Argentina, one day at a time.
Which glacier day actually gets you onto the ice. Which tango night is a theatre and which is a milonga. What a Mendoza bodega lunch really costs. Every tour in Argentina, reviewed.
From La Boca to the ice field: what everyone books.
Every review →These carry more travellers than anything else in the country. What each one is, what it costs, and whether it deserves the day.
1
Local Foodie Adventure in Buenos Aires with Sherpa Food Tours
Taste Argentina’s best dishes, wine, and local culture on a small-group walking tour through Palermo in Buenos Aires.
From · $90
Read our review →
2
Buenos Aires City Private Tour with Local Guide
from $126
3
Perito Moreno Glacier & Optional Boat Cruise
from $80
4
Buenos Aires Small-Group City Tour
from $38
5
Buenos Aires Hop-On Hop-Off Bus, Free Walking Tours & Discounts
from $39
6
Piazzolla Tango Show with Optional Dinner
from $48
7
City Highlights Guided Tour with Transfer
from $38
8
Hop-On Hop-Off City Bus Tour
from $35
Ice, falls, vineyards and tango: the Argentine shortlist.
A first trip here is usually built around six things. Here is what each one actually involves and the best way to book it.
In Buenos Aires, tango still starts after midnight.
The big houses on Avenida Corrientes do dinner and a full orchestra from nine. The milongas of San Telmo and Almagro open when those shows close, and nobody on that floor is performing for you. Both are worth a night; only one needs booking weeks ahead.
Mendoza pours malbec with the Andes in the window.
Three wine roads leave the city. Luján de Cuyo holds the old malbec vines, Maipú is the flat bike-and-bodega day, and the Uco Valley runs long lunches under Tupungato. The tasting is the cheap part — book the table.
Perito Moreno: choose how close you get.
Every glacier day →
The walkways face the ice front and cost nothing extra; what you pay for is the approach. Boats run under the south wall, minitrekking straps crampons on for an hour on top, and El Chaltén is a different mountain day altogether.
Walkways, then the boat to the south face
Two hours on the balconies with the ice cracking somewhere out of sight, then a catamaran close enough under the south wall to feel the cold coming off it.
Crampons, an hour on the glacier, whisky on the way out
Across Lago Rico by boat, a briefing on the moraine, then a guided line between the seracs. Operators cap the daily numbers and the age range, so it sells out first.
El Chaltén and the Fitz Roy trailheads
Three hours north to Argentina’s trekking capital, a marked walk to a Fitz Roy viewpoint, and back down Ruta 40 before the light goes.
From a $13 walk in La Boca to a private table in the Uco Valley.
Three price bands, and what a day in Argentina actually buys in each.
Walking tours of La Boca and Recoleta, city bike loops, graffiti in Palermo, a tango ticket without the dinner.
The full days out: the glacier walkways, the Tigre delta, Salinas Grandes from Salta, a bodega lunch in Mendoza.
Ice trekking, private guides, Península Valdés with a whale boat, and the long Patagonian transfers that eat a whole day.
The estancia, the Beagle Channel and La Bombonera.
Steak and wine turn up all over the world. A working day on the pampas, a channel that runs out of continent, and a stadium that visibly moves are Argentine alone.
The Estancia Day
An hour out of Buenos Aires the suburbs stop and the pampas start, flat to the horizon in every direction. A working estancia hands you a horse, an empanada and a guitar after lunch, and the asado runs from midday until somebody suggests coffee. The gauchos are not actors — the riding display is the job, and the sulky is still how the farm moves people between paddocks.
- 1Gaucho Day Tour Ranch at an Estancia from Buenos Aires★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,025 reviews
- 2Gaucho Small-Group Full Day at a Farm in Buenos Aires★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 937 reviews
- 3Gaucho and Ranch Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 809 reviews
The Beagle Channel
Out of Ushuaia the boats turn east into the channel Darwin charted, past a sea lion colony you smell before you see and the red-and-white Les Éclaireurs lighthouse alone on its rock. After that there is Cape Horn and the Drake Passage and nothing else. Catamarans sail most of the year; the penguin colony at Martillo is a summer-only extension.
- 1Beagle Channel Navigation with Minitrekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 642 reviews
- 2Beagle Channel & Sea Wolves Island Catamaran Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 433 reviews
- 3Snorkeling with Sea Lions by Madryn Buceo★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 347 reviews
La Bombonera
Boca Juniors play in a ground so tight that the terrace visibly flexes when it jumps, which is why porteños call it the chocolate box. Tickets never reach the gate for visitors: the fixture list appears weeks out and a seat arrives bundled with a guide, transport and a firm rule about not wearing the other club’s colours.
- 1Tickets to Boca Juniors Museum & Stadium★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 581 reviews
- 2Boca Juniors Tickets for a Match at La Bombonera★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 140 reviews
- 3Soccer Match in Buenos Aires with Transfers and Local Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 103 reviews
Ushuaia runs out of road, then out of continent.
All Ushuaia tours →
Beagle Channel & Sea Wolves Island Catamaran Cruise
Read our review →What Argentina makes you book in advance.
Most of this country can be arranged at the hotel desk the night before. These four cannot. They run on a fixture list, a whale calendar, a permit cap and a narrow-gauge timetable, none of which care when your flight lands.
- 01Boca Juniors Tickets for a Match at La BomboneraMatch seats are released against the fixture list and are never sold to visitors at the turnstile.
- 02Valdes Peninsula: Full Day with Whale WatchingSouthern right whales sit in Península Valdés water from June to December. Outside that window the boats do not sail.
- 03Perito Moreno Glacier Minitrekking ExcursionIce trekking runs on a daily permit cap and a strict age range, and high season is gone weeks ahead.
- 04End of the World Train TicketA handful of short departures a day on a narrow-gauge line, and cruise-ship days take most of the seats.
Half of Argentina is only open half the year.
The country runs 3,700 km north to south, so the calendar splits it in two. Patagonian trekking and the glacier boats work October to April. The southern right whales are at Valdés from June to December. Mendoza harvests in late February and March. Buenos Aires, Iguazú and the northwest are open all year and never really close.
- 1Beagle Channel Navigation with Minitrekkingfrom $80
- 2Penguin Watching Tour by Catamaranfrom $180
- 3Catamaran Sailing to Penguin Islandfrom $92
By region — north to south
Puerto Iguazú38 tours
Salta & the Northwest41 tours
Córdoba7 tours
Buenos Aires234 tours
Mendoza63 tours
Bariloche & the Lakes31 tours
Puerto Madryn20 tours
El Calafate50 tours
Ushuaia63 tours- Every tour in Argentina →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, the way most first trips run.
The latest reviews, Iguazú to the ice.
All recent →
Tierra del Fuego National Park PRIVATE Shore Excursion
Read our review →
Buenos Aires Shore Excursion: Half-Day Tour to Tigre Delta
Read our review →
Ushuaia Shore Excursion: Private Tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park
Read our review →
Puerto Madryn Shore Excursion: Private Day Trip to Punta Tombo Penguin Colony
Read our review →
Puerto Madryn Shore Excursion: Private Tour of Trelew and Gaiman
Read our review →
Shore Excursion Peninsula Valdes or Punta Tombo – Private Car
Read our review →
Orcas Private Tour Puerto Madryn Caleta Valdes or Punta Norte
Read our review →
Private Iguazu Falls Argentinean Side Tour with Boat Option
Read our review →
Direct Private Transfer: El Calafate Airport to El Chaltén
Read our review →
Private Transfer from El Calafate Hotels to the Airport
Read our review →
Private Full-Day Tour to Perito Moreno Glacier Ideal for Families
Read our review →