Salta and Jujuy: A Two-Week Northern Argentina Road Trip
We could have happily spent months in the north of Argentina. Our experience included welcoming towns and good-natured people, landscapes that change and inspire as you drive, a nice climate, good food, and a generally relaxed vibe. Several people had recommended Salta and Jujuy provinces and our two-week road trip in the region was one of the highlights of our family gap year.
We’ve covered several legs of our northern Argentina road-trip in more detailed posts linked below. Here we fill in some of the gaps and offer a broader overview of the route we chose.
Flights, car rental, and road conditions
We flew from Buenos Aires into San Salvador de Jujuy and rented a car at the airport. At the end we flew out of Salta back to Buenos Aires. If the prices aren’t much higher, you might consider doing the same (or the reverse) so you don’t have to cover the same ground twice. That said, those cities are not far apart. There are two options for driving between San Salvador de Jujuy and Salta: one quick (Rts 66 and 34) and the other breathtaking (Rt 9). There are also regular buses between those cities if need be.
We rented the cheapest car on offer. It didn’t have four-wheel-drive and we were fine. In fact, this was where I finally got the hang of driving a manual transmission. Keep in mind that much of the way is unpaved so if you feel more comfortable with a larger vehicle or 4WD, you may want to consider that. We tended to avoid roads where closures or rain damage had been reported. These hazards are common in this region during certain months.
Tip: It’s essential to ask about road conditions at local tourist offices before each leg of your trip. We traveled in late February and early March, when rain can affect roads quickly. Short conversations at tourist offices saved us a lot of trouble. Even so, a bridge closure foiled our plans once along the way, and on another occasion we sat for about an hour while a bulldozer cleared a path through a landslide.
Jujuy Province
We didn’t linger in San Salvador de Jujuy (just one quick night). We had found a wonderful apartment in Tilcara and our initially-planned three nights there stretched into six. Thus, as opposed to truly road-tripping and moving constantly, we were able to use Tilcara as a base (and an excellent one at that) for exploring Jujuy. There is a lot to do within a couple of hours of Tilcara: rainbow mountains, quaint towns like Pumamarca and Maimara, Quebrada de las Señoritas, the Garganta del Diablo waterfall, a lot of beautiful drives, and much more. Read more about our time exploring Jujuy Province.
Tilcara to Salta
From Tilcara we had planned to head to Salinas Grandes then south via San Antonio de Los Cobres to Cachi, down to Cafayate, and back up to Salta. We changed our plans for two reasons. Firstly, the salt flats were more “lakes” at the time due to rains and this didn’t interest us. More importantly, the road south from San Antonio de los Cobres to Cachi is not navigable (as of early 2024 at least). We instead drove from Tilcara south to Salta via Ruta 9 and would make our way to Cachi later.
We made some interesting stops between Tilcara and Salta but not before hitting a roadblock. A bulldozer was clearing away a landslide that had covered most of the road somewhere south of Maimara. We waited for about an hour to get through.
After that delay we made our way to Termas de Reyes, just north and west of San Salvador de Jujuy. These “hot springs” are not idyllic natural places in the forest but complexes with paid entry. Although the ambience was nothing magical we made this into a fun lunch stop and our three-year-old Vienna especially enjoyed the water.
Note regarding Termas de Reyes: Heading west on Ruta 4, there are a few options to experience the thermal waters. The first is a simple pool visible from the road on the left, with a parking lot and perhaps a few food vendors across the street. Next you’ll see the entrance for Hotel Spa Termas de Reyes, which would be the most expensive and probably the nicest place to enjoy the hot springs (for our short “pitstop” it wasn’t worth checking out). Finally you’ll come to the Quebrada Termal Complejo. This is a paid entry complex with three pools of different temperatures, showers, and a restaurant.
Moving on, we bypassed San Salvador de Jujuy and headed south via Ruta 9 to Salta. It’s a stunning drive but slow, with a series of switchbacks as you make your way into Salta Province. The drives themselves were some of the highlights of our time in northern Argentina. The way between San Salvador de Jujuy and Salta city was just one example.
The city of Salta
We enjoyed being in the city for a night before heading south for the second phase of our trip. Salta is a pretty walkable city (besides the cars that don’t stop for pedestrians, which is a bummer). There are plenty of good restaurants. And really friendly people: One morning I was struggling to carry two cups of coffee, a hot chocolate, and some breakfast back to our apartment. The cups were burning hot and the lids didn’t fit so I had to stop and get organized a few times. Somehow, five different people helped me with the seemingly simple task of carrying breakfast home, making conversation along the way. It was a great opener to our explorations of Salta Province.
Salta to Cafayate
The drive from Salta to Cafayate is one for the books. A drive along the river, a mini hike into the devil’s throat…you’ll want to allow a good amount of time for this drive and plenty of stops along the way. There’s also a nice place to stop for lunch south of Salta. Read about this in our post on the drive from Salta to Cafayate.
Cafayate to Cachi
Despite the impossibility of taking the western route from the salt flats via San Antonio de los Cobres, we headed to Cachi in a spectacular drive north from Cafayate. More accurately our drive started just up the road from Cafayate in San Carlos where we had decided to spend a night after a planned trip southwest to Tafí del Valle was thwarted by a bridge closure. (As an aside: although it wasn’t in the cards for us you may want to consider including Tafí in your plans if you’re looking into a road-trip in the north of Argentina.)
If you want a quiet alternative to Cafayate, San Carlos up the road is a pretty town and we had a very tranquil stay at Casa de Los Vientos. Heading north the road is unpaved pretty much all the way up to Cachi. You’ll be driving quite slowly so don’t pay attention to Google’s time estimate. Just enjoy the wonderful and sharp white rock formations and get lost in your thoughts. Read about the drive from Cafayate to Cachi.
Cachi to Salta
To finish our road-trip we had to get back to Salta. We were glad to have prioritized spending some time in Cachi and sad to leave it behind. The drive east from Cachi on Ruta 33 was an easy one, and then we spent two more nights in Salta before our flight back to Buenos Aires.
Here’s a map of the journey:
For your convenience, here again are our articles covering our two-week northern Argentina road-trip:
Jujuy: A Province of Contrasts
Salta: Valleys, Vineyards & Beautiful Drives
Salta to Cafayate via Route 68
Cafayate to Cachi via Route 40
A few places we didn’t go
Iruya
With reports of recent hours-long bus delays due to road conditions and the fact that our time there would be quite short anyway, we decided to forgo Iruya. It was a tough decision as we were looking forward to another spectacular drive, but we had so much fun exploring elsewhere that we weren’t disappointed. That being said, you may want to consider at least a night or two in Iruya. If you’re looking to do some hiking to other nearby villages, then perhaps longer. Also: despite having rented a car, a lot of people recommended that we use the bus if we went to Iruya, partly due to the crazy roads and partly because there is a apparently a lack of parking space there.
Salinas Grandes
Many people stop here in a trip to northern Argentina and it was on our agenda but each and every local we met suggested that due to recent rains it just wouldn’t be worth the time. Really you want to experience the salt flats when they are dry.
Tafí del Valle
A relatively lush area 150km south of Cafayate in Tucuman Province, we’re told Tafí makes for a nice addition to a trip to northern Argentina.
