My husband and I are going for a 3 week trip in Argentina in November. After reading disappointing reports about Aerolineas Argentina airline being either late or cancelling flights, this makes me worrisome and nervous wreck. I am now thinking if we should take the bus to go to other regions of the country but it is going to consume a big amount of time too from our vacation days. One travel book say, bus takes too long and so advice to fly...but AA is the only one that flies in most region of Argentina and have bad reputation that I don't want to take a chance. I wonder how others manage to travel to their other destinations in Argentina. Please give me tips. Hearing your story will be valuable input too!

Our itineraries are:
Buenos Aires - 4 days
Salta - 4 days
El Cafayate and El Chalten - 4 days
Iguazu - 1 day
in between is reserve for travel time but will be great if the travel time is short and the airline is on time and can save a full day travel time.

LAN flies to most of the destinations you have selected and offers excellent service. You are covering a lot of territory, from the far north to the far south of Argentina. It would be much better if you could fly to at least some of your destinations.

Others have reported that Aerolineas has improved service in the past few months. I have not flown on Aerolineas since the supposed improvements so I cannot verify this....If you decide to go with Aerolineas, my advice is not to schedule a connecting flight on another airline....say, flying into Buenos Aires on Aerolineas from Iguazu and connecting to a flight home on another airline the same day.

Bus service in Argentina is very good. The quality varies by company and the type of service you select. Cama Suite service is the highest level--wide seats that fully recline, good food and a "cabin attendant" on board.

Try to spend at least one nigh (two days) in Iguazu. It is too beautiful to rush through the experience.

Over a 3 month period we travelled all over Argetina by bus and found the bus system to be on the whole very good. the one eception to this was on our trip from Puerto Madryn to San Lorenzo in Mendoza when the bus was a couple of hours late in turning up for our departure from PM. Apart from this one instance it was a model of efficiency. It obviously take longer, but if you factor in the fact that most long distance trips will be overnight, the difference really is not that great (plus we save on one nights accomodation!).

As drdawggy suggests, Cama is the way to go, the service is good and the food quite reasonable and the experience is certainly way more comfortable than a long haul flight. Having said this, some of the longer trips (eg el cafayate), may be better done by air.

We flew AA in March, flights were on time or early, had no problems whatsoever - flew from BA - Calafate, then BA - Bariloche. Took LAN from Bariloche back to BA.

We have flown AA many times over our 3 trips to AR, they've always been fine.

Prefer to fly all long legs unless you are budget.

Distances are vast and long bus is VERY tedious

www.despagar.com go with LAN if you can.

The website above is despegar.com NOT despAgar.com As far as I can tell from looking at the above site, you can't buy a ticket online. Do you have to be a resident? Lan is proving to be almost twice, or triple, the price on routes to and from where I need to go than AA. What am I doing wrong?

I tried to bookk flights with Lan whilst in Argentina went through the process until the bitter end and then the was asked the question "Äre you and Argentine resident" when answering no the price virually tripled - hence the reason for travelling on buses! Foreigners clearly suffer under the dual pricing system and perhaps that is what is happening in your case. As far as booking and paying is concerned, even in Argentina we had to book online and get a reference to take to the Lan office to pay (in Peru it was possible to take the reference to the checkout at a supermarket to pay and collect tickets). If you do manage to book the cheaper fare I guess you would be refused boarding on production of your passport

If you are going to Iguazu for one day, you really have no choice but to fly.

El Calafate is ridiculously far by bus.

I took one LAN flight to Iguazu from BA, and one Aerolineas flight from Iguazu to BA, and both were fine and on time. No matter how nice the bus, it's a really long trip from BA to Salta (26 hours by bus). See the times here:
http://www.hitravelargentina.com/tra...idioma=2&mon=1

For people who have taken long-distance buses in Argentina, how are the bathrooms? I was on overnight first-class buses in Mexico, and the bathrooms were just horrid by the end.

I used a number of different bus companies in Argentina and found the bathrooms to be just fine (if a little diffiucult to use on some of the rougher roads!!). The stewards cleaned them regularly throughout the trips.

Thank you all for your responses and helpful information. I am leaning on using LAN for most of our travel within the country (tentatively). My only concern about LAN is that it does not have too many flights in a day or hardly has one in some days. There is one flight only from El Calafate to Buenos Aires and I don't know why when this is supposed to be busy routes for travellers. Just read one comment that it is better to use AA (lesser of the evil) than taking LAN with limited flights available and when it gets cancelled, no other option! I am hoping all goes well.

Hello,
Yeh I would also say you ought to fly because the distances in your itinerary are HUGE and otherwise you'll end up spending your holiday on buses..! There's no reason why your flights will be cancelled, thats always a possibility with any airline and since they're domestic flights they shouldnt be complicated! You should also look for local travel agents in Buenos Aires, they'll give you some impartial, valuable advice and you can book online or by phone (not easy with a company like despegar)

Good luck and dont worry, you'll have a great time!

we were in argentina for a couple of weeks in april...

we took one long bus ride: BA to Mendoza on a lux bus--Cata...it was simply fantastic...it was a nite bus leaving BA about 7:30PM and arriving the next AM in M.....the seats were comfortable and i am a big guy....the food was ok, the drinks fine...the price was about 1/3 of any flight....we would do it over again in a minute....we were able to sleep easily....we had fully fold down seats in the ultra lux section.....these same buses go all over argentina...

i suggest an overnite stay at least at the sheraton at iguazu...its worth the time and expense...

Travelling y bus takes a loooooong time. flying let you see the differnet areas witn more time. Make sure you will see the NW as one of the MOST beautiful places in the world!!
Angie

Buses in Argentina are some of the best I have ever rode. You say you're staying three weeks but the sum of the days spent in BA, etc.. only add up to 13.

If you are staying 3 weeks, I would start with Iguazu and Salta, then B. A. by bus, from B.A. you can take a bus to Bariloche (excellent bus and Bariloche is worth the trip), from Bariloche you can again take another overnight bus to Puerto Madryn (the penguins will be there and it is FANTASTIC); From Puerto Madryn you can take another bus to Rio Gallegos and from RG to Calafate.

Do not underestimate the pleasure of actually viewing Patagonia, not just flying over it.

You might even add a couple of days down in Ushuaia.

From Calafate or Ushuaia you can fly back to Buenos Aires.

I am suggesting this itinerary because we actually did it in November/December 2008 and it was a fabulous trip.

Buses are great and Patagonia is very interesting.

Travelhook

BUSES IN ARGENTINA

-Buses are very reliable. Dont ask for "Cama" now, but for "super cama" "Executive class" or "Suites" according to the different companies. Those are the best buses at the moment, brand new,dinner on board, not expensive and 180 reclinable seats which will guarantee a good night.
-Some buses connecting provinces are not that good but the prices make them convenient. the highest category in these buses is the "cama"



AIR TRANSPORTATION

I believe AR is not as bad as it is painted. The time of the never-ending strikes is over. If the connexions are not tight you will have no problems.

Would like to change the order though if you fly all your trip

Buenos Aires to Calafate
Calafate Bs.As. / Bs.As. Salta
Salta to Iguazu (direct flight)
Iguazu to Buenos Aires

hope it helped.
milla

oh wow. I am very grateful for all your suggestions and responses! Milla, thanks for the itinerary suggestions. I went over the different flights that LAN and the AA have for each day and bus times as well. When one flight or bus time seems okay, there will be some hours and days that hard to get by to go to the next destinations! Planning this trip has been the most challenging I have ever encountered! whew. Wish Argenitna had train all over the country!

Wish we could see them all like Bariloche and Mendoza and the Penguins. My mind was torn and my heart was breaking that I had to skip these beautiful places for now. I have finally picked the Northwest and the Patagonia (no Penguin - oh sad) - El Calafate and El Chalten, Iguazu and of coure Buenos Aires. After seeing those photos of the glaciers, I am smitten because this is the kind of experience that I can hardly easily get and feel in a lifetime. I had been to Athabascas glacier in Canada but I think that minitrekking or Big Ice is unique! (can't wait)

Nov 19 arriving to BA in morning
Nov 20 Buenos Aires
Nov 21 Buenos Aires
Nov 22 Buenos Aires/ Tigre or Estancia?
Nov 23 Fly from BA to Salta arriving early afternoon (Salta tour)

Nov 24 LV Salta Northward to Pumamarca including Salinas Grande, Tilcara to Humahuaca (overnight in PUmamarca or Tilcara)- still thinking if rent a car or ask for guide

Nov 25 Back to Salta stopover at Jujuy, finish Salta tour, rest and overnight in Salta

Nov 26 Salta Southward to Cachi and Cafayate (overnight)

Nov 27 Lv Cafayate back to Salta (flight to El Calafate is 7:30pm)
Nov 28 Arriving El Calafate 8am - Perito Morino
Nov 29 Todos Glaciares?
Nov 30 Minitrekking?
Dec 1 To El Chalten by bus (which hiking trail to take?) (intend to book or join a day hike)
Dec 2 El Chalten back to El Calafte in the evening
Dec 3 Fly El Calafate to BA - rest in BA (can't get direct flight to Iguazu, all stop in BA!)
Dec 4 Fly to Iguazu arrive in am
Dec 5 Iguazu
Dec 6 Fly back to BA. Take Catamaran to Colona, Uruguay
Dec 7 - Montevideo
Dec 8 - have one full day Depart late evening for USA

Both my wife and I remember very fondly of the day spent in Tigre. Unfortunately we did not see Estancia. (I am not sure, but I think it is more difficult to reach Estancia than Tigre).

The first thing that comes to my mind regarding Tigre is how Venice must have looked 1000 years ago.

You will need more than half a day for this "trip". You can take the train at Retiro and it takes about 1 hour. You need not worry about which station to stop because both Tigre and Retiro are the last train stops.

It was well worth the time spent. It should include a ride on a boat around the delta.

As regards Puerto Madryn or Trelew for that matter, I would really try to squeeze at least a day to see the penguins and the Loberia in Puerto Madry (sea wolves). If you stay one more day you might even consider a whale sight seeing.

Our visit to Puerto Madryn was something of a forced stop on our way to Calafate/Perito Moreno. But it turned out into one of the most touching experiences I ever had. Those little things are sooooo cute and sooo helpless. And you walk among thousands of them. By mid November most of the eggs will have already been hatched but the penguin couples are still firmly anchored to the nests. Really touching.

P.A.: On a completely different subject, we went through three not so nice experiences in Argentina:

a) My daughter's purse was stolen right in front of us in a restaurant in B. A. (I have a strong feeling that the waiter was an accomplice in the process since he blocked our sight while serving wine or something else).

b) My camera was stolen in the hotel in Bariloche (I cannot swear but I have strong feeling the owner did it);

c) Walking by Av. 9 de Julio at about mid night we were witness to kids about 15 y.o assaulting a passer by which came a few yards behind myself, my wife and daughter.

None of those experiences were capable of spoiling the pleasure of the trip, but...