Am thrilled to be traveling with my family (2 adults, 2 young teens) to Argentina for two weeks at the end of August and want to figure out a "smart" itinerary to maximize what we can see while not wearing us out (and breaking the bank!). Since it'll still be winter, we're thinking we'll focus mostly on the northern regions...

I'm worried we'll try to do too much!

Following are options that have sparked our interest:
--Buenos Aires (general sightseeing plus Futbol, Milongas, ...)
--Estancia stay w/horseback riding
--Tigre-Parana Delta (or should this be lower priority?)
--Iguazu Falls (should we include Saltos de Mocona or any of the Jesuit missions?)
--Valdez Peninsula
--Salta/Jujuy area (the kids would love to see dinosaur fossils, too... but are these farther south?)

Thank you for any advice you can offer!

Estancia stay w/horseback riding: check out http://tinyurl.com/3xna57

For Tigre/Paraná Delta, it could be a bit cold, but if you get a nice day, it would be great!

Most people do NOT include the Jesuit Missions when they go to Iguazú, but it could be a good idea!

Península de Valdés: probably too cold, during our winter. I would suggest researching the subject.

Salta/Jujuy: great, at that time of the year.

Flintstones is our resident unofficial expert on Salta. Are you there, Angie?

Have a great time in our country!

Thank you, avrooster!

Los Dos Hermanos sounds like an absolute must! I'm very excited!

Now I'm really wondering if we should simplify our itinerary... maybe 4-5 days in Buenos Aires, 2-3 days at Los Dos Hermanos, 2-3 days in Misiones, then 2-3 days in the Salta area? Sounds like you would suggest Salta over Valdes at that time of year. That would also leave us some flexibility to do other day trips around Gran BsAs if the weather permits.

Also... it seems that overnight bus travel is the way to get around economically and in reasonable comfort. Do you agree?

Thanks again!

Dos Hermanos is wonderful to ride on horse. Is that what you would like to do?

I would suggest flying, but, if you are on a budget, you could use buses, but it may prove to be tiresome.

There is a trip report over on TripAdvisor from "ihopeihelped," who stayed in the Salta region with her teen. She stayed on the estancia Los Bordos de Lanzas (sp?)and did excursions from there.

I would suggest that 2-3 days is not enough for the Salta region, though. I don't know anything about the other places (except BsAs) you are thinking of visiting to suggest what to delete, although IMO, you could cut your time in BsAs to 3-4 days; also if you stayed on an estancia in the north, you would not need to do that near BsAs.

When we visited Argentina in November (without kids), we had only 8 nights total, and we decided to allocate it 3 in BsAs, and 5 in Salta, and I am really glad we did it that way.

In terms of the sights we saw up north, if I had gone with my kids, I think I would put the priority on the northern loop rather than the southern one -- don't miss Purmamarca (being sure to walk in the hills behind the village), Tilcara has great Inca ruins high on a plateau. We didn't go to the salt flats, so I can't comment on that.

You will also want to visit the city of Salta itself, although I think you can do that in half a day if time is short -- go in the afternoon, take the gondola up to the park above the city, then have dinner in town, walking around to soak up the atmosphere, staying to see one of the folkloric music shows at the penas if your kids would be into that.

We also did the southern circuit, driving the fabulous, but slow and hair raising route to Cachi, then continuing on to Colome and south to Cafayate. If you extended your time in the region to a week, say, then I would put this on your must-do list. It is a long drive, but it is fabulous, and we saw a good bit of wildlife along the way.

Or, if you have time to also go south, but don't want that long a drive, you can also just travel up and back to Cafayate, which is along a paved road, but the main attraction of this is just the one part through the wind-carved quebrada. This is pretty cool, though, but you must go with a guide so that the different formations are pointed out to you and you know which ones to stop and see and go inside. There is one that you can climb up the rock face on and a natural amphitheater where musicians often hang out in, giving improptu performances.

Some of your planning must depend on how much time you want to spend in the car with your kids.

I am glad to know you are thrilled about this trip! You should be!

This is excellent advice and thank you also for pointing me to the TripAdvisor threads! I will take to heart your sage advice re: extended car travel with kids. LOL One of mine is prone to car sickness, so we're already thinking we should avoid winding mountain passes!

In case you are interested, I wrote in TA a very long report about my visit to Salta last July:

http://tinyurl.com/jsgu8

Thank you! We've also enlisted help from Mercedes at Argentina Escapes (found her through postings on this forum!). I just wish we had more than 2 weeks!!