Argentina!

SarahMollie

So I've gotten it into my head that I would like to travel to Argentina. I think it looks like the most beautiful country with a diverse landscape and interesting history.

From doing some googling, its looking rather expensive to go for a 10-12 night tour taking in a few locations. I've seen prices between €4-6k per head, and not always including flights :eek:

So I'm sure we could manage Buenos Ares ourselves but I'd also like to see places like Patagonia, and also maybe wine regions, ranch areas etc. I'm really open if there are other must sees that I've not heard of yet!

Has anyone "bespoke'd" their own trip around Argentina? I'd love to hear more about;
- Costs?
- Best time of year to visit?
- Visa requirements/Vaccinations required?
- How easy it is to book things yourself from Ireland/ if a travel agent is worth the money?
- Mosquito levels (as I always attract them!)

We'd be talking about a 2 week holiday, for myself and BF, both early 30's.

rojito

This is a very niche trip so agents will always charge a premium, they cannot sell in bulk as they would for trips to the south of Spain/Portugal, everything they book will likely just be for you rather than group rates. If you do it yourself, I would be shocked if you came even close to spending 4k in two weeks. After flights I would guess you would live like royalty on 1k-1.5k a head.

Costs - Argentina is notorious for inflation so the common advice is to check the latest lonely planet and add at least 10% on to everything to be safe. I haven't been there for 4 years so I can't give any up to date advice, but if you are happy to stay in hostels (even private rooms) or airbnb then things won't be too bad. Check out hostelworld prices in a few of the places you are thinking about to get an idea, BA, as the capital, will be more expensive than almost everywhere else.

Best time of year - Argentina has seasons but the opposite to home. For example, I went almost exactly at this time of year and it was autumn, I did a lot of hiking around Bariloche and it was beautiful. In a few months though it will be winter and Bariloche is a ski resort. So you have to think about what you are after, really.

Visa - You can get the stamp on arrival, no vaccinations required that I know of.

Easy to organise from home? - LAN is the major airline and I am sure they have an English language site. For a two week trip I wouldn't recommend buses, it is generally a minimum 12 hours between anywhere you want to go. Hostels will have contacts for all the excursions/tours you want and these can be booked while there. So, you just need flights and hostels and you can figure the rest out when you are there.

Mosquitos - Not sure about Spring/Summer out there but the only ones I saw were in Iguazu. (And you cannot miss Iguazu!!!) Argentina is not as tropical as you might think.

Hopeful2016

SarahMollie wrote: »

So I've gotten it into my head that I would like to travel to Argentina. I think it looks like the most beautiful country with a diverse landscape and interesting history.

From doing some googling, its looking rather expensive to go for a 10-12 night tour taking in a few locations. I've seen prices between €4-6k per head, and not always including flights :eek:

So I'm sure we could manage Buenos Ares ourselves but I'd also like to see places like Patagonia, and also maybe wine regions, ranch areas etc. I'm really open if there are other must sees that I've not heard of yet!

Has anyone "bespoke'd" their own trip around Argentina? I'd love to hear more about;
- Costs?
- Best time of year to visit?
- Visa requirements/Vaccinations required?
- How easy it is to book things yourself from Ireland/ if a travel agent is worth the money?
- Mosquito levels (as I always attract them!)

We'd be talking about a 2 week holiday, for myself and BF, both early 30's.

Iguassu Falls are a must see imo. Enjoy the trip.

Extraplus

I'm just back from Argentina and had a great time. Would agree Iguazu is a must. I also really enjoyed Buenos Aires and Mendoza. I didn't make it doen to Patagonia so can't help there I'm afraid. I organised it all myself and it was relatively striaghtforward, I booked the internal flights online before I left using skyscanner, and trivago/airbnb for accomodation.

adrian522

SarahMollie wrote: »

So I've gotten it into my head that I would like to travel to Argentina. I think it looks like the most beautiful country with a diverse landscape and interesting history.

From doing some googling, its looking rather expensive to go for a 10-12 night tour taking in a few locations. I've seen prices between €4-6k per head, and not always including flights :eek:

So I'm sure we could manage Buenos Ares ourselves but I'd also like to see places like Patagonia, and also maybe wine regions, ranch areas etc. I'm really open if there are other must sees that I've not heard of yet!

Has anyone "bespoke'd" their own trip around Argentina? I'd love to hear more about;
- Costs?
- Best time of year to visit?
- Visa requirements/Vaccinations required?
- How easy it is to book things yourself from Ireland/ if a travel agent is worth the money?
- Mosquito levels (as I always attract them!)

We'd be talking about a 2 week holiday, for myself and BF, both early 30's.

Hi, I was in Argentina in 2006, went solo. Nothing organised in advance save for a hostel in BA and an internal flight.

- Costs?

I don't really remember specifics but didn't find it overly expensive compared to here but probably more expensive than a lot of South America. I found flights expensive so book those in advance if you can, they are quite pricey last minute. Bus is a good but time consuming way to travel. You have to weigh up if the extra cost is worth saving a day or travel time.

- Best time of year to visit?

Our Winter/Their summer, particularly if you plan to visit the south of the country.

- Visa requirements/Vaccinations required?

I think it was visa on arrival and just the usual vaccinations.
- How easy it is to book things yourself from Ireland/ if a travel agent is worth the money?

You can book flights etc yourself online, everything else can be organised over there, just ask around.
- Mosquito levels (as I always attract them!)

Can't really remember them being much of a problem, wouldn't let it put you off going there.

In terms of places to see I'd recommend a trip to Patagonia but with only 10-12 days you wouldn't see much else.

If you can spread it out to 3 weeks you could probably see more. BA/Flight to Patagonia, then bus/fly up towards Lake district/Mendoza/Fly to Iguazu.

Having said that if cost is a factor maybe limit yourself to one or 2 highlights and see them properly rather than rushing around ticking all the boxes.

SarahMollie

Hi everyone - just trying to give this thread a bump as I'm back on the Argentina bandwagon again!

We didnt end up going this year as we'd so many weddings to attend and the demands on our Annual Leave were just too much to leave time for such a big trip, so I'm now thinking of going sometime in early 2017 (between Feb and April I'd say), so looking to get the flights sorted out over the next few weeks.

I've been looking on the LATAM website for internal flights but the biggest challenge seems to be that Buenos Aries is the hub and all flights seem to only go in and out of there. For example, I was thinking of having a 3 center holiday, BA itself, then Mendoza and then Iguazu falls, however theres no flight directly from Medonza to Iguazu (that I can see!) so it looks like flying back into BA and then out again is the only option by air. The alternative is 24 hours on a bus which doesn't seem a good use of time. Am I missing something or is this just how it is?

Also, while I love the idea of going to Patagonia, I'm a bit unsure if its the best use of our time. Obviously something from what I've outlined above would have to give (if not most of it!) so its hard to know what to do.

rojito

Aerolíneas Argentinas seem to have a service from Mendoza to Iguazu.

Wikipedia is an under appreciated resource for this exact problem, just look up the origin or destination airport and you'll get a full list of airlines and their routes.

jay0109

I went in 2007 and can not speak highly enough of Patagonia. Highlight of the trip.
Flew to El Calafate and hired a car up to El Chalten and did some hiking around the area of the Fitzroy peaks. September time so still some snow on the ground high up but very few people about. Stunnign place.

Was disappointed with Iguazu. Waterfalls there are beautiful but it's a long way to go to see them. Would rather have spent more time down south.

We booked ourr internal flights through a local Argentinian travel agent. At the time foreigners were being charged more for flights so this was 1 way around it.

pjproby

Easy to arrange yourself. I loved it. buenos aires was great and you have to go to iguazu falls. I travelled on my own and had arranged hotel for first five days in BA and then whilst there arranged a trip to iguazu.

SarahMollie

pjproby wrote: »

Easy to arrange yourself. I loved it. buenos aires was great and you have to go to iguazu falls. I travelled on my own and had arranged hotel for first five days in BA and then whilst there arranged a trip to iguazu.

How did you get to Iguazu? Bus/Plane? Do you happen to remember roughly how much it cost and how many days you spend there?

SarahMollie

jay0109 wrote: »

I went in 2007 and can not speak highly enough of Patagonia. Highlight of the trip.
Flew to El Calafate and hired a car up to El Chalten and did some hiking around the area of the Fitzroy peaks. September time so still some snow on the ground high up but very few people about. Stunnign place.

Was disappointed with Iguazu. Waterfalls there are beautiful but it's a long way to go to see them. Would rather have spent more time down south.

We booked ourr internal flights through a local Argentinian travel agent. At the time foreigners were being charged more for flights so this was 1 way around it.

Really interested to know more about your Patagonia trip. How long did you spend there and did you book from Ireland or organise over there?

I'm also not the most outdoorsey person but I know himself would love it. Do you need to be the type who regularly hikes etc?

jay0109

We organised all from here.
Flights through our Argentinian Travel Agent (tight deadlines for transfers as we were coming from Iguazu area). Accomm (hostels) and car hire (airport) I booked myself in advance.
El Calafate is a nice base to explore the Glaciers etc. It's close to the airport.
El Chalten is more rural but the hiking around there was tremendous. I'm no expert hiker but was well able for the 2 or 3 days of walks we did while there. Then back to the hostel each night for massive steaks and plenty of beer!

We only spent 4 days in Patagonia and really really regret that. In my opinion, we wasted 2 days with Iguazu but the other lads wanted to go there.

SarahMollie

jay0109 wrote: »

We organised all from here.
Flights through our Argentinian Travel Agent (tight deadlines for transfers as we were coming from Iguazu area). Accomm (hostels) and car hire (airport) I booked myself in advance.
El Calafate is a nice base to explore the Glaciers etc. It's close to the airport.
El Chalten is more rural but the hiking around there was tremendous. I'm no expert hiker but was well able for the 2 or 3 days of walks we did while there. Then back to the hostel each night for massive steaks and plenty of beer!

We only spent 4 days in Patagonia and really really regret that. In my opinion, we wasted 2 days with Iguazu but the other lads wanted to go there.

Thanks - if you happen to remember the name of the Travel Agent you used, I'd be most appreciative of a PM!

I'm a bit unsure about Iguazu myself but then so many people say its a must. All the places I want to see are just so far from each other that I'm thinking that something might have to give.

0lddog

I'm wondering if you found :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057350271&page=1

Its a bit of a megathread and a couple of years old

Lots of useful detail - just skip over the first few pages of chit chat about the giveaway fare.

L'prof

Iquazu is phenomenal, can't recommend enough. We bused everywhere in SA so can't recommend any flights. I guess it depends on how long you're travelling for and how long you have in each place as to whether or not buses are an option

pjproby

It was a long time ago. I flew to igaucu and stayed three nights which was plenty. It was a package with flights, hotel, guide/ tours included. i can't remember how much it cost but it was very reasonable. I think i just went to the tourist office in BA and they sent me to a certain travel agent.