Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata began as a resort for the Buenos Aires elite at the end of the nineteenth century and became, after the 1940s, the beach city of the whole country, filling each January with hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers along kilometres of Atlantic sand. Its landmarks are from that first era: the enormous casino and Hotel Provincial on Playa Bristol, designed by Alejandro Bustillo, and the surviving mansions and chalets of the old summer colony scattered among modern apartment towers. At the working fishing port, orange trawlers unload the catch and a colony of southern sea lions basks on the breakwater, close enough to photograph. Beaches range from the packed central sands to quieter southern breaks favoured by surfers.

History

Before the Spanish the region was home to Günuna Kena nomads, the northern Tehuelche, influenced by Mapuche culture after the 11th century; Francis Drake reconnoitred the coast and its sea lions, Juan de Garay explored it by land in 1581, and in 1742 eight survivors of HMS Wager, led by the midshipman Isaac Morris, lived through ten months here before the Tehuelche captured them and handed them to the Spanish. A Jesuit mission near Laguna de los Padres in 1751 ended in disaster, and in 1857 the Portuguese José Coelho de Meirelles built a pier and a salted-meat plant near Cabo Corrientes, which soon failed. Patricio Peralta Ramos bought the abandoned plant and land and founded the town on 10 February 1874, and the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway arrived in 1886, followed by the first hotels (Wikipedia, Mar del Plata).

What's there

• The beaches - kilometres of Atlantic sand from central Bristol to southern surf breaks.
• The casino and Hotel Provincial - the monumental 1930s buildings on the seafront.
• The sea lions - the colony on the breakwater at the fishing port.
• The old chalets - surviving mansions of the early resort era.

When to go

December to March for the full beach season, with January the busiest and most expensive. Spring and autumn are pleasant, quiet and much cheaper, though the sea is cold. Winter is windy and grey but the port and museums still work.

Good to know

In January the city is genuinely packed, with crowded beaches, traffic and high prices. The Atlantic here is cold and often rough. Outside summer many seasonal businesses close, and the seafront can feel deserted.

Nearby

Balcarce lies inland; Villa Gesell and Pinamar are north along the coast.

Key facts