Over the last few weeks of our travels, we’ve come across a few things that may help in your future journey to Argentina. There’s a few curious differences that we weren’t aware of, plus some things we wish we knew before leaving Australia.

Here are 5 tips, in no particular order:

Australian, Canadian and American travelers arriving in Argentina by air

Here in Argentina, there’s a reciprocal entry fee for all Australians, Canadians and Americans entering the country via air. This is due to our home countries charging Argentinians to visit.

Here are the latest fees to be aware of (as of August 2012) when you land in Buenos Aires:

Australia
US$100_
valid for 1 year_

Canada
US$70_
valid for 1 single entry_

USA
US$150_
valid for 5 years_

** If any fees are outdated, please let us know so we can update the figures **

We paid for these fees by MasterCard, but you have the option to use Argentinian Pesos if you prefer. I would suggest using a credit card or pesos if you have them, see our point below about hoarding US dollars.

Bring US dollars with you!

Further to the point above, due to recent (ish) changes from the Argentine federal government, locals and tourists alike can no longer withdraw foreign currency from any cash machine, travel agent or currency exchange. Instead, you can only withdraw Argentine pesos.

Most cash machines in Argentina will limit your withdrawal to ARS$1000, which at the time of writing is around ~ US$220. There is usually a local cash machine fee of ARS$18 (roughly US$4.50) per transaction, so I suggest withdrawing the maximum each to avoid high bank fees when you return home.

US dollars in Argentina, particularly Buenos Aires, are worth their weight in gold. We frequented an excellent steak restaurant in San Telmo, BsAs that gave us a 6 to 1 exchange on our USD, effectively ~ 25% off our meal if we were to use ARS$!

Try not to cash all of your US dollars the first chance you get, they definitely come in handy and here in Argentina — once they’re gone you can’t get them back.

Be prepared to eat late

We were surprised by how late evening festivities actually kick off. A restaurant in Argentina may not come close to becoming busy until at least 10pm, with a tango show on (if you’re lucky) well past 11pm.

This may be fine if you’re used to eating later, but we will regularly have dinner by 6pm — so this took some adjusting to. An easy way to avoid feeling frustrated at not eating earlier is to have a snack around 5pm. Sounds simple, but this helps us enjoy socializing and taking our time before having dinner around 10 or 10:30pm.

Price of goods

On the note of currency, be prepared to pay close to the same amount for your groceries and eating out as you would in any major Western country. An average trip to the grocery store will only be 10 to 15% less than the same trip in Australia.

We didn’t expect things to be extremely cheap in Argentina, so we weren’t disappointed at all. There are still some cheap opportunities to find, particularly local market food (if you’re in Buenos Aires, head over one of the bridges towards the nature reserve to find very cheap lomo (steak) and pollo (chicken) rolls!).

The alcohol here in Argentina is quite affordable, with a quality bottle of wine from Mendoza worth around ARS$20 (~US$4.50) and a very large bottle of Quilmes beer for ARS$9 (~US$2).

Tips, gratuity and spare change

In our experience so far, it’s fair to tip servers (waiters) around 10% of your bill. Higher is fine if you feel it deserves it, that’s 100% your call. Strangely, taxi drivers aren’t so keen to accept gratuity — some even acting a little offended when we try to leave a few pesos to say thank you.

One of the first things we’ve learnt in Argentina is to carry small bills and coins, constantly. If a bill comes to ARS$52 and you only have a $100 bill, be prepared to feel a bit embarrassed. I carry peso coins and loads of $2, $5 and $10 peso notes all of the time — and if you’re somewhere that looks good to break the $100 notes ATM’s give you, do it.

It makes a massive difference when you can hand a shopkeeper the exact change, and goes a long way to not feeling like ‘that’ tourist.