Argentina October 2016
 

I returned about two weeks ago from my long-planned and much longer desired trip to Argentina. Argentina is a magnificent country and I am very glad I went. My trip was essentially to Northern Argentina—City of Buenos Aires, and Buenos Aires, Missiones, Cordoba , Salta and Jujuy provinces plus Peninsula Valdes and Trelew, and Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.
Instead of the usual trip report, I want to give feedback on some of the questions I had before I went and some of the questions that are posed a lot on this forum. My comments are in random order.

1. Inflation-forget about great steak dinners with a bottle of wine for US$ 5.00. I found none. Most meals were US$20 to $40, including a bottle of wine, salad or appetizer and desert. Not bad by US standards, and some were truly great meals, but not nearly as cheap as I had been led to believe. This is even more true for hotels and other lodging. Many rooms were over US$100 a nite for one person including breakfast. Some of these were some of the nicer hotel rooms I’ve had anywhere, so no complaints, and some were US$50 or under. All but two were well worth the money. But they weren’t $25/nite.

2. Get the Brazilian Visa for Iguazu and visit the Bird Park while you’re there.

3. Flew both LATAM and AA several times—no overweight charges and no one weighed my backpack/carryon, which I’m certain was overweight. This was one of my biggest worries and it turned out to be a non-issue.

4. No need to get to the airport or the Buquebus terminal too early. I had a 6:00 a.m. Aerolineas Argentinas flight from Salta and in my anxiety not to miss it arrived at the airport around 4:00 a.m. Check-in in began around 5:00 a.m. At the Buquebus terminal, the ticket said to be there two hours in advance. They would not let us check in until 60 minutes in advance. On the return trip, I got there an hour early which was probably 30 minutes too early.

5. Take overnite buses—best class available-- whenever possible. As repeatedly said on this forum, sleep while you travel and save the cost of a hotel room. Cama bus seats are way more comfortable than tourist class seats on an airplane and a fraction of the cost. Plus you can arrive 10 minutes before the bus leaves instead of 90 minutes and they don’t scan your luggage.

6. Use Apps.
--Booking.com was the best—although I am a compulsive planner, I vowed on this trip not to plan too far ahead, so only booked through Iguazu Falls. I used booking.com to book the rest of my stays, sometimes only a day or two ahead. With one exception, it worked well. You have all the info in the phone or your pad, you can see that you haven’t booked two rooms for the same nite or left an inadvertent gap. Usually very good to excellent places to stay.
--In Buenos Aires, BA Como Llego (heard about this one from the owner of the B&B where I stayed) tells you how to get anywhere walking or via bus or taxi. I used the bus—problem is that it doesn’t tell you when to get off, so a couple of times I rode the bus clear to the garage rather than getting off when I should. But that’s on me rather than the app.
--LATAM and AA apps—if you’re going to fly, download them and check in on-line and save a half hour at the airport.

7. Traffic in Buenos Aires is not nearly as bad as I’d heard —and drivers do not appear to be armed or constantly looking at their phones as they are in Atlanta, my city. Traffic was worse in Salta, but still not bad—problem there was that there are no or few street signs outside of the central area and so no way to know where you are. Also, because the speed limit is in KMH rather than MPH, traffic moves much slower in Argentina.

8. Crime is low or non-existent. Police are everywhere, which IMO accounts for the low incidence of crime. And I’m not saying this just because a pretty young policewoman gave me a kiss on the cheek in Jujuy City when I stopped her to ask for information.

9. On the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls, they were only accepting Argentine pesos in cash—no credit cards, no US dollars. And the ATM was out of cash. On the Brazilian side they would accept cards and many currencies. So be sure to take enough Argentine pesos.

10. ATM withdrawal limits have been raised to Arg 2000, so that makes the fee somewhat less painful. I had no problems getting cash, even in the most remote areas of Jujuy Province, although I met a guy who said he had had problems in Salta because it was a weekend.

11. Apps will never replace a good guidebook or two. I had an old Lonely Planet and a new Fodor’s Argentina. The maps in Lonely Planet were very good—used them in BA on my return. Fodor’s is good for having the latest information.


12. Take busses or cabs in BA—it is a huge city and you may be tempted to walk; that’s a mistake and it’s very easy to get lost.

13. Don’t book too much on-line in advance: There are plenty of tickets to Iguazu Falls, plenty of guided tours, plenty of hotels, etc. In several cities I scored hotels on booking.com within days of my arrival that are listed in both Lonely Planet and Fodor’s.

14. Fodor’s staff: you need to include in your guidebook Posadas and the Jesuit missions and the City and Province of Cordoba. Cordoba was one of the highlights of my trip: in particular, the University Archaeology Museum and the Museum of Memory are two of the best I’ve seen, and the latter will help make sense of the rest of your trip to Argentina. And the Museo Polifacetico Rocsen—while well outside of Cordoba City-- was one of the most fascinating museums I’ve ever been in. You could spend days.

15. If your Spanish is not good, you will have problems because Argentina is not really ready for non-Spanish speaking tourists. I’m relatively fluent in Spanish and still had some problems, as the pronunciations are different from the rest of Latin American Spanish. Met a few Australians and an English-speaking Swiss who lives in Brasil but no Americans. Many people in the tourist industry—hotel desk clerks, waiters, etc. have some English, but on the street, forget it.

Hope this helps

Thanks. No time for Bolivia, I gather?

No. I decided not to get a Bolivian visa. Spent around a week in Salta and Jujuy provinces, most in the Quebrada de Humahuaca. Wow! Reminded me so much of Peru.

Thank you for your comments, dwdvagamundo!

I hear you on Buenos Aires being no great bargain...also my experience.

Nice. Just a wee caution to those planning to visit in High Season: The need to plan ahead for transport etc. is considerably 'higher' than it is in October.

Walking in BA is one of my serious pleasures - and I have a terrible sense of direction. But, just meandering is fun for me, and when I really need to go somewhere that I am less familiar with, I use a Google Map app on my phone - or download the directions on my I pad - or ask a Porteno. I too tend to avoid the Metro - prefer to walk and use buses and taxis - but that's because we are there in the hottest months.

One other comment I perhaps should have made: I hear a lot about how nicely Portenhos and others in Argentina dress, and (from my South American friends) how conceited or arrogant Argentines are. I experienced neither of these. Argentines dress like gringos or like Parisians--that is, blue jeans, T-Shirts, etc. Except in the mountains where many of the women wear traditional dress. I didn't go out at nite but heard that people really dress up to go out.

Marnie--while I enjoyed walking, many times what I thought was going to be a comfortable but longish walk turned into a slog. Partly because I got lost, and had to backtrack. I've got a pretty good sense of direction but for some reason I got turned around in BA.

My spouse accuses me--with justice--of doing too much walking on trips, and my point above was to warn people to at least to check the distance between where you are and where you want to go before starting. One good thing with the BA Como Llego app is that it will work from anywhere in BA, so if you find yourself out of energy or time but still a long way from where you want to be, simply check the app and take the indicated bus, or just take a cab. Lots of cabs and they are not expensive.

Good points, dwdvagamundo.

The Spanish is Castellano (Castilian) so it is far from being the sort of <Mexican > Spanish we learn in school : )

I think it sounds lovely, sort of Spanish with a Frenchness to it ..if you can imagine that .

Like Marni, we walked everywhere , because we enjoyed it.
We walked from our home on Pueyrredon & Guido to Palermo Botanico, the gardens, the museums, one day we were enjoying our talk and walk so much we realized we had walked from our home to Alto Palermo Mall : )
If you stay there for a long while, or live there as we did, you get in shape fast with all that walking ! I miss that ...

The only taxi advice I would give is be sure to have change ..

I guess we were lucky, all the years we lived in BA .. we never met a person who came across as conceited , especially not a taxi driver ! They sing while they drive FGS ! lol ... some of my favorite taxi rides were getting stuck in traffic with a driver who had a voice like a rock star ... singing away with the radio, oblivious to us :)

Yeah, I need to go back ... soon .

Excellent report dwd. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks DWD.
Was roaming the forum, I am lokking at flights right now and was wondering if it made sense to take multicity tickets (open jaw).

I definitely must be in Buenos Ayres but don't know scant about Argentina (yet) so was asking if it makes sense to book BA return trip or arrival in BA et return from ?

Like you we have about 2 weeks. Trip scheduled end of october (not yet looked at the weather, but in southern hemisphere it should be good weater ? Like april in northern ?

Thanks

Wo--

As far as I know, all intercontinental flights in Argentina end and begin in BA.

October is spring and for the most part warm, not hot. However, it rained a good bit while I was there.

If you go in October, be sure to go to the Peninsula Valdes to see the wildlife-- southern right whales with babies, elephant seals, rheas, guanacos.

Thanks !

Tickets are not very expensive. We will start planning.
Step one : buy guidebooks and let my wife work ;-)

Peninsula looks great. We swam with turtles 2 years ago and the family was thrilled.