Iguazu Falls is a national park / waterfall that lies on the border between Brazil and Argentina. From Buenos Aires, you can take a ~$100 / 1.5 hour flight. It’s a popular 1-2 day trip for those coming from Rio and Buenos Aires. I was debating for the longest time on which side to do, and when flight tickets dropped below $150, I was like, I’m just going to dedicate a day to each side.

After some online research, and being super swamped at work, I switched my tickets last minute, flew in at 11:50pm the night before, and literally did a day trip to Iguazu. I literally have no regrets, and think one day in the Argentina side is the perfect amount of time for Iguazu. But hey, you don’t miss what you don’t know.

Tl;Dr on why I choose Argentina > Brazil. Argentina side is much bigger, 80% of the falls and most of the park reside in Argentina. In almost all the blogs I read, people said the Brazil side takes around half a day, while Argentina there’s many more trails. After a day in Argentina side, I did a boat ride, jungle cruise tour, ecological train, and hiked two circuits. All in all, I’m really satisfied with my trip, and am glad I didn’t spend another day looking at the same waterfall except from a different vantage point.

Now, I’m going to structure this a bit differently, and put in highlights as a play by play of how I spent my day at Iguazu and what I would recommend.

ITINERARY

  • March 2019 - 1 Days @ Bambu Hostel

    • Super cheap hostel, I spent $5 a night.

    • 25 minute from bus stop that takes you direct into Iguazu Falls

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Really easy and cheap way to get to downtown. From IGR, there is a shuttle called “Four Tourist Travel” that has a stand as you leave your gate that will take you direct to any hostel you’re staying at for $200 ARS ($5USD!). They run in correspondence to every flight. (FYI, taxi is $700 ARS.)

  • Easy and cheap way to get to Iguazu Falls. To get to Iguazu Falls, take the Rio Uruguay Shuttle. Bambu was thankfully a 4 minute walk, and this luxury bus is round trip to Iguazu Falls (25 minute drive) for $360 ARS (~$9 USD!). It runs every 20 minutes, and I had no problem getting in and out of the bus. It honestly made it really chill.

  • Booking a Boat / Jungle Tour. As soon as you get into the park, book a boat and jungle tour. It was $2000 ARS (pricey!) but I thought was super worth. It’s a two hour tour that’s part jungle and waterfall tour. The jungle tour takes you through Macuco Trail, where you can see a bunch of wildlife (we even saw a snake!). The waterfall tour takes you up close to the waterfall (Garganta del Diablo / Devils Throat) and San Martin Fall. You get splashed and it is so fun. It’s truly the best way to see the waterfall upclose.

  • Hiking through Lower Circuit. Weird, in almost all the blogs / recommendations from friends I got, this was not on anyones list. I’m a fan of seeing waterfalls from the bottom, instead of at the top so I made it a point to visit all the waterfalls that gave me a “full frontal” (hehe) view. I did Dos Hermanas Fall (so beautiful and smell of flavors is really fragrant) and Chicos fall on one side (I think this one is worth skipping if short on time, but it is ~3 min walk from Dos Hermanas), and then doubled back to see Alvar Nunez Fall.

  • Alvar Nunez was the highlight of seeing all the waterfalls for me. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I really felt like I was looking at one of those classic “South American” waterfalls you see in movies. Really recommend this and can’t emphasis enough to not skip this!!!!

  • Took the Ecological Train from Cataratas Station to Garganta Station. It’s a really cool open railroad concept, and lets you easily travel from one end of the park to another in ~15 minutes. Train runs every 30 minutes so make sure to plan your stops correctly and get your ticket (free!) before the cut off time.

  • Devil’s Throat was super cool. I enjoyed crossing through the Garganta del Diablo Trail, and the weather made the sky absolutely beautiful. It’s just like in all the pictures, super powerful and amazing.

 

lowlights

  • Green Trail is worth skipping. It’s your basic trail, but I opted to take this instead of the railroad because I wanted to get more walking in.

  • I skipped Upper Circuit because I felt like I was going to see all those waterfalls in the boat tour.

  • All the food at the park sucks. Everyone at the hostel and on blogs said to “buy food because food at the park is expensive”. It’s not expensive, it’s like $4 USD for a hot dog and drink but the food sucks. You don’t want to be eating really lousy fast food, back a few croissants / sandwiches ahead of time.

  • Lots of bugs everywhere. Bring bug spray!

  • Iguazu Water is really really brown. Don’t be surprised when you get it! A lot of it is because of deforestation and erosion.

  • Nothing really else to do in Iguazu. Once you’ve visited the waterfalls, I really don’t think there is much to do in the town. I opted in to keep my trip as short as possible (didn’t even stay for dinner!)

  • Cataratas del Iguazu Airport kind of sucks. Don’t go early, they won’t even let you through the terminal. The lounge doesn’t have food in it. :( LOL