Traveling Argentina: The Ultimate Backpacking Guide
- Two Travelers Beyond
- Apr 18
- 7 min read
Argentina Budget Travel Guide (kind of)
Maybe you're headed to Argentina—where fútbol is a way of being, tango speaks without words, and a good Malbec flows as freely as water. I have good news and bad news.
I’ll give you the good news first: Argentina was amazing. The locals were friendly, the argentine steak is as fantastic as the legends claim it to be, and the national parks felt out of this world. The bad news, which I’m sure you know by now, is that the economy is out of hand.
In this post, we’ll cover it all from the perspective of two budget backpackers: the good, the bad and the ugly. We have many funny stories from this fantastic country that we’re excited to share, while also talking about cost, transportation & the places we got to see while we were in Argentina.
PLACES WE EXPERIENCED TRAVELING ARGENTINA :
We’re sad to announce that we had to move quickly and cut out time in Argentina short due to the inflation taking place there as of right now (early 2025). The places that we did get to see, however, were quite fantastic.
USHUAIA, The End of The World -
Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, is a gateway to adventure at the edge of the Earth. Framed by the Andes and the Beagle Channel, this city offers breathtaking landscapes, rugged wildlife, and endless outdoor activities—from hiking and skiing to sailing toward Antarctica.
EL CALAFATE, Glacier Galore -
El Calafate, a Patagonian gem, is the gateway to the stunning Perito Moreno Glacier. Surrounded by rugged landscapes and glacial lakes, this charming town is perfect for adventure, nature, and breathtaking views. The street dogs here were on another level of loving people, which we appreciated and even adopted one for a day (keep reading for that story)!
EL CHALTÉN, Home of the Patagonia Logo -
El Chaltén, Argentina’s trekking capital, is a paradise for hikers and nature lovers. Towering above it, the iconic Mount Fitz Roy offers breathtaking trails (including the iconic hike to the Patagonia brand logo, which we woke up at 1am to watch the sunrise at the peak of) and unforgettable views of Patagonia’s wild beauty. The food here surprisingly swept us off our feet.
BUENOS AIRES, The Iconic City of Tango -
Buenos Aires, Argentina’s vibrant capital, is a city of passion and rhythm. From lively tango in the streets to world-class fútbol, European-style architecture, and legendary steakhouses, it’s a place where culture, history, and energy collide. We can attest that the healthcare here is fast and affordable (another story you should probably keep reading for)!
TRANSPORTATION:
I’d like to start this section off with a hitch-hiking love story. And no, it isn’t about Will and I though we are sort of the main characters:
It was a sunny day in El Calafate, so sunny that even the weather app was confused. Will and I decided that we were going to try to hitch-hike to Perito Moreno, an iconic glacier that is almost 100 miles long. It was this same day when we learned that there was not much else to do in El Calafate aside from eat or work out at the calisthenics parks (which we of course did, too).
And so there we were, standing in the road with our thumbs up, smiling wildly at each car that passed by, when suddenly we were approached by a street dog.
I have learned throughout my time here that a street dog giving you attention is a rare opportunity. So I take advantage of each time (by carrying dog treats in my bag at all times) - (the dogs actually are not interested in the dog treats at all). This street dog absolutely loved us. So we named him Zeke and invited him to hitch-hike with us.
Typically street dogs will get bored of you after 5 or so minutes. Zeke, on the other hand, decided that he was staying with us all day. Even when we moved up or down the road to try to get a better hitch-hiking spot, Zeke followed us. He deemed us his daily owners, which sort of made hitch-hiking impossible.
After a few hours we gave up and we brought Zeke down to the waterfront, where he made a friend who he started aggressively chasing cars with (like violently barking at and trying to attack moving vehicles). Unfortunately the love story ends there, because Zeke finally grew bored of us. And it was a failed hitch-hiking day, which brings us to this transportation section of this post:
BUSES - We were quite surprised at the bus situation here. Unlike Brazil and Chile, where buses are always much cheaper than other options and readily available, buses were quite complicated in Argentina. Even an overnight bus was more expensive than a flight to where we were trying to go, which made us have no choice but to opt for flights.
FLIGHTS - There are airports all over Argentina which made flying quite easy - and not as expensive as you’d expect it to be. This is convenient since Argentina is a very long country with lots of ground to cover. We only went to 4 cities and we took two flights - one from Ushuaia to El Calafate, and another from El Calafate to Buenos Aires. If we weren’t budgeting we probably would have hit points between El Calafate and Buenos Aires like Bariloche, but even a bus to Bariloche was more expensive than a flight. Crazy, right?
Hitch-Hiking - We successfully hitch-hiked to Perito Moreno Glacier (on the second day of trying). We didn’t do much hitch-hiking otherwise, though I’m sure that we would have if we got to experience more places and stay in Argentina for a longer period of time.
There were trains in Buenos Aires which were fairly easy to navigate, friendly pick pockets scattered throughout the carts (we only had to dodge one!) - and even people singing, playing guitar, and playing keyboards on the trains to gain some extra cash. We recommend taking the train in Buenos Aires just for the experience (but leave your phone and wallet somewhere safe, like zipped up in a purse or pocket).
COST:
There really is no way to define a daily budget like we have for other countries, due to the constant fluctuation of the Argentinian Peso. Everywhere we went the menu prices were scratched out or the menus were simply written in chalk due to things constantly changing.
Our only advice would be to buy groceries and cook your own food as much as possible, don’t expect to go on any excursions without splurging, bring your student ID from 10 years ago so that you get discounts into the National Parks, and really commit to searching for the cheapest accommodation. Our time was cut short even when we did all of these things due to budget restraints.
HEALTH CARE:
I never thought that this would be a segment, but we got a taste of Argentinian health care, which was very different from United States health care.
Here’s the story of how that went down…
Imagine you’re a 20-something year old guy who’s inner child comes out on a daily basis - you have a talent for extreme activities like skateboarding, snowboarding and… parkour. And you just happen to stumble upon a parkour park in the middle of Buenos Aires. This of course makes your inner child very excited and you decide that you must start doing parkour - immediately.
And so you’re hopping over some blocks of concrete, you’re doing some twisty flippy things on some cool platforms, and you put together this insane combination of those things with the grand finale being a backflip. In the blink of an eye, you lose your footing and take a step back into the backflip, forcing you to land directly onto cement instead of in the grass. Instant. Pain. And blood. And confusion of how the fuck that could possibly go wrong.
Suddenly you can’t really walk without a shooting pain in both of your heels and you’re gushing blood all over this parkour park. You get an Uber back to the hostel, where you ponder your fate for a few days - unable to walk. You weigh your options: pray that it heals and is not as big of a deal as it seems, or go get it checked out. You’re pretty convinced that at least one heel is broken. After a few days, you do the inevitable: go to the clinic.
Key word: clinic. Not the hospital, not urgent care, but a clinic. We have travel insurance (we use Genki’s explorer package), so we were able to walk into the clinic stress free. We sent Genki a message ahead of time letting them know what happened & they let us know that everything—consultation, X-Rays, and anything else we’d need—was covered.
After checking in and waiting in the waiting room for 30 seconds we were called in for a consultation. After lots of google translating and charades, we were sent for an X-Ray. The X-Ray results were immediate: no broken heels! Woohoo!!!
Then we were sent on our merry way after a $80 (ish) bill. Less than 1 hour and less than $100 (?). Coming from the US, this truly blew our minds and was an eye opening experience.
Moral of the story: our experience with Argentinian healthcare was quick, efficient, and affordable.
ARGENTINA TAKEAWAYS:
Argentina is such a beautiful place full of wonderful people and we hold so much gratitude for being able to experience it, even with all of the chaos and confusion that took place. Buenos Aires is a lovely city with the most grass we’ve ever seen in a city, and Patagonia is breathtakingly stunning with once in a lifetime experiences. We hope that one day the economy is more friendly to the locals, which in turn will make it more friendly to us tourists so that we can experience this country more in depth.
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