Argentina the new hot spot for tourists seeking adventure

More than two decades after the end of the Falklands war, Argentina has become a boom destination for British tourists.

The second largest country in South America, whose attractions range from its northern jungles to the windswept deserts of Patagonia and the vibrancy of Buenos Aires, registered a one-third increase in the number of visitors from the UK last year.

The Argentine embassy says Britons are the second most frequent visitors after Brazilians, mostly adventurous types lured to a country where political instability - mild, by the standards of South America - once prompted the Foreign Office to advise against visiting.

Buenos Aires, the capital, a 15-hour flight from the UK, is served by British Airways with return fares at about £700. Recent economic crises make it a cheap place to visit. A three-course meal in the smartest restaurant in the capital, including wine from Mendoza costs about £13.

The number of UK arrivals recorded at Buenos Aires airport last year reached 46,650 - a 17.3 per cent rise on the 2004 total.

The Argentine embassy statistics also showed that British tourists stayed for an average of 15.4 days in Argentina (higher than the 12.2 days international average), and that 66.9 per cent of the British travellers stay in four-star or five-star hotels.

The Argentine vice-minister for tourism, Guillermo Brooks, said: "We are delighted with the results for 2005. This is a direct outcome to the increased investment we have put behind our Tourism Argentina campaign in the UK.

"British travellers love Argentina as it is a country that offers adventure, beautiful scenery, and sport, but also the nightlife, culture and the European style of Buenos Aires."

Argentina is thought to have benefited from an upsurge of interest among independent travellers keen to visit South and Central America in preference to destinations such as India, Thailand and Australia, which have become more affordable for mass-market tourism.

Connoisseurs of the continent say Argentina is less obviously exotic than its neighbours to the north, and its inhabitants remark on how great an influence Europe has been. Nevertheless it is a country with a unique character, distilled into the national ideal of Argentinidad - an elusive identity that the country's utopian thinkers and practical doers have never quite agreed upon. Argentinians' passions are dominated by the national religion of football and politics.

The rise in UK tourism is partly attributable to visits to relatives. Many British and Irish expatriates live in the capital - thought to be the most European city in South America - and Patagonia, which is also home to a large Welsh community in the Chubut Valley.

The mainstay of the cuisine is parrilladas, pizza and pasta, and asados, or barbecues, serving what one guide calls "crimson steaks reared in the big outdoors".

Attractions

* BUENOS AIRES Dynamic yet laid-back, it is South America's most alluring capital

* IGUAZU WATERFALLS

Combine brute force and natural beauty

* PATAGONIA

Vast steppe-like plains to the east of the Andes

* PENINSULA VALDES

Sea lions, elephant seals and killer whales

* THE PERITO MORENO GLACIER

One of only two advancing glaciers in South America

* BEAGLE CHANNEL

No trip to Ushuaia, the world's most southerly town, is complete without a trip to the mountain fringed sea passage

* TANGO

Tango festival takes place in Buenos Aires in March