Tours and Activities:

Oasis City

The City of San Juan lies in a charming and fertile oasis surrounded by mountains. Featuring modern buildings, shady sidewalks, wide streets and attractive avenues, it concentrates various cultural and recreational sites that may be visited on an amusing city tour.

The tour starts at the Tourist Provincial Office, opposite Sarmiento’s Birthplace, which houses valuable documents for national history and all the works written by this Argentinian figure.

The shuttle heads for 25 de Mayo Square, located in the very heart of the city. In front of it, there rises the Metropolitan Cathedral, which features a modern architecture design with unique characteristics. The ashes of the eleven thousand victims of the earthquake that hit the city in January 1944 rest inside this building.

Turning into Gral. Acha Street, the tours gets to Libertador Gral. San Martín Avenue. Most of the city tour is concentrated on this area, crossing the pedestrian street where the main stores in town are located.

San Martín Avenue borders Laprida Square, where the leafy vegetation of San Juan, managed as a result of artificial irrigation through the system of underground channels that go across the entire city, may be observed.

Farther ahead, there lies Parque de Mayo (May Park). It has a playground and a small railway for a train that shows visitors around. There stands the famous Monument to Sports, made with eleven tons of pigmented concrete.

Then, San Martín Avenue turns into Route 12, which leads to the Ing. Juan Victoria Auditorium, an example of the highest technical-acoustic and architectural demands in Latin America.

Afterwards, the shuttle heads for the Municipality of Rivadavia crossing large extensions of land featuring vineyards, olive trees and walnut trees. In this district, visitors can observe the Poets' Garden, El Zonda Racetrack and La Cava champagne winery, the third of its kind in the whole world, as it is located inside the mountain.

Lastly, visitors retrace their steps up to Ullum Dam, where a beautiful sight of the 500 hectares occupied by the reservoir may be observed. After a few minutes' rest while beholding nature, the tour sets off towards the starting point.

See also: Hotels in San Juan and other accommodation venues