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HOW TO GET TO ARGENTINA

All the airlines that fly to Argentina arrive at Ministro Pistarini (Ezeiza) International Airport, 35 Km from the City of Buenos Aires, Federal Capital, and connected to it by  Teniente General Ricchieri motorway. The trip to down town takes 40 minutes.

HOW TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN ARGENTINA

Given the enormous sizes of the country, air is the ideal form of transport over large distances which can later be combined with overland transportation. Buy the Airpass Visit Argentina or the Argentina Flypass in your own country which allows you to travel cheaply in Argentina. Aerolíneas Argentinas, Austral, ARG, Dinar, LADE, LAER and SW operate domestic flights. Domestic flights and flights to Uruguay leave from Jorge Newbery airport which is located at the north of the city beside the Río de la Plata.

Domestic flight times from Buenos Aires to:

Puerto Iguazú

1 hr 45 mins

Posadas

1 hr 30 mins

San Salvador de Jujuy

2 hrs 10 mins

San Miguel de Tucumán

1 hr 50 mins

Salta

2 hrs

Córdoba

1 hr 15 mins

Mendoza

1 hr 50 mins

San Carlos de Bariloche

2 hrs 20 mins

Trelew

2 hrs

Mar del Plata

1 hr 10 mins

Río Gallegos

2 hrs 55 mins

Ushuaia

3 hrs 20 mins

El Calafate

3 hrs 15 mins

PLACES TO SEE


(only a few)

SHOPPING

VAT return
At the airport you can recover the 21% VAT paid if you have purchased local products for an amount greater than $ 70 (per invoice) in the shops which are members of the scheme "Global Refund".

Methods of payment
Whilst the Dollar is generally accepted, foreign currency can be exchanged in banks and authorized bureaux. The most commonly accepted credit cards are American Express, VISA, Diners and Master Card. There may be difficulties in changing traveller's cheques outside of Buenos Aires.

Working hours
Banks and Exchange Bureaux: Mondays to Fridays from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm.
Business Offices: generally from 09.00 am to 12.00 pm and from 2.00 pm to 7.00 pm.
Shops and commerce: in the big cities from 09.00 to 8.00 pm, although in the outskirts and the provinces they tend to close at midday. On Saturdays the hours are from 09.00 am to 1.00 pm.
Cafés, cake shops and pizzerias: are open most of the time except between 02.00 am and 06.00 am.
Restaurants: lunchtime starts from 12.30 am and dinner at 8.30 pm. Many places offer fast food at all times.

Tips
It is usual to leave 10% in cafeterias and restaurants and to tip doormen, porters, ushers in cinemas and theatres.

GENERAL DATA

Entry formalities
Current passport with or without visa depending on your nationality. Consult with your nearest Embassy or Consulate. Visitors coming not neighbouring countries are exempt from all taxes on travelling articles and new articles with a value not more than U$S 300 and 300 additional US dollars if they are purchased in the duty free shops within the national territory.
No vaccination certificate is required for entry into the country, except for passengers coming from countries where cholera and yellow fever are endemic.

Telephone
Public telephones work with cards, which are tokens purchased in kiosks and in offices of the telephone companies, or with legal tender coins. There are call boxes where you can pay in cash (open 24 hours a day).
When calling from abroad to Argentina you have to dial the country code which is 54 and then the area code of the place you want to call. For domestic calls you have to dial 0 before the area code. For international calls you have to dial 00, the country code and then the city code.
Remember that there are reduced tariffs from 10.00 pm to 08.00 am.

Tourist information
Secretariat of Tourism and Sport, Tourist Information Centres: Av. Santa Fe 883, (C1059ABC) Buenos Aires, Tel. 4312-2232 or 0800-555-0016; Ezeiza International Airport and Jorge Newbery airport.
Information Centres of the City of Buenos Aires in Florida Street and Diagonal Norte, Puerto Madero and the Bus Station of Retiro.

  INFORMATION OF INTEREST

The name Argentina
Comes from the Latin argentum which means silver. The origin of the name goes back to the voyages made by the first Spanish "conquistadores" (conquerors) to the Río de la Plata. The shipwrecked survivors of the expedition mounted by Juan Díaz de Solís discovered Indians in the region who presented them with silver objects. The news about the legendary Sierra del Plata, a mountain rich in silver, reached Spain around 1524. From this date the Portuguese named the river of Solís, the Silver River (Río de la Plata). Two years later the Spanish used the same name. The National Constitution adopted in 1853 included the name "República Argentina" (Republic of Argentina) among the official names to designate the government and the country's territory.

Location, area and frontiers
Located in South America and thus in the southern hemisphere, Argentina has an area of almost 3.8 million square kilometres, from which 2.8 belongs to the continent - approximately 54% are plains (grasslands and savannas), 23% are plateaus, and the other 23% are mountains - and the remainder in the Antarctic. Its length of 3.800 Km goes from latitude 22º to 55º. Its frontier with Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile has a perimeter of 9.376 Km and the coast, on the Atlantic Ocean, is 4.725 Km long.

Geography
The fundamental characteristic of Argentina is the enormous contrast between the immense eastern plains and the imposing mountain range of the Andes to the west. This is the frontier with Chile and it has the highest peak in the Western hemisphere: the Aconcagua, 6.959 metres high.
In its passage from Jujuy to Tierra del Fuego the range presents marvellous contrasts, the plateaux of the Northwest, the lake region, the forests and the glaciers of the Patagonia.
To the north, Chaco is a forested area which follows the rivers Bermejo, Salado and Pilcomayo.
Between the Paraná and Uruguay, the Mesopotamia of Argentina (the provinces of Entre Ríos, Corrientes and Misiones) is formed by low hills where pools and marshlands show the ancient courses of these great rivers. There are fissures - in the middle of the subtropical rain forest - which provide such spectacular phenomena known as the Iguazú Falls.
La Pampa, in the centre of Argentina, is the largest and best known area of plains. It has a large amount of agriculture and livestock and includes the province of Buenos Aires, the northeast of La Pampa, the south of Córdoba and south of Santa Fe. Its landscape is broken to the south by the small mountains of Tandil and La Ventana and to the west by the Córdoba mountain ranges.
Towards the south, from the Andes to the sea, are the sterile and stony plateaux of Patagonia, swept by the wind most time of the year. The Atlantic coast, lined with high cliffs, forms massive indentations like the Valdés Peninsula, with its spectacular and unique colonies of marine animals.

Climate
The country's territory offers a wide variety of climates that range from the subtropical at the North, to sub-Antarctic in southern Patagonia. A temperate climate predominates, particularly in the rich and humid Pampas plains. From November to March, the media temperature is 23° C and, from June to September is 12° C.

Population
The current population of Argentina is more than 36 million people of which almost half live in the Federal Capital and the province of Buenos Aires. These figures give us a population density of 13 inhabitants per square kilometre.
95% of the Argentine People are principally descendants of Italians and Spaniards. With the massive European immigration the white and Indian half castes became slowly diluted until today these people only amount to 4.5% of the population. The pure indigenous population, the Mapuches, Collas, Tobas, Matacos and Chiriguanos, amount to 0.5% of the population.

Language
Spanish is the official language of the Argentine Republic. In Buenos Aires "lunfardo" is used as a city slang.

Religion
There is complete religious freedom in Argentina although the official religion is Roman Catholic. There are also other religions such as Protestant, Jewish, Moslem, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox among others.

Currency
The official Argentine currency is the Peso. There are notes of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 pesos and coins of 1 peso and 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents.

Constitution and Government
Argentina consists of 23 provinces plus a federal district, Buenos Aires. The Constitution establishes a republic under a representative, federal system, and separate branches of power: the executive, the legislative and the judicial.
The executive power is exercised by the Nation's President and Vice-president, elected for a term of four years and can be re-elected for a single additional term. The legislative power is bicameral: the Senate (composed of three senators from each province and from the City of Buenos Aires) and the Chamber of Deputies (composed of representatives elected directly and in proportion to the population in each district). The judicial power "is vested in the supreme Court and in lower courts".
In conformity with the National Constitution, each province adopts its own Constitution to rule its acts of government.
The current Constitution dates from 1853. Nevertheless, it has undergone changes in 1860, 1898, 1957 and 1994. The last one - August 1994 - allows the re-election of the President of the Nation for one more term.

Two historic dates
May 25th., 1810. The First "Gobierno Patrio" or Home Government Assembly was constituted.
July 9th., 1816. Proclamation of Independence by the "Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata".

National emblems
The flag has three horizontal stripes: the middle one white with the golden sun and the two outside ones of sky blue. The national flower is the ceibo and the national stone the manganese spar (rodocrosita) or "the rose of the Inca".

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 Buenos Aires - Argentina