Iguazu to Buenos Aires by bus? Easy!
Iguazu is not only famous for its waterfalls (read more here), it is also a common travel point for everyone going from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires or vice verca.
Be careful: If you want to go to Rio you need to depart from the Brazilian side of Iguazu = Foz de Iguazu. When traveling to Buenos Aires you need to catch the bus from the Argentinian side = Puerto Iguazu.
The bus connection from Rio to Iguazu takes about ~25 hours, whereas it is “only” a ~18 hours drive from Iguazu to Buenos Aires. As we did not want to spend all that time in a bus, we booked a flight from Rio to Iguazu. GOL is not the most fancy or customer friendliest airline, but if you book months in advance you can get tickets from as low as 30 EUR (+13 EUR for luggage).
From Iguazu to Buenos Aires we luckely decided to take the bus! You get the best price when you buy the ticket directly at the bus terminal (and in cash) at one of the many (~10) operators with seperate ticket counters.
But how to get to the bus terminal from Foz de Iguazu national park (waterfalls)?
In front of the national park entrance (right corner) you find a bus stop. The operators “Rio Uruguay” and “Cucero del Norte” stop here every full hour (from 10am to 6pm) and go directly to Puerto Iguazu. Please note following procedure at the borders:
- get off the bus and the passport stamped whan leaving Brazil
- get off the bus and the passport stamped when entering Argentina
- get on the same bus again (in case you have the same luck we had and the bus waits for you) or wait until the next one.
You should calculate with 45 min – 2 hours to get from Foz de Iguazu to Puerto Iguazu due to the border procedures, traffic, changing to the next bus at the border and possibly some walking distances to get to the right bus terminals.
Once you are at the right terminal you should compare the prices between the different operators. There are also 3 different types of seats you can book: 1. Semi-Cama (like the seats on a plane), 2. Cama: more space, comfort and possibility to switch your seat in a kind of bed, 1 warm meal and 2 snacks or 3. Cama Suite: this includes WIFI and a full bed and more fancy food.
We ended up paying 58 EUR for a Cama ticket, going with “Rio Uruguay”. The drive was absolutely comfortable and we were actually able to get a good sleep just before arriving in Buenos Aires in the morning.
Going by bus is a definitely reco!
For more details check out this blog: https://coupletraveltheworld.com/the-most-luxurious-bus-journey-ever-puerto-iguazu-to-buenos-aires-with-rio-uruguay/ This helped us a lot for own research and planning!!