Córdoba and Environs: Places to Explore

The gateway to the Calamuchita Valley (and only a slight detour on the way to the Traslasierra), Alta Gracia grew up around a Jesuit estancia whose ruins are, in turn, clustered around Plaza Solares, in... Read more

Shop windows filled with New Age books and T-shirts proclaiming close encounters of the third kind let you know that Capilla del Monte is synonymous with the out-of-this-world activity at nearby Cerro... Read more

Stone buildings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries line the cobbled streets around shady Plaza San Martín in Córdoba's compact Centro Histórico, which has the highest concentration... Read more

Jesús María and Colonia Caroya are two towns divided by RN9. Colonia Caroya, whose restaurants betray the fact that the population is descended from immigrants from Friuli in northeast Italy... Read more

Villa Carlos Paz, Cosquín, and La Falda are packed with hotels aimed at the Argentinian market and are close to Córdoba; for a similar valley landscape minus the crowds, head to quiet, refined... Read more

Immigrants from Switzerland and Austria built this village in the 1930s, and its wooden chalets wouldn't look out of place in the Alps. La Cumbrecita is surrounded by tree-filled slopes, and well-marked... Read more

There are other more lively towns in the Traslasierra and Valle de Calamuchita with more services, but Nono gets the nod precisely because of its low-key nature and lack of fuss. For a town that makes... Read more