See & Do
With its refined Renaissance cities, picturesque villages and breathtaking mountain scenery Argentina is a tourist's dream. Culture, sightseeing and winter sports are all on offer as you explore the country's top attractions.
Buenos Aires
The Argentine capital is at once a traditional and avant-garde city. A sprawling place of nine million inhabitants, Buenos Aires is most easily defined by its neighbourhoods: Recoleta with its world famous cemetery, Palermo Hollywood with its designer bars and worldwide cuisine or San Telmo where the visitor can buy antiques in a market surrounded by colonial style buildings. Then there's elegant Puerto Madero and La Boca where the first Genoese immigrants settled in red, blue and yellow houses along picturesque Caminito Street.
Buenos Aires is also well known for its great soccer stadiums, tango music and dance (that can be best listened to and viewed in the traditional Café Tortoni). The wide selection of cultural institutions such as the recently opened Latin-American Museum of Art (MALBA) shouldn't be ignored: this is very much Argentina's cultural capital as well as being the seat of government. There is also a wealth of beauty and history here, and no tourist can leave the city without visiting Palermo Park and the Plaza de Mayo, surrounded by such symbolic buildings as the Cabildo (town hall), the cathedral, and the Casa Rosada, the government's headquarters.
Cordoba
Argentina's second city, Cordoba is less frenetic than the capital to the south-east. At the heart of the wide northern part of the country, in colonial times the city rivalled Buenos Aires as the administrative and government centre.
In the 17th century Cordoba was arguably the more important of the two, and the architecture that survives from this period indicates the wealth and influence the city possessed. The colonial buildings of the historical quarter are the grandest found anywhere in Argentina, and have been preserved even as Cordoba's political importance has declined. Highlights include the cathedral (built in 1574), the Cabildo (the town hall dating from1588) and Argentina's oldest university.
Besides this rich history Cordoba also possesses several cultural institutions that count among the country's best. Most notable among them is the Marquis of Sobremonte Provincial History Museum (Museo Histórico Provincial Marqués de Sobremonte) whose 26 rooms contain a collection of artefacts from colonial and post-colonial days in the region. The city is also a centre for the performing arts - the San Martin Theatre is Argentina's oldest, inaugurated in 1891. It still plays host to drama, dance and orchestral performances.
Atlantic Coast Resorts
Although it's rarely the first place that people think of for a beach holiday Argentina's thousands of kilometres of coast contains several world class beach resorts.
The city of Mar del Plata, in the province of Buenos Aires, is the most popular beach resort in Argentina. Located south of the capital it is just one in a series of resorts that cover a vast swathe of the coast. The town itself is pleasant enough and the landscape varies between beautiful beaches and fabulous coastal scenery such as the Barranca de los Lobos sea cliffs. The 19th-century lighthouse at Punta Mogotes is something of an icon, visible from miles away along the coast.
Other resorts to consider include Mar de Ajo, Miramar, San Bernardo, Santa Clara del Mar, and Santa Teresita. The summer months of November-February are best for visiting.
The Pampas
West of Buenos Aires the plains of the Pampas cover a vast swathe of Cordoba, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires provinces. It is a magical expanse of incomprehensibly wide open spaces and an unbroken horizon. This is also the land of the gauchos, the legendary Argentinean cowboys that epitomise the machismo culture of the country.
The territory contains several attractions of note. One of the best ways to experience the Pampas is to stay at one of the colonial style ranches, which still farm cattle in the traditional gaucho way. Tourists are invited to sample the life of a Pampas cowboy, with gaucho style barbecues and traditional activities of horse riding, hunting and fishing.
Elsewhere in the Pampas you can visit the salt lakes with their populations of bright pink flamingos or head for the National Park of Liahué Calel where other indigenous wildlife can be seen - including pumas, the large wild cat of the plains. Other places of interest include the pilgrimage city of Lújan and its magnificent basilica that houses the tiny statue of the Madonna; site of many recorded miracles over the centuries. Further north you should also visit Rosario with its pristine colonial architecture.
Iguazu Falls
The Iguazu Falls are inarguably one of the world's natural wonders. Surrounded by dense jungle vegetation and incredibly varied fauna and flora, the Iguazu River divides into 275 separate channels, which plunge over the lip of a horseshoe over three kilometres in length.
At their highest point the water plummets over 70 metres into the basin below. With literally thousands of gallons crashing down each second the noise is deafening and can be heard a long time before you actually see the falls for yourself. As the water reaches the bottom the spray rises and the sunlight forms numerous rainbows.
The falls form the border of three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay and are encompassed by the Iguazu National Park. The surroundings are almost as much of a tourist draw as the falls themselves and you can bathe in the warm water of the river and enjoy spotting the myriad fish, insect and mammal life that has made its home in this unique eco-system. Many of the inhabitants are threatened species and you'll be very fortunate to catch a glimpse of some of the rarer large animals such as the giant otter or the jaguar.
The Jesuit Missions
Up in the Northeast, south of the Iguazu Falls in the Misione region, is one of the most intriguing locations in South America. This area (including parts of Paraguay and Brazil) was the site of the most advanced civilisation of the 17th century - the Jesuit Missions. These were a series of 30 towns (reducciones) established between approximately 1600-1680 by a band of Jesuit missionaries. Granted the right to do so by the King of Spain, they set about converting the native Guarani people of the region to their own brand of the Christian faith.
Although founded in religion the society that developed was the most advanced and enlightened of its time. The missionaries protected the Guarani from the European slave traders, teaching them literacy and practising an early form of communism, which actually worked. The Jesuits also fostered the Guaranis' natural skills, and established an economy based on traditional crafts.
All the reducciones were built on roughly the same model, with a church, hospital, public buildings and houses surrounding a central square. The remains of the towns, which can be visited today, show just how sophisticated these settlements were. Many were towns of up to 20,000 inhabitants - today the native Guarani number only double that. Designated UNESCO heritage sites, the ruins at San Ignacio Mini and Santa Ana are the best places to witness this unique slice of history.
Salta and "The Train to the Clouds"
Although it falls within the Andean Plateau region (see below) Salta deserves a mention in itself. One of the best-preserved colonial towns in the whole of Argentina, it is of great historical interest. The Spanish-inspired architecture is shown off to best effect in the central square, which contains the cathedral and town hall.
The latter building contains several museums of interest to anyone keen to learn more about the history of this isolated but beautiful city. The Museum of Northern History and the Colonial Museum are pretty self-explanatory, telling the tale of both the people that used to live here and those that usurped them.
Salta is most famous for the train that leaves the town and climbs up to the high puna above. Not for nothing is the train called "El Tren a las Nubes" (literally "The Train to the Clouds"). One of the world's most spectacular train journeys the route crosses the La Polvorilla viaduct, over 4,000m above sea-level and itself over 60m in height. The town of San Antonio de los Cobres is the last stop before the viaduct and offers a real taste of life on the plateau.
NW Andean Plateau
The historical heart of Argentina, the north-western sub-Andean region is a fascinating area well off the beaten track. It is a region of great natural beauty and the Jujuy province contains Calilegua National Park where you can see the indigenous flora and fauna of the high plateau. Capital of Jujuy, San Salvador de Jujuy is an intriguing town with several museums that trace its history through colonial times. North of the city you'll find the remains of tribal villages that existed long before the conquistadors ever set eyes on the continent.
In Estero, the capital Santiago del Estero is Argentina's oldest city. Estero is also a famous spa region and many people come to bathe in the thermal springs of towns such as Rio Hondo. Head for the La Rioja region for viticulture and the natural attraction of the Talampaya Canyon. Throughout the rest of the region you'll find plenty else of interest, from the activities and attractions afforded by the mountains to ruins of colonial forts.
Mendoza and the West
The Mendoza province and its eponymous capital is Argentina's wine growing region. In the shadow of the Andes, and South America's highest peak - Aconcagua - the manmade irrigation channels have turned the arid central plain into an agricultural oasis.
The city of Mendoza itself sits at the centre of a spider's web of irrigation. It is a lively city and nearly 500 years old, but is characterised by the wineries that surround it rather than anything intrinsically beautiful in itself. These vineyards are the central figures in the Argentinian wine industry and many of them offer tours and tastings.
Head for the lower slopes of the Andes in winter for the region's other main draw - skiing. Ski centres such as Las Leñas and Los Penitentes attract winter sports enthusiasts from all over the world to their pistes.
Patagonia
There are few places on earth that can match Patagonia for natural beauty. The landscape is simply breathtaking, with prehistoric forests, deep blue-green lakes and massive glaciers.
The best of the region is undoubtedly the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz province with its Moreno Glacier centrepiece, a constantly moving behemoth of ice. It is one of the few places where you can see icebergs calving, as the glacier spills into Lake Argentino. This southern tip of the Andes spine is an incredibly bleak place, with severe granite mountains and sparse vegetation. It is an incredible wilderness that can't help but fascinate.
Bariloche is the capital of the Andean part of Patagonia. A popular destination in winter when the surrounding mountains offer some of the continent's best skiing, it is likewise popular in summer with climbers and trekkers who come to try their skills on the imposing peaks. The coast of Patagonia is as fascinating as the interior - the Valdes Peninsula juts out into the South Atlantic and in its shelter you can see southern right whales during the breeding season of May-December. Further south at Punta Tombo is the world's largest colony of Magellan penguins.
Tierra del Fuego
If there are few places on earth like Patagonia, there is nowhere on earth like Tierra del Fuego. This very tip of the continent is shared between Argentina and Chile and it is hard to imagine a more inhospitable territory. The "land of fire" lies on a geological fault and the entire peninsula is characterised by volcanic activity. The geography bears evidence of the violence of the earthquakes that have shaken the land here, it has literally shattered into fragments.
On the Argentinean side of the region you'll find the most southerly city on earth, Ushuaia. The city is the embarkation point for Antarctic surveys and, as such, it is very much a working town. But there are still some sights of interest here, most notably the Museum at the End of the World, which bears testament to the fact that people have been eking a living out here for centuries.
The Tierra del Fuego National Park is an amazing region of jagged coastline, massive spiked peaks and glaciers. The best way to get here is to catch the "Train at the End of the World", a steam train that runs from a station just to the west of Ushuaia into the park.
