Argentina

Base · 3–5 days

Argentina’s essential urban stop: grand architecture, neighborhood cafés, serious restaurants, football, tango and late nights. Give it at least three full days; one night between flights misses the point.

Base · 2 days

Use Puerto Iguazú as the functional base for the Argentine side’s forest trails and close-up views of Garganta del Diablo. The Brazilian side is worth adding for the wide-angle panorama, not because it repeats the Argentine visit.

Base · 6–7 days

This is Argentina’s strongest visual and cultural contrast to Buenos Aires: colonial Salta, high-altitude villages, red-rock valleys, salt flats and Cafayate wine country. It needs a car or driver and roughly five nights; rushing it turns great roads into windshield time.

Base · 3–4 days

Base around Mendoza for Luján de Cuyo, then make time for the more dramatic and spread-out Uco Valley. Two winery days are enough if you also take an Andes day rather than treating the trip as a sequence of lunches.

A lower-key central Argentina trip of Jesuit history, university-city energy, hill roads, rivers and small mountain towns. Choose it for a gentler self-drive trip, not for headline scenery.

These Corrientes wetlands are the country’s rewarding wildlife alternative to the famous stops, with capybaras, caimans, marsh deer and exceptional birding. The awkward access is the trade-off; allow at least three nights.

Northern Patagonia’s most flexible outdoor base combines lakes, forests, hikes and the Seven Lakes drive, with skiing at Cerro Catedral in winter. Bariloche center is busy and touristy, so a car and lodging near Circuito Chico or Llao Llao improve the experience.

Base · 2–3 days

El Calafate is the practical base for Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the country’s non-negotiable blockbuster experiences. Stay two nights rather than trying to fold the glacier into a hurried transfer to El Chaltén.

Base · 4–5 days

Argentina’s premier trekking base delivers Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre day hikes, but weather dictates the schedule. Give it at least three nights and keep one day uncommitted rather than betting the trip on a single clear forecast.

Go for the Beagle Channel, subpolar forest, penguin and wildlife outings, and the unmistakable feeling of being at South America’s southern edge. It is a long, expensive detour if classic hiking is the only goal; El Chaltén is stronger for that.

Argentina’s best Atlantic wildlife circuit centers on whales, penguins, elephant seals and sea lions across exposed Patagonian coast and steppe. It is seasonal and works best with a rental car or organized tour, not as a quick add-on to southern Patagonia.