Buenos Aires 12-Day Honeymoon Itinerary Help

• Booked flight to Buenos Aires for $287! Now I need help planning our 12 day honeymoon in South America. Have advice? http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/travel-deals/937794/. We're flying into and out of Buenos Aires, Argentina, but what happens in between is TBD. I've read some other posts here that have given me some basic ideas, but I wanted to see if anybody else wanted to contribute. Some details about us: + Arriving 9/30, Departing 10/11 + We want our honeymoon to be split between Adventurous and Relaxing + Adventurous could be: Scuba diving, Horseback Riding, Hiking, Volcanoes, Rafting, even Camping, very open to suggestions + Relaxing could be: Lying on a Beach, Being Pampered in a Beautiful Hotel, Sipping Umbrella Drinks, Spa Treatments, Picturesque Pools/Hot Tubs, Breathtaking Unique Hotel Rooms/Locations, Typical Honeymoon Stuff + We love exploring and getting to know local people and places. We are averse to large group tours with other Americans. + I speak solid Spanish, lived in Spain for 6 months. + We couldn't care less about shopping as a vacation activity + While we can appreciate museums, we prefer stunning natural attractions + We are looking forward to exploring local food and wine (we're carnivorous). Steak, pizza and ice cream are already on our list, specific recommendations always welcome. We do need to be budget conscious. Can't give a specific budget yet, plus some wedding guests may contribute to our honeymoon. We can probably afford to splurge a little on a few hotel nights to get the Honeymoon experience, but we can't do $300/night the whole trip. My thinking is to splurge on the "Relaxing" portion of the trip, figuring the adventurous part could be at places like Estancias and other more "roughing it" (less expensive?) accommodations, but I'm open to suggestions. Besides itinerary suggestions for how to spend 12 days in South America, I'm also looking for specifics about travel within the continent. I've read buses are better than trains, but for flights are there particular places to find deals? In Europe we use RyanAir or EasyJet, which don't come up on Kayak. Is there a similar option in S.A? Attending a futbol game in Spain was awesome, any advice for attending a game in S.A? We're thinking Uruguay and Brazil are possibilities. Chile? While we want to see BsAs and Rio de Janeiro, we'd also like to experience life outside the big cities. Is it going to be too cold to lay out on the beach somewhere? Thanks so much in advance!

• Answer:

  I was in BsAs last November for a week, traveling solo and staying at a hostel in Microcentro (the business district) so I've a few tips: 1. For Meat: I second La Cabrera in the Palermo Soho district; the ojo de bife (ribeye) steaks were the largest by far of all the 10 different places I tried in Argentina, roughly 32 oz, and the number of free side dishes that come with the steak (close to eight!) was ridiculous. One steak with sides can easily be split for two and cost you around $30 USD. If you're privy for a drink afterwards, Palermo Soho has many, many decent bars with good beer on tap. 2. Spend your first Sunday (noon-5pm) in BsAs walking around the San Telmo street fair and antique market. There are dozens of street performances and even live tango bands w/ singers, and plenty of shopping opportunities for yourself and for souvenirs. This was the first thing I did in BsAs and one of my most memorable experience. 3. A second great walking area is Puerto Madero, on the very east side of the city near the water. The area is several slightly upscale blocks of bars, restaurants, and hotels running on both sides of a canal. Walk the white Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of Woman) here for a couples' picture at sunset. Lots of couples here making out--feel free to contribute ;). Have dinner at La Bistecca, an all you can eat buffet with its own built in parilla (grill). 4. Pay a little extra ($200pp) and 2-3 days to fly out and take a boat ride around Iguazu Falls. The largest fall there is known as "El Diablo." They are possibly the most majestic falls in the world. Since you're going in October, the weather will be a warm 60-70, perfect for the falls. If you're willing to shell out $100pp for the visas, you can actually cross over to the Brazil side of the falls. 5. A few misc tips that I picked up: several restaurants have cover charges of ~10-15 pesos (think bread basket charge), so make sure to factor that in. A lot of restaurants only take Visa. And the Spanish is slightly different in Argentina than in Spain, the biggest difference being that the "ll" sound is replaced by "j" (ie. chicken: "pollo" becomes "pojo"). Dinner also typically starts at 9-10pm at most restaurants, so don't make the newbie mistake I did and show up at 8pm to an empty parilla. 6. Lastly if you like to dance make sure to check out a milonga. I forgot the name of the one I went to, but the cover is fairly cheap ($10-15). If you show up at the right time, there are usually lessons for Argentine tango. The experience of being at a milonga is memorable as you can see the elegant way that Argentine men and women invite each other to dance using only eye contact.