You are all probably rolling your eyes and sighing.."Not Seeks again!" Well, here I am and as usual, our plans have...changed....no let's just say, evolved. I'd love your opinions on what could be our new plan. Here goes...this is all around Argentina's highest of high season for 6 of us.

Five nights in BA at the Mine Hotel, overnight bus to Mendoza and 3 nights at Casa Glebinias. Fly to Montevideo via BA and stay at the Hotel Cala di Volpe for 4 nights. Fly, or boat from Montevideo back to BA and head to Iguazu and stay at the Panoramic Hotel for two nights. Fly back to BA for 2 last nights at the Mine Hotel.

My questions are: Is there enough to keep us busy for 4 nights in Montevideo? I thought maybe one day a trip to Punta del Este....is that realistic? Maybe a day trip to Colonia?

Punta del Este and/or Mar del Plata just seemed too well...insane...that time of year, not to leave out insanely expensive. Montevideo seems more laid back. Is this true? It's certainly less expensive for a nice hotel.

What is a realistic price for a car and driver for a day of touring 6 people in Montevideo and surrounds?

How do you easily flow between AR pesos and Uruguay $? How is imigration going in and out of the country? Do we have to pay and exit tax to go in and out? Is 5 nights at the beginning and 2 nights and an extra long day in BA enough?

Sorry to not want to go north this trip Flintstone. I sort of feel guilty, Flinstone is so friendly and all. Bariloche just seemed to be too expensive to travel too, but again Soulskier is so nice too!

Thanks again in advance. XOXO

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Hi Seeks - We spent some time in Uruguay last year and loved it and really wnted to explore a lot more.

Link to our blog - entries 82-84 cover Uruguay

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...tml#ENTRY_LIST

Montevideo was great an whilst there is probaly enough to keep you occupied for 4 days I would recommend considering spending a night in Colonia and maybe getting the ferry from there to BA. Although you could do it as a day trip 1.5 - 2.hours each way

The shop and restaurant area near the docks in Montevideo is great with wall to wall Parrillas - I have never seen so much meat in my life! Make sure you visit when hungry.

The shopping centre out at Punta Carretas is worth a visit and there is a boulevard along the beach that is reminiscent of the south of France.

The overall impression I came away with from MV was one of faded elegance. There is beautiful architecture in the city but it is a little rough around teh edges in places

I found no problems with currency and getting cash . We used a debit card in the many ATMs which dispense both UR Pesos and $US .

Immimgration was fine comming into the country. Our bus from Iguazu dropped us off about 8 miles from the border at Salto at dawn and we then had to get a taxi but entry was v. efficient even at that time.
Exiting the country via the ferry from Colonia was probably the most efficent immigration I have experienced anywhere in the world. At the port the Uruguayan immigration stamp your passport and sling it accross to teh next desk wher Argentine immigration stamp you visa and bingo! you are all done. No need to do anything on arrival at BA apart from collect your bags. I don't recall there being an exit tax but I may be wrong.

5 nights at the Mine sound good, bus to Mendoza ...then..

If you wanted to see Colonia and Montevideo, you could do what my son did or a version of it ... he took the ferry from BA to Colonia, spent the day.. it was lovely, quiet and green .. they spent the night in a nice hotel there, next day they took the bus to Montevideo .. where they spent one night but wished they had spent maybe 2 or 3. Then the ferry back to BA. This will take you in a big circle and no backtracking, wasted time (flying) ..
My son stayed at the big hotel with the fabulous view, I keep thinking Marriott?

From what I hear, you are right, the beaches are insanely expensive and busy and crowded. Now ... I could be ( it has been known to happen ) wrong ... but the beach at Montevideo.. is it on the river ? Punta del Este is ocean beach .. I am not sure about Montevideo.

Finding a car that will fit 6 people will be interesting .. I have no idea on pricing out of BA.

I think the time frame is good. The 2 nights at the end are good.. enough time for last minute shopping, re-visit etc and you will leave mid-day most likely on departure day so it is good to have a hotel room with your belongings in it til you leave for the airport.

And ... my big fear anywhere is when I go back and forth from one town/country/ to the next, that something will come up and I will be delayed.. and I need that peace of mind knowing that I have that extra bit of time before I have to be at the airport ..

Thanks for all! We got a nice rate at the Cala di Volpe and although it's more of a river, the beach in the picture looked inviting and it was about a third the cost of the other more crowded places.

My question is, river or ocean aside, what's the sand like to hang out at?

Crellston, because we are planning to go to Iguazu after Montevideo/Colonia, I was thinking of just flying. But, Tell me a little about your bus experience Iguazu-Montevideo...or maybe is it in your trip report?

So, maybe we should do 3 nights in Montevideo and take a bus or car-driver to Colonia and spend one night there and go on to the BA airport from there and fly to Iguazu...or hmmm..maybe Scarlett is right and not push it on the catch a flight at the last minute stress.

Maybe the 4 nights in Montevideo and take a day trip from there to Colonia and a day trip to Punta del Este. More planning...

Also the last day is really two nights and one really long day where we will rent one room at the Mine to keep all our luggage and shopping purchases in before our 11:35pm flight.

So far I have flights priced out from Mendoza-BA-Montevideo-BA-Iguazu-BA for $510 including tax on mostly Lan, with the Montevideo portion on Pluna. Does that sound like a decent deal? Also, I know what Lan's luggage allowance is, but not Pluna's. Anybody know that one? THANK YOU!

Crellston, Amazing blog and photos!!!! I just scanned it for now and will get back to it this afternoon. Thanks for sharing! I wonder if I should get a visa for Brazil...just in case?

Thanks seeks-

The bus trip from Iguazu was one of the most comfortable we had during our time in SA. I think we left around 6.00pm form the bus station in the centre of town. it is definietel worth paying for Cama seats - (very comfortable flat beds) and reasonable food (+ wine). A bit like business class on a typical airline. As I said we arrived in Salto in the very early morning but the bus did go on to Montivdeo and I would guess at another 4/5 hours getting in around midday. We were on a long trip and travellin on a budget so it made sense as we saved on one nights accomodation (plus the fare was about 1/3 of the airfare!).

Both sides of the falls were great but I think I preferred the Brazilian side we seemed to get a much better panoramic view of the falls and to be frank it was much better organised than on the Argentineside. Being English we did not need visas but, as I mentioned in the blog, the bus driver told us it was not necessary for a day trip and some Americans and Auusies travelling with us (both need visas which I believe are pretty expensive) did the same thing and had no problems.

The shopping in Foz was also pretty good - it is THE place to buy semi precious stones such as amethysts etc.

If you are only in Colonia for one day you can buy a ticket for entry all of the UNESCO sites (I think 6 or 7). If you are there for a couple of days consider hiring a golf buggy to see more of the town and surrounding beaches.

Thanks Crellston. I am curious how much you paid for the bus? Pluna is offering a real deal between BA and Montevideo for $89 USD RT. And the RT on Lan between BA and Iguazu is $276.28. Total would be $365.28 (add another $56 for the Mendoza to BA portion, because we would be purchasing the Lan South America Pass) The thing I liked about it is that we would be not having to go from train station to airport, just transitting from Newberry, I guess.

Do you have a link for the bus portion you could send me? We are doing the Cama overnight from BA to Mendoza. I am open to it from Colonia to Iguazu and then spend one less night in Montevideo. How many hours was the overnight bus from Iguazu to Salto?

Seeing the price we would be paying by air, what do you think? We are on a budget and Argentina is turning out a bit more expensive than we antisipated. Mostly due to air travel and the cost of the type of hotel rooms we like. The 21%Vat brings the total up quite a bit.

Probably a silly question, but when folks get a VAT refund, is that just for purchases, or can you get that back from hotel stays?

Thanks again for all the info. It is really great!!!!

VAT I know is any purchases, goods bought in Argentina.
I think hotels if they are over a certain amount of dollars a night.. not sure.

It is 21% ... we pay it too, everything we buy, it is built in so you won't see a price on the ticket and have them add the tax to it ..

It would be interesting to find out if there is a 'hotel VAT' refund of a certain percentage for tourists. I got a VAT refund in Italy. Had to make a special trip to the airport and then it took about 4 months to see it reflected on my credit card. I guess it is worth it.

I will ask around ..

That was quick and easy !
OK.. I think this is the way it goes... you pay VAT on Goods and Hotels.. I think you get a refund on Goods that you take back with you, but not the hotels.
I can be wrong though.. I hear it has happened before

No, That makes sense. I have never heard of a hotel tax refund, but it sounded good.

We would love this amazing Pluna RT for $89, but we would be coming into AEP from Mendoza at 10:19 on Lan and leaving at 11:20 from the same airport on Pluna? In a perfect world (Ha!)if there was no schedule changes (Ha Ha!), would an hour be enough for a plane change? I am a lot like Scarlett on tight schedules, but maybe in a smaller airport an hour is fine.

I am still trying to figure out the luggage weight for Pluna.

Over on TripAdvisor, there are a lot of people who know these other airlines and the schedules etc out of AEP.. We haven't flown out of there, I have no idea how on time they are.

Seeks, sorry but I cannot recall the name of the company we used from Iguazu to Salto although I do remember it was a new Brazilian operation.

Here are a couple of links to teh main companies we used both are v.good


http://www.tigreiguazu.com.ar/

http://www.viabariloche.com.ar/home/

I also happened across the following site:
http://www.discoveruruguay.com/urugu...sportation.htm

It maybe useful as you are intending to rent a car in Uruguay. Alternatively, the private tour bus sounds really cool!

The bus from Iguazu to Concordia (for crossing to Salto) took around 12 hours with immigration and transit to Salto approx 30 mins. We got the driver to drop us at the bus station in Salto and there were several buses to Montevideo that we could have taken that morning (warning no aircon on these buses). We stayed a night in Salto ( a few hot springs outside the town).

In terms of cost, we found that, as a rule of thumb teh bus fare in Semi-cama were 10 pesos per hour of travel (30% more for Cama) so the 12 hour trip from IG- Salto worked ou at 120/180 pesos.

The airfares for locals are subsidised and cost approx 1/3 of the "foreigners" airfares whci does make air travel expensive.

I would guess that the total fare from Colonia to Iguazu would work out around 250 pesos ($80) plus taxi from Salto to get the bus in Concordia. so it would be a lot cheaper (circa -$270 pp).
However, we had the luxury of time so if we missed a bus it would not have been the end of the world. My concern would be the organising the transfer from Salto to Concordia and the onward bus in advance.

I did find the attached on Lonely Planet which may help:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntre...7131&#13617131

FYI, we were refunded the VAT on our hotel in Carmelo, UR, that was a first for us!

I'd fly (that airfare is great) or take the ferry between BA/Montevideo, but that airfare sounds great. We flew from Mendoza - BA, then took a taxi to the Bouquebus terminal in BA (very close) to go to Colonia, we left Mendoza at 5:00 AM and caught an early AM ferry (believe it was 9:00 or 10:00 AM), it was a very long day.

FYI, your airfares sound reasonable, we paid almost $700 pp for BA - Calafate - Bariloche - BA back in March.

Thanks Crellston. We don't plan to rent a car since there are 6 of us. A few of the places that we are staying are sending a van for us from the airport and divided by 6 was really pretty reasonable.

Not having aircon on a bus could be brutal, as it is the first week of January. We are on a time constraint.

I'd love to find someone out there who has spent that time of year in Montevideo.

Also, someone who knows the smaller Jorge Newberry airport and whether an hour is enough time for a plane change. Maybe I'll hop over to Tripadvisor for that one. Thanks for the links!

About your: "Also, someone who knows the smaller Jorge Newberry airport and whether an hour is enough time for a plane change.", I wouldn't try it. It's possible, but the odds are against you.

Thanks, That's what I thought.