Argentina is the eighth-largest country on earth, so a list of things to do in Argentina is useless unless it tells you where each item sits and which ones can share a trip. This one is grouped by corner, ordered so the map assembles itself, and honest about what does not survive the distances.
The short version: Iguazu in the northeast, the glaciers and Fitz Roy in Patagonia, the coloured mountains of the northwest, Malbec in Mendoza and tango in Buenos Aires. Pick two corners per trip; nobody sees all sixteen in under three weeks.
In This Guide
Asked simply, what to do in Argentina comes down to which two corners you can reach in the time you have, and the argentina attractions below are grouped that way.
The 16 at a Glance
| # | What | Corner | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iguazu Falls, Argentine side | Northeast | All year |
| 2 | The Devil’s Throat catwalk | Northeast | All year |
| 3 | San Ignacio Miní Jesuit ruins | Northeast | All year |
| 4 | Perito Moreno Glacier | Patagonia | Oct-Apr best |
| 5 | Laguna de los Tres and Fitz Roy | Patagonia | Oct-Apr |
| 6 | Upsala and Spegazzini by boat | Patagonia | Oct-Apr |
| 7 | Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel | Patagonia | Oct-Mar |
| 8 | Southern right whales at Peninsula Valdés | Patagonia | Jun-Dec |
| 9 | Bariloche and the lakes | Patagonia | Dec-Mar, ski Jun-Sep |
| 10 | Purmamarca and the Hill of Seven Colours | Northwest | Apr-Nov |
| 11 | Quebrada de Humahuaca and Hornocal | Northwest | Apr-Nov |
| 12 | Cafayate high-altitude wine | Northwest | Apr-Nov |
| 13 | Mendoza vineyards and Aconcagua | Cuyo | Mar-Apr, Oct-Dec |
| 14 | Recoleta Cemetery | Buenos Aires | All year |
| 15 | A milonga or tango show | Buenos Aires | All year |
| 16 | An estancia asado in the pampas | Buenos Aires | All year |
The Northeast: Water
1 and 2. Iguazu Falls. Two hundred and seventy-five cascades, with the Argentine park holding about 80 percent of them and putting you on catwalks directly above the water.
The Devil’s Throat, where the river vanishes into permanent spray, is the single most overwhelming ten minutes in the country: full detail in our Iguazu Falls Argentina guide. 3. San Ignacio Miní. Two hours south, the red-stone ruins of a Jesuit-Guaraní mission, UNESCO-listed and mostly empty, the best reason to add a day to an Iguazu block.
Patagonia: Ice and Granite
4. Perito Moreno. A five-kilometer wall of advancing ice that calves while you watch from steel balconies, covered in the glacier guide. 5. Laguna de los Tres. The eight-hour round trip from El Chaltén to the lake beneath Fitz Roy, Argentina’s signature hike, with shorter walks for those who want the views without the climb. 6.
Upsala and Spegazzini, the park’s largest and tallest glaciers, reached by boat from El Calafate through iceberg fields. 7. Ushuaia, the end-of-the-world city, with the Beagle Channel, the Tierra del Fuego park and Antarctic departures. 8. Peninsula Valdés, where southern right whales calve from June to December and orcas beach themselves to hunt at Punta Norte. 9. Bariloche, chocolate, lakes and the Andes, plus the southern hemisphere’s best-known ski season.
The Northwest: Colour and Altitude
10. Purmamarca sits under the Cerro de los Siete Colores, a hillside striped in mineral bands that changes by the hour; go at dawn. 11. The Quebrada de Humahuaca is the UNESCO-listed gorge running north, a 10,000-year trade corridor of adobe villages, with the Serranía de Hornocal above Humahuaca showing fourteen colours in a single jagged ridge. 12.
Cafayate pours Torrontés from some of the highest vineyards on earth, reached through the red rock amphitheatres of the Quebrada de las Conchas. This corner is Argentina’s best value and its most photogenic driving, and it runs on the opposite calendar to Patagonia, April to November.
Cuyo: Wine Under Aconcagua
13. Mendoza. Malbec country, where the bodegas of Luján de Cuyo and the Valle de Uco sit at 900 to 1,400 meters with the Andes filling the western sky, and where a bike-and-wine day in Maipú is the cheapest good afternoon in Argentina.
An hour up the road, Aconcagua, at 6,961 meters the highest peak outside Asia, is visible from the highway to Chile, and the harvest festival in early March turns the whole province into a party.
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Buenos Aires and the Pampas
14. Recoleta Cemetery, a walled city of marble mausoleums with Evita among them. 15. Tango, either as a polished dinner show or, better, as a midnight milonga where locals dance for themselves. 16. An estancia day in the pampas around San Antonio de Areco: horses, gauchos and an asado that runs for three hours. The full city list sits in things to do in Buenos Aires.
How to Route These Places to Visit in Argentina
The national tourism board lists regional detail at argentina.gob.ar/turismo. Two corners per trip, flights between them, Patagonia setting the dates. Twelve days buys Buenos Aires, Patagonia and Iguazu. Sixteen adds Ushuaia or the northwest. Twenty-one runs the country including Mendoza.
The sequencing is the whole job of our Argentina itinerary, the calendar logic lives in best time to visit Argentina, and the country frame is the Argentina travel guide. Skip without guilt: trying to add Mendoza to a twelve-day Patagonia-and-Iguazu trip, and any plan that puts a 17-hour bus where a two-hour flight belongs.
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Common Questions, Answered
What is the number one attraction in Argentina?
Iguazu Falls for most travelers, with the Argentine side holding about 80 percent of the cascades. Perito Moreno Glacier runs it closest, and Fitz Roy wins for anyone who hikes.
What is Argentina best known for?
Tango, beef and Malbec, Patagonia’s glaciers and granite peaks, Iguazu Falls, football, and Buenos Aires nightlife that genuinely starts after midnight.
How many days do you need to see Argentina?
Twelve days covers Buenos Aires, a Patagonia block and Iguazu with flights between them. Sixteen adds Ushuaia or the northwest, and three weeks lets Mendoza and the coloured desert in too.
What is the most beautiful part of Argentina?
Argentine Patagonia for scale, with Perito Moreno and Fitz Roy; the northwest around Purmamarca and Hornocal for colour. They run on opposite seasons, so most travelers pick one per trip.
Is Argentina worth visiting?
Yes: it holds one of the world’s great waterfalls, an advancing glacier you can watch calve, serious trekking, high-altitude wine and a capital with a food and dance culture unlike anywhere else on the continent.
What can you do in Argentina in winter?
June to September is ski season in Bariloche and Las Leñas, whale season at Peninsula Valdés through December, and the best window for the northwest desert, while Buenos Aires and Iguazu run year-round.
The Bottom Line
The best things to do in Argentina do not compete, they simply live very far apart. Choose your two corners by season, fly the gap, and the eighth-largest country on earth turns into a pair of short, perfect trips rather than one exhausting one.
