Villa Malcolm

Argentina

　　It's a no-frills community center and gymnasium by day, but after dark – on certain nights of the week – Villa Malcolm transforms into a glamorous milonga (tango club) where locals crowd the dance floor, waiters serve champagne, and professional dancers put on a dazzling midnight performance. Check www.hoy-milonga.com for...

Garganta del Diablo

Argentina

　　A 1.1km walkway across the placid Río Iguazú leads to one of the planet’s most spectacular sights, the 'Devil’s Throat.' The lookout platform is perched right over this amazingly powerful, concentrated torrent of water, a deafening cascade plunging to an invisible destination; vapors soaking the viewer blur the base of...

Parque Provincial Aconcagua

Argentina

　　The region's most famous park is Parque Provincial Aconcagua, home of 6962m (22,841ft) Cerro Aconcagua, the highest peak outside the Himalayas and a favorite climbing destination. Reaching the summit requires a commitment of at least 13 to 15 days, including acclimatization time. Non-climbers can hike to base camps and refugios...

Parque Nacional Iguazú

Argentina

　　On the Argentine side of the marvelous falls, this park has loads to offer, and involves a fair amount of walking. The spread-out entrance complex ends at a train station, with departures every half-hour to the Cataratas train station, where the waterfall walks begin, and to the Garganta del Diablo....

Parque Nacional Talampaya

Argentina

　　The spectacular rock formations and canyons of this dusty desert national park are evidence of the erosive creativity of water. The sandstone cliffs are amazing, as are the distant surrounding mountainscapes. You must enter by guided visit, arranged at the visitors center. The standard 2½-hour trip is included with your...

Parque Nacional Lanín

Argentina

　　Dominating the view in all directions along the Chilean border, the snowcapped cone of 3776m Volcán Lanín is the centerpiece of this national park, which extends 150km from Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi in the south to Lago Ñorquinco in the north. Come here for some of the region's best hiking,...

Los Seismiles

Argentina

　　West of Fiambalá, the paved road winds through the high desert, past picturesque red rock escarpments known as the Quebrada Angosturas, and into some serious altitude, topping out at the Chilean border. It's a stunning drive, with no services apart from a seasonal white-elephant hotel halfway between Fiambalá and the...

Glaciar Perito Moreno

Argentina

　　Among the Earth's most dynamic and accessible ice fields, Glaciar Perito Moreno is the stunning centerpiece of the southern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Locally referred to as Glaciar Moreno, it measures 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high, but what makes it exceptional in the world of ice...

Puente Viejo

Northern Pampas

　　The pink puente viejo (old bridge) spanning the Río Areco dates from 1857 and follows the original cart road to northern Argentina. Once a toll crossing, it’s now a pedestrian bridge leading to San Antonio de Areco’s main attraction, the Museo Gauchesco Ricardo Güiraldes. ...

Museo y Taller de Platería Draghi

Northern Pampas

　　This small museum contains an exceptional collection of 19th-century silver facones (gaucho knives), beautiful horse gear and intricate mate paraphernalia. It's attached to the silversmith workshop of the locally renowned Draghi family. Mariano Draghi's jewelry and silverwork are for sale in the attached shop. ...

Museo Las Lilas de Areco

Northern Pampas

　　Florencio Molina Campos is to Argentines what Norman Rockwell is to Americans – a folk artist whose themes are based on comical caricatures. This pretty courtyard museum displays an extensive collection of his famous works. As well as the gallery there is also a Sala de Carruajes (carriage room) to...

Museo Gauchesco Ricardo Güiraldes

Northern Pampas

　　This sprawling museum in Parque Criollo dates from 1936 and is largely dedicated to Ricardo Güiraldes, author of the novel Don Segundo Sombra, and local gaucho history and culture in general. The entrance is in a re-created pulpería (tavern), set up as it would have been when it first opened...

Catedral de los Santos Pedro y Cecilia

Atlantic Coast

　　Facing the leafy Plaza San Martín, this neo-Gothic building features gorgeous stained glass, an impressive central chandelier from France, English tiled floors and occasional choral concerts. ...

Museo Municipal de Arte Juan Carlos Castagnino

Atlantic Coast

　　Built in 1909 as the summer residence of a prominent Argentine family, the turreted Villa Ortiz Basualdo now houses this fine arts museum; its interior exhibits paintings, photographs and sculptures by Argentine artists. ...

Torreón del Monje

Atlantic Coast

　　Grand and castle-like, positioned on a cliff over the ocean, Torreón del Monje is hard to miss – look for the red domes and the stone footbridge straddling the oceanfront road. This classic landmark is a throwback to Mar del Plata's glamorous heyday. The Argentine businessman Ernesto Tornquist, intent on...

Playa Escondida

Atlantic Coast

　　For the adventurous, there’s Playa Escondida, some 25km south of Mardel, which claims to be Argentina’s only legal nude beach. ...

Torre Tanque

Atlantic Coast

　　This interesting medieval-style water-storage tower, atop Stella Maris hill, was finished in 1943 and is still functioning. It's 88m high (that's 194 stairs), but has just two floors! The top floor is glassed in, but still offers spectacular views over Mar del Plata and further out to sea. Free guided...

Centro Cultural Villa Victoria

Atlantic Coast

　　Victoria Ocampo, founder of the literary journal Sur, hosted literary salons with prominent intellectuals from around the world – Borges, Le Corbusier, and Rabindranath Tagore were among more distinguished guests – here at her summer chalet, its gardens still bursting with lavender. It’s now a cultural center that features changing...

Puerto Mar del Plata

Atlantic Coast

　　Mar del Plata is one of Argentina’s most important fishing centers. Its port area, 8km south of the city center, is worth a visit, though public access to the jetty – and its graveyard of ruined ships, half-sunken and rusting in the sun – is now restricted. You can still...

Casa Ecológica de Botellas

Puerto Iguazú

　　About 300m off the falls road, this fascinating place is well worth a visit. The owners have taken used packaging materials – plastic bottles, juice cartons and the like – to build not only an impressive house, but furnishings and a bunch of original handicrafts that make unusual gifts. The...

Hito Argentino

Puerto Iguazú

　　A kilometer west of the center, this is a great viewpoint with a small obelisk painted in Argentine colors at the impressive confluence of the Ríos Paraná and Iguazú. From here you can see Brazil and Paraguay, with similar markers on their sides. It's usually pretty empty during the day...

Güirá Oga

Puerto Iguazú

　　On the way to the falls, this is an animal hospital and center for rehabilitation of injured wildlife. It also carries out valuable research into the Iguazú forest environment and has a breeding program for endangered species. You get walked around the jungly 20-hectare park by one of the staff,...

Bodega Figueroa

Cafayate

　　This tiny family winery in Cafayate produces only 10,000 bottles of torrontés and malbec per year with small hand-operated equipment. Just one wine is poured for visitors. Ask for the malbec, which local chefs love. Its vineyards are 40km north of town. ...

Piattelli

Cafayate

　　Built as if money and space were no object, this upscale, over-the-top, US-owned winery is 3km from Cafayate. Tours show you three levels of relatively small-scale but state-of-the-art winemaking equipment and culminate in a long tasting of seven wines. There's an on-site restaurant that serves delicious lunches. Tours can be...

Museo de la Vid y El Vino

Cafayate

　　This impressive museum gives a good introduction to the area’s wine industry. The atmospheric first section, which deals with the viticultural side – the life of the vines – through a series of poems and images, is particularly appealing. The second part covers the winemaking side, and there’s a cafe...

Museo Arqueológico

Cafayate

　　This private museum’s collection was left by enthusiastic archaeologist Rodolfo Bravo and merits a visit. Sourced mostly from grave sites within a 30km radius of Cafayate, the excellent array of ceramics, from the black and gray wares of the Candelaria and Aguada cultures to late Diaguita and Inca pottery, are...

Domingo Molino

Cafayate

　　A small producer, perched on a gorgeous hillside overlooking the verdant valley, backed by rugged mountains, with vineyards cascading down the slopes. It bottles 21 varieties of wine here, including some bubbles. You can't taste them all, but you can sip several by choosing one of five tasting options, each...

El Porvenir

Cafayate

　　This well-run family bodega has recently been taken over by the 30-something daughter, who knows how to keep good torrontés from touching corrupting oak (you may have noticed that most torrontés is a bit oaky and round). Here, it's dry, as is the splendid rosé, and its reds have always...

San Pedro Yacochuya

Cafayate

　　An atmospheric boutique winery set at the end of a dusty desert road with cacti on one side and vineyards on the other. It makes 250,000 bottles of wine here each year, most stored in oak barrels in a wine cave cooled by running canals. The winery has been at...

Finca las Nubes

Cafayate

　　Located 5km southwest of Cafayate along the road to Río Colorado (it’s signposted ‘Mounier’), this small, organic and friendly winery has a fabulous position at the foot of jagged hills. Tours depart hourly from 10am to 4:30pm. Tastings include four wines. The kitchen also serves empanadas (AR$18) and picada platters...

Centro de Interpretacíon Historico

El Calafate

　　Small but informative, with a skeleton mold of Austroraptor cabazai (found nearby) and Patagonian history displays. The friendly host invites museum-goers for a post-tour mate (a bitter ritual tea). ...

Reserva Natural Laguna Nimez

El Calafate

　　Reserva Natural Laguna Nimez is a prime avian habitat alongside the lakeshore north of El Calafate, with a self-guided trail and staffed Casa Verde information hut with binoculars rental. It’s a great place to spot flamingos – but watching birds from El Calafate’s shoreline on Lago Argentino can be just...

Glaciarium

El Calafate

　　Unique and exciting, this gorgeous museum illuminates the world of ice. Displays and bilingual films show how glaciers form, along with documentaries on continental ice expeditions and stark meditations on climate change. Adults suit up in furry capes for the bar de hielo (AR$240 including drink), a blue-lit below-zero club...

Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa

Córdoba

　　One of the city’s best contemporary-art museums stands ostentatiously on the eastern side of Plaza España. Architect Juan Kronfuss designed the neoclassical building as a museum and it was inaugurated in 1916. Exhibits change monthly. South of the museum, the city unfolds into its largest open-space area, the Parque Sarmiento,...

Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Dr Genaro Pérez

Córdoba

　　This art gallery is prized for its collection of paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries. Works, including those by Emilio Caraffa, Lucio Fontana, Lino Spilimbergo, Antonio Berni and Antonio Seguí, chronologically display the history of the cordobés (Córdoban) school of painting, at the front of which stands Genaro Pérez...

Museo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Córdoba

　　In 1613 Fray Fernando de Trejo y Sanabria founded the Seminario Convictorio de San Javier, which, after being elevated to university status in 1622, became the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, the country’s oldest. Today the building contains, among other national treasures, part of the Jesuits’ Grand Library and the Museo...

Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús

Córdoba

　　Designed by the Flemish Padre Philippe Lemaire, this church dates from 1645 but was not completed until 1671, with the successful execution of Lemaire’s plan for a cedar roof in the form of an inverted ship’s hull. (Lemaire, unsurprisingly, was once a boatbuilder.) Inside, the church’s baroque altarpiece is made...

Museo de la Memoria

Córdoba

　　A chilling testament to the excesses of Argentina’s military dictatorship, this museum occupies a space formerly used as a clandestine center for detention and torture. It was operated by the dreaded Department of Intelligence (D2), a special division dedicated to the kidnapping and torture of suspected political agitators and the...

Paseo del Buen Pastor

Córdoba

　　This cultural center and performance space was built in 1901 as a combined chapel, monastery and women’s prison. In mid-2007 it was re-inaugurated to showcase work by Córdoba’s young and emerging artists. The central patio area houses a couple of hip cafe-bars where you can kick back with an Appletini...

Museo Superior de Bellas Artes Evita

Córdoba

　　The Palacio Ferrerya – Nueva Córdoba’s landmark building – was built in 1914 and designed by Ernest Sanson in the Louis XVI style. The building itself is amazing, and has now been converted into this fine-arts museum, featuring more than 400 works in 12 rooms spread over three floors. If...

Manzana Jesuítica

Córdoba

　　Córdoba’s beautiful Manzana Jesuítica (Jesuit Block), like its counterpart in Buenos Aires, is also known as the Manzana de las Luces (Block of Enlightenment), and was initially associated with the influential Jesuit order. The Colegio Nacional de Monserrat, which dates from 1782, is next door. In 2000 Unesco declared the...

Reserva Faunística Punta Loma

Puerto Madryn

　　Home to a permanent sea-lion colony and cormorant rookery, the Reserva Faunística Punta Loma is 17km southeast of Puerto Madryn via a good but winding gravel road. The overlook is about 15m from the animals, best seen during low tides. ...

Museo Oceanográfico y de Ciencias Naturales

Puerto Madryn

　　Feeling strands of seaweed and ogling a preserved octopus gives a hands-on museum experience here. The 1917 Chalet Pujol features marine-and-land mammal exhibits, preserved specimens, and collections of Welsh wares. Explanations in Spanish are geared to youth science classes, but it’s visually informative and creatively presented. Twist up to the...

Observatorio Punta Flecha

Puerto Madryn

　　Run by Fundación Patagonia Natural, this whale-watching observatory sits 17km north of Puerto Madryn on Playa el Doradillo. It offers tourist information and opens at high tide, when there are more whales and visitors at the beach. ...

EcoCentro

Puerto Madryn

　　Celebrating the area’s unique marine ecosystem, this masterpiece brings an artistic sensitivity to extensive scientific research. There are exhibits on the breeding habits of right whales, dolphin sounds and southern-elephant-seal harems, a touch-friendly tide pool and more. The building includes a three-story tower and library, with the top featuring glass...