Argentina's north-west has two railways worth crossing the country for, and they are almost never sold together. The Train to the Clouds climbs to a steel viaduct at 4,220 metres on the edge of the Puna; the Solar Train runs the length of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a UNESCO valley of coloured mountains, stopping at Purmamarca, Maimara and Tilcara. Five days from Buenos Aires with the colonial city and the wine valley of Cafayate in between, flights, four nights and transfers included.
Arrival. Your flight leaves from the Buenos Aires domestic airport. When you land in Salta our guide is waiting with a sign with your name, and takes you to your hotel in the centre.
Salta city tour, in the afternoon. Around 4 pm we collect you at the hotel for a tour of the colonial centre: the Cathedral and the San Francisco church, the Cabildo on the main square, the Historical Museum of the North and the craft market. Then up to the top of San Bernardo hill for the view over the whole Lerma valley, and out to San Lorenzo, the leafy summer village just outside the city, before returning to the hotel. About 100 km and four hours.
The day is in two parts: by road up, by train at the top. Check-in is at 6:15 in front of Salta railway station, and the first part of the journey is by vehicle along National Route 51 into the Quebrada del Toro, with photo stops at Campo Quijano, the El Toro viaduct and the Yacoraite rock formation, and a country breakfast with the mountain community at El Alfarcito at about 9:25. By 11:40 you are in San Antonio de los Cobres, a mining town on the Puna at 3,775 metres, where you change to the train.
At 12:00 the Train to the Clouds leaves San Antonio for the hour's ride across the Puna to the La Polvorilla viaduct, 224 metres long and 63 metres high, at 4,220 metres. You get down for half an hour, there is a flag ceremony and a craft market, and the view goes to the horizon in every direction. Back in San Antonio by 14:45, free time in the town, and the road back to Salta from 16:30 with a stop at Santa Rosa de Tastil, a pre-Inca town, for its museum and an afternoon snack. Salta in the evening.
Full day to Cafayate. Another early start, around 7 am, this time south along the Calchaqui Valley through the Quebrada de las Conchas, a canyon of red rock carved into shapes with names: the Garganta del Diablo, the Amphitheatre. In Cafayate, the wine village of the north, a visit to a winery with a tasting of Torrontes, the white grape that grows nowhere better than here, and time in the colonial centre and its craft market. Back to Salta in the evening. About 390 km and 12 hours.
Full day on the Solar Train of the Quebrada de Humahuaca. An early pick-up in Salta, around 6 am, and the road north through the province of Jujuy to Volcan, the station at the mouth of the Quebrada, about two and a half hours away. There you board the Solar Train, the new train that runs on solar power along 42 kilometres of the valley, with panoramic windows and a guide on board. It spends the day going up the Quebrada and back with scheduled stops at its six stations: Tumbaya, Purmamarca and the Hill of Seven Colours, Posta de Hornillos, Maimara below the Painter's Palette, and Tilcara, with local guides at each stop and time to walk every village and have lunch where you like. Back at Volcan at the end of the afternoon and the road back to Salta, arriving late in the evening. A long day, and the complete Quebrada in one go.
Departure. Breakfast at the hotel and transfer to Salta airport for the flight back to Buenos Aires.
Regular service as described; it can also be quoted private, and tailored to your dates, interests and budget.
Tell us your travel dates and how many of you there are. We send a free, no-obligation quote within 24 hours, with hotel options from comfortable to five-star.
Yes. If you only want the Train to the Clouds, the three-day Salta & Train to the Clouds tour is the one. If you only want the Solar Train, we add its day to the four-day Salta & Jujuy tour or to any other Salta trip. And there are more days to choose from, from Cachi to a night in the peñas: see the optional day tours in Salta. Tell us what you want to see and we build the trip around it.
Neither runs every day. The Train to the Clouds leaves on set days of the week and sells out early, especially in July and around holidays; the Solar Train has a weekly timetable of its own and two departures a day from Volcan. The order of the five days changes with your dates so that both trains fit: Cafayate can move, and the city tour can go on the afternoon of the first or last day. Tell us your dates and we confirm both train days before you book anything.
They could not be more different, which is the point of doing both. The Train to the Clouds is a century-old line across the Puna: by road up the Quebrada del Toro, then an hour by train to a steel viaduct at 4,220 metres, with the cold, the thin air and the engineering as the show. The Solar Train is new, quiet and solar-powered, and runs along the floor of the Quebrada de Humahuaca at about 2,000 to 2,500 metres, stopping in the villages: the coloured mountains, the craft markets and the pre-Inca Pucara of Tilcara are the show there. The Solar Train runs between Volcan and Tilcara and turns back there; it does not reach Humahuaca, which is a day by road.
Long: it is the longest day of the tour. The pick-up in Salta is around 6 am, the train spends about ten hours going up the valley and back with its stops, and you are back in Salta late in the evening. The train has comfortable seats, panoramic windows and chargers on board, and the stops are real time in each village, not ten minutes on a platform. The day after it is the departure day, so you sleep in.
The Train to the Clouds goes to 4,220 metres, and most people feel a headache or breathlessness at the viaduct and nothing worse; there is medical assistance on board. The Solar Train stays much lower, between about 2,000 and 2,500 metres, and Cafayate is lower still. Drink water, eat lightly, avoid alcohol the night before the high day, and tell your guide if you feel unwell. If you have a heart or lung condition, talk to your doctor before booking.
Both trains are scheduled services shared with other passengers; that is how trains work. The city tour, the Cafayate day and the transfers run as a regular service as described, and can be quoted private, with your own guide and driver. Ask for both and compare.
Yes. A fifth night gives you the full day to Salinas Grandes and Purmamarca over the pass at 4,200 metres, or Cachi over the Cuesta del Obispo, and a night in the peñas fits any evening. See the optional day tours in Salta and tell us how many days you have.
The Train to the Clouds was built between 1921 and 1948 to cross the Andes to Chile, without rack rails, on zigzags, spirals and viaducts; the La Polvorilla viaduct at the top is the piece of engineering everyone comes to see, and the tourist train has climbed to it since 1972. The Solar Train is its opposite in every way: a modern, silent train that runs on the sun, opened in the Quebrada de Humahuaca to take visitors from village to village along a valley UNESCO listed as a World Heritage cultural landscape.
Doing the two in one week is the whole north-west in two days: the Puna, high, dry and empty, and the Quebrada, coloured and full of life. We put Cafayate between them, at low altitude and about wine, so that the two long days are not back to back, and we start with the colonial city on the first afternoon. We have not found another agency that sells the two trains together with flights and hotel, and we looked.
We include the flights from Buenos Aires, four nights with breakfast, the airport transfers, the city tour, the Cafayate day and both train days complete. Tell us your dates and how many of you are travelling, and we come back within 24 hours with both trains confirmed and the trip quoted as one figure.
The city and the full train day to the La Polvorilla viaduct at 4,220 metres.
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The city, Salinas Grandes with Purmamarca and Cafayate, with flights and three nights.
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The Quebrada de Humahuaca, Cachi, Iruya and a night in the peñas, to add to any of these.
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