SOUTH AMERICANS

[EDGAAA]

argentina. i had made posts in the other thread, but here goes.

we are trying to decide between mar del plata and pinamar to beach it for a couple days. what will be better for 3 single american dudes in december?

also, any info on hotels or areas of town to stay out of would be awesome.

thanks

 

[Napoleon]

I think that I am going to Mar del Plata tomorrow. (I'm not really sure and the group is mostly Argentines, so the texts have been in Spanish TXT slang.)

Anyway, I will be able to check it out this weekend and report back. I will also ask these guys what they think.

Suerte...

It is a gloomy looking day today in BA. Looking out towards Puerto Madero and the Atlantic looks like pea soup once you get about 20 stories up.

 

[Napoleon]

I just got back from BOTH of those places this weekend. (The weather wasn't so great, but it was off-season anyway, so it didn't really matter.)MAR DEL PLATA-This is an actual CITY. It has a port, tons of fishing boats, the occasional Dead Fish smell that was nearly "chemical weapon level" near the Go-Kart track... just the coolest Go-Kart track that I've ever seen in my life, but more on that later. Tons of sea lions.
MdP is about the 4th-6th biggest city in Argentina. Tons of tall buildings that house tourists during the warmer months. Tons of restaurants, bars, boliches (discos/dance clubs) and I even saw some guys surfing off of the point break caused by the jetty.

This place is going to have thousands of people and therefore thousands of options.


PINAMAR-

Not sure if I was exactly in Pinamar, but I got the experience from the other towns right around it.

1) It feels like you are high in the mountains because of all of the pine trees, but you are really just meters from the beach. (It is a lot like Carmel, CA in this way.)
2) The roads into/out of these towns are the biggest piece of **** bumpy dirt roads that you have ever seen. A kilometer drive can take you 20 minutes. It was crazy, but it insures exclusivity.
3) There is a big dune before you get to the beach. So tall builidings down overlook the beach. It is alot like the Outer Banks, NC in this way.
4) The towns that I saw were completely built around summer tourism. Every two feet there was a heladeria (ice cream shop), a locutorio (telephone/internet shop), a pizzeria/parrilla(grill)/empanada place, and places to buy lawn furniture or rent 4-wheelers.
5) Basically everything I just mentioned is what we saw in VILLA GESELL.

I'm just now looking at my "Footprints Argentina" guidebook and it says that Pinamar is just like Cariló. Well I DID go to Cariló today.

One of the most bizarre experiences ever.

1) The 1 KM drive into town from the highway took about 20 minutes because of the road. An absolutely MISERABLE dirt/mud road with tons of bumps and basically a 2-3 mile an hour unwritten speed limit.
2) You pass pine trees that make you think you are high in the mountains heading towards a ski lift.
3) Once you get past some nice houses on that horrible road, you get to the town... and what a town!!

The interior town square is strait out of Vail/ Highland Park Village/ Snyder Plaza/ Beverly Hills' Robertson Blvd.

Although the square was surrounded by a road like I've described, there were very nice children's clothes stores, restaurants, cafes, a chocolate store (Abuela Goye), and an AUDI dealership... on this dirt/mud road.

This place was a nicer version of "La Cumbracita", a valley where Peron hid many of the Nazis. (The other main hiding place was near Bariloche.)

The square had beautiful stone square foot (or so) tile, but getting there and getting around was total crap to keep the riff-raff out. And it definitely worked. But it also definitely felt like a FAMILY/older person's tourist town. I didn't get the feeling that young/single people flocked to this place.

Some quick reading tells me that Pinamar isn't quite as ridiculous as Carilo, but I'm thinking that unless you only want peace and tranquility, you might look to Mar del Plata.

But, if you can get past all of the "LOLs..." in this girl's post, you might still consider Pinamar. The Link