Tren de la Costa

I found out about the Tren de la Costa almost by accident, reading a forum thread about Tigre where someone mentioned, in passing, that the nicer way to get there was a light rail line that most guidebooks skip in favor of the regular commuter train. Lia and I took it on a whim on a Saturday morning, and it turned out to be one of those small logistical decisions that ends up defining the whole day.

Boarding at Maipú

The line runs about fifteen kilometers from Estación Maipú, in the northern suburb of Olivos, up to Delta station in Tigre, with a handful of stops along the way built more like shopping-and-leisure complexes than transit stations — Barrancas station has a small amusement park attached, Borges station backs onto an arts and crafts market. It felt less like public transit and more like a slow-motion tour of how Buenos Aires’s wealthier suburbs spend a weekend.

The trains themselves are a nice touch — modern cars styled to nod at the old British-built railways that once crisscrossed this whole region, and the ride runs mostly elevated, giving glimpses into backyards, marinas, and the leafy private streets of San Isidro that you’d never see from a car.

San Isidro Detour

We broke the trip with a stop in San Isidro, whose neo-Gothic cathedral and riverside cliffs are worth an hour on their own, then got back on for the final stretch into Tigre. By the time the train crossed into the delta’s edge, the scenery had shifted entirely — from manicured suburb to the first glimpses of the brown, slow-moving channels that define the Paraná Delta.

The full one-way trip takes under an hour, and I’d argue it’s worth doing even if Tigre itself weren’t the destination — it’s a quiet, scenic decompression from the density of the capital that most visitors skip entirely in favor of a direct bus or car.

When to go: Weekend mornings, when the stations along the route have their markets and fairs running. The ride is pleasant year-round, but spring and autumn keep the open-air platform stops comfortable.