Two weeks in Argentina: the route that covers four corners

Argentina is the eighth-largest country on earth, and the mistake is treating a fortnight there like a fortnight in Peru.

You cannot drive between the highlights. Our sixteen-day route uses internal flights to reach four genuinely different corners — the capital, the far south, the Andean north-west and the subtropical north-east — and each of them looks like a different country.

In short

• Sixteen days: Buenos Aires → Ushuaia → the Patagonian glaciers → Salta → Iguazú
• Internal flights are what make it possible; without them you would see one region
• It is a southern-summer trip — roughly November to March. Patagonia does not work outside that
• Low altitude almost throughout, with a few high days around Salta and the Salinas Grandes
• A maximum of 12 travellers, land-only, no trekking or camping

Days 1–3 — Buenos Aires. Two full days in a city that is genuinely European in feel and entirely South American in temperament: history, tango, the cemeteries and cafés, and the colour of La Boca.

Days 4–5 — Ushuaia. The end of the continent. The Beagle Channel by boat, and Tierra del Fuego by train and on foot.

Days 6–8 — Patagonia. North to the land of glaciers: Lake Argentino, the ice, and gaucho country before the ice giant itself.

Days 9–12 — the north-west. Salta and its colonial streets, then Route 40 between rock formations and vineyards, the Andean cultures and coloured mountains of the Quebrada, and the vast white plain of the Salinas Grandes.

Days 13–15 — Iguazú. The falls from the Argentine side, where you are among them, and from the Brazilian side, where you see their full width.

Day 16 — home.

Argentina sits in the southern hemisphere, so its summer is our winter — and that is not a detail, it is the whole planning question.

Patagonia and Ushuaia are genuinely seasonal. From roughly November to March the days are long, the weather is workable and everything is open. Outside that window the far south is cold, windy and much of it closes down.

Buenos Aires is pleasant for most of the year, hot and humid at the height of summer.

The north-west around Salta is high desert — warm days, cold nights, and at its best in the southern spring and autumn.

Iguazú is subtropical: hot and humid, with the falls at their most powerful after rain.

So a trip that crosses all four accepts a compromise somewhere. Ours sits in the southern summer because Patagonia is the part that cannot be moved.

Internal flights. Several, and they are what make the itinerary possible rather than an inconvenience bolted on. Distances here are continental.

Altitude. Low for most of the trip — Buenos Aires, Patagonia and Iguazú are all near sea level. The exception is the north-west, where the Quebrada and the Salinas Grandes climb to real altitude for a few days. If altitude concerns you, this is far gentler than Peru; see where to go in Latin America if altitude is a problem.

Walking. Moderate: city sightseeing, boardwalks at Iguazú, viewpoints in Patagonia. No trekking, no camping.

Packing. This is the one people underestimate. You need Patagonian wind protection, subtropical heat clothing and layers for cold desert nights — in the same suitcase.

Wind. Patagonia is famously windy. It is part of the character of the place, and it surprises people.

This route is Argentina-focused, dipping into Brazil only for the far side of Iguazú.

If you would rather cross more borders, our twenty-day Patagonia: Andes, glaciers and tropics route covers Argentina, Brazil and Chile in one journey. It is longer, more ambitious and better suited to travellers who have done a long-haul small-group trip before.

If you are weighing Argentina against Peru — the other classic first trip to the region — the seasons alone may settle it: Peru's Andean dry season is our summer, Argentina's is our winter. Our comparison of Peru or Argentina covers the rest.

Both are land-only, so you choose the international flights that suit you, and both run on guaranteed departures — they go ahead regardless of how many others have booked, with a maximum of 12 travellers.