The Michael W Travels family is currently in South America over Spring Break. This is the first time to the region for Lucas and Theo, Kim and I have been here a bunch of times before.
We’ve been wanting to visit Argentina for years and we could never find the right deal for a flight so I was pretty psyched when I found award availability. Regardless, we still had some tough decisions to make when it came to planning.
Picking the Destination:
The first criteria for Spring Break was to use miles to get us to our destination. Due to our relatively short amount of time off, this limited our options. We focused on Latin America with some options being El Salvador, Bolivia and Argentina.
Kim wasn’t too excited for El Salvador so that go the ax right away. I then found award availability to Buenos Aires with AA miles. The issue was that we had no way home. I got creative and found us an award flight including our flights home from Montevideo!
While the flights stink on the way home, I was still able to put together a really good budget option for the trip.
So in the end, we’ll be visiting Buenos Aires, Argentina and Colonia & Montevideo in Uruguay. (We’ll have to return in the future to Argentina to see other areas like Iguazu Falls and Patagonia.)
The Flights:
Like I mentioned above, we flew into Buenos Aires and will be flying home from Montevideo. We booked a direct flight heading to Buenos Aires but could only get a way home from Montevideo which will take 3 flights with some long layovers.
We flew:
- JFK-EZE
Heading home, we’ll fly:
- MVD-MIA
- MIA-STL
- STL-JFK
Total cost= 240,000 American Airlines miles + $318.76 tax
The Ferry:
We originally planned to fly from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. This would’ve cost $400 for the four of us which wasn’t awful. The thing was that Kim and I wanted to also visit Colonia. Colonia is very close to Buenos Aires so it made no sense to fly to Montevideo and then have to go back by bus to Colonia. Colonia is around one hour away from Buenos Aires by ferry so that made the most sense.
We booked:
- Buquebus ferry
Cost: $201 total for four.
Total transportation costs: $519.76
Lodging/ Accommodations: Hotel points weren’t a big help and places to stay can be cheap so we paid for most of the nights.
- Buenos Aires– Four nights at America del Sur Hostel- $225- $102 coupon= $123
- Colonia– one night at the Radisson Hotel Colonia- $102.06- $91.68 Hotels.com award= $10.38
- Montevideo– Two nights at Destino26 Hostel- $81
Total lodging costs: $214.38
Total Trip Planning Budget:
- Transportation: 240,000 AA miles+ $519.76
- Accommodations: $193.68 in Hotels.com credits + $214.38.
Total Costs: 240,000 AA miles + $193.68 in Hotels.com credits + $734.14
While I would’ve liked more time in Argentina to see more of the country, I’m still very happy with the trip (and budget) that we were able to put together. It will be really nice getting a taste of two countries during our time away.
This is up there with one of the cheapest trips I’ve booked for the four of us!
johnjay- Thanks for the recs! We went to El Cuartito and it was definitely an interesting experience! I wrote about the pizza on my Instagram food account. (We also visited one other famous pizzeria.) BTW- The empanadas were really good at El Cuartito.
As for the flea market, pretty sure we walked through the San Telmo Market which ended by the one you mentioned, not positive. Didn’t really buy anything but it was nice to see items which seemed more local.
Did you ever make it to either of the two Bs.As. pizza places or the Defensa St. flea market on a Sunday as recommended? Just curious as to your impressions. Thanks —
See the “Old Town” and its gate, Artigas’s tomb and Teatro Solis when in Montevideo and try some mate to drink —
Enjoy!
Collier- I included everything we booked in advance. We’ll book the bus when we arrive in Colonia which I believe is under $10 per person. So for budgeting, around $35-45 US can be added.
What did you do for Bus to Montevideo from Colonia?