Ada & Ignacio

Known as "Salta la Linda" (Salta the Beautiful), the city itself is worth a slow day of wandering. Sip a coffee in the main plaza under the colonial arcades, ride the cable car up Cerro San Bernardo for sweeping views, and don't miss the MAAM museum, home to the remarkably preserved Inca mummies found on Mount Llullaillaco. In the evening, head to a peña for live folk music, empanadas, and locro — this is where Salta's soul really comes out. If you have a bit of extra time, it's worth a short trip out to San Lorenzo, just outside the city — a leafy, quiet town with its own little quebrada (ravine) and pockets of jungle-like vegetation, a nice contrast to the dry valleys you'll see elsewhere in the province.

A couple of hours south of the city, Cafayate is a high-altitude wine region and one of my favorite places in the world — home to Torrontés, Argentina's fragrant white grape that thrives nowhere else quite like it does here. But don't just stick to whites — the region's high-altitude reds, grown at over 1,700 meters above sea level, are some of the most distinctive in the country, with an intensity of color and flavor you won't find at lower elevations. And if you go further into the surrounding mountains, one estate here is home to a vineyard widely recognized as the highest in the world, climbing past 3,000 meters above sea level — producing wines with a character that's nearly impossible to replicate anywhere else. Spend your days visiting bodegas tucked between vineyards and red mountains, and don't skip the drive down through the Quebrada de las Conchas, where wind and time have carved the rock into shapes like the Devil's Throat and the Amphitheater. Two days gives you time to actually relax into it — a wine tasting or two, a long lunch, and a proper look at the landscape.

The road from Cafayate to Cachi is often cited as one of the most beautiful drives in Argentina — winding through Ruta 40, cactus-studded valleys, and small adobe villages that feel frozen in time. Fair warning: it's a rough, unpaved road, and in summer (which is when we're getting married!) a 4x4 pickup is genuinely necessary, not just recommended. Cachi itself is a tiny, whitewashed colonial town at the foot of the Nevado de Cachi — a peaceful place to catch your breath before heading back.

Just north of Salta, Jujuy is technically a different province but shares the same otherworldly Andean landscapes — striped mountains, salt flats, and villages that have barely changed in centuries. You can do it as a (very) long day trip, but we'd recommend sleeping over if your schedule allows. Highlights include Purmamarca, with its Seven-Color Hill right at the edge of town; the vast white expanse of Salinas Grandes; and Tilcara, with its pre-Inca fortress (the Pucará) overlooking the valley. If you do stay overnight, Purmamarca is the place to base yourself — small, walkable, and beautiful at both sunrise and sunset.

There are two ways to get there, and they couldn't be more different. The fast route (Ruta 34) is quicker and more direct, but the scenery is fairly unremarkable. The scenic route — the "Camino de Cornisa" (Ruta 9) — winds slowly through the Yungas, a cloud forest of thick, jungle-like vegetation that's part of a green corridor connected all the way down to the Amazon basin. It's narrow and windy, so it takes longer and asks for a careful driver, but the views are well worth it. If you have the time, our tip is to take one route on the way there and the other on the way back — that way you get both the speed and the scenery.