ARGENTINA

With its head in the rainforest and its toes in the frozen waters of Antarctica, Argentina’s vast and unforgiving landscape sits in striking contrast to its genteel cities and passionate people. In Buenos Aires, truly a city that doesn’t sleep, sweeping boulevards, grand cafés and bustling parrillas (steakhouses) recall Paris or Barcelona. Even in Mendoza, where sun-drenched vineyards but up against some of the most imposing Andean peaks, you’re more likely to be exploring vintages than crevasses. But Argentina’s extremes reveal themselves once you cross the cattle-strewn grasslands of the pampas, home to the iconic gauchos, and head for its ragged edges.