Very Best of Argentina

Your Very Best Highlights of Argentina tour begins in Buenos Aires, the capital of the nation. This romantic city is often referred to as 'the Paris of South America' because of its French-style architecture and elegance.

Meet your guide and driver at Ezeiza International Airport and take a transfer to your hotel.

The Buenos Aires city tour begins with the hallmark symbol of Buenos Aires, the Obelisk, reigning from the heart of the world's widest street, 9 de Julio Avenue. Visit imposing buildings such as the Colon Theater, one of the best-known opera houses in the continent, and the Embassy of France, which used to belong to an aristocratic 'Porteño' family during the golden ages of Buenos Aires.

Visit Plaza de Mayo, the elegant Plaza San Martin, and the financial district. Explore Buenos Aires's traditional Barrios: La Boca, San Telmo, Montserrat, Recoleta, and Palermo. Finally, stop in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires's renovate port and waterfront featuring the cantilevered Woman's Bridge.

Visit the place where people from Buenos Aires go to escape the hustle and bustle of the city: the Delta Tigre. El Tigre is northeast of the city, in the Buenos Aires Province.

Board a catamaran to sail through the delta, passing by different islands with lush vegetation and houses built over wooden constructions, due to the occasional rising of the river.

On your way back to Buenos Aires, pay attention to the northern suburban districts and the exclusive residential neighbourhoods.

In the evening, enjoy a Tango Show & Dinner, where you can wine, dine and enjoy a professional tango dance show. What a way to kick off your Argentina Highlights tour!

Breakfast at the hotel, then the airport, then the first flight south. A guide is waiting for you in Bariloche.

You will read that Bariloche is the "Aspen" of South America. Yes, but — Aspen is a resort, and Bariloche is a town with a downtown you can walk end to end, chocolate shops the length of it, and the Lake District behind it. The ski slopes are real, and they are why the comparison stuck. So is the chocolate.

Spend the spare time on the second one. The sweets are made with Patagonian berries, and the only honest way to compare them is one after another.

The Seven Lakes Route connects Bariloche, Villa La Angostura and San Martin de Los Andes. It is one of those roads that is the reason for the day rather than the way to get through it. A full day of cold clean air, flat water, mountains and forest on both sides.

Back in Bariloche the evening is yours. There are German-style restaurants in town and Welsh cafés where you can sit with a pot of tea — which tells you something worth knowing about who settled this part of Patagonia.

West out of Bariloche to Cerro Tronador, one of the tallest hills in the region, with the Lake District on the way — glaciers, mountains, woods.

You stop at the Ventisquero Negro, a glacier that runs dark instead of white, which marks the starting point of the Manso River — manso means "docile." Look at the water coming off that ice, then read the name again.

At the base there is a walk, and time to hear how the terrain was made and what the region's native names mean. A walk, not a climb — back in Bariloche by afternoon.

Note: Entrance fee is to be paid on the spot.

Second flight, further south again. El Calafate is the heart of Argentina's Patagonia region, and you have three nights in it — which is the whole point of this stretch of the trip.

Today you spend none of them. Check into your hotel, look at the sweeping Patagonian landscapes, the snowcapped mountains and the lakes of Los Glaciares National Park, and let the scale of the place settle before you go into it. The glaciers get two full days. They need two.

The excursion into Los Glaciares National Park. The drive out is worth staying awake for: light-blue lakes and streams, exotic forest, towering mountains over both.

You stop first at the Curva de Los Suspiros, the curve of sighs, which earns its name — that is your first view of the white wall. Then you walk. The path along the western tip of the peninsula runs about five kilometers, and slowly is the correct speed for it.

Back in El Calafate in the late afternoon.

Second glacier day, a different kind. Your guide collects you at the hotel around 7:30 AM and drives you to Punta Bandera; the boat leaves at 9 o'clock.

You cross Boca del Diablo, the narrowest part of Lake Argentino, then sail up the Upsala and Spegazzini channels into the northern arm of the lake. Immense icebergs. From the boat you see Upsala, Spegazzini and Perito Moreno, the largest glaciers in the park — and seeing Perito Moreno from the water, a day after standing in front of it, is why these two days are separate.

The boats are well heated. You brave the cold only while taking pictures outside.

Third flight, and the last one south. After Ushuaia the map runs out — it is the southernmost city in the world, and the town is aware of it.

Check into your hotel and rest. The afternoon is deliberately loose: the port and waterfront are worth an hour, and there are museums, restaurants and shops in town for the rest of it.

Two full days follow, and neither of them is a travel day.

Tierra del Fuego National Park is Argentina's only coastal national park, which is a stranger thing than it sounds — mountain forest running straight down to salt water.

You stop at Ensenada Bay, looking across at Redonda Island. Then the End-of-the-World Train, included today, and the history of the region that comes with the ride.

At Lapataia Bay you get the odd one: a lagoon that is green and black at once. Take the short walk around the black lagoon, or the beavers trail instead — you will not have time to be disappointed by either — then back to your hotel in Ushuaia.

East out of Ushuaia, past the industrial area of the city — every port town has one — and into the woods, where the Velo de Novia, the Bride's Veil cascade, comes down.

You skirt the base of Mount Olivia with the sierra standing over the road, then cross the Cordillera, the Andes themselves, at Garibaldi Pass. The view down onto Lake Escondido from up there is the one people stop the car for. Then down to the Petrel Inn on the shore of Lake Escondido, before turning back for Ushuaia.

After breakfast your driver collects you at the hotel and takes you to Ushuaia airport for your onward flight.

One thing worth knowing if you are still planning the route: a good Argentina trip ends — or begins — in Chile or Brazil. Flying in and out of Buenos Aires makes the map do work it does not need to do. You are already standing at the bottom of the continent, which is the easy moment to add Iguazú Falls, cross into Chile, or carry on into Brazil.