How to survive your first trip to Argentina? How to prepare? Everything you need to know before going:
Tip 1
First of all, if you plan to go to Argentina and not just stay in a hostel but discover this amazing country: LEARN SOME CASTELLANO! Every Spanish word you know will make your life easier. You don’t have to know grammar rules or build sophisticated sentences, just learn the basic words, question words and some phrases to thank locals for being patient with you. Any phrase book or dictionary you manage to pack in your backpack will become your Bible – trust us 🙂
Tip 2
MONEY : Of course this question is coming again and again 🙂 Argentina has Argentinian pesos, identified by the symbol $ and the inflation 18% in 2012, locals still claiming it is 25%. The country is in an economic challenging situation, and the exchange rates for us in 2 weeks changed from 6 pesos for 1 € to 7 pesos for 1€. The exchange of international currency is only possible in the banks (be careful of long long lines to the banks especially in the more rural areas as the working hours are really limited). Of course as usual there is a black market where you can exchange your money, you can get better rates there but unless you know your way and are absolutely comfortable with locals and familiar with the social situation etc. we are not recommending it. The max difference in exchange rates between the banks and “black market” are not so drastic, so believe me it is not worth it. We skipped all the exchange procedures since we had 2 credit cards with us. They are comfortable, reliable and you can take money where and when you want. All the ATMs where we took our money did not charge us any additional fee, so for our credit cards it was the official exchange rate plus 1% charged by the credit card itself for payment with another currency. Worked perfectly! Of course don’t forget to get some € or $ in cash with you, just in case. And one more important thing: if you think you can exchange back the rest of your pesos to € or $ at the end of your trip, forget it. None of the banks we went to at the airport did it and there is also no possibility to exchange it in Europe (Spain, Germany). If you think you can spend the rest at the airport, remember that prices are 3 -4 times higher than in the city. So be smarter than us and get rid of your pesos in Buenos Aires or any other city you are in. There are amazing crafts to buy, and the only thing you will be regretting is that you did not buy more 🙂
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