Highlights of Argentina

Departure from your chosen airport bound for Argentina with connecting flight(s) on the way.

Look forward to discovering Argentina’s charming capital Buenos Aires. The city is referred to as South America’s answer to Paris due to its wide boulevards, cosy neighbourhoods and impressive architecture.

You will be met at the airport by your guide, who will drive you to your hotel, which is centrally located in the city.

The rest of the day is yours to do as you please. You might like to go for a walk down the pedestrian thoroughfare, Florida Street, or relax on a bench on General San Martín Square, named after José de San Martín, Argentina’s national hero who helped lead the revolutions against Spanish rule in Argentina. Lunch should be enjoyed at one of the local Parillas (steak houses), where delicious beef from the Argentinian Pampas is sold for next to nothing.

In the evening, we recommend purchasing the “Taste of Argentina” excursion, which provides an exciting insight into Argentinian food culture and traditions. If you are going to participate in this excursion, you should consider just having a light lunch, as a feast of delicious Argentinian specialities awaits you.

Today, an exciting 4-hour guided tour of the city which takes you to some of the city’s biggest attractions awaits.

Among other places, you will visit the charming old working-class district of La Boca, known for its colourful houses. The area was originally an old shipyard, and the poor workers built their houses from surplus materials and paint from the ships. The houses were therefore very higgledy-piggledy and painted in a multitude of colours, as there was never usually enough paint for an entire house.

Buenos Aires’ oldest district San Telmo is now an exciting artists’ neighbourhood where you will among other things find many of the famous tango bars.

You will also visit the upscale Palermo and Recoleta districts, and you make a stop at the Recoleta Cemetery, where many famous Argentines are buried. Among others, you will visit the tomb of Eva Perón, the Argentines’ much-loved first lady, better known as Evita.

The port area of Puerto Madero is where you will find a lot of hip bars and restaurants. This is also where the beautiful Puente de la mujer footbridge is located.

The guided tour continues down the world’s widest boulevard, Avenida 9 de Julio, to the famous obelisk, one of the city’s historic landmarks. You continue down to Avenida Corrientes, where the city’s theatres and cinemas are gathered, among them Teatro Colón – their beautiful opera house.

You will also see many of the city’s magnificent squares, and you will visit Plaza de Mayo, where the iconic Casa Rosada government building is located, as well as Plaza de las Naciones Unidas with its beautiful flower sculpture, Floralis Genérica.

The excursion is by minibus, with photo stops along the way.

In the evening, you will experience an unforgettable tango show. You will be picked up from the hotel and enjoy a delicious traditional Argentinian dinner with great steaks and red wine before the show. The show is a mix of music and dance from all over Argentina, dominated by the melancholic tango performed by skilled dancers. Look forward to a high quality show in beautiful surroundings.

The day is yours to do whatever you please, and you can choose whether you want to explore Buenos Aires on your own or to purchase an extra excursion.

Perhaps you discovered a favourite part of the city when you were on the guided tour that you would like to explore further or maybe you just want to relax, sit in a café and people watch.

We can recommend a visit to the Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur nature reserve, which is located on the eastern side of the Puerto Madero port area. The nature reserve covers an area of more than 8 km2 and is a beautiful oasis in the heart of the big city where the local Porteños, as the inhabitants of Buenos Aires are called, like to walk. There are several different paths through the nature reserve leading out to the river, Río de la Plata, which, on a clear day, you can look out over to neighbouring Uruguay. The area is known for its abundant bird life, and you may also be lucky enough to see various kinds of lizards, turtles and maybe the little coypu. Please note that the reserve is closed on Mondays.

Today, the tour heads south to northern Patagonia, where unique wildlife awaits you on the Valdés Peninsula. The flight from Buenos Aires to Trelew takes around 2 hours, and you will be picked up from here by a driver and driven to your hotel in Puerto Madryn. Drive: approx. 1 hours

Puerto Madryn is a port city on the Golfo Nuevo, which is the departure point for tours to the Valdés Peninsula. If you walk down to the harbour, you may be lucky enough to see seals swimming around between the large ships. The city’s founders were immigrants from Wales, and the city is still marked by its European founders.

A totally unique nature experience awaits you today. The Valdés Peninsula has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999 and is of great importance to the conservation of marine mammals such as sea lions, seals and not least the endangered southern right whale.

You drive around to different areas of the peninsula and see colonies of different seabirds, seals, sea lions and penguins. You might also meet the playful elephant seal, named after its funny nose which is shaped like a small trunk. In the period from around June to December, the southern right whale comes to the area to mate and raise its young. Dolphins and orcas can also be seen in the waters around the peninsula.

It’s a wonderful experience to get right up close to the huge whales, and whale watching tours can be purchased in the period from June to December.

On dry land, you may also be lucky enough to spot armadillos, foxes, Patagonian maras and guanacos, which are related to the llama.

You are back in Puerto Madryn late afternoon and have the evening to yourself.

Today, you will fly even further south in Patagonia to El Calafate, where several wonderful nature experiences await you. El Calafate is located close to the border with Chile on the shores of Lago Argentino, the largest lake in Argentina. The city is the departure point for tours to Los Glaciares National Park, which is located roughly 80 km away.

You have the rest of the day to yourself to go on a walk along the city’s cosy main street, which is lined by small restaurants and shops. For dinner, we recommend a dish made with guanaco or lamb, which the area is famous for.

Please note that the domestic flight from Trelew to El Calafate often flies via Buenos Aires. Be prepared for a very early morning departure from Trelew.

Today, you will be going on a fantastic full-day excursion to Los Glaciares National Park, which is located around 80 km from El Calafate. It is the largest national park in Argentina, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site for good reason. The park covers an area of more than 6,000 km2 and offers exceptionally beautiful scenery, consisting of huge glaciers, snow-capped mountains, the glacier lake and plains. In fact, as much as 30% of the park is covered in ice. You will visit the famous and most accessible glacier of them all, the mighty Perito Moreno. The glacier measures roughly 30 km in length, 5 km in width and, in some places, is more than 70 meters high. What’s special about this glacier is that it’s not getting smaller. Most glaciers are melting due to global warming and getting smaller year by year, but Perito Moreno is managing to replace as much ice as is melting away.

After arriving at the national park, you will first go on a short boat ride in front of the glacier, giving you a true sense the scale of the glacier and the chance to take some amazing pictures. You might even be lucky enough to see the glacier calve, as it is called when large pieces of ice break off with aloud crack.

After the boat trip, you will have time on your own to walk along marked footbridges around the park and enjoy the impressive scenery from several different angles.
Before starting your walk by the glacier, you can buy lunch (not included) in the small cafeteria by the car park. We recommend that you take your lunch with you and enjoy it along the way on a bench overlooking the Perito Moreno Glacier.

After spending a few hours at the glacier, you will be driven back to your hotel, and the rest of the evening is yours to do as you please.

You have the day to yourself in El Calafate. If you are interested in birds, you can visit the Laguna Nimez bird sanctuary, which is located around 1 km north of the city. Many different species can be seen here, including the black-necked swan, the black-headed ibis and the colourful flamingo. You could also just go for a short walk by Lake Argentino and enjoy the beautiful scenery. You will find a  lot of birds here, too.

Just outside El Calafate is the fascinating Glaciarium, the ice museum where you can learn more about glaciers and the history of the area. There is a free hourly shuttle bus to/from the museum from the centre of El Calafate. There is an ice bar at the museum with temperatures below 0 degrees, where your drinks are served in glasses made of ice. If you are not interested in the museum but would like to experience an ice bar, there are two other ice bars in the centre of El Calafate.

Roughly 200 km north of El Calafate is what is probably Argentina’s most famous trekking area near the town of El Chaltén. Experiences you can enjoy here include the magic of the Andes and indescribable scenery, including with the iconic Mount Fitzroy. So, if you love hiking and beautiful scenery, this optional extra is a must.

You will leave Patagonia and head for northern Argentina to Puerto Iguazú, which is close to the borders of Paraguay and Brazil. You will be picked up from the airport and driven to your hotel, which is scenically situated in the rainforest just outside Puerto Iguazú.

You have already enjoyed a great many nature experiences on your tour, but it all ends with one heck of a finale at Iguazú. The Iguazú Falls are the world’s largest waterfall and consist of 275 waterfalls of various sizes, located over a 2.7-km-long horseshoe-shaped stretch on the Iguazú River. The waterfalls often converge and crash in noisy cascades out over the, in some places, 85-metre-high cliffs.

To enjoy the whole experience, the waterfalls should be experienced from both the Argentinian side and the Brazilian side.

Most of the falls are on the Argentinian side, and you will practically walk between them via a network of small paths, stairs and footbridges. A small train takes you to the largest and most impressive waterfall of them all, called the Devil’s Throat, La Garganta del Diablo. We guarantee both water on your lens and a lurch in your stomach when you look down into the gushing abyss into which millions of litres of water disappear.

The lush nature around the waterfalls is home to unique flora and fauna, and your guide will tell you all about the nature you encounter in the park.

Naturally, the Iguazú Falls are also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Before heading back home, you must of course also experience the waterfalls from the Brazilian side.
The Brazilian side is where you get the most spectacular panoramic view of the waterfalls.

In the morning, you will be picked up from the hotel with your luggage. You will cross the Tancredo Neves bridge over the Iguazu River, which forms the border between Argentina and Brazil. As you will be crossing the border, you should remember to bring your passport with you on the bus.

On the Brazilian side, you will walk along a small paved path through the rainforest which overlooks the many waterfalls on the Argentinian side all the way. You get to see the waterfalls from various angles, and you come to a platform via a long footbridge from which you look straight up into the Devil’s Throat. Here, too, you can expect to be given a good soaking by the spray from the powerful waterfall.
There is also a viewing platform that you can either walk up to or reach via a lift. From here, you can see the waterfalls from above and, not surprisingly, the view from above is nothing short of amazing.

As you walk along the footpaths, you are in with a good chance of meeting the curious little coati, which are always on the lookout for food. Please do not feed them, however hard they pester you!

After visiting the park, you will be driven to the airport in Foz do Iguaçu on the Brazilian side, from where you start your journey home, with a connecting flight along the way.

You will arrive at your chosen airport after an unforgettable tour in Argentina.