Driving in Argentina: licence, roads and tolls

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.