🇦🇷Argentina

The basics

• 90 days on arrival, stamped in your passport, for roughly 80 nationalities including the EU, the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and most of the Americas.
• There is no reciprocity fee. It was abolished in 2016 and any site charging you one is a scam.
• Your passport must be valid for the stay. Argentina does not require the extra six months many countries do.
• One extension of 90 more days is possible, applied for at a Direccion Nacional de Migraciones office before the first 90 days run out, for a fee of roughly USD 50.
• Mercosur nationals may enter on a national identity card and get 90 days too.

Where your nationality lands

• The AVE (Autorizacion de Viaje Electronica) is the route for Chinese nationals holding a valid US or Schengen visa. It is applied for online before travel and is much faster than a consular appointment.
• Overstaying attracts a fine payable at the airport on departure. It is not usually dramatic but it does mean a queue at Migraciones on the way out.

The health insurance question

You will read that travel health insurance is a legal entry requirement. The truth is more complicated and you should carry insurance anyway.

• DNU 366/2025 made it mandatory from 1 July 2025, requiring proof of cover for treatment, hospitalisation, medical evacuation and repatriation.
• On 30 June 2026 the Camara Nacional Electoral declared that decree null in a citizenship case, and its wider effect is unsettled. Neither the FCDO nor the Migraciones public pages present it as a live check.
• In practice it is rarely asked for at Ezeiza. That is not a reason to arrive without it: Argentine private healthcare is good and is billed in full to foreigners.
• Check the Migraciones page and your airline before you fly. This is the one Argentine rule genuinely worth re-reading the week you travel.

Customs

• Declare cash above USD 10,000 or the equivalent. Undeclared cash above the threshold is seized.
• Personal electronics are fine, but a second new laptop or phone still in its box invites a duty conversation.
• Fresh food, plants, seeds and meat are prohibited and the beagles at Ezeiza are good at their job.

• Electronic cigarettes and vaping liquids may not be imported. The prohibition dates to 2011, covers sale and advertising as well, and devices are confiscated at Ezeiza.
• Cash equivalent to USD 10,000 or more must be declared on entry and on exit.
• The allowance is 400 cigarettes and 2.5 litres of alcoholic drinks per adult, plus USD 500 of other goods arriving by air or sea - USD 300 if you come overland or by river - and a separate allowance for what you buy in the arrivals duty-free shop.
• Fresh food, plants and animal products are controlled, with checks at the Andean crossings into Chile that are as strict as the Chilean side.
• Archaeological and palaeontological objects may not be exported - the fossil trade in Patagonia is illegal, whatever the shop says.

Before you go

• No vaccinations are required to enter Argentina from most countries.
• Yellow fever vaccination is recommended for Misiones and the far northeast, including Iguazu. It is not required for entry but Brazil or Paraguay may ask for it if you cross.
• Hepatitis A and typhoid are the usual travel recommendations, plus routine boosters.
• Take out travel insurance that covers medical evacuation. Patagonia and the northwest are a long way from a hospital, and this is the requirement the contested entry decree was aiming at.

Healthcare

• Private hospitals in Buenos Aires are excellent, and Hospital Aleman, Hospital Italiano and the Swiss Medical group are used to foreign patients.
• Public hospitals no longer treat every foreigner free. That was true for decades and stopped being true in 2024. Salta began charging non-resident foreigners in February 2024, Santa Cruz in April, Mendoza in August, Jujuy in September, and the City of Buenos Aires in March 2025 - so the country's two biggest destinations for a walk-in are both now chargeable. Several more provinces have bills in progress.
• An emergency is still treated, everywhere, regardless of status. Every one of those rules keeps that carve-out; what you now pay for is the non-urgent visit.
• Where care is still free the waits are long, and the competence is not the problem.
• Private treatment is paid up front and reclaimed from your insurer. Keep every receipt.
• Pharmacies are everywhere and pharmacists advise well. Farmacity is the big chain in Buenos Aires.

Everyday health

• Tap water is safe in Buenos Aires and the main cities. In rural Patagonia and the north, ask, or use bottled water.
• Dengue is present in the north and, in bad summers, in Buenos Aires. Use repellent from December to April.
• Altitude sickness is the most likely thing to affect you if you go to Salta, Jujuy, Purmamarca or the Puna. Ascend slowly, drink water, skip alcohol on the first night, and consider acetazolamide.
• The sun in Patagonia and the northwest is severe because of altitude and thin ozone. Factor 50 and a hat, even at 15 C.
• Portions are enormous and the diet is meat-heavy. Vegetarians do better than they used to but should learn the phrase "sin carne".

Booking

• Always pay the hotel with a foreign-issued card. That is what triggers the automatic 21% VAT refund, and a cash payment loses it.
• Buenos Aires is good value and the mid-range hotel stock is large. Outside peak weeks you do not need to book far ahead.
• Patagonia is the exception. El Calafate, El Chalten and Bariloche fill for December to February and should be booked months out.
• Mendoza fills for the harvest festival in early March and prices double.

Buenos Aires by neighbourhood

• Palermo is where most visitors should stay: leafy, safe, full of restaurants and bars, well connected. Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood are the busy parts.
• Recoleta is grander and quieter, with the cemetery, the museums and the best walking.
• San Telmo is the old city, cobbled and atmospheric, with the Sunday market. Livelier and rougher at the edges.
• Puerto Madero is new, safe, expensive and has no soul at all.
• Avoid staying in Constitucion, Retiro's western edge and the far end of La Boca. La Boca's Caminito is worth a daytime visit and is not a place to wander two streets off it.

Practical

• Check-in is usually 15:00, check-out 10:00 or 11:00.
• Bring your passport. It is copied at check-in and it is what proves you are a non-resident for the VAT refund.
• Air conditioning matters from December to March. Buenos Aires in January is 32 C and humid.
• Heating matters in June to August in Patagonia and the south, and many older Buenos Aires flats are poorly heated.
• Short-term flats are widely rented through the usual platforms and are common in Palermo. Ask about the building's security arrangements, which locals take seriously.

The three networks

• Personal, Claro and Movistar cover the country between them. In Buenos Aires all three are fine; outside the cities Personal and Claro hold up best.
• Data is cheap by any standard. A tourist bundle with 10 GB or more costs a few US dollars equivalent.
• Claro sells a Chip Turista through its own shops and authorised resellers, which is the least painful physical option.
• Coverage in Patagonia is thin and honest about it. On Ruta 40 and around El Chalten you will have no signal for long stretches.

Registration, which is the annoying part

• Every prepaid line is registered to a passport. Bring the physical passport and expect the shop to photograph the data page.
• Some shops also want a local address or proof of accommodation. A hotel booking on your phone satisfies this.
• Kiosks sell chips but often cannot register them, which is how people end up with a dead SIM. Buy at an official operator shop.
• Activation can take a couple of hours rather than minutes, so buy it on your first morning, not on the way to a bus.

eSIM

• The Argentine operators still do not sell tourist eSIMs. The eSIM route means an international provider.
• Saily covers Argentina at USD 5.29 for 1 GB over 7 days, USD 16.99 for 5 GB over 30 days and USD 29.99 for 10 GB over 30 days.
• It is several times the local price per gigabyte and it works from the moment you land, with no shop and no passport scan. For a two-week trip that trade is usually worth it; for two months it is not.
• A local number matters more here than in most countries. Mercado Pago, some bank apps and a lot of small businesses expect an Argentine mobile number, and WhatsApp is how everything is arranged.

Apps to have before you land

• WhatsApp is the phone system. Restaurants, guides and landlords all use it.
• Mercado Pago is the dominant wallet, though it needs a local identity to set up fully.
• Cabify and Uber both work in Buenos Aires and matter for safety, not just convenience.
• SUBE for topping up your transport card, once you have one.

Sockets in Argentina are Type C and I at 220 V, 50 Hz - two flat blades in a V with an earth blade below, the same shape Australia uses.

• The polarity is reversed compared with Australia and China. The plug fits either way, and for anything with a two-core lead it makes no difference; it is why Argentine and Australian appliances are not officially interchangeable even though the pins are.
• A Europlug fits the two-pin sockets that are still common in older buildings.
• British and American plugs need an adapter.
• 220 V, so American 120 V-only appliances need a converter.
• Chile, next door, uses the Italian Type L socket instead, so a road trip across the Andes needs a second adapter.

Power

• Plug types C and I at 220 V, 50 Hz. Type I is the Australian-style angled two-pin with a ground, and it is the one you actually need.
• A European two-pin plug fits the type C sockets you will find in older buildings, but many modern sockets are type I only. Bring a universal adapter.
• Power cuts happen in Buenos Aires in the summer heat, when air-conditioning load takes out a neighbourhood for a few hours.

The clock

• Argentina eats late. Restaurants open for dinner at 20:30 and fill at 22:00. Arriving at 19:30 gets you an empty room and a confused waiter.
• Lunch is 13:00 to 15:30 and is the bigger meal in many places.
• Shops open 09:00 or 10:00 to 20:00, with smaller ones closing for a siesta from roughly 13:00 to 17:00 outside Buenos Aires.
• Sunday is quiet. The asado is a family occasion and much of the country is at one.
• Nightlife starts at 01:00. A club at midnight is empty.

Language

• Spanish, with a distinctive accent that pronounces "ll" and "y" as "sh". Calle is "ca-shay".
• "Vos" replaces "tu", with its own verb forms. Locals will understand your textbook Spanish perfectly.
• English is common in Buenos Aires tourism and rare elsewhere. Learn numbers and directions.
• "Che" is how Argentines get each other's attention, and yes, that is where Guevara's nickname came from.

Public holidays and the calendar

• Seasons are inverted. January and February are high summer and the whole country is on holiday; June to August is winter and Patagonia largely closes.
• Carnival (February), 25 May, 9 July and 17 August are national holidays, and several move to create long weekends (fines de semana largos) that fill every hotel in the country.
• Book anything at all around a fin de semana largo well in advance.

Small things

• Mate is shared from one gourd and one straw. If offered, drink it and hand it back; do not stir it and do not wipe the straw.
• The cubierto on a restaurant bill is a cover charge, not a scam.
• Argentines greet with one kiss on the right cheek, including between men.
• Public toilets often have no paper. Carry tissues.
• Prices are quoted with a dot as the thousands separator, so ARS 15.000 is fifteen thousand pesos.

Forget everything you read about the blue dollar

The cepo cambiario was lifted in April 2025 and the arbitrage that defined Argentine travel for a decade has closed.

• The official, MEP and blue rates now sit within about 2% to 3% of each other, all around 1,460 to 1,530 pesos to the dollar through mid-2026.
• Bringing a wad of hundred-dollar bills to sell in a cueva is now pointless and dangerous. You are carrying thousands of dollars in cash around a city with a street-robbery problem for a gain of a few percent.
• Foreign Visa and Mastercard payments settle at the MEP rate automatically. Tap your card, get a fair rate, and skip the whole subject.
• Anyone still telling you to bring crisp USD 100 notes is repeating 2023 advice.

How to pay

• Cards work in restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and shops in Buenos Aires and the tourist towns. In small towns and at market stalls, cash.
• Carry some pesos. Colectivos need a SUBE, taxis often want cash, and small kiosks are cash-only.
• ATMs dispense small amounts and charge heavily. A withdrawal fee of several thousand pesos is normal, and the per-withdrawal cap is low, so take the maximum each time.
• Always decline the ATM's own currency conversion and choose to be billed in pesos.
• Western Union transfers to yourself were the trick of the cepo years. They still work and still give a good rate, but the advantage over a card is now small.

The 21% you should actually claim

• Non-resident tourists get the 21% VAT back on accommodation, including breakfast if it is in the rate, automatically, when you pay with a foreign-issued card or an international transfer.
• It is a discount, not a claim form. The hotel bills you net of VAT; you do not have to do anything except pay with the right card.
• Do not pay for a hotel in cash if you want this, because cash payment forfeits it.
• A separate digital VAT refund on Argentine-made goods launched in June 2026 at Ezeiza, Aeroparque and the Port of Buenos Aires, handled at self-service kiosks or in an app at departure.

Costs and tipping

• Argentina is no longer especially cheap by South American standards, though it is good value against Europe.
• Tip 10% in restaurants, in cash on the table, because the card machine often has no tip line and a card tip may not reach the staff.
• The cubierto is a small per-person cover charge for bread and table service. It is not a tip.
• Taxis: round up. Hotel porters: a small note.

Buenos Aires

• The subte has six lines, A to E plus H, running roughly 05:30 to 22:30 on weekdays and less at weekends. It is fast, hot in summer and closes earlier than you want.
• Colectivos go everywhere and run all night. There are hundreds of routes; use the app rather than trying to read the network.
• Tell the driver where you are going as you board a colectivo, because the fare varies with distance. Then tap the SUBE.
• Cash is not accepted on buses. SUBE or nothing.
• Download Cual Bondi or use Google Maps, both of which have accurate Buenos Aires transit data.

Taxis and ride hailing

• Use Uber or Cabify rather than hailing on the street. The trip is recorded, the fare is fixed, and this is standard local advice rather than tourist caution.
• Black-and-yellow radio taxis are legitimate if ordered by phone or through an app such as BA Taxi.
• If you do take a street taxi, watch the change. Passing a counterfeit note back to a tourist is a known trick; pay as close to exact as you can and look at what you are handed.
• A counterfeit ARS 1,000 or 2,000 note feels slicker or thicker than a real one and lacks the watermark and metallic thread. Hold it up to the light before you put it away.

Long distance

• The bus network is superb. Retiro in Buenos Aires is the main terminal, a small city in itself.
• Cama, semi-cama and ejecutivo describe how far the seat reclines. On anything over eight hours, pay for cama.
• Trains exist but are slow and limited, mainly Buenos Aires to Rosario, Cordoba and Mar del Plata. They are very cheap and take twice as long as the bus.
• Patagonia is enormous. Bariloche to El Calafate is 1,400 km. Fly it unless the journey is the point.
• Renting a car makes sense for Ruta 40, the Lake District and the wine roads around Mendoza, and almost nowhere else. Fuel is cheap, distances are long, and service stations can be 200 km apart.

Zero alcohol at the wheel nationally, peajes on the main routes, and very long distances.

• Alcohol Cero al Volante has been national law since 13 April 2023, and it binds every national route in the country: above zero milligrams per litre is an offence, full stop.
• Provincial roads are a separate decision, and 18 of the 24 provinces have taken it, including the province of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Salta, Jujuy, Rio Negro, Neuquen, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, plus more than sixty municipalities for their own streets.
• Six jurisdictions kept the old 0.5 limit, and the list is not the one you would guess: the City of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Mendoza, Misiones, Corrientes and San Juan. The city and the province of Buenos Aires genuinely differ - cross the General Paz and the rule changes - and Mendoza declined outright, for the reason you would expect of a wine province.
• Which means the honest advice is the simple one: assume zero everywhere, because working out which road you are on is not a defence you want to be constructing at the roadside.
• Toll booths take cash and cards on the motorways out of Buenos Aires and on the main intercity routes.
• Distances are the plan. Buenos Aires to Bariloche is 1,600 km, to Iguazu 1,300; internal flights exist for a reason and the buses are excellent.
• Fuel can be short in Patagonia. Fill up whenever the tank is half empty on Route 40, where stations are 200 km apart and sometimes dry.
• Ruta 40 and the Patagonian side roads are gravel for long stretches, and hire agreements often exclude them - read the contract before planning that route.

The three real risks

Argentina is not a dangerous country for visitors, and Buenos Aires has a persistent street-theft problem. Both are true and the second is manageable.

• Motochorros are thieves on motorbikes who take a bag off a shoulder or a phone out of a hand and are gone. Walk away from the kerb, and do not stand at a corner texting.
• Distraction teams work the Microcentro, Florida street, Retiro, San Telmo market and the subte. Someone spills something on you, or drops coins, and a second person takes the bag while you help.
• Counterfeit notes come back as change, particularly from taxis. Check ARS 1,000 and ARS 2,000 notes for the watermark and the metallic thread.

How locals actually behave

• The phone stays in the pocket on the street. People stop, step into a doorway, use it, and put it away. Copy that.
• A cheap crossbody bag worn in front beats a backpack. Backpacks are opened behind you on the subte.
• Order taxis through an app. Street taxis are mostly fine, and the exceptions are why locals use Uber and Cabify.
• Do not change money on the street. The men calling "cambio, cambio" on Florida street hand over counterfeits or set you up to be robbed, and since the rates converged there is nothing to gain.

Places and times

• Retiro bus terminal and the area behind it are the sharpest edge of the city. Take a taxi to the terminal door.
• Constitucion at night, the far end of La Boca and the villas (informal settlements) are worth avoiding entirely.
• Palermo, Recoleta and Puerto Madero are calm at almost any hour.
• Football matches are an intense environment. Go with an organised group if you go at all; away fans are banned from most league fixtures for a reason.

Protests and strikes

• Demonstrations in Buenos Aires are frequent, large and usually peaceful, and they close the Plaza de Mayo and the Avenida 9 de Julio at short notice.
• General strikes stop transport nationally, including flights. If one is announced for your travel day, assume the day is lost.
• Stay away from the edges of a protest where the police and the organised groups meet.

Outside the cities

• Altitude is real in the northwest. Salta, Jujuy and the Puna go above 4,000 m and altitude sickness is common.
• Patagonian weather changes violently. A hike out of El Chalten needs full wind protection in any season.
• Distances break plans. Never assume you can drive 600 km in Patagonia and do anything else that day.

The numbers

• 911 works nationally and reaches police, ambulance and fire.
• The Comisaria del Turista in Buenos Aires has English-speaking officers and exists specifically to take reports from visitors. It is at Avenida Corrientes 436.
• You need a police report (denuncia) for any insurance claim. It can be made at any comisaria and, for some offences, online.

After a theft

• Report it, even though nothing will be recovered. The denuncia is what your insurer wants.
• Cancel cards immediately. Argentine card fraud after a snatch is fast.
• A stolen passport means the police first, then your embassy. Most embassies are in Recoleta or Palermo.
• If your phone is taken, use Find My or Find My Device from a laptop and wipe it. Do not go to meet anyone offering it back.

Medical

• SAME on 107 is the Buenos Aires public ambulance and is free.
• Private hospitals will want a card or your insurer's authorisation before non-emergency treatment.
• Your insurer's 24 hour assistance line is the number to save, because it is what authorises private care and evacuation from Patagonia.

Worth saving now

• Your accommodation's address in Spanish, written down, for a taxi driver.
• The Argentine country code is +54. Mobile numbers dialled from abroad take +54 9 before the area code.
• Your embassy's out-of-hours number, which is different from the switchboard.
• Both airports' names, so you can tell a driver which one you mean: Ezeiza and Aeroparque.