What is best routing to see Salta area, both north and south?
 

We will have a six or seven nights during the first week in April 2006,in Salta area on our first trip to Argentina. We are trying to see as much as possible up to Humahuaca and then down to Cafayate, without too many "one night stands" Is there a way to stay centrally, say in Salta itself, and do that, or are the distances too far? Many thanks. You guys are the real experts as far as I'm concerned.

Please, all you Argentinian experts, I need to make some decisions, and I don't know the distances or road conditions in the area of Salta, and want to see as much as possible? Help! Thanks.

I think what I'm doing is "topping" just to see if any Argentine experts can help me. Muchas gracias.

Betsy,

We returned last month from a trip to Argentina during which time we spent 5 days in the Salta area and rented a car for 4 of the days. The area is absolutely beautiful and we loved our time in Northwest Argentina.

Since you're staying longer than we did, I might recommend the following if you're looking not to change hotels every day:

Day 1: Take the 6:00 am flight to Salta, rent a car and head to Humahuaca, stopping along the way at Tilcara. Stay 1 night in Humahuaca.

Day 2: Drive back to Salta, stoppig to see Purmamarca and other interesting towns along the way. Stay in Salta

Day 3: Get up early and drive to towards Cachi, turn around when you get to the highest point in the mountains and head back to Salta. Note: we stayed the night in Cachi, but it was very uneventful and not worth the extra drive in my estimation. We also made the drive from Cafayate to Cachi, which was over 100 miles on dusty, dry gravel roads going aprox 25 miles per hour. I would not recommend doing that drive.) Stay the night in Salta.

Day 4 Enjoy Salta and stay the night in Salta.

Day 5: Drive to Cafayate. Enjoy the town and the drive. Stay in Cafayate.

Day 6: Explore vineyards and the ruins south of Cafayate. Stay in Cafayate.

Day 7: Drive back towards Salta and take an afternoon flight out.

Please let me know if I can provide any other informaiton.








2 days in Cafayate, taking a day to enjoy the beautiful drive to the town from Salta, a second day to explore the area, including the Quilmes,south of town, and then a half day to drive back to Salta.

1 day driving to Humahuaca

Note: Please ignore the bottom few lines of information on my last post. I failed to delete those notes.

vandykes44: Thanks for the great thoughts on driving the Salta area. You've mentioned a lot of the places we want to go - your post was a SUPER help. Can you remember where you stayed in those towns? I've heard the Solar de la Plaza is very nice in Salta itself.

Looks like a great itinerary. The one thing I would add is make sure one of the nights you spend in Salta is Friday or Saturday, since you won't want to miss the music and dancing on the Balcarce. Starts at 10:00 and goes til dawn. Also, avoid driving in Salta. It's pretty crazy. In fact, you might want to hire someone to do the driving in the region, especially if you want to get off the beaten path. I have some suggestions on my rumpled guide to Salta: www.saltatravel.com .

Rumpled in NY

Sorry, i have just seen your questions.
This is my late contribution i am afraid.

1.- Driving your car is not easy, not recommendable in many areas you would like to visit. The best route is the Cafayate-Salta and you will be doing it without any problem.

One thing is the distance between one city and another and another thing is to drive that distance. People get lost and sometimes the weather doesnt help.

The Government of the Province says the difficulty is grade 3 in some of the routes. specially if you go to Tucuman which is the neighbouring province, drivers should be people who know the way.

If your plan is to visit

Purmamarca,Tilcara and all the cities in JUJUY. why dont you land in Jujuy airport. you would avoid going there later. Purmamarca or Tilcara or Maimara deserve 2 nights. Make a base in any of them and move around.

Then your trip will start in the north and you will come south.

It is good to make a base in Salta city but if you have time, stay 2 nights in Cachi and Cafayate and avoid the unnecessary time lost when you go to Salta.

Hope it helped.
Good luck, you will love Salta as we do.

Hi RumpledTraveler: Thanks for the tip about music. That's an interesting website. good info.
Hi also to Milla - your info is also very good - we decided to get a driver to go to all these places, but I like your ideas. Thanks.

vandykes44: thanks for your good answers a while ago. You had said that Cachi was hardly worthwhile. It has been suggested that we stay up at el Molinos de Cachi, and that we go even farther to another vineyard at Colome. We have also been told that there is a very good archaelogical museum in Cachi. Are you saying that these are not worth the drive over long slow dusty roads? Of course we could go to Cachi by way of Cuesto del Obispo, and not do the drive from Cafayate to Cachi. Did you go to San Antonio de los Cobres, and is it very high up with dizzying heights on ripio? I think that might put me off. By the way, we will not be driving ourselves, we have decided on getting a car and driver. Hope you can help me again.