So meet Mar Del Plata.. the 7th largest city in Argentina ( around 700,000 people and slightly larger than our summer beach stop in Nice, Fr), and the #1 domestic beach destination for the country. ( By the way, in the Argentine Summer MDP balloons well over a million people). Often this cool place gets over shadowed by it’s more glamorous International neighbor, Punta Del Este, but seems we’ve stumbled onto something well worth exploring. Truth be told, we were heading to PuntaDelEste, but when the hotel room nights were anywhere between $500-600 USD a night, we thought, hey a beach is a beach right?.. Ok not exactly, but when our total hotel stay is the equivalent of one night in the other place AnD we are staying at a luxury spa boutique hotel, it was a no brainer.
One thing we didnt count on was the slight trip south was actually going to be cooler. Who knew that 200 odd miles could change weather. So where our weather has been perfect Tshirt and shorts exploring weather, however the low 70s with a breeze has made our planned beach laying, not so great. But tomorrow is another day and all indications are we are back to higher temps. #FingersCrossed.
A little research goes a long way. Our hotel, the Sainte Jeanne is way cool and service has been over the top. It is located in Guemes which turns out to be a hip happening hood. Alongside a residential area that I went jogging thru and makes me feel like I’m in Mission Hills or Coronado back home. Go figure, wasnt expecting that. The Atlantic coastline is much more stunning with the mini cliffs and rockscapes than we imagined. They remind us of a mixture of Beirut and the north east in New England. The water is definitely cold so we knew that coming in and hadnt planned on turning into ice pops. But we also noticed it is much tougher and after looking at a map, we realize it is only water that separates Mar Del Plata from Perth Australia to the east… The rest of the city is a combination between a slightly grittier downtown area ( but nothing bad in anyway) to blocks and blocks of pristine coastal parks and highrise condo buildings on the water. Actually the construction and buildings look a lot nicer to me than many cities we have visited in the world.
A couple other notes, the private and public beach clubs are endless. Some people had told us the beaches were small and over crowded. Well the crowds hit in Jan and Feb but the beaches are definitely not small. Just today we took another long exploration and counted no less than 36 beach clubs all complete with private pools, restaurants, and big lounge areas.
Finally the cost structure here seems even better than Buenos Aires. The exchange rate for the US $ and Euro makes spending money here very stressfree.
