Destination Argentina

Over the past year, a few of my clients have expressed an interest in exploring Argentina, a country that coincidentally/conveniently has been sitting on my personal list of ‘top 5 places to travel’. Since December is the start of their peak season, it seemed like the ideal time to embark on a VoyJoie sourcing trip to explore what Argentina had to offer!

For me, travel planning (like most projects) always starts from a visual place. My philosophy is that if travel is supposed to open our eyes to the beauty that exists in the world, why not start planning a trip around the things we find beautiful! Looking at images of a destination really helps me to "visualize" and better understand what the ultimate feel of the trip should be.

So once my travel dates were finalized, the absolute first thing I did was head over to Pinterest. Well....actually the first thing I did was book a round trip ticket to Buenos Aires, and then I headed over to Pinterest. I find they have a great range of travel images to gather from.  It was also really helpful to tap into other Pinterest user's existing boards on Argentina.

I began the visual planning process by creating separate VoyJoie Pinterest boards for activities, food, cities, architecture, and so forth.  Gathering photos also helped me to curate what the key highlights were going to be once I arrived in Argentina.  The photo search even led me to some great finds for restaurants and cafes, which I may not have stumbled upon otherwise.

So the things that caught my eye as being quintessential Argentina were:

• The architecture of Buenos Aires
• Delicious local food like empanandas and steak with chimichurri sauce
• Beautiful natural landscapes of Iguazu Falls and Patagonia
  
• The solitude of an authentic Argentinian ranch
• Horseback riding gaucho style
  
• Dancing the Tango!
• Local cafes on cobblestone streets

As you may already know, Argentina is a HUGE country and though I had planned to be there for 2 weeks, there were invariably some tough choices made. As with any trip, I remained committed to experiencing the best that Argentina had to offer without necessarily feeling pressured to “see everything.”  I knew I could always return to Argentina (should it warrant a second trip) but for my first visit I really wanted to capture the essence of what makes it special!

Follow along with me as I plan, pack and head off to explore Argentina!  Keep checking the VoyJoie blog all this month as I show you the great places I stayed, the amazing food I ate, and the wonderful people I met along the way. For now I will leave you with a few of my favorite images…for more pretty pictures, check out the VoyJoie Pinterest Boards on all things Argentina!

**Click on any image to be directed to the Pinterest source