When to Go

For residents of the Northern Hemisphere, Argentina offers travelers the possibility of enjoying two summers in one year, but the country’s great variety and elongated geography means visiting is pleasant during any season. Patagonian destinations, such as the Moreno Glacier in Santa Cruz, are best visited in the summer months (December to February ) when the weather’s milder and more services are available. Outside this time, services thin out and public transport becomes trickier. Spring and autumn are the best times to visit Buenos Aires (the summer is hot and humid). Mendoza, Córdoba and the Lake District are all spectacular in autumn, when the leaves are fiery reds and yellows, the temperatures are comfortable and the crowds are few.

Northern Argentina, including the Iguazú Falls in the subtropical Misiones province, is also more pleasant in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter or spring when heat and humidity are less oppressive. Ski season runs mid-June through mid-October, and the resorts are most expensive and most crowded during July and August when every porteño (person from Buenos Aires) seems to be on the slopes. The most expensive times to travel are the Argentine vacation months of January, February and July.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. Buenos Aires is located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent. Greater Buenos Aires is the third largest conurbation in Latin America, with a population of about 13 million.

After the internal conflicts of the 19th century, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province in 1880; its city limits were enlarged to include the former towns of Belgrano and Flores; both are now neighbourhoods in the city.

Buenos Aires (English: Fair Winds or Good Air (see Names of Buenos Aires), pronounced [ˈbwe.nɔs ˈaj.ɾɛs]) was originally named after the sanctuary of “Nostra Signora di Bonaria” (Italian for “Our Lady of Fair Winds”, also known as “Virgine de Bonaria”) located in Cagliari, Sardinia. In the 1994 constitution, the city was given autonomy, hence its formal name: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

People from Buenos Aires are called porteños (people of the port).

Argentina

Argentina is a South American country, constituted as a federation of twenty-three provinces and an autonomous city. It is second in size on the South American continent to Brazil and eighth in the world. Argentina occupies a continental surface area of 2,766,890 km² (1,068,302 sq mi) between the Andes mountain range in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south. The country claims the British-administered overseas territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Argentina also claims 969,464 km² (374,312 sq mi) of Antarctica, known as Argentine Antarctica, overlapping another claims made by Chile and the United Kindom (British Antarctic Territory).

Argentina has the highest Human Development Index level and the second highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in purchasing power parity in Latin America after its neighbor Chile^[5] and its total national GDP is the 19th largest in the world.^[6][7] The country is currently classified as an Upper-Middle Income Country^[8] or as a secondary emerging market by the World Bank.^[9][10] Argentina’s nominal GDP makes it the 31st largest economy in the world.