Buenos Aires Excursion Choice

My wife and I will be doing a Buenos Aires to Valparaiso cruise on Celebrity Infinity in March 2017. We will be spending two nights in BA before the cruise. Trying to decide between two ship sponsored excursions. One is a Tigre Delta & River Cruise and the other is Gaucho Fiesta & Lunch. Any feedback or personal experience from CC members is appreciated.

I did Gauchos in 2013 through HAL. There were Princess people and lots of independents. My estimate is there were about 450 people there. A friend had the tour included in a land tour through a travel company just last year.

We went to Estancia Santa Susana. It was about a 90 minute bus ride out of the city. The guide spoke on a lot of interesting local topics. She also showed us a diagram of how they cut beef in Argentina.

There was plenty of time before lunch to go to the house museum and they had a nice leather/gift shop. Also offered group horseback and cart rides. The gauchos did a demonstration /show of herding and "spearing" a fond (about 1 3/4") from a gallop. (Tip: if you are a woman, don't stand in the front row unless you want a ring and a gaucho kiss).

The food was parilla. Salads (HAL pax got cooked veggies per contract), and one type of meat after another. Vegetarians need not apply. (The second was blood sausage: its black, in case you prefer to not partake, say "no gracias").

There was literally tons of meat I am sure. Several cuts of beef, and a large breast of chicken the meat just kept coming. (I was full for days). It's was some of the BEST beef I've ever had. Make sure to use some chimichurri sauce on the table.

My wife and I will be doing a Buenos Aires to Valparaiso cruise on Celebrity Infinity in March 2017. We will be spending two nights in BA before the cruise. Trying to decide between two ship sponsored excursions. One is a Tigre Delta & River Cruise and the other is Gaucho Fiesta & Lunch. Any feedback or personal experience from CC members is appreciated.

We did the Tigre tour from BA. It was OK, but compared to what we did in BA, it was not at the top of the list. We had five days in BA before the cruise. The Gaucho Fiesta was a long distance on the bus and we didn't want that. Also, I used to spend a lot of time on my Grandfather's ranch in Texas as a kid and didn't think the gaucho thing would be that authentic. Just my personal take.

We did talk to some people that did the gaucho thing and they enjoyed it.

However, if you haven't seen Buenos Aires, I would focus more on the city and do neither Tigre of the gaucho thing.

I am in Buenos Aires now for a few days before we depart on a Seabourn cruise and had a chance to do the Parrilla Tour (parrillatour.com) food tour yesterday and had a fun time. Visited some neighborhood restaurants and were introduced into the local food. We enjoyed it more than the gaucho day we'd done on a previous cruise here because it was a much smaller group, just 6.

I am in Buenos Aires now for a few days before we depart on a Seabourn cruise and had a chance to do the Parrilla Tour ( food tour yesterday and had a fun time. Visited some neighborhood restaurants and were introduced into the local food. We enjoyed it more than the gaucho day we'd done on a previous cruise here because it was a much smaller group, just 6.

I read the descriptions of their two tours and both sound like lots of fun!

Did you do the San Telmo or Palermo/Las Canitas tour? What were the stops and your reactions to them? Las Canitas caters more to locals than tourists so for someone looking to get off the beaten path, that would be a great option.

Thanks for sharing this.

We did the tour in San Telmo yesterday as we are staying at a hotel in Palermo and wanted to see another part of the city. San Telmo is the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, so the places we visited kept with that vibe, very traditional, family run and all with homemade food. There was another couple on our tour that had also done the Palermo tour previously and mentioned that both routes had similar foods and styles of restaurants. It was pleasant to get to go to down to earth hole-in-the-wall places before the cruise and get a chance to ask a local about daily life and the culture.

We spent several days in BA prior to our Feb cruise. We did a lot of tours on our own.

We took public transportation to Tigre. subway and train. It is not far. Then we did a catamaran tour on our own.. Same for San Telmo.

We went to Iguaza Falls on our own. Booked our air ahead of time with Aerolineas. Did the same for the hotel.

If you are somewhat independent it is fairly easy to DIY.