Yes, Argentina is one of the easiest South American countries to backpack on your own, thanks to a dense bus network, a well-developed hostel scene and a very safe Patagonia.
Dorm beds cost US$12 to 25 in
Buenos Aires,
Bariloche and
El Chaltén, and long-distance buses run daily between nearly every city, such as Buenos Aires to Mendoza in 13 to 15 hours for US$50 to 90. Trails in
Los Glaciares National Park start right in town with no permits needed. Basic Spanish helps a lot outside the capital, and paying by foreign card now gets you a fair exchange rate, so you don’t need to carry stacks of cash.
Plan for at least two weeks to cover one region well, and three to four weeks to combine Patagonia, Iguazú, the northwest and Mendoza.
Fourteen days fits
Buenos Aires,
Ushuaia,
El Calafate and
El Chaltén with weather buffer days. Twenty-one days adds
Iguazu Falls,
Salta and
Bariloche, while a month leaves room for
Península Valdés and the desert parks of San Juan. Distances shape everything: Buenos Aires to Bariloche is 20 to 22 hours by bus or about 2 hours 20 minutes by air, so allow at least two nights per stop to avoid spending your trip in transit.
Yes, you can get around Argentina easily without a car by combining long-distance buses with domestic flights, and most backpackers never rent one.
Overnight cama buses link the big cities, such as
Buenos Aires to
Mendoza (13 to 15 hours, US$50 to 90), while flights for US$40 to 150 cut down long hauls like Buenos Aires to
El Calafate to about 3 hours. Shuttle vans and tours cover places like
Perito Moreno Glacier and
Ischigualasto. A rental car, roughly US$40 to 70 per day, only makes sense for the loop from
Salta to
Cafayate and Cachi or for stretches of the Ruta 40.
The essential places in Argentina are Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, the glaciers and peaks around El Calafate and El Chaltén, the lakes near Bariloche, and the colorful northwest around Salta.
Give
Buenos Aires 3 days,
Iguazu Falls 2 to 3, and
El Calafate with
El Chaltén 6 to 7 for
Perito Moreno Glacier and the Fitz Roy hike to
Laguna de los Tres.
San Carlos de Bariloche deserves 4 days for the Nahuel Huapi lakes and
Refugio Frey. If you have more time, add
Mendoza for wine (a 2-hour flight from the capital) and
Península Valdés for whales between June and December.
If you’re short on time, skip Mar del Plata, Córdoba city and the Brazilian side of Iguazú, and consider cutting Ushuaia if you have under two weeks.
Mar del Plata is a crowded domestic beach resort in January that adds little for foreign visitors.
Córdoba is pleasant, but its best sights are in the hills outside town and take 2 to 3 extra days. The Argentine side of
Iguazu Falls covers the highlights in one full day.
Ushuaia costs a 3.5-hour flight each way plus US$100 to 200 more, so on a 10-day trip, focus on
El Calafate and
El Chaltén instead.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Argentina in seconds. Try it out!
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