Tours of the Tigre Delta
From Buenos Aires' Estacion Fluvial, regular launches wait to whisk you upstream to a world away from the sophisticated city of skyscrapers and snarling traffic to an island retreat of slow-moving streams and lush green islands...
We're talking, of course, about Argentina's lovely Tigre Delta. It might be only an hour's riverboat journey away (less romantically, you can also catch one of the regular trains from Buenos Aires) but it really does feel like a whole other world, and we hugely recommend you tour the Tigre Delta during your holiday in Buenos Aires.
Tours of the Tigre Delta
The area is named for the jaguars which lived in the area during the early years of Buenos Aires' settlement, but as colonization proceeded and agriculturalists began to move into the area, the jaguars gradually disappeared, to be replaced with a network of farms and villages, but it was during the 19th century that the Tigre Delta took on its modern character.
The Delta became seen as a healthy retreat for the wealthy of Buenos Aires, getting them away from the growing city, and giving them the space to build ornate Belle Epoque mansions and British-style rowing clubs and marinas among the reeds and rivers of the Delta.
However, with the advent of easy air travel, the wealthy largely abandoned the town of Tigre and the surrounding Delta, preferring flights to the beaches of Uruguay and Brazil, and the area slid into genteel decay, with only day tours from Buenos Aires keeping things going. More recently, however, the Tigre Delta has been re-discovered by the Argentina public, with many of the historic buildings such as the Tigre Club being completely restored and a new string of luxury weekend getaways being built out in the Delta.
It's a side to Argentina that many people don't see, but if you'd like to fit in a weekend of pampering and relaxation on your holiday in Argentina, without straying too far from Buenos Aires, then a tour of the Tigre Delta more than fits the bill...