10 Days In Argentina: The Must-See Travel Guide
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10 Days In Argentina Travel Guide
After entering Argentina through the Chile border, we settled in Mendoza (wine capital) first. This was also where we had our second (and final) Couchsurfing experience! Then we headed over to cool Buenos Aires before making a swift exit through the EPIC Iguazu Falls as we hadn’t quite realised how expensive Argentina was compared to other South American countries haha. Sadly, we couldn’t explore as much as we wanted because our budget simply didn’t allow it, and it’s pretty huge so we just stayed in Northern Argentina but we will definitely be back one day to explore Patagonia and the awesome Glaciares National Park with the Perito Moreno glacier.
Here’s our must-see travel guide for an awesome 10 day itinerary in Argentina:
WHERE WE visited
We knew we definitely wanted to see the city of Buenos Aires and then either coffee country or wine country. We decided on the latter because wine is more fun haha and also on a slightly straighter trajectory towards Buenos Aires which is good to bear in mind if you’re on a time and cash budget like we were. For some reason, we weren’t even 100% sold on Iguassu Falls but DO NOT by any means miss this absolutely epic wonder of nature!
In total we saw:
Visiting MENDOZA
We went here first because it’s fairly close to the border and had read that it was a pretty town modeled after Roman cities, with plenty of waterways and trees and, of course, wine! The wine truly is delicious, but beware- it packs a punch! Mostly you’ll be drinking Malbec at extremely wallet-friendly prices.
When we arrived it was mid-afternoon and didn’t know that their siesta lasts until about 5-6pm! So bear this in mind if you’re hungry and in desperate need of food, like we were haha. Also, at the time, Argentina had currency difficulties so it was quite difficult to withdraw cash using our international debit cards (HSBC) and travel credit cards. If you can, it could be wise to get cash exchanged beforehand. Apparently, the profitable blue dollar cambios can still be done but we didn’t try this out for ourselves.
With our second Couchsurfing experience we had a great time! Our host, Guido, was super nice and friendly. He gave us our own set of keys and had dinner with us on the first night. He also had two amazing (albeit incredibly excitable) dogs and two cats. One cat, La Negra, was the oldest and hated the fact that there were now other animals in her house, and the other, Botones, legit looked like a boxer. He had definitely been around the block a few times.
We had a bit of a mishap with them one night though because Guido was away and asked us to put the animals out in the garden when we got back home. Long story short, chaos ensued, mainly due to La Negra, who subsequently ended up doing a poo on his bed! We still to this day don’t know how she managed to open his door…
We found Mendoza pleasant to stroll around but it didn’t offer anything incredibly exciting or unique for us. There’s a really nice park in the centre and some beautiful old buildings around. When we were there we met up with our friends from the Salt Flats and happened across a (tiny) Gay Pride! Coupled with excellent, cheap Malbec, needless to say, we had a great final night haha.
We also tried to do a wine tour whilst there but they’re actually a bit of a drive from Mendoza and are more expensive than we had anticipated. So, on advice from our Couchsurfing host, we got a local bus to the outskirts of town where we could do some wine tasting. Having only ever done wine tasting in Italy, however, it was very different from what we were used to. The main offices/wine tasting areas are all along the main road and the vineyards themselves are in a different location, as opposed to being in the thick of it altogether. We still had a great time nonetheless with a tiny warehouse office we found still open in the late afternoon and an elderly man proudly explaining all his wines to us. We wouldn’t recommend it, however, and suggest going for one of the day tours instead- or hiring bikes if you feel up to it!
visiting BUENOS AIRES
We arrived in Buenos Aires with one goal in mind - to try an Argentinian steak! Normally we follow a mainly plant-based diet but this seemed like one of those opportunities we couldn’t pass up on. We spent aaaaages looking up recommendations and researching what the best restaurants claiming to be were. In the end we were just too overwhelmed with choice and ended up picking one with a combination of quality, price and overall ambience- and we weren’t disappointed! It was called Las Cabras in the hipster district, Palermo Hollywood. We loved walking around here, and the whole of Buenos Aires reminded us a bit of a combination of London and Paris. Another area we loved was the low-key Palermo Soho. It seemed to be great for shopping here as well.
We stayed at the deceptively fancy looking B&B Viejo Telmo, with a lovely roof terrace. It was also right around the corner from the great San Telmo street market but there’s plenty of hotels around here. We loved it there! So full of cool vibes, people, objects and snacks. If you walk the full length of it you’ll end up in the main Plaza with the pretty pink government building.
Another thing we saw which we recommend is La Recoleta Cemetery! It’s like a mini-mausoleum town and Evita Paron is buried here. Also, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes was pretty cool.
Overall we loved the general feel of Buenos Aires, we found it really cool and laid-back, and everyone was super friendly. One thing we missed out on because we were just so exhausted from all the 12+ hours of walking a day we did was a tango show!! Definitely try and check out a show (starting from about £20) and a lesson if you can! They do all start after 11pm though so there’s also street performers tangoing which is awesome if you’re not a night owl, like us haha.
incredible IGUAZU FALLS
The last, but certainly not least, stop in Argentina was the AMAZING Iguassu Falls national park. This was one of our top things in the whole of South America (maybe even our lives)! We were totally blown away but its grandeur and raw, natural beauty. The immense power of the water was so epic, especially in areas close to the water such as at the Devil’s Throat – it is SO loud! This is one activity we highly recommend doing!
When researching how to get there beforehand we found it a bit confusing and so ended up staying in a random place quite far from the bus station. Once you get off the main road from there you are pretty much in the sticks, not even our taxi driver could find it! Leaving us wandering around in 40-degree heat… eventually, we found our accommodation in someone’s back garden among loads of chickens. The insects around there are HUMUNGOUS as well. We think it’s maybe all the extra oxygen?? Who knows, but I wouldn’t mess with them.
To get to the Falls we ended up taking what we didn’t realise at the time was a private taxi so do your research beforehand and make sure you definitely get a shared combi or public bus! Once arrived it feels a bit like a theme park, complete with mini train, but it gets much more untouched, except for the walkways, the further in you go. There are maps at the entrance so make sure you pick yourselves up one of these before you enter and give yourselves PLENTY of time to wander around, you definitely don’t want to miss out on anything! Some routes are quite long. There are also tickets valid for 2 days so this could be a good option for you, starting prices are from about £13 each for non-nationals, and the park is open from about 8am-6pm depending on which side you enter from.
Depending on the weather also dictates whether you can have access to certain parts, for example the water was very high when we went which meant that the boat to the little island in the middle of the water was off limits, but at the same time we were incredibly close to the water at the Devil’s Throat which made it worth it for us!
There’s also loads of awesome animals around the whole site to see from monkeys to capybaras to iguanas to racoon-types we don’t know the name of and more. If you’re feeling fancy, there’s a hotel directly in the middle of the park you can stay at too. If not, the café nearby is open to everyone and they also have souvenirs at the entrance.
One thing we would not recommend is walking back to the main entrance instead of taking the mini-train. We thought it would be fun but after remembering we had seen posters warning about cougar and crocodile mauling, we were pretty terrified (although neither told the other at the time so as not to freak each other out haha).
Overall we had a thoroughly good time here and are sure you will too! This can definitely be done in a full day trip but they do have multiple tickets available.
So that’s our 10 days must-see Argentina itinerary. Whilst we were disappointed we couldn’t see more, we were also satisfied with what we had seen, and looked forward to moving onto Brazil as well! If you’ve been to Argentina let us know in the comments below what your must-sees are and we’ll add them to our list for the future!
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