Expert: Cintia - 11/25/2005

Question
Hi,

My husband and I would like to plan a trip to both Argentina and Chile in January 2006 (arriving January 8 and departing January 15.  My husband always wanted to visit Argentina and now our daughter will be in Chile (University in Vina del Mar) for three weeks and we would like to join her at some point in our trip.  We have driven on our vacations in Europe and would also like to drive on this trip.  Is this a reasonable idea.  We would be leaving from New Jersey, USA.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.  

Answer
Dear Norma,

Driving within Argentina is a possibility although it is important you bear in mind that in big cities driving is quite careless and people don´t necessarily respect the traffic rules.
Also,distances here are much larger than in Europe where everything is so close, so this is also another issue to be considered.

From Santiago you can drive up to Mendoza, the lake district. Then from there you can go to San Juan or Cordoba. This is just an option. Please consider that renting a car may be quite expensive because of the long distances. You could also fly from Santiago to Buenos AIres or Mendoza and then rent a car there to drive around.

To give you an idea about distances, it takes at least 6 hours to go from Santiago to Mendoza, and then from Mendoza to Buenos Aires it takes around 16 hours.

I hope this helps and wish you a wonderful road trip.