Honeymoon Discussions

Argentina Honeymoon - Travel Company or DIY?

nerdybride311nerdybride311 member
First Anniversary First Comment
edited December 2015 in Honeymoon Discussions
I'm getting married Sept 4, 2016, but we're delaying our honeymoon until the winter to help recover from wedding costs (paying for everything ourselves).  I was looking into possibly doing two weeks in Argentina with the trip being split between Buenos Aires, El Calafate, Ushuia and possibly seeing the Iguazu Falls.  I'm weighing the options of going through a travel site with a planned itinerary, or booking everything myself to see which is more budget friendly.  Has anyone done either option?  Thanks!

Re: Argentina Honeymoon - Travel Company or DIY?

  • I haven't been to Argentina, so I don't have any advice as far as that goes. However, we spent 10 days in Italy for our HM and I booked everything myself. We have a very loose itinerary. I booked an apartment in Florence for 10 days and we rented a car (thankfully our apartment came with a parking spot). Once we got there, we planned what we wanted to do. We did overnight trips to Venice and Cinque Terre and I found great last minute deals on hotels. 
  • We lean towards guided tours in places where we don't speak the language AND where we want to see multiple cities and are moving around, especially in a short period of time.  We love that everything is taken care of for us when we're on a guided tour - we don't worry about transportation, waiting in lines to see sights, even our bags are handled for us the entire trip.  The company we use tends to give a nice balance between guided and free time on your own - so we still get to explore on our own and have meals just the two of us.

    Before we first did it, we were very nervous - we're very independent travelers, but we've realized we really enjoy it.  We'd never get to see as much as we've seen if we did it on our own.

    For trips that are more contained (ie a long weekend in Paris, a week on the coast of Spain with day trips, etc - we plan those ourselves and feel comfortable with that).
  • I went to Buenos Aires in 2005 for a business trip. Granted, I was there to work and at the time there was a lot of political and economic unrest, so I was told not to venture out too much. I did a bus tour shortly after I arrived, and it was nice. Honestly, it's a big city. It has a European sense, but I wouldn't think of it as a honeymoon destination. The prices were moderately low.

    I've heard that Iguazu Falls is amazing, though.

    Also, I'm fluent in Spanish (it was one of my majors in college). It was VERY hard to understand the Argentinan accent. So, even if you can speak Spanish, it's still difficult to communicate there.
  • I just organized an Argentina-Chile trip with a focus on Patagonia (including El Calafate) and the Atacama Desert and I booked everything myself.  What I like most about booking things myself is that I can choose exactly how much time I want to spend where.  A set itinerary doesn't allow you to tailor your time to your interests.

    Also, if you are into hiking/trekking, make sure to add some time for El Chalten (a 3.5 hr drive from El Calafate).  
  • Thanks for all the input!  We're still figuring things out (i.e. I'm waiting for FH to stop looking at skis and figure out what his top list includes, lol).
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