Buenos Aires vs. Santiago
Folks, I'm trying to decide between Buenos Aires or Santiago for Xmas/NYE, hopefully with a side trip or two thrown in. Looking for advice & the pros/cons of each city. I leave my fate up to you, the internet strangers of WSO.
If you are going during summer than you are definitly going to want to hit up the beaches. So for Buenos Aires it is going to be Punte Del Este in Uruguay and for Santiago it will be Vina del Mar. I have done both and there are many pro's and cons for each but I think I would recommend the Buenos Aires-Punte Del Este trip with an empahsis on being able to go to Uruguay because it is awesome over there. Depending what you are in to and all things being equal Buenos Aires will be much more touristy and will def be hanging out with more expats.
Definitely Buenos Aires/Punta del Este unless you want to do some hiking/outdoorsy stuff in the Andes and check out the vineyards, Santiago is closer to those things. But you could always fly west to Mendoza/Salta/Bariloche in Argentina for a few days, and as a city Buenos Aires is much more interesting plus it will be peak beach season.
I live in BA, the ^^ comments are correct - do BA and fly or take the ferry to PDE (find tickets via Buquebus).
in PDE stay by Bikini beach if possible (I forget the name of that part of town...La Barra?) or staying in the center is fine too.
Though better than both of these choices would be to do Rio and Buzios.
Don't do Santiago/Viña/Valparaiso - the coast might be fun but Santiago is mostly pretty boring.
For either choice if you book something soon on airbnb you can probably get a decent deal.
Thanks for all the info folks. Strongly leaning towards BA at this point. IF I wanted to get all outdoorsy, which city offers easier access to Patagonia?
They're about the same, you'd have to fly a good distance in either case.
Definitely BA. Its one of the great cities of the world and tons of fun. Santiago is a bit dry / corporate, and not a place I would ordinarily visit as a tourist. If you like the outdoors, I would definitely either visit San Pedro de Atacama in the north or the Torres del Paine in the south. Two of the best vacations I've ever taken. They are in Chile but equally accessible from BA, so no need to route through Santiago (I made that mistake).
If you do Patagonia, don't bother with Bariloche. Go to the glaciers or Torres del Paine.
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