Activities in Argentina
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Argentina Fiesta Gaucha Day Trip from Buenos Aires
8 hours (Departs Buenos Aires, Argentina)
by Viator
Travel through the Argentinean pampas on a full-day trip from Buenos Aires to a typical estancia (ranch). On your relaxing day in the Argentinean countryside,…
Not LP reviewed
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Anuva Wines
US native Daniel Karlin organizes wine tastings – try five boutique vintages with food pairings. Best of all, he’ll send your wines to the USA (arguably BA’s most affordable wine-shipping service) and can deliver within the city.
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Cerro Catedral
Nahuel Huapi's ski resort, Cerro Catedral, was once South America's trendiest, and has been superseded only by Las Leñas (near Mendoza) and resorts in Chile. Las Leñas has far superior snow (dry powder), but it lacks Catedral's strong point: views. There's nothing like looking over the shimmering lakes of Nahuel Huapi from its snowy slopes.
There's a good mix of easy, intermediate and advanced ski runs, with steep advanced runs at the top and some tree runs near the base. Lift lines can be long at this very popular resort, but the capacity is substantial enough and waiting time is generally not excessive.
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Cabalgatas Carol Jones
For something special, contact the amiable Carol Jones, who offers half-day horseback riding from her family estancia outside of town for AR$280 per person. The price includes transportation to/from town and an excellent asado (barbecue grill) outside. She also offers multiday pack trips by horse for AR$800 per person per day.
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Cerro Aconcagua
Mendoza is famous for Cerro Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, but the majestic peak is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to climbing and mountaineering here. The nearby Cordón del Plata boasts several peaks topping out between 5000m and 6000m, and there are three important rock-climbing areas in the province: Los Arenales (near Tunuyán), El Salto (near Mendoza) and Chigüido (near Malargüe).
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Caravana de Llamas
Based in the Posada de Luz, Caravana de Llamas is a recommended llama-trekking operator running half-day excursions (AR$140) around Tilcara, day trips in the Salinas Grandes (AR$180) and multiday excursions, including a five-day marathon from Las Yungas lowlands to Tilcara (AR$1750 to AR$2600). The guide is personable and well informed about the area. Llamas are pack animals: you walk, they carry the bags.
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Hike to Garganta del Diablo
Of several interesting walks around Tilcara, the most popular is the two-hour hike to Garganta del Diablo, a pretty canyon and waterfall. Head toward the pucará, but turn left along the river before crossing the bridge. The path to the Garganta leaves this road to the left just after a sign that says 'Cuide la flora y fauna'. Swimming is best in the morning, when the sun is on the pool.
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Sayta
This estancia 40km from Salta runs excellent horseback-riding days, with optional asado (barbecue grill). It’s also a place you can stay to experience a taste of Argentine gaucho life. A half-day with/without lunch costs AR$170/125, and full-board accommodation for a night is AR$230 (with a day’s riding AR$345). Prices include transfers from Salta.
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Maputur
Similar trips to those offered by Grado 42. Rents mountain bikes for AR$45/60 per half-/full day.
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Ampora Wine Tours
A well-established operation that concentrates on midrange and top-end wines. It has tours leaving every day to Luján de Cuyo and Maipú (AR$700) and the Uco valley (AR$730). Tours focus more on tasting than winemaking techniques. Also offers four-hour cooking classes led by famous winery chefs from the region (AR$525).
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Sebastián Clerico
Sebastián Clerico offers recommended bike tours of the city and surrounds (around Arg$55, three hours) in several languages. Even better is the seven-hour trip (around Arg$110) which incorporates kayaking on the Río Paraná and around its islands.
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La Chacra
La Chacra offers horseback excursions lasting from a few hours to multiple days. Prices run about AR$90 for a half-day excursion and AR$450 for two days, including a full asado (barbeque) in the mountains.
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Español Andando
For something different, contact Español Andando. You’ll walk around town with a guide, learning Spanish by interacting with porteños (residents of Buenos Aires) on the streets.
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Turismo la Posada
This multilingual company has a good variety of trips, and offers horseback riding, hiking and rafting.
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Inka Expediciones
Fixed and tailor-made expeditions. Airport to airport costs AR$13,600 to AR$15,700.
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Nicolás López
You can test your nerves parachuting with Nicolás López.
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Internacional Mendoza
Rents bikes for AR$40 for six hours, including a city map and MP3 player with audio bike tour of the city.
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La Trochita
Argentina's famous narrow-gauge steam train, averages less than 30km/h on its meandering weekly journey between Esquel and El Maitén - if it runs at speed. In its current incarnation, subsidized by the city of Esquel and the governments of Río Negro and Chubut, La Trochita - which Paul Theroux facetiously called The Old Patagonian Express - provides both a tourist attraction and a service for local citizens.
Like many other state projects, completion of the line seemed an interminable process. In 1906 the federal government authorized the southern branch of the Roca line, between Puerto San Antonio on the Atlantic coast and Lago Nahuel Huapi. In 1922 Ferrocarriles del…
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Guided tours
Visitors may not use their own vehicles on park roads; only contracted guides with pickup trucks offer tours of sandy canyons where aboriginal petroglyphs and mortars adorn streambed sites. Nesting condors scatter from cliffside nests as vehicles invade their otherwise undisturbed habitat. On the usual two-hour tour from the park's headquarters, vehicles pass the dunes of El Playón, leading to the Puerta de Talampaya (Gate of Talampaya) entrance to the canyon.
Back on the road, the vehicles enter the red sandstone canyon, whose eastern wall reveals a conspicuous fault. The next major stops are the Chimenea del Eco, an extraordinary echo chamber where your voice seems to…
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Centro Paleontológico Lago Barreales
For true dino freaks, the best place to satiate the hunger for bones is the Centro Paleontológico Lago Barreales, 90km northwest of Neuquén. Here you can actually work – as in get your hands dirty digging – on-site with paleontologists in one of the world’s only fully functioning dinosaur excavation sites open to the public. You can visit the museum and take a guided tour of the site in about 1½ hours, but the real pleasure comes from the unique opportunity offered by sticking around. Prices (which help fund research) are AR$400 for one day and AR$1050 for two days and one night. It also offers scientific/educational tours, making a circuit of Neuquén province…
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Fishing
You know a place takes fishing seriously when the tourism board posts a trout map online. Hollywood stars, heads of state and former US presidents all flock to the desolate stretch of the island around Río Grande in search of the perfect day of angling. Usually they are in luck.
In 1933 pioneer John Goodall stocked the rivers around Río Grande with brown, rainbow and brook trout. Fish populated the rivers and, like the region's sheep stations, the sport-fishing industry took off. European brown trout ventured out to sea, returning to these rivers to spawn. Over the decades this back-and-forth migration has fostered one of the world's best sea-run trout-fishing areas,…
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Finca Colomé
Some of Argentina’s finest wines are produced at this ecological bodega, which is set (as they say hereabouts) ‘where the devil lost his poncho, ’ some 20km down a spectacular gravel road west from Molinos. The vineyards (including some ancient pre-phylloxera European vines) and hotel enjoy a stunning natural setting, surrounded by hills and mountains that seem to change color hourly. Forward thinking on environmental, social and cultural fronts is also in evidence: the complex is electrically self-sufficient, has funded substantial infrastructural improvements in the local community and now boasts a stunning museum designed by artist James Turrell, with a permanent…
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Boat Excursions
The best way to appreciate the area is by Boat Excursion. The classic trip is a two to 2½ hour excursion in a lancha, which takes you around the Laguna Iberá and its embalsados. You'll see myriad bird and animal life, elegant lilies, water hyacinths and other aquatic plants. The Laguna Iberá is only a small part of the 13,000 sq km area of the Esteros. Some 80km north, at Galarza, is the Laguna Galarza and the larger Laguna de Luna, which can also be explored by boat.
Many of the lodges can organize these activities; if you are staying at one they are usually included in the price. If not, there are many other options. There are several local, independent guides in…
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Circo del Aire
A peek into the grand doorways and skinny alleys of San Telmo always yields a few surprises – a stray kitten sleeping in the sun, an old man painting at an easel, a flowering tree – but nothing will capture your attention like the trapeze artists and acrobats that practice in the neighborhood’s cavernous studios. You can’t help but stop and stare when you stumble upon a circus troupe setting up their tightrope inside a garage-like space that opens onto one of San Telmo’s side streets. Keep your eye on Circo del Aire, a performance group that stages hipster circus shows on weekends and runs workshops teaching trapeze, acrobatics and ‘aerial dance’ to both adults…
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Hiking
Several nearby peaks and destinations make hiking in the mountains around Tafí del Valle an attractive prospect; try 3000m Cerro El Matadero, a four- to five-hour climb; 3800m Cerro Pabellón (six hours); and 4600m Cerro El Negrito, reached from the statue of Cristo Redentor on RN 307 to Acheral. The trails are badly marked, and no trail maps are available; you can hire a guide for about Arg$10 an hour. Ask for more information at the tourist office.
An easier hike climbs Cerro Pelado for views over the town. Cross the bridge toward the Capilla, and you'll see the path on your left immediately afterward. It takes about 1¼ hours to climb, and less to come down.
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Hielo y Aventura
Boat trips allow you to sense the magnitude of Glaciar Moreno, even though the boats keep a distance. Hielo y Aventura runs Safari Nautico (AR$45), a one-hour tour of Brazo Rico, Lago Argentino and the south side of Canal de los Témpanos. Catamarans crammed with up to 130 passengers leave hourly between 11:30am and 3:30pm from Puerto Bajo de las Sombras. Don’t forget rain gear: it’s often snowing around the glacier and you might get wet and cold quickly on the boat deck. Many travelers suggest getting on the last boat ride of the day and then viewing the glacier from the look-out platforms afterwards, when fewer visitors will crowd the catwalks.
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