About

When you're planning your trip to Argentina, wherever you’re going, do get in touch with Nick and Alicia at Poncho Tours. We have been organizing people’s tailor-made holidays for 14 years. Though based in Salta and specialists in the northwest, we have contacts all over the country, so can recommend the best things to do in Buenos Aires, the finest wineries in Mendoza, and the top places to visit in Patagonia.

During our Covid-enforced shutdown over 2020-21, Nick returned to his old job as a journalist and has been writing for the international blog Budget Travel Plans.

Here you will find links to Nick’s articles on Buenos Aires, as well as his guides to the famous Atacama desert in Chile and tours of the Bolivia salt flats, the Salar de Uyuni.

We can also arrange tours to Bolivia’s little-known wine region of Tupiza, the historic cities of Potosi and Sucre, and onto the capital, La Paz.

And check Nick's regular blog which is updated every month with useful information about your holiday in South America.

Your trip with Poncho Tours will give you an insight into Argentina's culture and tradition. Argentina is an ostensibly Catholic country but, particularly in the rural areas, Christianity is mixed with pre-hispanic beliefs in Mother Earth, Pachamama. When you visit Argentina, you will come across roadside shrines to more contemporary folk saints like Gauchito Gil and the Difunta Correa. In the North West, the coca leaf is also bound up with ancient traditions: it's still chewed daily by the locals and is ideal for combating altitude sickness. Read our blog to find out more about South America's holy herb.

Though some may quibble about its listing under culture, football is the glue that binds the nation, and it provides a great ice-breaker for foreign visitors. It was immigrant railway workers who staged the first ever football match in Argentina in 1867, and the Scotsman Alexander Hutton who founded the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino 26 years later. The Brits, of course, also brought rugby and polo (as well as cricket, which, mysteriously, never quite caught on). Read our blog for more about the patron saint of Argentine football, Diego Maradona.

Argentina is a food lover's paradise. Taste the grilled Argentinian beef slathered in fresh chimichurri sauce. Savour the empanadas filled with meat, chicken, or cheese (think of a small meat pie). There are cornmeal tamales with meat, and humitas, parcels of sweetcorn and cheese wrapped in a maize leaf. In the border province of Jujuy, llama is a speciality, served with quinoa or Andean potatoes, of which there are hundreds of varieties of all shapes, sizes, and colours.

Pescatarians and vegetarians will be treated to culinary delights like river fish and pasta, while we have the Italians to thank for the best ice cream parlours in South America.

Nick and Alicia from Poncho Tours will be your guides to the Argentine kitchen, and we can organize special classes for those who are passionate about food (and drink!). To whet your appetite, here you can read our blog about Argentina's sweet tooth.

And on our blog you can read more about Malbec and Torrontes on Argentine wine tours.