---
title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Argentina (City Guides) Wimup"
description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across Argentina, Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Córdoba, Ushuaia and more cities, mapped and filmed. When to go, how to get around, and where to start."
url: https://wimup.com/country/argentina
type: Country guide
updated: 2026-10-06
publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com)
---

# Top 10s across Argentina

Wine country under the Andes, **Patagonian ice fields**, subtropical waterfalls and **a capital that dances until dawn**. Argentina runs some 3,700 kilometres from the tropics to the edge of Antarctica, and changes completely at each end.

## Quick answer

Start in **Buenos Aires** and give it four or five days: the city is the trip, not the stopover before it. After that the country splits three ways. **Patagonia** for glaciers, granite spires and the end of the road, workable from November to March. **Mendoza and the Andes** for wine, altitude and long afternoons. The **northwest around Salta** for red rock, high desert and the oldest cooking in the country. Fly between them: the distances are continental, and the domestic network exists for exactly this.

## Quick facts

- **Best months:** Mar–Apr · Oct–Nov
- **Ideal length:** 12–16 days
- **Budget per day:** $60–160
- **Language:** Spanish
- **Getting around:** Domestic flights & long-distance buses

- **5** City guides
- **46,044,703** People
- **4** Video guides

Argentina is a country of distances, so a first trip works best built around two or three regions rather than a single loop. Buenos Aires is the usual opening, and the Lake District around Bariloche, the glaciers of El Calafate and the wine roads of Mendoza each justify a flight of their own.

## 5 Argentina city guides

1. [Buenos Aires](https://wimup.com/city/buenos-aires.md): South America · 10 picks
2. [Bariloche](https://wimup.com/city/bariloche.md): South America · 10 picks
3. [Córdoba](https://wimup.com/city/cordoba.md): South America · 10 picks
4. [Ushuaia](https://wimup.com/city/ushuaia.md): South America · 10 picks
5. [Salta](https://wimup.com/city/salta.md): South America · 10 picks

## Know before you go

- **Population:** 46,044,703
- **Area:** 2,780,400 km²
- **Density:** 16.6 / km²
- **Capital:** Buenos Aires
- **Major cities:** Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza, La Plata
- **Tourism board:** Official site
- **Currency:** Argentine peso ($, ARS) Cards work in cities and at most restaurants, hotels and supermarkets. Carry cash anyway: tips, taxis, rural buses and small Patagonian towns still run on notes.
- **Language:** Spanish Rioplatense Spanish, with its own pronunciation and its own second person, vos. English is common in Buenos Aires tourism and thin outside it.
- **Calling code:** +54
- **Power:** 220V · Type C/I
- **Emergency:** 911, all services 911 reaches police, fire and ambulance nationwide. Local lines still work in most provinces: 101 police, 100 fire, 107 ambulance.
- **Visa:** Visa-free · 90 days Passport holders from more than 120 countries, including the EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia and most of Latin America, get 90 days visa-free. Others apply at a consulate. Migraciones extends once.
- **Getting around:** Domestic flights & long-distance buses Fly between regions: Buenos Aires to Ushuaia is most of the length of the country. Overnight coaches are the alternative and a good one, with reclining cama seats on the main routes.
- **Tipping:** 10% in cash Service is rarely on the bill, so leave around a tenth in notes. The cubierto is a cover charge for bread and table service that goes to the house, not to the waiter, so it does not count as the tip.

## When to visit

- **Jan** (peak)
- **Feb** (peak)
- **Mar** (best)
- **Apr** (best)
- **May** (good)
- **Jun**
- **Jul**
- **Aug**
- **Sep** (good)
- **Oct** (best)
- **Nov** (best)
- **Dec** (peak)

## Fun fact

At 6,961 metres, Cerro Aconcagua in Mendoza province is the highest mountain outside Asia, and the highest point in both the Southern and Western hemispheres.

## Stereotypes, sorted out

- **Myth:** Everyone dances tango **Reality:** Tango is a Buenos Aires art form with a devoted following, not a national pastime. Most Argentines have never taken a class. Go to a milonga anyway: the ones locals use start late and welcome beginners at the edges of the floor.
- **Myth:** It is all steak **Reality:** The parrilla is real and it is very good, but the Italian half of the country is just as visible. Pizza and pasta are everyday food, the northwest cooks with corn, chilli and llama, and Patagonia runs on lamb and trout.
- **Myth:** Argentina is basically Buenos Aires **Reality:** The capital holds a third of the population and almost none of the landscape. Iguazú is subtropical, Salta is high desert, Mendoza is Mediterranean, and Ushuaia sits closer to Antarctica than to the city everyone flies into.
- **Myth:** Argentines are Spanish-speaking Europeans **Reality:** The waves of Italian and Spanish migration shaped the accent, the surnames and the dinner hour, but Andean, Guaraní and Afro-Argentine culture run underneath the whole northern half of the country.

- Dinner is late. Kitchens fill around nine or ten, and booking for eight means eating alone in an empty room.
- Mate is shared by a set ritual. The person who brews it refills and hands over the gourd each time, and you drink the whole thing before giving it back. Do not rearrange the straw.
- Greet with one kiss on the right cheek, men included, on arrival and again on leaving. Skipping it reads as cold.
- Tips are cash. Card tips rarely reach the person who served you, so keep small notes for restaurants, taxis and hotel staff.
- The cubierto on your bill is a cover charge for bread and table service. It is not a service charge and does not replace the tip.
- Lunch runs long and shops in smaller towns still close for the afternoon. Plan errands for the morning or the early evening.

## Famous Argentine faces

- **Lionel Messi**: Captained Argentina to the 2022 World Cup, and holds a record eight Ballons d'Or
- **Diego Maradona**: Won the 1986 World Cup almost single-handed, and never stopped being an argument
- **Eva Perón**: First Lady who built a political machine of her own and won women the vote in 1947
- **Jorge Luis Borges**: Author of Ficciones, and the writer who taught the century how to build a labyrinth
- **Pope Francis**: Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and the first pope from the Americas
- **Che Guevara**: Born in Rosario, and the most reproduced face of the twentieth century
- **Astor Piazzolla**: Bandoneón player who dragged tango into the concert hall and called it nuevo tango
- **Juan Manuel Fangio**: Five Formula One world titles in the 1950s, from a village in Buenos Aires province
- **José de San Martín**: Crossed the Andes with an army and liberated Chile and Peru
- **Manuel Belgrano**: Lawyer, general, and the man who designed the flag in 1812
- **Juan Domingo Perón**: Three-time president whose movement still organises Argentine politics
- **Domingo Faustino Sarmiento**: President and educator who built the public school system, and wrote Facundo
- **Carlos Gardel**: The voice of tango's golden age, and its first international star
- **Mercedes Sosa**: La Negra, the voice of Latin American folk song and of its exile
- **Gustavo Cerati**: Frontman of Soda Stereo, the band that made rock in Spanish a continental language
- **Martha Argerich**: Pianist who won the Chopin Competition at twenty-four and has been unmissable since
- **Lalo Schifrin**: Composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, and of a shelf of film scores
- **Ricardo Darín**: The face of modern Argentine cinema, from Nine Queens to The Secret in Their Eyes
- **Juan José Campanella**: Director whose The Secret in Their Eyes won the foreign-language Academy Award
- **Lucrecia Martel**: Director of La Ciénaga and Zama, and the strongest formal voice in the new Argentine film
- **Norma Aleandro**: Star of The Official Story, and Best Actress at Cannes for it
- **Julio Cortázar**: Author of Hopscotch, a novel with instructions for reading it out of order
- **Quino**: Cartoonist behind Mafalda, the six-year-old who explained Argentina to itself
- **Ernesto Sabato**: Novelist of On Heroes and Tombs, who later chaired the commission on the disappeared
- **Adolfo Bioy Casares**: Author of The Invention of Morel, and Borges's lifelong collaborator
- **Luis Federico Leloir**: Nobel laureate in chemistry for the sugar nucleotides behind how the body stores energy
- **Bernardo Houssay**: First Latin American science Nobel laureate, for the pituitary and sugar metabolism.
- **César Milstein**: Nobel laureate whose monoclonal antibodies underpin modern diagnostics and drugs
- **René Favaloro**: Surgeon who developed the coronary bypass, then went home to build a heart institute
- **Gabriela Sabatini**: Won the 1990 US Open, and made tennis a mainstream sport at home
- **Guillermo Vilas**: Took the French Open and the US Open in the same 1977 season
- **Manu Ginóbili**: Four NBA championships with the San Antonio Spurs, and an Olympic gold with Argentina
- **Juan Martín del Potro**: Beat Federer and Nadal back to back to win the 2009 US Open

## Must-try Argentine food

- **Asado**: The long Sunday grill over embers, served in courses. As much a schedule as a meal.
- **Bife de chorizo**: The sirloin cut the country is built on, thick and cooked past rare by default.
- **Chimichurri**: Parsley, garlic, oregano, vinegar and oil. The only sauce the meat needs.
- **Provoleta**: A disc of provolone grilled until it crusts and slumps, dusted with oregano.
- **Morcilla and chorizo**: The first course off the parrilla, eaten while the beef takes its time.
- **Choripán**: Split chorizo in a crusty roll with chimichurri. Football food and street food everywhere.
- **Empanadas**: Baked in Salta, fried in Tucumán, and argued over in every province.
- **Milanesa napolitana**: Breaded steak under ham, tomato and melted cheese. Italian Argentina on one plate.
- **Fugazzeta**: Buenos Aires pizza: a deep cheese-stuffed base buried under sweet onion.
- **Sándwich de miga**: Crustless white bread, ham and cheese, cut into triangles. Afternoon food.
- **Locro**: Hominy, beans, squash and slow-cooked meat. The national stew of patriotic holidays.
- **Humita**: Fresh corn ground with onion and cheese, steamed in its own husk.
- **Tamales salteños**: Northwestern corn parcels, denser and spicier than their Mexican cousins.
- **Cordero patagónico**: Whole lamb splayed on an iron cross and cooked beside the fire for hours.
- **Trucha del sur**: Andean lake trout, usually grilled and left alone.
- **Dulce de leche**: Slow-caramelised milk. The default filling for almost every sweet below.
- **Alfajores**: Two soft biscuits, dulce de leche between them, chocolate or coconut around the edge.
- **Medialunas**: Small, glazed and sweeter than a croissant. Breakfast, with coffee, standing up.
- **Facturas**: The bakery tray of pastries, bought by the dozen and shared at work.
- **Helado**: Italian in technique and dense in texture. Order the dulce de leche granizado.
- **Mate**: Bitter yerba drunk through a metal straw and shared from one gourd.
- **Malbec**: The grape Mendoza rescued from obscurity, grown high and picked ripe.
- **Torrontés**: The white of the northwest: floral on the nose, dry on the finish.
- **Fernet con coca**: Bitter Italian amaro and cola over ice. Córdoba's contribution to the national night out.
- **Submarino**: A bar of chocolate dropped into hot milk and stirred until it goes.

## Films

- [Best of Bariloche](https://wimup.com/watch/bariloche.md), 14:39
- [Buenos Aires on Foot](https://wimup.com/watch/buenos-aires.md), 43:36
- [Córdoba on Foot](https://wimup.com/watch/cordoba.md), 54:26
- [Best of Ushuaia](https://wimup.com/watch/ushuaia.md), 8:07

## FAQs

### How many days do you need in Argentina?

Twelve to sixteen for a first trip: four or five in Buenos Aires, then one region beyond it. A week only works if you stay put, say Buenos Aires with a couple of days across the river or up in the Sierras.

### When is the best time to visit Argentina?

March to April and October to November. The seasons run opposite to the northern hemisphere, so those are the shoulder months: warm in Buenos Aires and the wine country, and open in Patagonia without the January crowds.

### Do you need a visa for Argentina?

Passport holders from more than 120 countries, including the EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and most of Latin America, enter as tourists for up to 90 days without one. Everyone else applies in person at an Argentine consulate before flying.

### Is it better to fly or take the bus in Argentina?

Fly for anything crossing a region. Buenos Aires to Ushuaia is over 3,000 kilometres and the bus takes days. Coaches earn their place on the medium hops, where an overnight cama seat replaces both the flight and the hotel.

### Can you get by with cards in Argentina?

In the cities, mostly yes: restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and long-distance bus tickets all take them. Keep cash for tips, taxis, market stalls and small towns in Patagonia and the northwest, where the card machine is often optimistic.

## Related countries

- [Colombia](https://wimup.com/country/colombia.md)
- [Brazil](https://wimup.com/country/brazil.md)
- [All of South America](https://wimup.com/south-america)

Part of [South America](https://wimup.com/south-america.md)

## Sources

- [Tourism board](https://www.argentina.gob.ar/turismo?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral)
- Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.