Buenos Aires has plenty to offer visitors. On the one hand, there are the famous urban green spaces, often designed by French landscape architects. The most important of these is Carlos Thays (1849-1934), who designed the Botanical Gardens and the 3 February Park. Then there's the vast Reserva Ecológica: 350 hectares of polder land on the Río de la Plata. You can explore it by bike or on foot, to admire the flora, birds, insects and amphibians between heaven and earth...

Argentina's capital is also home to 160 museums, covered markets and craft cooperatives, beautiful covered galleries, stylish and simple cafés and restaurants, historic monuments, including several colonial, classical and neo-Gothic churches, and two famous cemeteries: Recoleta, where political figures are buried, and Chacarita, where popular artists are buried, These include great tango musicians such as Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo and the brothers Julio and Francisco De Caro, as well as the poet Celedonio Flores, the painter Benito Quinquela Martín and the legendary Carlos Gardel, a composer, singer, actor and dancer who gave tango its letters of nobility and its first international successes.

Typical morning: a grand tour of the city.

In the Monserrat district, the historic heart of the city, you will visit the Plaza de Mayo, where all the major national events have taken place since the city was founded in June 1580.
Plaza de Mayo is home to four major institutions and two commemorative monuments: the cathedral, with the mausoleum of the Father of the Homeland, a title given posthumously to the highly philanthropic General José de San Martín, who died in France in 1850; the Cabildo, or former town hall, now a museum of the May Revolution of 1810, of which it was the cradle; and the Casa Rosada, the name of the presidential palace below which is the Museo Nacional del Bicentenario, an ultra-modern museum dedicated to the two hundred years of Argentina's independence. Dominating this rectangular square from above is the equestrian statue of General Manuel Belgrano, who refused the title of Father of the Homeland, preferring instead that of loving son, and the Piramide de Mayo, which celebrates the revolution of 1810 and is crowned by a statue of Liberty, an armed Athena wearing a Phrygian cap, by the Frenchman Joseph Dubourdieu (instead of a pyramid, it is in fact an obelisk).
Heading north, you'll visit Palermo, a chic neighbourhood full of contemporary architecture, parks and art museums. The walk continues through Recoleta, a patrician area known today for its colonial basilica and cemetery, dating from 1821. Then it's down to the south, traditionally more popular, with the San Telmo district, whose streets are often still cobbled.

An exclusive afternoon among the locals:
In the La Boca district, which borders the mouth of the Riachuelo as it flows into the silty waters of the Río de la Plata, you'll have lunch in a setting frequented by the 'Boquenses', far from the pasteboard setting that Caminito has become, a veritable tourist trap that mass-market tour operators have turned into an ultra-kitsch must-see.
La Boca has remained a working-class neighbourhood forged by strong Italian immigration in the years 1880-1930. Many artists and craftsmen, often co-operators, chose La Boca as the location for their studios and workshops. Thanks to the network they wove among themselves, you can discover the old quarter and the imprint left on it by the painter Benito Quinquela Martín (a beautiful museum is dedicated to him in what was once his house, on a quay of the Riachuelo) and his friend, an anarchist like him, the tango composer and pianist Juan de Dios Filiberto.

This tour lasts around 7 hours.
A private French-speaking guide will accompany you.

This programme will be adapted to take account of what you have chosen for free days 1 and 3.

Rendezvous at 9pm. A friendly drink awaits you at the point indicated the day before.
Tonight, you'll discover authentic tango that you won't soon forget.
In Buenos Aires, tango goes very deep. It is the popular music and poetry with which, since 1880, the people of Puerto Rico have shaped their cultural identity as a new, urban, mixed people, the product of the vast and profound pan-European migratory flow that transformed the country between 1880 and 1930.
Human Trip takes you on a walking tour of the city centre, through the maze of bars, cafés and restaurants where artists perform: Los 36 Billares, El Gato Negro, City of London and so many other little addresses that the locals know the secret to and that escape the ordinary tourist.
Dancing is only a tiny part of tango, about 10% of what it does in Buenos Aires, but if you're tempted, whether you're a practitioner or just curious, no problem! This tour includes entry to a milonga. You can either just watch or take to the dance floor yourself, dancing and dancing until you "scrape the floor", as the local saying goes ("sacar viruta al piso"). And don't forget your shoes!

Private transfer to the domestic airport (Aeroparque Jorge Newberry) and flight to Puerto Iguazú, in the far north, the province of Misiones. Landing around 11am and private transfer to the hotel.
Puerto Iguazú is a small, quiet town of 82,000 inhabitants, whose main source of income is tourism. Surrounded by thick subtropical forest, it is home to one of the seven wonders of the modern world: the Iguazú cataracts and their biodiversity, shared by the three riparian countries, Argentina (with the Parque Nacional Iguazú), Paraguay and Brazil.

It was the M'Byá language that gave this legendary place its name: Iguazú means "Great Water".
Founded in 1934, this reserve is one of the oldest in the country, encompassing 67,720 hectares of the Paraná forest ecosystem, named after the Paraná, the deltaic river that flows into the Río de la Plata and of which the River Iguazú is one of many tributaries.
The national park was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984.

After lunch: meeting with the M'byá Yryapú community, with a M'byá guide (bilingual Spanish-M'byá). In the 17th century, Europeans mistakenly named this ethnic group "Guaraní", and they claim their name, their language and their traditions, inextricably linked as they are today to the Jesuit tradition of the missions that saved them from 1620 to 1767, the year in which the King of Spain expelled the Society of Jesus from his possessions. Without the insistence of the religious on offering the Amerindians a respectful welcome, they would have been reduced to slavery (in Brazil) or serfdom (in the Spanish empire) and their culture would have disappeared.
The m'byás have inhabited the forest for thirteen thousand years.
The aboriginal community of Yrapú (which means "sound of the waters") is made up of eighty-six families who live on 265 hectares of forest near Puerto Iguazú, in traditional wooden huts with dirt floors. Highly dependent on public subsidies, the community is trying to develop profitable activities such as selling handicrafts. Its members are bilingual in M'Byá and Spanish, and practise subsistence farming: rearing poultry and growing manioc, maize, groundnuts, pineapples, sugar cane, potatoes, wild honey, fruit and coloquintes, which the artisans use to make mate, small containers in which to prepare and drink a traditional infusion with a bitter, tannic flavour that spread throughout the south of the continent in the 18th century. The community also welcomes tourists, guiding them in the discovery of the local flora and its ancestral medicinal and cosmetic uses. In its visitors' centre, it exhibits photos, drawings and maps, so you can discover their story as they tell it.

Admire the famous and spectacular waterfalls and visit the immense nature park, founded in 1934, in this subtropical forest that the public authorities are trying, with varying degrees of success, to protect and manage intelligently, both for the planet and for sustainable tourism.

On the Argentinian side, you will be accompanied by a French-speaking guide: the tour is on foot through exceptional landscapes that reveal the geological formation of the 275 cataracts of this indomitable hydrological system. The highest of these, the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), is 80 m high. On the Argentine side, there are 2 km of liquid and rocky barriers. The reserve itself covers 67,720 hectares.
Leaving your hotel early in the morning, you'll have the chance to observe the birds, butterflies, mammals, plants and flowers that make up the biodiversity of this immense area. Let the sounds of nature fill your ears!
We offer you

the Iguazú Gorge (Garganta) route over 1,100 metres,
the upper 1,750 metres,
the lower 1,200 metres
and the 750-metre Isla San Martín course.

Beware of mosquitoes; make sure you have effective repellents and protective clothing.

After a good night's sleep in your hotel in Puerto Iguazú, get up early and after breakfast leave, passport in hand, for the park on the Brazilian side.
We offer you a tour of around three hours that is unique in the world: the climb is made up of 130 steps over 220 metres and 1,200 metres of footbridges that run alongside the falls and give access to a titanic panoramic view.
Unfortunately, this route is not suitable for wheelchair users.
We return to Puerto Iguazú in the early afternoon for a free half-day in the city.

Private transfer from the hotel to Puerto Iguazú airport for a flight to El Calafate with a 1h20 stopover at Jorge Newberry (Buenos Aires).
These two stages in the air will take you from the north, close to the tropics, to Patagonia in the south, closer to the Arctic Circle. A change of climate guaranteed.
Landing in El Calafate at around 2.30pm. Transfer to the hotel with the hotel's collective shuttle bus.

Free afternoon in El Calafate (ask us for details).
In the south of the province of Santa Cruz, despite its low altitude, El Calafate is a mountain town overlooking the immense Lago Argentino. At 1,560 km2, this lake boasts the largest surface area in Argentina and the third largest in the sub-continent.
El Calafate regulates the flow of visitors to Los Glaciares Park, both tourists and scientists.
At just 185 metres above sea level, embedded in the foothills of the southern Andes, the Lago Argentino, which plunges 35 to 1,000 metres below the surface, is 125 km long and 14 to 20 km wide.
A natural splendour criss-crossed by a flotilla of small boats offering water-based excursions unlike any other in the world.
In recent years, the town has also boasted an extraordinary centre for the popularisation of science, the Glaciarum, with its ultra-modern, multi-primed museography, which we recommend you visit if you want to get the most out of the next day's excursion to the frozen monsters.

Full-day tour with lunch at your leisure in Los Glaciares Park, created in 1937 and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
El Parque Nacional Los Glaciares covers 600,000 hectares divided into several zones, only two of which are open to the public without restriction. The park is divided between water and biological resources, with a wide variety of wildlife (pumas, guanacos, condors and other birds of prey, etc.) and flora depending on altitude and the proximity of lakes and rivers. The purpose of this nature reserve is to protect this 17,000 km2 watershed, on which life throughout the region depends, and to showcase one of South America's most extraordinary natural spectacles, the famous Perito Moreno glacier (250 km2), 78 km south-west of Calafate.
Hundreds of thousands of years old, this giant protrudes its 5 km wide and 60 metre high (above the surface of the water) front onto one of the arms of the Lago Argentino that separates it from the Magallanes peninsula.
In winter, the glacier spans the Canal de los Témpanos, closing it to shipping.
Due to the fragile and vital nature of the entire geological basin, visits must be made in groups and with the park's guides (who speak Spanish and English).
An eco-responsible attitude and respect for the instructions given by the staff are expected of all visitors to preserve this sumptuous setting that global warming seems to be threatening.
Los Glaciares National Park boasts no fewer than thirteen glaciers belonging to the same mass of continental ice, the most spectacular of which are Perito Moreno, Viedma (575 m2) and Upsala (595 km2).
In addition, there are 190 smaller glaciers (generally 3 km2) that do not belong to the same mass.
In all, the ice occupies 2,600 km2, the third largest reserve of solid water on our planet.

Lunch will be served in the refreshment areas near the belvedere, facing the ice cliffs.

From October to April, we offer a comprehensive tour of the Estancia Patagónica Nipebo Aike farm.
You'll have to join a group for the transfers to the Estancia, a horse ride (if you like horse riding) and an asado, the traditional big barbecue that brings Argentines together around their famous meat and its sauces, criolla and chimichurrí.
Estancia Nipebo Aike covers an area of over 12,000 hectares devoted to extensive cattle farming, between the South Arm of the Lago Argentino and the Chilean border.
This estate preserves many relics of the golden age of sheep farming, which has now moved to other areas of Patagonia.

From May to September, during the winter months, this excursion can be replaced by a boat trip on the lakes, at an additional cost (please contact us).

Return to Buenos Aires, landing late morning.
Afternoon and evening at leisure (for programme, please contact us)

After a free morning in Buenos Aires, transfer to the airport in the early afternoon or late afternoon depending on the airline.