Although there are a ton of things to do in the city of Buenos Aires, and we don’t even know where to start working through our list, we thought that getting out of the big and noisy city for a day couldn’t hurt. Tigre and La Plata seemed to be the perfect locations for our day-trip-plans, since both cities can easily be reached within an hour by public transportation from the Retiro bus/train terminal in BA. Being an exchange student has its perks, such as not having any classes on Fridays, and so we went on our little day trips the past two weekends. We didn’t regret visiting either one of the two places, but one of them definitely outran the other. 

La Plata

La Plata, with its 800,000 inhabitants, lies about 60km south of BA and is the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires. The city can easily be reached by taking one of the red “Plaza” buses that leave every 20 minutes from the Retiro bus terminal. The ride takes about and hour, it costs €4 round trip, and – as always in South America – the buses are really comfortable. Make sure to get a seat at the window though, if you don’t like being blown away by the AC.

When getting to La Plata, you immediately realise that you’ve left the city and entered the province. Green meadows and wide cow paddocks line the side of the road, and the city itself is so much more quiet and provincial than the big streets of BA. Although finding some peace and laid back country side vibes was a nice change for a day, there’s really not a whole lot to do in La Plata. An interesting feature of the city is that it has the shape of a square, with a central park in the middle, and two main diagonal avenues – north to south, and east to west. These are called “Diagonal 73” and “Diagonal 74”, and they cross in the middle at Plaza Moreno. We started our tour through the city by walking down Diagonal 74 from Plaza Italia, where the bus dropped us off, towards that main square, where we wanted to visit the cathedral. Of course, we couldn’t have made it to our first sightseeing stop without a quick breakfast break at “Petit Crêpe“, a cute cafe we found along the way. The Catedral de La Plata was very impressive due to its unexpected big size, and reminded us a little of the Dome in Cologne. Just in time for taking some pictures in front of the cathedral and the town hall, situated right across from it, we even got lucky with the sun finally pushing through the clouds.

After a little peak inside the church and some more pictures, we made our way towards the “Paseo del Bosque“, which we thought to be a nice park where we could wander around for a while. However, it soon turned out that this park was not as beautiful or spectacular as we had hoped. Actually, we had to realise that the cathedral and the salmon wrap and waffles we shared for breakfast were probably the most interesting things we’d encounter in La Plata. Since by now it was already 5pm, we decided that our trip to escape the city for the day had been successful enough, and headed to the bus terminal (which shouldn’t be confused with the train station of the city) to take a bus back to BA.

Bottom line: no regrets about visiting La Plata, but also not a must-see-recommendation. Since the cathedral, town hall and some other buildings are very nice to look at, and it’s easy and cheap to get there, visiting La Plata could be something to do, if you’re looking for a little break from the busy city of BA. Just be prepared that seeing this city won’t become one of the highlights of your travels through Argentina.

Tigre

After seeing La Plata, Tigre was next on our list. The first surprise of our little trip awaited us when we took the train from Retiro and it cost us less than taking the bus in Buenos Aires, namely $6 pesos = €0,30. The 34km ride to the north took a little less than an hour and really just felt like taking the metro (trains leave every 10 minutes). Contrary to our trip to La Plata, we didn’t even notice that we were leaving the city of BA. Only when we got off the train and sunshine and palm trees awaited us, did we realise that we made it to the Paraná Delta. At the Tourist Information, which is only a 5-minute walk from the train station, we bought our tickets for the public transportation boat for €7,50, that leaves roughly every hour. There are many options for tours and boats that you can go on, but do to a limited amount of time we decided to just visit the little island “3 Bocas” that lies approximately 40 minutes away in the middle of the delta. Make sure to arrive a little earlier at the dock, as the seats on the boat are distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis. Unfortunately, nobody had given us that hint beforehand, and so we were forced to enjoy the sunshine in the park for another hour, before finally being able to embark. After a satisfying breakfast at the cafe “Almacén de Flores”, there could’ve been worse scenarios though, than digesting our scones lying in the sunshine.

When all passengers, water tanks and lawn mowers were finally loaded onto the little boat, we started the slow tour through the delta, past beautiful houses built on stilts, and picturesque piers, each one with its own name. Full of expectations and excitement about what the island would have to offer, we got off the boat and started walking, into what we thought to be the right direction. More beautiful houses, a couple of dogs playing in the front yards, us jumping over the puddles that formed on our path every now and then, an abandoned swing that was made for a perfect Instagram shot, … well, yes. And that was it. Maybe it was because we still hadn’t found the right path, even after going back to the start and trying a new direction each time. Or maybe our expectations about having a coffee in a little cafe on the island were simply too high. Whatever it might’ve been, all of a sudden we felt an urgent desire to leave the island and go back to the mainland. After getting the information that the next boat would leave in about 45 minutes, from a lady that was sitting all by herself at the tiny lonesome pier, we decided to quickly get something to eat at the one restaurant we found on this island. Since we had counted on some more food and refreshment options, we hadn’t brought any snacks with us, and were therefore, already getting a little ‘hangry’. The lady at the restaurant, however, who had decided to close the kitchen at 5pm didn’t care about that, and so we had to make do with a simple Choripan to satisfy our hunger. If the nice boat driver hadn’t taken us back outside of his regular schedule, after we missed the actual boat, due to our unsatisfactory choripan-snack, we might’ve left the island and Tigre with mixed feelings. But since the ride back only took 20 minutes instead of 40, and we arrived at the train station just in time to hop on to the one waiting at the platform, we had soon forgotten all about our little “LOST”-adventure, and left Tigre with a smile and the plans to come back soon – next time with a filled picnic basket, just in case.

Bottom line: well worth a visit and beautiful to see when the sun is up! There’s a lot of different tours to go on, and we will definitely return to try out another and stroll through the Puerto de Frutos, which we missed out on this time. Another recommendation we have heard about and would like to try is renting one of the houses in the delta to spend a couple of nights and kayak during the day. Only a stone’s throw from BA, Tigre is a totally different world with its own laid-back vibe – perfect for a relaxing weekend or day trip!