1. Iguazú Falls
The stunning Iguazú Falls lie along Argentina’s border with Brazil, with Iguazu National Park on the Argentinian side and Iguaçu National Park on the Brazilian side. Protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, these huge waterfalls are undoubtedly one of the most spectacular sights in South America.
Visitors can get quite close to these thundering falls thanks to a network of easily accessible walkways and viewing platforms designed to provide the best possible views, including some at the bottom of the falls, an area known as the Devil’s Throat.
Iguazu is, in fact, made up of between 150 to 300 individual falls along its nearly three-kilometer edge, a number that changes depending on the season, varying in height between 60 to 82 meters and each as spectacular as the next. Served by an international airport in Argentina (and one in neighboring Brazil), it’s relatively easy to visit, particularly if flying from Buenos Aires.
2. Perito Moreno Glacier
The main hub for tourists visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Patagonia’s Los Glaciares National Park, the small town of El Calafate offers plenty of accommodation options and other amenities for visitors.
It’s here that most visitors join excursions to see the park’s popular glaciers, most notably the stunning Perito Moreno Glacier, a massive 30-kilometer-long ice formation (and the world’s third largest freshwater reserve) just 78 kilometers from the town center.
Named after a 19th-century explorer, it’s just a two-hour trip from El Calafate to the glacier’s large visitor center, and from here just a short walk to the glacier. For those wanting to climb the glacier, ice trekking tours are available that range from an hour’s walk over the ice formation to longer five-hour excursions.
