Could really use some direction with our upcoming trip to the Argentina area! Our traveling requirements are pretty unique since my husband has to be able to work via the internet during the day, we always need places with good internet access, and need to sight-see in late-afternoons, evenings, and weekends. We also need to *travel* from place to place during weekends, so it makes my itinerary planning a bit complicated!

We were originally planning on going just to Buenos Aires for 8 weeks. Then I started looking around at the cities nearby and realize there may be a lot more things we want to do. For example, we thought we wanted to go to Bariloche but then realized we would be much more interested in the wildlife and scenery at Puerto Madryn. And now we are thinking of maybe splitting up the original 2 months between 1 month each Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile, and taking a bus between Mendoza and Santiago for what I hear is an amazing sightseeing route.

The itinerary idea so far:
Santiago (1 month), bus ride to Mendoza (1 week), fly/bus to Buenos Aires (1 month) (or vice versa)
- would really like to fit Puerto Madryn and Salta in somewhere among that big plan, if possible.

Noting we can only travel weekends, we might wind up having to do 2 weeks at this place, 2 weeks at that place, 3 weeks at this one, etc. Any suggestions? I could really use some direction on the order of places to minimize time needed to spend on bus/planes. Thanks so much in advance!

Before I, or others leap in with suggestions, it would really help if you could provide the dates you plan on going. Argentina is huge and the weather will vary dramatically from place to place which could influence where you want to go.

In the meantime, here is a link to our blog from a few years ago covering all the places you mention with some detail and a lot of photos which may help a little.

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blo...ai/1/tpod.html

Argentina starts at #70

If you hold US, Canadian or Australian passports, fly into Argentina first. You will have to prepay the reciprocity fee for Argentina no matter where or how you enter, but land crossings into Chile are fee free. If you fly into SCL you will have to pay the fee (only place) and again for Argentina.

Okay thanks for the replies. We plan on being in South America from October 5 thru November 30. Of course now we are thinking of another plan since I even wrote the original question. Now we are thinking of:
2 weeks Buenos Aires
2 weeks Salta
2 weeks Puerto Madryn
2 weeks Buenos Aires
- throw in an overnight/weekend in Uruguay somewhere

Even with this plan we will be spending a lot of time or money traveling on weekends, which is okay as long as its worthwhile! I am not sure whether to leave Puerto Madryn for a later huge trip around Patagonia, Antarctica when we can just take time off work. But we soooo wanna go see the amazing wildlife there soon and not put it off! We are BIG wildlife buffs, currently in Roatan, Honduras for a month just to see the amazing marine life!

Anyway we are a little confused about other major areas to see besides Buenos Aires so if anyone has some more overarching input or suggest we do indeed go to Santiago afterall, we would welcome any and all feedback. Again the main idea is the slow-travel kind of notion. Thanks!

You are going at the right time of year for the Southern Right Whales in Puerto Madryn. IME it is the best place in the world to see whales as you can get so close, even standing on the beach! It its however very remote and, once there it is very barren with not a great deal to see other than the whales, seals and penguins. I would be bored to tears there for two weeks. We stayed for 3 days which was about right. It took us around 20 hours to get from there to Mendoza by overnight bus. Flying is an option by flights are expensive, may be infrequent to/from there and are not always that reliable. That said, it would be possible to get to PM and back in a LONG weekend by air. I am sure plenty of agents in BA would be able to help

We rented an apartment in BA for a month and found that the monthly rate was substantially cheaper than the weekly rate ( effectively we got a free week for a months stay) so if cost is a factor, you may be better staying for a month rather than two separate 2 wk periods.

Iguazu should not be missed and can be done in a weekend from BA. Other weekend options to consider are Uruguay, notably, Montevideo and Colonia del Sacremento. The Tigre delta is good for a day or a weekend and you could spend some time in one of the haciendas close to BA.

Salta is my favourite place in Argentina, the scenery, the people and the food are all fantastic. They have some pretty good vineyards to, although not as well known as Mendoza. I would normally suggest renting a car fro a week as the best way of seeing the region as distances are long, but, in view of your travelling restraints, you could perhaps spread tis out over 2 or 3 weekends. Staying in Salta city during the week would certainly be no hardship!

Much as I like Chile, Santiago did not inspire me but then I was only there in transit so perhaps I didn't give it a chance. On balance, I think I would stick to Argentina.

For a bit more variety, you could add in some time in Mendoza, particularly if you like wine. Maybe BA 4 weeks, Salta 3 weeks and Mendoza 1 week. With the side trips mentioned above, that would provide a pretty good taste of Argentina.

Just remember this - Argentina is huge and every trip is a lot of time and miles. Flying is best for time saving.
Renting an apt in BA is the best idea. Iguazu can be done in a weekend/2 nights at most.
A weekend in Colonia/Montevideo is nice. All done by ferry and bus or rent a car and drive adding days so you can see Punta del Este too.
The weather will be fabulous when you are there !
Tigre and San Isidro are an easy trip by train for a Sunday or weekend.
My suggestion is look in Recoleta or Palermo Botanico for your apartment rental .. that is a good location for you to wander and explore the other neighborhoods without spending too much time and money on taxi rides or having to take the bus.

I am sorry, I sort of parroted Crellston's brilliant post. Just ignore me

I am flattered you agree Scarlett !! -

Thanks guys! This helps a ton! I think we have the itinerary narrowed down to more manageable segments. This is our idea right now:
Fly to BA
Overnight bus to Salta - stay 2 weeks here
Overnight bus back to BA- stay 4 weeks here
Puerto Madryn for 1 week (during U.S. Thanksgiving week when my husband will have extra days off)
Fly to BA - Fly to USA

- We will try for day/weekend excursions to Uruguay and maybe Iguaza, although I might put off the falls for a future Brazil trip.
- Not sure if we should break up the 4 weeks in BA, to two weeks in two different neighborhoods to get a feel of the different areas. I was think San Telmo(safety at night?) and Recoleta? Or Recoleta and Palermo Soho? I am wondering if the latter two are so close as to be silly to divide up. Any suggestions?

You are very welcome anon. Sounds like a good plan. We stayed in Palermo for a month and loved it. It was convenient for the Subte and most attractions. we werent in Soho but almost wished we were as we went to restaurants there manytimes. We visited San Telmo on a few occasions and never had any problems but I know it does have a reputation.

Here is a link to our blog with lots of photos and more info on all the places you are going. It is five years old now so some of it may not be relevant any more but should give you some idea of what to expect. I am on my way to Salta again in a couple of weeks so will update then.

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blo...ai/1/tpod.html

Argentina is towards the end of the entry list

We spent almost a month in Argentina and I would say that my favorite region was Salta. The roads there are very good and you could rent cars to take overnight trips on the weekend to Purmamarca and Cafayate. Mendoza was not our favorite location but we are not big wine drinkers. I would agree that Iguazu is well worth it. When we went there we spent one knight in Iguazu city and then one night at the Sheraton that is right in the park. That way, we could get up early the morning and see part of the area before more crowds arrived.
In terms of Buenos Aires, we spent 4 nights when we first arrived in the Recoleta and 4 nights at the end in Palermo. They are very different parts of the huge city.