Rio to Iguazu to Buenos Aires to ship

Rio to Iguazu to Buenos Aires to ship:

We would like to see Rio and Iguazu Falls before boarding the Coral Princess for a cruise to Santiago. We're undecided between booking the Princess Cruisetour or just the cruise and arranging the land portion on our own.

So far, we've come up with this:

Advantages of the Cruisetour: easy to arrange; less stress.

Advantages of arranging it on our own: more flexibility; less expensive.

Has anyone worked on this problem before? What did you decide? What would you recommend? Did you find an independent tour operator who could arrange the land portion of your trip? Would you recommend them?

We (group of 4) did a round-trip (Rio to Iguazu to Rio) in January 2017 after disembarking from the Crown Princess in Rio. It was extremely easy to DIY. We spent two nights in Rio at a hotel within 2 blocks of Copacabana Beach (Windsor Plaza). On arrival day (we took a taxi from the port - they were plentiful) we just explored the neighborhood on foot (we had reserved a walking food tour with Eat Rio but our ship was late disembarking so we had to cancel which, luckily, they understood so we had no problem). The next day we had a great all day tour of the city with Gus of TourGuideGus.

Our hotel provided a free shuttle to the airport and the following morning we took the Latam flight to Iguazu departing at 10:50 am and arriving at 1 pm. We checked into our hotel (San Juan Eco) unpacked and then visited their in house tour company where we purchased tickets to the nearby Bird Park. The following morning we arranged for transportation (with another family group of 4) and advance purchased tickets to the Argentine Falls. Our driver also gave us an orientation to the falls. He met us at the end of the day and took us back to the hotel. On our last morning we went to the Brazilian Falls (5 minutes by taxi from the hotel) and spent the morning there. We then got our return flight to Rio at 4 pm (arriving at 6 pm and flying to the US around 11 pm). I know you are going to Buenos Aires so you'll need to determine whether you can fly conveniently out of Brazil or if you will need to cross the border and fly out of Argentina.

With 4 people we saved thousands of dollars over taking the Princess cruisetour. It wasn't difficult to arrange either. There is so much info available on line these days.

Whatever you decide, don't miss the falls (both sides) - they are spectacular!

Thank you, capriccio. Were there any issues with your bags?

The only suggestion I would give you is to fly into the city airport in Buenos Aires rather than the big, far out international airport. There are flights from Puerto Iguazu, Argentina to BA.

Thank you, capriccio. Were there any issues with your bags?

Since we were returning to the airport in Rio for our flights to the States, we stored our large bags (we had been on a 31 day cruise where the weather fluctuated between the low 40s (in Tierra del Fuego) to 110 (in Rio) at the airport since we had lots of heavy clothes with us not necessary at the Falls. Plenty of folks were checking large bags on the Latam flight so we might not have had an issue with it logistically; we just didn't want to shlep them around.

I used 01argentina to book a custom package that included all transfers (EZE -> hotel in BsAs, hotel ->AEP, IGR-> hotel, hotel-> IGR, AEP-> hotel, Hotel -> ship) 2 nights in BsAs, 3 nights at Melia, tour to Brazil side and tour of Argentina side, flights for Iguazu) for a very reasonable sum. They contracted to Caracol for tours and transfers in Iguazu. All I had to do was show up. It was so worth it to me.

You really don’t need a guide for the Argentine side. I would say the same for Brazilian side, expect I needed transportation from the hotel to the Brazilian park. The guides added structure.

Thanks TiogaCruiser. I will check 01argentina out.