🇦🇷 South America
Travel guide: from the Iguazú Falls to the Patagonian lake district, from the multicoloured North of Salta and Jujuy to the tango of Buenos Aires. A country-continent with rainforest, mountains, glaciers and sea. Argentina is the second-largest country in South America and one of the most diverse in the world: on a single trip you can go from the subtropical jungle of Misiones to the Patagonian glaciers, and from the coloured hills of the North to the Atlantic beaches. Here you have everything you need to plan your trip. 👇
Argentina is a country-continent that on a single trip hands you subtropical jungle, ancient glaciers, hills of seven colours, vineyards at the foot of the Andes, Atlantic beaches and one of the most captivating cities in the Americas: Buenos Aires, the birthplace of tango. It is the second-largest country in South America and one of the most diverse in the world, almost 3,700 km from north to south. For the Latin American traveller it has a double appeal: the cultural closeness of the language and the asado, and at the same time the surprise of Patagonian landscapes that exist nowhere else in the region.
It pays to think in regions, because the distances are enormous: the multicoloured North (Salta, Jujuy, the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the Salinas Grandes); the Litoral with the Iguazú Falls and the Iberá Wetlands; Cuyo, the land of wine and Aconcagua (Mendoza); Córdoba and the hills of the centre; Buenos Aires and the pampas; and the undisputed star, Patagonia, with Bariloche and the lakes, the Perito Moreno glacier at El Calafate, the trekking of El Chaltén and Ushuaia, the end of the world. Almost nobody covers more than two or three regions in one trip.
The best of Argentina is that combination of colossal nature and human warmth: the ritual of mate and asado, the football passion, the nightlife that starts late. What surprises people is the scale of Patagonia and how far away everything is, which is why flying ends up being key. And what you have to understand before you travel is the whole business of exchange rates and prices, which in Argentina follow a logic of their own.
The local currency is the Argentine peso ($). Its rate against the dollar moves often, so it is worth checking the day's value. 💡 Traveller's tip: paying with a foreign card usually gets you a good exchange rate, and it always helps to carry some US dollars in cash.
Full converter for ARS →✈️ By air: the main gateway is Buenos Aires, with two airports: Ezeiza (EZE) for international flights and Aeroparque (AEP), right next to the city centre, for domestic and regional flights. 🛫 Airlines: Aerolíneas Argentinas (the flag carrier), Flybondi and JetSMART (low-cost), plus LATAM, American, United, Iberia, Air Europa, Copa, Gol and Azul from abroad. 🔁 Domestic flights: almost all domestic services go through Aeroparque (Buenos Aires). From there you can reach Iguazú, Bariloche, El Calafate, Ushuaia, Mendoza, Salta, Jujuy, Córdoba, Puerto Madryn and more. Because the country is enormous, on long distances flying saves you whole days.
Argentina is so long that the best time to go depends entirely on the region. For Patagonia (Bariloche, El Calafate, El Chaltén, Ushuaia, the Valdés Peninsula) the ideal season is the southern summer, December to March, with long days, milder weather and every service open; it is also high season, with higher prices and the need to book ahead. The Patagonian winter (June to September) works for skiing in Bariloche and Las Leñas, but many trails and roads stay closed by snow.
For the North (Salta, Jujuy, the Quebrada) and the Iguazú Falls, autumn and winter are the ones to aim for, April to October, when it rains less and the heat eases off; in summer the North is very hot and the rain can cut off roads. Buenos Aires and the centre are best in spring (September-November) and autumn (March-May), with pleasant temperatures; the porteño summer is humid and many locals leave on holiday, and the winter is cold but manageable. If wildlife interests you, mark the whale season in Puerto Madryn (June to December).
Argentine cooking revolves around meat and around lingering at the table. The unmissable list: the asado (with cuts like tira de asado short ribs, vacío flank and entraña skirt, plus offal such as chinchulines and sweetbreads), the empanadas (salteñas, tucumanas, every region with its own version), the pasta of Italian heritage (Sundays of gnocchi and ravioli), the deep-pan porteño-style pizza, the choripán from a street cart and, for dessert, pancakes and artisan ice cream that are among the best in the world. To drink: mate (a social ritual more than a drink), Malbec wine, and the inevitable Fernet with Coke.
Prices in dollars have gone up in recent years, so Argentina is no longer the dirt-cheap destination of the old days, though it is still reasonable. A meal at a neighbourhood parrilla or a popular restaurant runs around 8,000-16,000 pesos per person (about 8-16 USD); a choripán or a slice of pizza on the street, a few dollars; dinner at a good restaurant, 20-40 USD per person. The usual tip is 10% and is left in cash even if you pay by card (it is not normally included). Tip: eat where there is a queue of Argentines and try the midday 'menú ejecutivo', which goes a long way. Figures verified July 2026.
Argentina is one of the safest countries in South America for tourism, with the usual urban caution above all in Greater Buenos Aires and some areas of the big cities: the main risk is pickpocketing and opportunistic theft (pickpockets on public transport, motorbike snatchers in certain neighbourhoods). Basic rules: do not flash your phone or valuables in the street, watch your belongings on the subte, on buses and in tourist areas like La Boca (visit by day and stay on Caminito), and use ride-hailing apps or trusted taxis and remises at night. The interior provinces and Patagonia are very quiet.
On health, Argentina has a good standard of care and the tap water is drinkable and safe in Buenos Aires and the main cities (you can drink it without a problem). There are no compulsory vaccines to enter; the yellow fever vaccine is only recommended if you are going to the Iguazú Falls and the Misiones rainforest. At altitude (the Puna of Salta and Jujuy, the Salinas Grandes at more than 3,400 m) altitude sickness can appear, so go up gradually and keep hydrated. Travel insurance is advisable because treatment at private clinics has to be paid for. Emergencies: 911 across the country, and a tourist assistance line, 0800-999-5000, with service in several languages. Verified July 2026.
Argentina has stopped being the ultra-cheap destination it was a few years ago: with the economy stabilising, dollar prices are back to normal levels for the region. As a reference (verified July 2026): a backpacking trip runs on 40-60 USD a day, a mid-range one on 80-140 USD a day, and with 180 USD or more you travel comfortably. Patagonia (El Calafate, Ushuaia, Bariloche in season) is noticeably more expensive than the rest of the country because of the logistics; Buenos Aires, the North and the centre are more affordable.
Concrete examples: a hostel bed costs between 12 and 25 USD; a budget double room, between 35 and 70 USD (more in Patagonia). A meal at a neighbourhood parrilla comes to 8-16 USD and dinner at a good restaurant, 20-40 USD. Urban transport is cheap: the subte and the bus in Buenos Aires cost a little over half a dollar with the SUBE card. Long-distance buses are comfortable (cama and semicama seats) but given the distances many people fly: a domestic flight booked in advance (Buenos Aires-Bariloche or El Calafate) can run 60-140 USD with Aerolíneas, Flybondi or JetSMART. Admission to the Falls or to the Perito Moreno for foreigners is around 30-45 USD. These are reference values.
The language is Spanish, in its Rioplatense variety: 'vos' instead of 'tú', the constant 'che', the 'sh' sound for ll and y (lluvia comes out as 'shuvia'), and a vocabulary of its own ('laburo' is work, 'quilombo' is a mess, 'copado' is great, 'boludo' can be an insult or a term of affection depending on the tone). Spanish speakers understand each other without any trouble, though porteño lunfardo slang takes some learning. Argentines are warm, talkative and passionate; mate is shared as a gesture of friendship and the clock runs late: dinner is at 9-10 pm and the night starts after midnight.
The electricity is 220 V with type C sockets (two round European pins) and type I (three flat pins in a V, the typical Argentine/Australian plug), so you may need an adapter. For connectivity, get an eSIM or a local SIM from Claro, Movistar or Personal; coverage is good in the cities and tourist towns, less so in deep Patagonia. On money, one key tip for the traveller: paying with a foreign card now gets the official exchange rate with no surcharges (the taxes that used to inflate it were repealed), so it is worth using a card; even so, carry some dollars or pesos in cash for markets, tips and small towns. Download the transport app and get the SUBE card to get around Buenos Aires.
Argentine history is that of a colossal territory —the eighth largest country on the planet, with almost 2.8 million square kilometers running from the Andean altiplano to the southern ice fields— inhabited for more than ten thousand years by dozens of Indigenous peoples profoundly different from one another. Over that immense geography the Spanish crown wove, from the sixteenth century onwards, a poor and disconnected periphery, tied more to the silver of Potosí than to the Atlantic, which only in 1776 became the seat of a viceroyalty of its own with its capital in Buenos Aires. From that late offspring of the empire would be born, after the May Revolution of 1810 and the independence sworn at Tucumán in 1816, a nation that took more than four decades of civil wars to settle into a stable shape.
The country that organized itself under the Constitution of 1853 threw itself into an agro-export project that, between 1880 and 1930, received one of the largest waves of immigration in history —millions of Italians, Spaniards and people from half of Europe— and came to rank among the most prosperous economies in the world. That dizzying rise coexisted with the founding violence of the Conquest of the Desert, with a restricted political order and with inequalities that the twentieth century would try to correct with universal suffrage, radicalism and, above all, Peronism.
Read the full history of Argentina →Pick a region and open each destination to see what to do, prices and how to get there.
These are the sources we cite most across this country's guides, with how many times each appears. Hard data —tickets, opening hours, requirements, transport— comes from the official source and carries the date we checked it. Restaurant and hotel picks come from guides and reviews, and we say so on each page.
