BA/wine country/Igauzzu or Santiago/Atacama or Easter Island
 

I am in the very preliminary stages of planning a trip to SA for early 2009 (maybe Feb). Neither my husband nor I have ever been to SA and would have about 8 days on the ground. But I can't decide between Chile and Argentina!
If we did Chile I think we would want to do Santiago, the surrounding wine country and either Easter Island or Atacama.
If we did Argentina I think we would want to do BA, the wine country and Iguazzu.
We are both wine lovers and would really like to have some element of relaxation on this trip. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

8 days does not really give enough time for a relaxing trip including Buenos Aires, Mendoza ( for Wine) and Iguazu. The time would go further in Chile, but not if you want to include Easter Island. Distances are long, you are sort of including 8 days travel out of your eight. I would suggest BA and Iguazu or Santiago and Atacama.

I agree, that's a lot to pack in 8 days. I personally would recommend going to Argentina (I've visited BA & Mendoza and loved them both), I wasn't all that enthralled with the Chilean food (heavily German influenced) or culture in comparison to Argentina. Also, your dollars go further in Argentina.

There are excellent French, Italian, Japanese, Chine, Indian, Spanish restaurants in Santiago as well as in Argentina great places for steak.

JMGJD:

No doubt you would have a great time in either place, my wife and I certainly did.

We were in Chile once and Argentina 4 times, going again next January/March so it is easy to guess our preference.

Iguazzu is terrific. See it from both the Argentine and Brazilian sides and again from the water. It will be a different experience at each.

We spent a month in Buenos Aires and were never bored so I suggest that you visit only these two places with the time frame you have.

We also visited Mendoza and it is a nice town but not being wine lovers, we did not get the pleasure out of it that you might. One warning about Mendoza. Stay away from Baco Tours. They had us reserved [and paid for] at a better place but shuttled us to four different accommodations [lesser places] with no cost adjustment. Their tour guide was young and did not know as much as we did. Very disappointing there. I think that they have their tourism too good.

Having vented that, we did enjoy Argentina very much and most often found the people to be friendly and trying very hard that we should enjoy their country.

What ever you decide, you are sure to enjoy.

Good luck.

Woodie

I would vote for Santiago, the surrounding wine country, and Easter Island (no more than 3 nights). ((*))

Winelovers????First american I met were winelovers and they really loved the NW of Argentina, definitelly Argentina is the paradise in SA, and the prices are also more convenient.
The NW has also the worldwide famous torrontes wine which survived by chance in this area.
Flintstones

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