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Mount Fitz Roy above Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Sucia, El Chaltén
The ice front of the Perito Moreno Glacier above Lago Argentino
A row of Iguazú waterfalls pouring through the rainforest, seen from the Upper Circuit on the Argentine side
The stage and main hall of the Teatro Colón
A vineyard near Los Árboles in the Uco Valley with the Andes behind

Things to do in Argentina: 30 experiences worth the trip

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Photo: Gedankenstuecke, CC BY-SA 4.0

El Calafate

Watch the Perito Moreno Glacier calve from the walkways

Check dates and prices

Photo: Justraveling.com, CC BY-SA 4.0

Puerto Iguazú, Misiones

Walk the Iguazú circuits and ride a boat under the falls

Check dates and prices

Photo: Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0

San Nicolás, Buenos Aires

Tour the Teatro Colón opera house

Check dates and prices

Photo: Mauricio V. Genta, CC BY-SA 4.0

Uco Valley, Mendoza

Taste Malbec at the foot of the Andes in the Uco Valley

Check dates and prices

Photo: David, CC BY 2.0

Argentina is a country of long distances: Ruta 40 alone runs about 5,200 km from the far north to Patagonia, and most first trips combine Buenos Aires with one or two regions reached by plane. This page is built to help you choose those regions and then get each stop right, from which Iguazú walkway is open to how the Tren a las Nubes really runs today.

Every experience below lists how long it takes, if you need to book, and the one decision that matters on the day. Fees and rules come from official sources such as the national parks administration, checked on 25 October 2026; several famous claims repeated across travel listings turned out to be wrong, and the text says so where it matters.

For the national parks, note that fees are charged in pesos and were last updated on 1 June 2026, and that a second day in the same park costs half if you return within 72 hours.

30 things to do in Argentina

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The ice front of the Perito Moreno Glacier above Lago Argentino

Watch the Perito Moreno Glacier calve from the walkways

El Calafate

A full day from El CalafateGo alone or with a tour

Stand facing a wall of ice some 74 m high and listen for the crack that usually comes before the ice falls.

Check dates and pricesDay at the glacier walkways from El Calafate, boat optional
Laguna de los Tres below the granite spires of the Fitz Roy massif

Hike to Laguna de los Tres below Fitz Roy

El Chaltén

About 8 hours returnNo booking needed

Climb to a lagoon right under the spires of Fitz Roy, the last stretch steep and fully exposed to the wind.

Tours in Argentina
Grilled steaks served at the Don Julio parrilla in Palermo

Eat at Don Julio, Palermo's most famous parrilla

Palermo, Buenos Aires

About 2 hoursBook ahead

Palermo's most famous parrilla: bife de chorizo from the grill, provoleta to start, at a table you booked well ahead.

Tours in Argentina
Inside Café Tortoni on Avenida de Mayo, Buenos Aires

See a tango show in the cellar of Café Tortoni

Monserrat, Buenos Aires

About 1.5 hours for the showBook ahead

Tango in the cellar of a café open since 1858, with dancers, singer and musicians in a small room.

Tours in Argentina
Rows of marble mausoleums in Recoleta Cemetery

Walk Recoleta Cemetery and find Evita's family vault

Recoleta, Buenos Aires

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Wander the streets of a small city of vaults and find the modest black tomb where Eva Perón rests.

Tours in Argentina
A row of Iguazú waterfalls pouring through the rainforest, seen from the Upper Circuit on the Argentine side

Walk the Iguazú circuits and ride a boat under the falls

Puerto Iguazú, Misiones

A full day, two if you add the boatGo alone or with a tour

Walk above and among the Iguazú falls, then ride a boat into the spray below them.

Check dates and pricesArgentine falls circuits plus the Gran Aventura boat
Painted corrugated-iron houses along Caminito in La Boca

See Caminito and the painted houses of La Boca by day

La Boca, Buenos Aires

1 to 2 hoursFree

One short pedestrian street of painted tin and timber walls, with street tango and painters' stalls along them.

Tours in Argentina
The striped slopes of the Serranía de Hornocal near Humahuaca

Drive Route 9 up the Quebrada de Humahuaca to the Hornocal

Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy

One long day, better twoNo booking needed

Drive north up a UNESCO-listed gorge to a viewpoint at roughly 4,350 m facing the mountain locals call the hill of fourteen colours.

Tours in Argentina
A vineyard near Los Árboles in the Uco Valley with the Andes behind

Taste Malbec at the foot of the Andes in the Uco Valley

Uco Valley, Mendoza

A full day from MendozaBook ahead

Taste Malbec among vineyards planted up to 1,700 m, with lunch at a winery at the foot of the Andes.

Check dates and pricesUco Valley wineries from Mendoza with a paired lunch
The rock formation known as El Submarino in Ischigualasto

Drive the Valle de la Luna circuit in Ischigualasto

San Juan Province

About 3 hours for the circuitNo booking needed

Drive a fixed circuit past rock formations about 230 million years old and take a late slot for the warm light before sunset.

Tours in Argentina
The steep stands of La Bombonera, Boca Juniors' stadium

Get inside La Bombonera, at a match or through the museum

La Boca, Buenos Aires

1 to 2 hours for the museum; a match is an eveningBook ahead

See Boca Juniors' trophies and shirts in the club museum or, with the right agency, a seat in the stands on match day.

Tours in Argentina
The Lapataia River near its mouth in Tierra del Fuego National Park

Canoe the Lapataia River in Tierra del Fuego National Park

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

A full day with the hikeBook ahead

Paddle an inflatable canoe down two rivers past beaver dams to the bay where Route 3 ends.

Tours in Argentina
Plaza Dorrego, the heart of the San Telmo Sunday fair

Browse the San Telmo antiques fair on a Sunday

San Telmo, Buenos Aires

2 to 3 hoursFree

Every Sunday, silverware and old tango posters around Plaza Dorrego, with tango dancers on the corner.

Tours in Argentina
The Tren a las Nubes crossing the La Polvorilla viaduct

Ride the Tren a las Nubes to the La Polvorilla viaduct

Salta Province

A full day, check-in at 06:15Book ahead

A mountain coach ride, then an hour by train out onto the La Polvorilla viaduct, above 4,200 m.

Tours in Argentina
A gaucho tending an asado in San Antonio de Areco

Spend a día de campo on a Pampas estancia

San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires Province

A full day, about 8 hoursBook ahead

Empanadas and wine on arrival, a ride, an asado with folk and tango, and gauchos racing for the sortija ring.

Tours in Argentina
Stencilled hands on the rock wall of the Cueva de las Manos

See the stencilled hands of Cueva de las Manos

Santa Cruz Province

About 2 hours on site, plus the driveNo booking needed

More than 2,000 stencilled hands, mostly left, painted beside guanacos and rheas, the oldest more than 9,000 years ago.

Tours in Argentina

Take a class and stay for the milonga at La Catedral

Almagro, Buenos Aires

An evening, class plus milongaNo booking needed

Take a class in an easy-to-miss first-floor hall, then stay for the milonga, where dances start with a look and a nod.

Tours in Argentina
The Jesuit Block in central Córdoba

Tour Córdoba's Jesuit Block and one of its estancias

Córdoba City

2 hours for the block, a day with an estanciaNo booking needed

Walk the graduation hall and old library of a university the Jesuits founded in 1613, then visit one of their rural estancias.

Tours in Argentina
The striped Les Eclaireurs lighthouse on its islet in the Beagle Channel

Sail the Beagle Channel to the Les Eclaireurs lighthouse

Beagle Channel, Ushuaia

About 3 hours on the waterBook ahead

Sail the Beagle Channel past sea lions and cormorants to a red and white lighthouse on a rocky islet.

Tours in Argentina
Inside the El Turista chocolate shop in Bariloche

Taste chocolate en rama on Bariloche's Calle Mitre

San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro

An hour or twoFree

Taste chocolate en rama, thin shards scraped off a slab, on the street where Bariloche's chocolate trade is concentrated.

A southern right whale surfacing off Puerto Pirámides

Watch southern right whales from Puerto Pirámides

Península Valdés, Chubut

A day for the peninsula, another for Punta TomboBook ahead

Watch southern right whales by boat from the only place in Argentina that authorises it, or mothers and calves from the beach.

Tours in Argentina
The façade of MALBA on Avenida Figueroa Alcorta

See Frida Kahlo and Tarsila do Amaral at MALBA

Palermo, Buenos Aires

About 2 hoursNo booking needed

See Frida Kahlo's Self-portrait with Monkey and Parrot and, if it is home, Tarsila do Amaral's Abaporu, in one Palermo museum.

Tours in Argentina
A band on the main stage of Niceto Club in Palermo

Go out late at Niceto Club, a Palermo boliche

Palermo, Buenos Aires

A late night, parties from midnightBook ahead

A Palermo club that does both halves of the night: a band around 21:00, then the party from midnight.

Tours in Argentina
The forested shore of the Blest arm of Lake Nahuel Huapi

Sail the Blest arm of Nahuel Huapi to Puerto Blest

Bariloche, Río Negro

A full day, 7 to 10 hoursBook ahead

Sail the narrow Blest arm of Nahuel Huapi deep into temperate rainforest, with a walk up to the Los Cántaros waterfall.

Tours in Argentina
The former Ushuaia prison, now the Maritime and Prison Museum

Visit Ushuaia's old prison and its Malvinas memorial sites

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

Half a day for the prison museum and the Malvinas sitesNo booking needed

Walk the cell wings of a prison its own inmates built, then the letters and objects of the 1982 war's combatants.

Tours in Argentina
The stage and main hall of the Teatro Colón

Tour the Teatro Colón opera house

San Nicolás, Buenos Aires

About 50 minutesBook ahead

Walk through the Golden Hall into the horseshoe-shaped main hall of Buenos Aires' opera house.

Check dates and pricesGuided tour of the halls and auditorium
A taxi boat on a canal of the Tigre Delta

Ride the boats of the Tigre Delta

Tigre, Buenos Aires Province

Half a day to a full dayNo booking needed

Ride a wooden water bus through the Paraná Delta's river channels, past stilted island houses reachable only by water.

Tours in Argentina
The End of the World Train rounding a curve near Ushuaia

Ride the End of the World Train into the national park

Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

Book ahead

Ride the recreated last kilometres of Ushuaia's historic prisoners' train into Tierra del Fuego National Park.

Tours in Argentina
The white salt flat of Salinas Grandes on the Puna

Walk on the salt flat of Salinas Grandes

Jujuy

Half a day from PurmamarcaNo booking needed

Climb the hairpins of the Cuesta de Lipán to a pass at around 4,170 m, then walk out onto a white salt flat.

Tours in Argentina
A lake beside the Seven Lakes Road in Neuquén

Drive the Road of the Seven Lakes

Neuquén

A full day with stopsNo booking needed

Drive past seven lakes between Villa La Angostura and San Martín de los Andes, stopping at every lookout.

Tours in Argentina

Plan your trip

  • When to go

    Seasons are the reverse of Europe's: summer runs from 21 December to 20 March. Southern Patagonia, with the Perito Moreno Glacier and the Fitz Roy trails, is most practical from spring to autumn, roughly October to April, when days are long and boats and treks run fully. Southern right whales are at Península Valdés from June to December, best by boat in September and October, while the Punta Tombo penguin colony opens from September to April. Iguazú is open all year, but high water can close the Garganta del Diablo walkway, as it did from August 2026. In the hot months Ischigualasto only admits groups until 11:00 and again at 16:00 and 17:00.

  • How many days

    must30's rule of thumb: allow two weeks for a first trip and pick no more than three regions. Three days for Buenos Aires, two for Iguazú, four or five for El Calafate and El Chaltén (the glacier takes a full day, Laguna de los Tres another, and bad weather can spoil either), and three or four for Salta and Jujuy if you want the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the Salinas Grandes and the Tren a las Nubes. Each flight between regions costs most of a day once airport transfers are counted, so a fourth region usually means rushing the other three.

  • Getting around

    Every province has its own airport, and flying is the only sensible way to link Buenos Aires with Patagonia, Iguazú or the northwest. Within a region, long-distance buses do the rest: El Calafate to El Chaltén takes about 3 hours. Hire a car for the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the Seven Lakes Road and the Uco Valley, but expect gravel on the best side trips, such as the 25 km to the Hornocal viewpoint and the access to the Cueva de las Manos. In Buenos Aires, the Subte and buses run on a rechargeable SUBE card.

  • Entry, money and park fees

    Travellers from Western Europe, North America and South America will probably not need a visa for a tourist visit, according to the national tourism board; check the immigration rules for your passport. The currency is the Argentine peso, and credit cards are accepted in most businesses. National park daily passes are priced in pesos at the general rate: 60,000 for Iguazú, 50,000 for Los Glaciares and 40,000 for Tierra del Fuego from 1 June 2026, sold online and at the gates against a passport. Some places, such as the Teatro Colón, take cards or pesos but not foreign currency.

Questions travellers ask

Do I need a visa to visit Argentina?

The national tourism board says travellers from Western Europe, North America and South America will probably not need a visa for tourism. Rules depend on your passport, so check the Argentine immigration site before you book. Carry your passport during the trip: national parks ask for it when you pay the entry fee.

When is the best time to visit Argentina?

It depends on the region. October to April suits Patagonia, when treks and glacier boats run fully. September and October are the best months for whale-watching boats at Península Valdés. Buenos Aires and Iguazú work all year, although high water can close parts of the Iguazú walkways.

How many days do you need in Argentina?

Plan on about two weeks for a first trip, covering Buenos Aires plus two regions such as Iguazú and southern Patagonia. Distances are long and most regions are linked by plane, so each change of region costs close to a day. With ten days, choose one region besides Buenos Aires.

Is the Argentine or Brazilian side of Iguazú Falls better?

They do different things. The Argentine side has the longer walkways, with the Upper and Lower circuits taking you over and among the falls, while the Brazilian side gives the wide panorama. The Argentine walkway to the Garganta del Diablo was dismantled in August 2026 ahead of high water, so check whether it has reopened before choosing.

Can you pay by card in Argentina?

Yes, credit cards are accepted in most businesses, and national park entry can be bought online. Carry some pesos in cash for markets such as the San Telmo fair, small community fees like the Hornocal viewpoint, and tips. Foreign currency is not accepted everywhere: the Teatro Colón, for example, takes only cards or pesos.

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