Argentine and Brazilian cities · October to April (southern summer)

Packing list for Buenos Aires and Rio

Argentina and Brazil in their summer, October to April: beach by day and a late dinner by night in Rio, something smarter for a Buenos Aires evening, 86°F (30°C) afternoons that end in a thunderstorm, and a phone that stays in your pocket on the street.

Open in Waystop

On a phone with Waystop installed, the button adds the list to your trip as a bag you can tick off. Otherwise copy it and paste it into Waystop’s Chat with “add this to my packing list”.

Checked October 10, 2026.

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What the weather is like

Buenos Aires runs from 73°F (23°C) by day and 55°F (13°C) at night in October and April to 86°F (30°C) and 68°F (20°C) in January, with humidity between 63 and 75% and about 130 mm of rain a month; heat waves end in violent thunderstorms with hail. Rio averages 81°F (27°C) from December to March, with afternoons at 86°F (30°C) or more, nights that stay above 72°F (22°C), 130 to 135 mm of rain a month and a sea at 75 to 79°F (24 to 26°C).

Leave at home

Jewellery and a watch you would missThe official advice for both cities is to leave them; they mark you on a bus or a beach
Flip-flops from homeHavaianas cost a third of the price in any Rio supermarket and come in a hundred prints
A thick guidebook and a big camera bagA phone kept in a front pocket and a small zipped bag draw less attention than a tourist's kit

Buy when you land

HavaianasSold in every farmacia and supermarket in Rio from about R$30.
A cangaThe thin Brazilian beach wrap dries in minutes and doubles as a towel, a sarong and an aircon blanket
A SUBE card and Argentine pesosThe SUBE card is sold at kiosks and Subte stations, and pesos change at a fair rate inside any bank or casa de cambio now that the rates have converged

Worth knowing

Beaches empty after dark for a reason; take nothing to the sand you cannot afford to lose, swim in turns and keep the bag between you.
Buenos Aires dinner starts at 9 p.m. and the Subte stops around 11 p.m.; the SUBE card works on bus and metro, and a taxi home is cheap when ordered through an app rather than hailed.
The heat breaks with a storm in both cities. Ask Waystop's Chat for a rain plan, a second version of the day with the museum in it, and switch to it the afternoon the storm is forecast. Keep the beach for the morning before.

Trips to pack this for

In the app

Never leave the charger in the hotel again.

Waystop keeps a list for each bag and each person. On the morning you change hotels it walks you through a quick pack-up check, and Chat can suggest items to add when you ask what to bring.

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Packing list for Buenos Aires and Rio

Clothes for two cities
- Beach clothes that pass at a restaurant (Rio runs from Ipanema to a 9 p.m. dinner without going home; a linen shirt and shorts over swimwear do both)
- One smarter evening outfit (Buenos Aires dresses up for dinner at 10 p.m. and for a milonga; sneakers and a tank top look wrong in Palermo)
- A light rain shell (Rio's summer brings 130 mm of rain a month, mostly in late-afternoon storms that drop in an hour and flood the curbs)
- A light scarf or long-sleeved layer (Buses and the Subte run the air conditioning hard; the ride back from a 90°F (32°C) beach is 64°F (18°C))
- Sandals you can walk 10 km in, plus one pair of closed shoes (Buenos Aires is a walking city with broken sidewalks, and a storm turns the streets to rivers)

Staying safe on the street
- A small bag that zips, worn in front (Thieves on motorbikes snatch bags from pedestrians in Buenos Aires, and phone theft in Rio is worst on the street in the late afternoon and evening.)
- A second wallet with the day's cash and one card (If it goes you lose a day's spending, not the trip, and the main wallet stays in the hotel safe.)
- A money belt or a zipped inside pocket (Under your clothes is the one place a wallet is safe in a San Telmo crowd.)
- A phone wrist strap (Thieves grab phones out of hands on the street in both cities. Look at the map inside a shop, not on the curb.)

Money and power
- A card with no foreign fees (Foreign Visa and Mastercard payments in Argentina are settled at the financial (MEP) rate, which since the 2025 reforms sits within a few percent of the official rate; the old blue-dollar gap is gone)
- A little US cash in clean bills (Some tourist restaurants and tours still quote in dollars, and a torn or marked bill is refused. Change money at a casa de cambio, not on Calle Florida.)
- Two adapters: type C or I for Argentina, type N for Brazil (Argentina runs 220 V at 50 Hz on the angled three-pin I or the round two-pin C; Brazil uses the three-round-pin N on 127 or 220 V depending on the city)
- A power bank (Maps, ride apps and photos all day; a dead phone is also how you end up looking lost on a corner)

Sun, water and health
- Reef-safe sunscreen, factor 50 (Rio sits just outside the tropics and the UV is very high all summer; mineral formulas keep the oxybenzone out of Arpoador's water)
- A reusable bottle, filled from filtered water (Rio's water is treated, but old pipes and rooftop tanks in Santa Teresa, Lapa and Centro mean most locals drink filtered or bottled; a bottle with a filter settles the question)
- Mosquito repellent (Dengue circulates in both cities in summer; dusk by the lagoon in Rio and the parks in Palermo are when you need it)
- A hat with a brim (Buenos Aires hits 86°F (30°C) in January and the plazas have little shade.)

From https://waystop.app/packing/south-america-cities

Packing list for Buenos Aires and Rio

What the weather is like

Worth knowing

Trips to pack this for

3 days in Buenos Aires

3 days in Rio de Janeiro

Never leave the charger in the hotel again.