Argentina's beach capital — where Mar del Plata sits 400 km south of Buenos Aires on the Atlantic coast and transforms every January into Argentina's largest internal migration (8 million Argentine summer tourists descend on a city of 680,000, the highest tourist-to-resident ratio of any beach resort in Latin America), the Puerto Mar del Plata is home to Argentina's largest fishing fleet (360 boats, the biggest Atlantic fishing port in the Southern Hemisphere), sea lions colonise the harbour breakwaters and sun themselves 20 metres from the fish auction, and the Rambla Casino del Mar del Plata (1939 Art Deco building on the beachfront) is the largest municipal casino in Argentina
Mar del Plata (680,000 city; 1.2 million metro) is a large coastal city in Buenos Aires Province on the Atlantic coast of Argentina — the country's primary beach resort destination and the 7th-largest city in Argentina. The city receives approximately 8 million tourists per year (almost entirely Argentine domestic tourists in January–March) making it one of the most intensely visited beach resorts in the Southern Hemisphere relative to its permanent population. Mar del Plata was founded in 1874 by Patricio Peralta Ramos and began as an elite summer retreat for Buenos Aires' aristocracy; it de…
The Mar del Plata coastline was explored by Sebastián Gaboto in 1527 and later by the Jesuit missions. The permanent settlement was founded in 1874 by Patricio Peralta Ramos, who sold plots to Buenos Aires families wanting beach access. The Buenos Aires–Mar del Plata railway (inaugurated 1886) was transformative: it reduced the journey from Buenos Aires from 2 days by horse to 6–7 hours by train, opening the resort to the Buenos Aires middle class. The Grand Hotel (1888), the Bristol Casino (1888, predecessor of the current Art Deco casino), and the Lido Hotel attracted the Argentine elite in…