How to Get Around Pampas & Beaches

Buses are the way to travel here. Long-distance services from Buenos Aires reach every town in the region frequently, comfortably and cheaply, and Retiro terminal is one of the busiest in South America.

Trains run from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata, Tandil and a handful of other towns — slower than the bus but pleasant and very cheap.

A hire car is useful for the estancias and the small towns, and the driving is easy — flat, straight roads with little traffic. Watch for the toll roads and for livestock on rural routes.

To Areco: about two hours from Buenos Aires by bus or car.

To the coast: four to five hours to Mar del Plata by road, and the route is heavily congested on summer weekends — leaving Buenos Aires on a Friday evening in January is a mistake.