Pampas & Beaches
Discover Pampas & Beaches
Introduction
The Pampas are the flat grassland that made Argentina rich: some of the deepest topsoil in the world, running for hundreds of kilometres in almost every direction without a hill, and producing the beef and grain that funded everything else in the country.
This is gaucho country, and the tradition is alive rather than staged. San Antonio de Areco, a couple of hours from the capital, is the town most associated with it — silverwork, saddlery, and a November festival where the riding is done by people who ride for a living. The estancias scattered across the province take guests, and a day there is the easiest way to see how the whole thing actually works.
The Atlantic coast is the other half of the region. Mar del Plata is where Buenos Aires goes in January — a full-scale seaside city of some six hundred thousand people that doubles in summer — with quieter resorts at Pinamar, Cáriloux and Villa Gesell along the same stretch of dune and pine. Inland, Tandil has hills, cheese and salami; Lujan has the country’s largest basilica. The summer runs December to February and the coast is booked out through it; spring and autumn on the plains are far more pleasant.