4 weeks driving trip in Argentina - any tips?

I think it is way too much driving for a month. I think you will get more out of the trip if you rent a car to explore an area but not as your sole method of travel between places.

It really depends on whether you enjoy driving. None of these routes are that complicated nor are the roads bad.

Mendoza to BA is straight and boring and should best be done in one long 11 hour drive.

Leaving 5500 km to spread out over the rest of the month is less than 200 km per day AVERAGE.

This is quite doable.

Disclaimer: This is from a person who has driven from Montevideo to Santiago non-stop and Arica to Santiago non-stop. (except gas and pee-breaks). But this is NOT a vacation and i don"t recommend it!

However your trip could be done in 11 days of 420 km(6 hrs at 70 kph average) leaving 18 days of sight seeing and local trips and then one long push back to BA. This is a nice trip.

Travelling by car is a good way to get around Argentina. Rental rates are relatively high, however you have done your arithmetic on this. Roads are generally good, and outside big cities, traffic is not heavy in general. If you drive on unsurfaced roads be aware of the need to keep speeds down and negotiate curves with care (if you are used to unsurfaced roads you know this, however it's not uncommon for visitors for whom these are new to end up in the ditch). I would avoid night driving, however the hazards common to most other countries in South America are less in Argentina.

Distances between gas stations can be huge, in Patagonia for example you can easily travel 300-400 Km with no gas station (and not much else). Plan to fill whenever you can in these areas.

Some odd thoughts:

1) Tyres – make sure the tyres are in good shape (including the spare) and are properly inflated. I would suggest that if you are going to be on unsurfaced roads much then if you have a choice get AT tyres rather than HT.
2) Maps – there are good maps at most gas stations. If you want to get maps ahead of time some of the best maps are available from ITMB in Vancouver (they will mail or you can get pdfs)
3) GPS – use for calibration and general location rather than directions, however good GPS maps are available in many places. Even so we have found ourselves driving where the GPS says there is no road and unable to locate roads theoretically present (for example in the salinas in Northern Argentina).
4) Medical kit (Is your blood type unusual?)
5) Communications, routine and in emergency. How will you manage these?
6) Make up “In case of Emergency” cards with contact numbers, blood group etc.

The problem with your itinerary is that you are driving vast distances with not much to see or do along the way. For instance, Bs. As. - Bahia Blanca has very little of touristic interest. Then Bahia Blanca - Puerto Madryn again, and the worst, Puerto Madryn - El Calafate. I made the mistake of thinking it'd be great to take the bus from Rio Gallegos to Bs. As. and see a bit of the country! I figured the first bit was night, and I knew it was uninteresting, so then I'd have a whole day to see the sights. Well, it was 12 hours of seeing the typical Patagonian shrubbery grow from about ankle height to knee height. I hoped that Bs. As. province would be more exciting, but by then it was night. Luckily for me, I had another chance at that trip... and no, you don't miss anything from attempting to sleep through all of it. It's none of it unpleasant terrain (except for Commodoro Rivadavia, which is a dump), just long, straight, and monotonous.

Once you hit the south, you can enjoy your trip a lot more, and here a car will really shine. You can do things like visit the Cueva de las Manos and other hardly visited spots on the beautiful drive along the Andes from El Chalten up to Bariloche. It's long, but there are now actually vistas, and places that are worth stopping for a few hours or days. Similar for Bariloche to Mendoza. Depending on how much time you have, San Juan is pretty too, and then you can stop in Cordoba on your way back to Bs. As. (and also Rosario, although it's less interesting than Cordoba).

Even so, it is a LOT of driving for a 4 week vacation. Just to get south, on the slog mentioned with no interesting sights, I'd still do the drive south in 4 days, with an extra 2 days on Peninsula Valdes. If you are 2 drivers and both used to driving long distances, you can cut a day off there by doing the second half (from Puerto Madryn to Calafate) in a single slog. If you're very courageous, you can do the first half in a single drive as well, but I would suggest doing it in 2 and taking it easy (insofar as you can call driving 700km a day taking it easy): get a bit used to your car, the roads, and other drivers.

Oh, and in Patagonia beware of the winds.

Hello,
I only can suggest, don`t drive to Argentina, but Carratera Austral in Chile ..

I just came from there driving from Puerto Mont to Tortel .. it was the most amazing drive I ever seen and belive me i have been in over 50 countries so far ..

Cheers

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