Tigre sits at the edge of the Parana delta about thirty kilometres north of Buenos Aires, where the river breaks into hundreds of channels and low wooded islands before reaching the Rio de la Plata. Several thousand people live out there permanently, on stilted houses along the streams, and everything reaches them by water: the grocery boat, the post boat, the school boat, the ambulance launch. There are no roads at all.
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The town itself was a Victorian era resort for Buenos Aires society, which left a waterfront of rowing clubs in improbable architecture, a casino turned art museum, and a fruit market that now sells furniture and crafts. Sarmiento's house is preserved inside a glass box. It is the standard day trip from the capital and it deserves longer. Pack for humidity, for boats and for mosquitoes.
What Makes Tigre Different to Pack For
Everything happens on a boat
The public lanchas colectivas run like buses, stopping at wooden jetties where people flag them down, and they are the way to see the delta properly rather than on a tourist circuit. They are open sided, they get spray, and the schedules are real timetables that you can miss.
Mosquitoes, seriously
This is a warm freshwater wetland. Mosquitoes are constant in the warm months and worst at dusk and after rain. Dengue is present in Buenos Aires province and there have been significant outbreaks in recent years, so repellent is a health measure rather than a comfort one.
Humid subtropical, and it floods
Summer runs 20°C to 30°C with high humidity and thunderstorms. Winter runs 7°C to 16°C, damp and grey. The delta floods with a sudestada, a south easterly that pushes water up the Plata, and island jetties and paths go under.
A merino wool base layer for women covers the winter and the boat rides, which are cold on the water even when the town is mild.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Tigre Packing List
Footwear
Something you can get wet and that grips. Jetties are wooden, often algae covered, and you step from a moving boat onto them. Island paths are mud after rain. Sandals with a back strap or closed shoes; flip flops are a poor idea on a wet jetty.
If you are walking on the islands or in the Reserva Natural, waterproof hiking shoes are right for the soft ground.
Clothing
Light layers and long sleeves for the mosquitoes, which is the same advice as for sun and works for both. A windproof for the boats. Quick drying, because humidity here is high and nothing dries fast.
Tigre is an ordinary Argentine town and dresses casually.
For insects
Repellent with a high DEET concentration, applied and reapplied. Long trousers in the evening. Antihistamine cream. This is the single most important item on the list between November and April.
For the water and the sun
A wide brim sun hat, sunscreen and a dry bag for a phone on the launches. A packable rain jacket, since delta storms arrive quickly and the boats keep running.
Practical
Cash in pesos for the launches and the market. A SUBE card for the train from Buenos Aires, which is the pleasant way to arrive. Check the tide and the weather if you are staying on an island, because a sudestada changes everything.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The lanchas and the delta
Public launches leave from the Estacion Fluvial on fixed routes up the Sarmiento, Capitan and other rivers, stopping on demand. Tourist catamarans do a shorter circuit with commentary.
Practically: the public launches are cheaper, longer and far more interesting, and they are how the islanders travel. Open sided with spray. You can get off at a jetty for a restaurant or a guesthouse and pick up a later boat, but check the timetable carefully because the last one back is early and there is no alternative.
The Mercado de Frutos
The old fruit market by the Lujan river, now several blocks of wicker, furniture, plants, mate gear and food, busiest at weekends.
Practically: partly covered, crowded on Sundays, and cash. Good for the kind of thing that does not travel well, which is most of it.
The Museo de Arte Tigre and the rowing clubs
The art museum occupies the former Tigre Club casino of 1912, an ornate building on the waterfront, with Argentine painting from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Along the river, the rowing clubs built by the Buenos Aires British, Italian and Spanish communities are extraordinary Victorian and Edwardian buildings still in use.
Practically: the museum is small and the building is half the point. The clubs are private but the exteriors are the walk.
Sarmiento's house and the Museo Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, president and educator, had a modest wooden house on an island, now enclosed in a protective glass structure. It is reached by boat.
Practically: a short launch ride and a short visit, and a good excuse to be on the water.
The delta as a working landscape
The islands are not a park. The delta has been logged for willow and poplar for over a century, the wood going to Buenos Aires for fruit crates and paper, and the plantations are still there behind the houses. Before that it supplied the capital with fruit, which is what the Mercado de Frutos was built for and why it has that name.
The land is also growing. The Parana carries an enormous sediment load down from Brazil and Paraguay and the delta advances into the Plata by something in the order of fifty to seventy metres a year, which means the map genuinely changes.
Practically: what looks like wilderness from a launch is mostly second growth and plantation, and the people you pass are commuting rather than holidaying. The public boats are the way to see that, because they stop where people actually live rather than at the restaurants.
Staying out on the islands
Guesthouses and cabins along the streams, reached only by boat, most with a jetty and a hammock and not much else.
Practically: bring what you need, including repellent and any medication, since there are no shops. Power can be intermittent. This is the reason to come rather than day trip.
What Not to Bring
Leave flip flops for the jetties. Leave a plan without repellent between November and April.
Leave a late departure assumption, since the last public launch back is earlier than most people expect and missing it on an island with no accommodation is a real problem.
Essential Resources for Women in Tigre
Emergency numbers in Argentina: 911 is the national emergency number. Police 101, ambulance 107, fire 100. The Prefectura Naval, on 106, handles the waterways and is the relevant service in the delta, where the ambulance is a launch.
Tourist support: Tigre municipality runs a tourist office at the Estacion Fluvial which handles launch information as well. A stolen passport needs a police report before the embassy can issue a replacement.
US Embassy and consulate: the embassy is in Buenos Aires at Avenida Colombia 4300, telephone +54 11 5777 4533, at ar.usembassy.gov, around an hour away, which makes Tigre among the easiest places in Argentina for consular help. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: Tigre has a municipal hospital and the Buenos Aires metropolitan hospitals are within reach. On the islands there are health posts served by boat and the response time is in boat minutes rather than road minutes, which is the thing to factor in if you are staying out there. Travel insurance is advisable.
Official health authority: the Argentine Ministry of Health at argentina.gob.ar/salud, which publishes the dengue situation for Buenos Aires province and is worth checking in the summer months.
US State Department travel advisory for Argentina: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Argentina: entry requirements, safety and health guidance.
Official tourism authority: the Argentine national tourism board at argentina.travel, with the Tigre municipal tourism entity for launch timetables, which are the thing that governs a day here.
Solo women safety assessment: Tigre is comfortable for a woman travelling alone. The waterfront, the market and the museum area are busy with families and day trippers from Buenos Aires, particularly at weekends, and the atmosphere is domestic leisure rather than tourism. Violent crime against visitors is uncommon in the central area. Petty theft follows the pattern of greater Buenos Aires: keep a phone out of sight on the train, which is the standard way to arrive and where most incidents occur, and use the Mitre line rather than wandering into the outer neighbourhoods, some of which are poor and not places to explore casually. The delta itself is safe and remarkably peaceful, and the island guesthouses are family run and welcoming. What requires planning out there is isolation rather than crime: there are no roads, no shops, emergency response is by boat, and if you miss the last launch you are stuck. Check the timetable twice. Water is the other factor: the channels have current and boat traffic, swimming is not really done, and a sudestada can flood jetties and paths within hours, so watch the forecast if you are staying overnight. In the warm months the genuine health risk is dengue rather than anything else, which makes repellent the most important thing in the bag.
Reading On
Tigre is the easiest escape from Buenos Aires and the only place in Argentina where a whole community lives without roads. The Argentina travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country and covers the regions, the seasons and the distances, and the Argentina packing list for women covers a full country itinerary. The obvious base is the capital, and the Buenos Aires travel guide for women covers it. Nearby, the San Antonio de Areco packing list for women covers the pampas gaucho town and the Mar del Plata packing list for women the Atlantic coast. Upriver, the Rosario packing list for women and the Esteros del Ibera packing list for women follow the same water system north. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino works in high humidity and on a cold open boat in the same afternoon, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
