Tigre serves as the principal portal to the Parana Delta, where the great river fragments into countless channels before emptying into the Rio de la Plata. From the city's docks, boats depart constantly, ranging from massive commuter catamarans that serve as floating buses for delta residents to intimate wooden lanchas available for private tours. The delta itself is a world apart, where houses perch on stilts, children row to school, and addresses are given not by street numbers but by river names and kilometer markers. The absence of roads means everything arrives by water, from groceries to building materials, creating a rhythm of life unchanged for over a century.

Two railway lines connect Tigre to Buenos Aires, but only one offers a journey worth making for its own sake. The Tren de la Costa hugs the riverbank through some of Greater Buenos Aires's most affluent suburbs, passing restored stations now converted into shopping galleries, outdoor cafes, and craft markets. The ride from Maipu station to Delta station takes passengers through leafy San Isidro and past the presidential residence at Olivos, offering glimpses of another Argentina, one of English-style gardens and colonial mansions. The Mitre Line offers the faster, more practical route from Retiro Station, but misses the elegance of the coastal alternative.

Puerto de Frutos, Tigre's sprawling waterfront market, draws collectors and curious browsers alike to its maze of stalls selling everything from genuine colonial antiques to rustic delta handicrafts. The market takes its name from the fruit boats that once unloaded here, bringing oranges and lemons from delta orchards to feed the capital. Today the commerce has shifted to wicker furniture, leather goods, and the delicate carved wooden objects that delta artisans have crafted for generations. Beyond the market, Tigre's streets reveal a genteel past in their Victorian rowing clubs and belle epoque mansions, remnants of an era when the city served as a fashionable weekend retreat for Argentina's elite.

For those seeking something beyond a day trip, Isla Martin Garcia lies several hours downstream in the Rio de la Plata, reachable by ferry from Tigre's international pier. This quiet island represents Argentina's only dry land border with Uruguay and carries a history far weightier than its small size suggests. Former presidents were imprisoned here, including Juan Peron, and the island's old buildings whisper of naval bases and quarantine stations. But today Martin Garcia offers only peace, its forests threaded with walking paths and its shores unmarked by development. Overnight stays are possible for those wanting to wake to birdsong rather than traffic.