. Before buying tickets, look at the original source anyway: it is named in the guide.

The section grows gradually, and new guides follow the same principle. We do not retell entry rules, insurance and medical matters from memory: that information has to be checked with the official sources of your country and of Argentina. In the guides we show what exactly to look for and where it is published. Choose the piece that answers your most immediate question and move on from there. A route comes together faster when decisions are made one at a time.