Leigh Witchel: No Place Like Home - Addendum (Nuts and Bolts)

April 17, 2005

My Travel Agent: Mayra [at] argentinatravelservices.com

Because my flight and my Iguazu stay involved award travel, I booked them myself. Mayra did much of the rest. I would recommend an Argentinean travel agent for a visit that included internal travel in Argentina. They can get better rates.

Accommodations:

The Hotel Bel-Air. Clean, modern rooms. Great location. Mostly friendly service (I wasn't as crazy about the front desk staff). Upgraded accomodations are a good value.
The Sheraton Internacional Iguazu. Much more expensive than other accommodations in the area, but it was available as a "Cash & Points" reward for US $45 & 2800 points per night. If you splurge on it, get a falls view room (as Starwood Gold, I was upgraded to one for one of the nights). I found the humidity oppressive; it was a relief to be able to spend time in my room, yet still be able to see the falls. The "Jungle View" rooms view the parking lot. Food in the hotel is relatively expensive for Argentina, but there are no other choices nearby. There is an outdoor pool, I did not have time to use the fitness room. Cranky high-speed net access is available in the business center for 6 pesos an hour; it is free if you are Starwood Gold.

Things I'm glad I packed

Sunscreen
A cap for the sun
A small towel for my daypack (I loathe schvitzing)
Extra batteries for my camera
Electric adapters. Sockets in Argentinean hotels seemed to usually be dual use sockets that could take both the European and the Australian plugs. Some hotels had 110 v outlets in the bathrooms.
Diskettes. Rather than wireless access, I needed to transfer data to computers in business centers, and I didn't see a USB key in my hotel.
A small bag of plastic cutlery
Dollars. For the Sheraton (I needed to pay my rate in dollars), or when the ATM at the airport did not work.
A few extra t-shirts. To change into when you were sweaty. I brought five, I should have brought a few more.
An extra empty duffel. I took only what I needed to Iguazú and had the hotel keep the rest.

Things I wished I had packed

Insect repellent. I have bug bites both from Iguazú and Buenos Aires, and they were pretty bad.
A white T-shirt. A color I tend not to wear, as I am a very white boy. But Palacio has fab black lighting.
Shorts and a bathing suit. For Iguazú and the Gran Aventura.

Things I didn't need

More than one pair of dress pants or blazer. I had more than one, so I wrote it, but I could have gotten away with just one.

Things that are different that you don't think about

Stoplights. Buenos Aires traffic signals light both red and yellow together to indicate that they will turn green.
Taxi cabs. In the Remises you sit in the back, but in private cabs outside the city you seem to sit in the front.

Advice I am glad I had

Not to stay in the center. There are a lot of hotels near the Avenida de 9 Julio, but I would prefer to stay in a less touristy neighborhood. On a return visit I would consider renting an apartment for a week.
To schedule one buffer day when transferring flights. From "LoneStar" at Better Bidding. I would have been very nervous trying to make connections from Iguazu to Jorge Newberry airport, then changing airports to Ezeiza for my flight home. Given the amount of changes and cancellations on both Southern Winds and Aerolineas, I am very glad I did that.
TakemetoEZE at FlyerTalk was kind enough to send me a very long letter full of advice. One little item was to get Alfajores from Havanna as souvenirs. They're delicious.

Final bits of advice.

Leave time at Ezeiza. When you get there, you need to check in with your airline, pay airport taxes and go through passport control (three separate lines by itself). In a very light crowd it still took about 30 minutes.
Airlink. I decided to try Airlink home instead of a cab, or the Airtrain. Relative costs for a one-way trip: $7 total for the subway to the Airtrain, $19 (with tip) for Airlink, a bit more than $40 with tip for a cab. It was morning rush hour, so no choice was good, but it took me more than two hours to get home. I'd only use them if I lived on the East Side so that I had a reasonable chance of being dropped off first. I saved $20 over a cab and didn't have to schlep my bags as I would have on the subway, but it took over an hour longer.

Posted by Leigh Witchel at April 17, 2005 11:59 AM

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Wonderful series. Thanks.

Posted by: Anne at April 17, 2005 4:05 PM