🇦🇷  Argentina  🇦🇷

Info Accommodation & Transport

Accommodation 🏨

I stayed in several different type of accommodations and primarily used the portals shown above for booking Hotel, AirBnB, Hostel, B & B, Hosteria. The last is something between a hostel and a hotel, but otherwise as different in standard as a hotel and a hostel can be. In my experience, the rooms were more spartan than a hotel but with their own bathroom and they all had a manned reception.

With a single exception, my stays were great and matched the price.

My not so great stay was in San Martin de Los Andes – Hosteria Cumelen – and due to a mix of the place as a whole, the room and the staff. The latter might be due to the fact that they did not speak English and did very little to accommodate me in that situation. I certainly received a different treatment than other guests, so I was happy when I almost “sneaked”  out of the door at 5.30 a.m. to reach a bus to Chile. The place was very dark and there was very little common space. They advertised that they had WIFI, but it did not work and they claimed it was a general problem in the city. It worked fine at the cafes I used and also the tourist office told me, it was not correct. One day after breakfast I met the girl who cleaned my room and asked for an extra towel for my hair. She brought it shortly after, but with the message, that I had to be leave within half  and hour, so she could clean my room !!! It was not my plan to wash my hair at that time, so I did not comment on it, but I actually thought I had paid for the room all day. All small but annoying and unnecessary issues. So no, I can not recommend that place and not at all to none Spanish speakers.

Transport

Flight, Bus, Metro, Train, Taxi

Flight ✈

In Argentina I used the local airlines Aerolinas and LatAm (LAN), but there are many other options. LatAm is originally Chilean, while Aerolinas is Argentinian.

Tickets can be found through different providers or search channels such as. Momondo, Kayak, Kiwi, Travelgenio and many more

The easiest and cheapest way to get from one place to another in Argentina is by bus. Domestic flights are relatively expensive with the exception of southern Patagonia, and most flights require an extra stop, for example. via Buenos Aires or Cordoba. I.e. You can’t fly directly from Bariloche to Mendoza, and although it takes approx. 18 hours by bus, it is actually preferable. Partly to save money and partly to avoid spending quite a few hours of a day at airports. Bustickets are not cheap, but the price depends on the destination and the type of bus and seat you choose. In Patagonia it is a little different. there were flights directly from Trelew at Peninsula Valdes to Ushuaia and from Ushuaia to El Calafate, and as I booked the tickets early, the price were at the low end for domestic flights. In return, I saved myself for a bus ride of over 30 hours. A decision I certainly did not regret. There are no direct buses to Ushuaia. To get to the island Tierra Del Fuego,  it is necessary to go by boat on different bus. For me, 20 hours in a bus were ok but adding another 10-12 hours – no thanks.

The trip to El Calafate is a bit shorter, but it also includes the boat and bus change. The flight ticket was also a lot cheaper, in addition, the roads in southern Argentina can be a bit of a challenge, so the tours take a relatively long time. More and more of eg. the popular Route 40 will be paved, so it gets better and better, but for me it was an easy choice.

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Bus 🚌  

There are a lot of bus companies in Argentina. Some of them are found throughout the country, while others only run in certain areas. It is possible to buy tickets online and a search for the route via eg. OmniLineas or Busbud will show you all the bus companies that run this route.

I took advantage of the night bus from: Iguazu – Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires – Puerto Madryn and Mendoza – Salta. Day bus from El Calafate to Puerto Natales in Chile, Bariloche to San Martin de Los Andes, San Martin to Pucon in Chile and Salta to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.

Locally, the tickets can be purchased at the bus terminal or a centrally located sales office, especially if the bus terminal is far from the city center.

– Seat Reservation 💺

Before booking, it is a good idea to consider the seat reservation and the type of ticket you want. On a sleeper bus, the best seats are in the bottom of the doubledecker bus, but if you like me, prefer to see something on the trip, there are a couple of variants on the top floor, where the seat can decline more or less. The terms used for the seats are not always identical for all companies, but look at the price – the more expensive the better. Check an example for OmniLineas here:

1. Class 1: Cama Suite
2. Class 2: Cama-Ejecutivo
3. Class 3: Semicama
4. Class 4: Común con aire
5. Class 5: Común

I used different companies for my tours with “overnight stay”  but on all of them the Cama-Ejecutivo seat was identical. With that seat I did not have to share an armrest with anyone.

On my trip from Buenos Aires with Via Bariloche my seat did not work. It could only be declined in sleeping position. I was offered another seat in the lower floor, but I did not rally want that seat and managed to persuade the steward to repair it. On the other tours everything was ok.

– Meals 🥫🍴☕🍪

All companies had meals service. On most of the tours that started in the morning, there was a little breakfast and lunch incl. water and coffee. On the tours that started in the afternoon / evening, we had dinner and breakfast with water and coffee, but none og the meals are great and can be served very late, so it might be a good idea to bring something healthy for the trip. A good advice in this case, is to make the purchase before arriving at the bus terminal. It was not possible to buy healthy food in any of the  places I traveled from, but biscuits and chips etc. can always be obtained.

– Online Purchase💻

I bought the first of my bus tickets before my trip started, and on one of the order I had major problems as  the payment did not go through. I wrote to them via chat on their website and ended up completing the purchase through Whats App. Maybe I was just unlucky, but at the same company Via Bariloche, I bought a ticket for a day trip from Bariloche to San Martin de Los Andes. I was at that time in Bariloche, but here the purchase did not work online either. My payment went through, but it was never completed and confirmed. I tried to write to the company several times, but never got a response and the money was NOT reversed. I ended up buying a new ticket at their office in Bariloche. The internet also caused problems when booking the ticket from Mendoza to Salta with Busbud, and I had to make a new purchase, but the company answered me promptly and I only paid for one ticket. After the booking, a confirmation is sent by mail and usually the ticket is attached. Note that it is necessary to print the ticket on paper. I never saw a driver accept an electronic ticket shown on a phone. A few times the confirmation might have to be exchanged for a real ticket before departure. Here it can be a bit of a jungle to find the right company, so take a good look at the confirmation to get the name of the bus company.

– Busterminals 🏘

There are many different bus companies in Argentina. They all have a small office in the terminals, and these are usually placed next to each other in a long line. In Buenos Aires – Retiro – the offices are placed on the 1st floor.

The bus usual arrive at the platform app. 10 minutes before departure, and here it is also necessary to know the name of the bus company, as you don’t know the exact platform number until the bus is there. On the larger terminals you can get an indication of the area eg. from platform 10-18, but there can be many buses leaving from the same area at almost the same time. Look out for the name of the company on the bus and the destination typically announced in the front of the bus. Be aware that the destination announced might not be your destination, maybe the bus will continue further.

Luggage is the first to be checked in and upon delivery you will receive a receipt with a number. Keep the note in a safe place during the trip as they – fortunately – request to see the receipts before returning the luggage.

– Summary

My bus rides crossing the border were all during the day and lasted between 5 and 10 hours. The time at border control can vary a lot, but otherwise all the trips went on schedule. In Patagonia the last part of the trip before the border were unpaved, so don’t expect them to go fast. If you are planning to continue with another bus make sure to calculate extra timer to cover the time at the border control.

All my long trips with an overnight stay were estimated to take 18 hours, but they took 1-1 1/2 hours extra due to bad weather, roadwork, many stops and a bus change but I think it was okay and I would definitely do it igen. On Google Map the tours are estimated to be from 1280 – 1350 km and to take app 14-15 hours in a private car.

There was reasonably quiet in the bus during the night, and it was possible to get some sleep. The only thing I would have liked to be without, was the TV 📺 that was placed in the fromt of the bus and just before bedtime showed a movie with the sound on. Luckily they turned it off, once the movie had finished.

City Bus 🚎  –  Metro 🚇 – Train🚆

In Buenos Aires and Bariloche I used the local city buses, and there are so many of them, although in Bariloche, they could be a bit unstable on the trips along the lakes. Too many busses filled up, and just passing the busstops. In Buenos Aires there are trains, metro  and a huge network of buses, but I did not really figure out of the bus system, so as I stayed close  to a metro station, it was easier and both the train and metro worked fine. A metro station can have multiple exits, but as soon as I stopped to find my way out, I was asked, if I wanted help.

The payment is easy with a SUBE card which can be bought and filled up at all metro stations and many kiosks, and I could use the same card on the train to Tigre a little outside of Buenos Aires.

It is a good idea to keep the  SUBE-card, as it can be used in other cities such as Bariloche, while San Martin had there own system.

In addition to Buenos Aires, there are  trains in other places of Argentina, but there is no expanded network that can be used for general transport

Taxi 🚕

I only have positive comments about taxi drivers in Argentina, the only one who took a horrible price was on my arrival in Buenos Aires, as I had no Argentine pesos and had to pay with USD – a lot of dollars compared to the price in pesos. Payment is in cash. I only saw one single taxi in Buenos Aires that advertised, that cards were accepted, but otherwise it worked as I think it should work. With taximeter and no attempt to claim more than the amount displayed.

Roads in Argentina 🚧🚦🚏

With the exception of the northern region around Salta, I was not impressed by the roads in Argentina.

It is a big country and sometimes it seemed as if we were far away from civilization or maybe asphalt is just far down on their priority lists. In the cities, the most used roads are paved, but a look at the side roads and they are often without asphalt.

On my long bus rides both north and south of Buenos Aires and against the Chilean border in the south, there were several stretches without asphalt. Lots of road work, where conditions became even worse. To extend the bus ride were also the many stops, where we were going to relatively small towns. In addition we were passing a lot of control posts. Every time the bus drives into a new region, they are stopped and have to display papers. The controllers do actually have a very unhealthy job in my mind, as they stand out in the middle of the road, with all the cars right next to them .

The famous road 40, which follows the Andes mountains all the way north south – a stretch of almost 5,000 km – is very popular and it gets better and better with less kilometers without asphalt. It is not the shortest route, as it follows longer but more scenic routes. The road is of great importance to the cities it passes so much that a part of it was moved to help a city like San Martin de Los Andes to get more tourism. For some, the goal for the holiday is to just follow the road.