5 towns you probably don't know about to discover over the long weekend
Some towns maintain their essence , despite everything. And on theCarnival weekend , which runs from March 1 to 4 , their classic proposals open the holidays for those who prefer solitude to excited crowds. This is the case of the five chosen places.
Some places boast of their lack of visibility and avoid visitors. Some of their inhabitants even do not want publicity. The tourism industry is here to bring well-being and dust off old glories, hand in hand with tourism.
Ireneo Portela It is one of the three towns in the Baradero district close to the main city, along with Valentín Alsina and Santa Coloma. The 23 km of provincial route 38 that go from Baradero to Portela, between undulating meadows, are part of the attraction to reach this town, which attracts adults and children to the landmark that brought the town back to life, El Almacén-Bar El Embudo.
The original allotment was arranged by the Guevara Lynch family , who may have given the town its name: in fact, even today, following the main road, the gate of the Santa Ana ranch appears; you cannot pass through, but Ernesto Guevara spent his summers there in the house of his grandmother, Ana Lynch. The town was named after a family friend , Dr. Ireneo Portela, an important and prominent doctor born in the city of Buenos Aires in 1802. He also held positions as a deputy in the Legislature in 1834 and 1836 and Provincial Senator, being very prominent in his political and public life.
Portela, now declared a historic town with 500 inhabitants, is home to the first Nicolás Avellaneda Rural School, better known as the Bellaca school in the La Higuera area, and to post offices and estancias such as Santos Gómez, where San Martín and his army passed on their march to San Lorenzo.
But as we said, it is Germán Goyenespe's Almacén y Restaurante El Embudo that breathed new life into this forgotten town. In the midst of the pandemic, after being stranded in Paraguay as a truck driver, he decided to reopen the business, a legacy from his grandfather and father, Carlos, “even though he told me to close it, since gastronomy makes you a bit of a slave. But I learned to walk in this business. I also wanted to change my life and do something for my town,” he explains.
The extended Carnival weekend will serve its classic snacks, roast beef, Milanese Neapolitan with fries, pork shoulder with mashed sweet potatoes and some daily specials, ideal for bikers and bicycle lovers who do not know about fixed schedules.
Returning to Baradero, halfway in the middle of nowhere, you cannot miss the Pulpería El Torito, reopened almost two years ago as a store with a drinks outlet and a restaurant on weekends. There they offer a spectacular barbecue by Sebastián Misenti, who, together with his partner Natalia Acuña, took on the task of returning to the ring of this historic place. From afar, you can see a Spanish colonial-style building built on purpose to be seen from the undulations of this area of the pampas, with brick walls laid on mud and adobe, with pine and brick floors, preserved despite the years.
The oldest historical reserve in the district was founded in 1880 on the side of the Camino Real , where Manuel Dorrego traveled in 1828 and Ladislao Gutiérrez and Camina O'Gorman, in 1848. There is always a guitar playing from groups from the main city, cradle of musicians. And speaking of that, for those who do not want tranquility but party, this weekend the 50th National Festival of Popular Argentine Music will be celebrated in Baradero, which will take place between February 28 and March 3. This year's program will feature artists of national renown that will ensure a varied proposal for all tastes. On Friday, attendees will be able to enjoy the performances of Sergio Galleguillo and Luciano Pereyra. On Saturday, Chaqueño Palavecino will be the protagonist; on Sunday, Soledad and Valeria Lynch will offer their talent; and on Monday, the band Un poco de ruido will close the cycle. In addition, each of the days will feature the participation of the winners of the National Final of the Baradero 2025 Pre-Festival, as well as those chosen for the Consecration of the Official Peña, which ensures an offer of local and emerging talent.
In the match of San Andrés de Giles, 100 km from Buenos Aires in the direction of Luján and 4 km from RN7, time seems to stop in this town that everyone insists on calling Cucullú despite its different accent.
The town of 1,800 inhabitants concentrates all its attractions in a few blocks: the Santa Teresita bakery, the Cucullú Athletic Club from 1929, the chapel from 1960, school No. 5 and the Casa Gallo Store, the star of the place. There, time stops between exposed brick walls with antiques or in the courtyard with the first mill that provided water to the four houses that were there when it was founded. Born in 1898 when the immigrant Juan Simón Cucullú gave a plot of his land for the station of the then Rural Tram, which later became Federico Lacroze, later the Buenos Aires Central Railway and then FC General Urquiza. The hamlet was formed around it.
The Fiesta del Hornero is celebrated here, which is not about the bird and its little clay house, but about the worker in the oven that makes handmade bricks made from clay crushed for hours. Around the town you can see some of these ovens and their bricks arranged in a pyramid shape so that the wind can get inside the piles and dry them, along with the heat from the fire.
“During the Carnival weekend we will be open for lunch and dinner on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, serving our daily specials, plus the traditional chorizo steaks with fried potatoes and fried eggs, pastas such as vegetable cannelloni, Mediterranean sorrentinos or gnocchi, and our Armenian chef’s traditional dish, which is koftas or well-seasoned minced meat chorizos with fried potatoes, salad and aioli sauce. And for starters, lehmeyun,” says Rodolfo Fito Gallo, great-great-grandson of the founder of the club, which also serves food for celiacs, properly separated from the rest to avoid cross-contamination.
Fito bought items at auction because many of the pieces of furniture were beyond repair when he arrived: he reopened after more than a year of work in 2018 and managed to make everything look like new: the refrigerators, the display cases, some bottles that peek out here and there. The result is unmissable. It is located at Acceso 9 de Julio and La Mariposa.
Sometimes, just sometimes, those few kilometers that separate the various towns in the province of Buenos Aires from the highway make the isolation total. Starting with the cell phone signal, which is irremediably lost. Such is the case of Gaynor , a town of 500 inhabitants in the Exaltación de la Cruz district, a few kilometers from Route No. 8.
In the green rectangle that is Gaynor, there is the primary school and the kindergarten, the San Cayetano chapel from the 80s, which opens when the priest comes once a month, the Aerobic Circuit, the children's playground, the two ecological walks and the agricultural school for young people. It has grown a lot, new houses can be seen, many stayed to live there after the pandemic.
Like a magnet, the smell of the delicious ribs prepared by Nicolás Cucchi Coleoni and Leonardo Dal Maso (IAG graduate) and the rest of the sweet specialties made by his sister Romina and Gabriela Teglia, make Un galpón en los Leones an unmissable stop in this place that will be open on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of Carnival.
They offer a generous set menu served in the garden of the house , which is provided to diners with abundance and love, the same that Mario Dal Maso, Romina and Leonardo's father and spearhead when moving to this place 15 years ago, has. Pickles, fried empanadas with knife-cut meat, pork matambre with lemon cooked for a long time in the chulengo on carrot puree with curry, spit-roasted ribs with French fries and salads and ten different desserts, plus a wide variety of homemade pastas. 10 km away, El Campito offers accommodation in its dormitories with plenty of space in the middle of the countryside.
Elena Gaynor de Duggan donated plots of land for the construction of a stop on the Argentine Central Railway - 14 kilometres from the capital of the Exaltación de la Cruz district: Capilla - to bear the name of her father, Diego. This is how the Diego Gaynor area was born as we know it today, a lost station without trains or whistles, except on ghostly nights, located on the old road from Buenos Aires to Pergamino, more than 30 years after the branch line closed in 1992. Today the dead train track is used by cyclists and walkers who connect one station with another.
“A lot of cyclists come from Buenos Aires. I make them sandwiches with fresh bread on the spot: we are one of the popular stops on the rural road circuit in the area,” says Betty Carelle, owner of Almacén El Descanso on Avenida Lazzaro, the last landmark to recommend in this remote town.
Very close by, in Azcuénaga, are the highly recommended restaurants Le Four and La Porteña; and in San Antonio de Areco, Boliche de Bessonart and Corazonada: all of them are worth the joy of the trip, just to visit them.
“I proposed the New Corinema project "In 2017, in the old abandoned brick and tile factory, a Historical and Cultural Heritage of the city of Mercedes, which for years gave life to the peaceful rural town of Altamira: I visualized it and today, happily, it is a reality. It contemplates a complex where gastronomy, hospitality and vineyards coexist with nature," says José María Yanes, the architect of the town's star attraction, the former Corinema factory, with almost magical tunnels, now converted to tourism.
Ariel Achilli, his father Franco and his entire family will welcome visitors during the Carnival weekend in the beautiful tunnels and on a circuit designed through the vineyards with the first fruits of Malbec, Marselan, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc.
“The idea is to tour the factory with a glass in hand, to discover the depths of the tunnels along with a proposal of regional gastronomy with appetizers with local cold cuts and ossobuco empanadas with Malbec,” says Ariel. It will open its doors to tourists on Friday and Saturday evenings from 7 to 10 pm and on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at midday.
The factory is part of this town with dirt streets and fig, plum and peach trees that still bear fruit, families that produce cold cuts, liquors and preserves, and an organic garden. Declared a tourist town, less than 100 km from Buenos Aires and 10 from Mercedes on RN 5, the Entre vía train station restaurant recently opened in the old train station, which will also offer its wood-fired specialties on those dates.
Altamira was born next to the tracks of the former General de Ferrocarriles Buenos Aires company, later General Belgrano. The first train whistle sounded in 1908, and it led to the urbanization of a handful of blocks that today form the center.
Other options are Lo de Curly and Almacén de Puri, as well as various grills.
10 km away, the Carnavales de Mercedes will take place from February 28 to Monday March 3 starting at 9 pm. Avenida 29 will be the main stage of the parade, where 11 groups, including batucadas, murgas, floats and comparsas will perform their various performances, for the whole family. This is for those who want to party, because the essence of these towns is to maintain their slow times of shopping, of siesta, of long lunches: their tranquility.
According to the Mapuche, Tapalqué means a place of wetlands and reeds. For the Tehuelches, on the other hand, it refers to people who come on foot. Both things are true because the toponymy reflects the beauty of this town 280 km from Buenos Aires on Provincial Route 51, a little further away than usual, which makes the relaxation even greater. If we add to this the hot springs for a weekend of pure spa before the beginning of the year, the proposal is at least original.
The synthesis of the town would be countryside, delicious food, a wooded resort of several hectares, kilometres of coastline for fishing and history: that is what this town offers, with its 17 ha of hot springs, 15 minutes from the centre of Tapalqué.
For those who want to celebrate Carnival anyway, the Spa and its stage offer artistic and cultural shows, a variety of recreational activities for the whole family, guided tours, a gastronomic patio and a crafts patio. It has a swimming pool, fireplaces, clay ovens, basketball courts, volleyball courts and bocce ball courts.
At the Municipal Campsite there are toilets, showers, electric light, hot water, grill and stoves. Camping is an adventure, the sound of the water from the stream makes the atmosphere even more pleasant under a huge grove and space for 300 tents and all services.
Fishing enthusiasts have 5 kilometers to explore, from the Fishing Club to the Salto de Piedras Don Regino to the north. The ritual begins early when the first rods touch the water and the mate becomes the protagonist. To the south, the shore runs a similar distance with a bike path that ends at a cycling track.
Tapalqué has accommodation options such as the Hotel Cooperativo located on Avenida Principal, along with cabin complexes, small inns and rental houses.
Cultural attractions are another option for a visit: the museum displays part of the original, archaeological, and paleontological culture that reflects the history of the town since its founding, but also that of the entire region.
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