TIGRE owes its poetic name to the jaguars - popularly known as tigres in Latin America - that inhabited the Delta region until the beginning of the twentieth century. The town sits on an island bounded by the Río Luján, the Río Reconquista and the Río Tigre and was first documented in 1635 under the name of El Pueblo de las Conchas, a small settlement which functioned as a defensive outpost against Portuguese invasions during the seventeenth century. One of the favoured summer retreats of the Porteño elite in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the town owes its sumptuous mansions and palatial rowing clubs to this period. During this time, the hectic social life revolved around events at the Tigre Club , home to Argentina's first casino , and the Tigre Hotel , whose clientele included Enrico Caruso and the Prince of Wales. The town's decline as a glamorous destination was in part a result of the closure of the Tigre Club's casino (closed in 1933 through a law which prohibited casinos in the vicinity of the capital) and in part a result of the growing popularity of Mar del Plata, 400km south on the Atlantic coast and ever more accessible thanks to the arrival of the railway and improved roads. The Tigre Hotel, a grandiose mock-Tudor construction, was demolished in 1940, although the elegant Tigre Club, to be reopened as a cultural centre, still stands at the apex of the island.

As a departure point for excursions to the Delta and the Isla Martín García , the town itself is sometimes overlooked by tourists. At first sight, it's a bit of a hotchpotch of a place: a recent upsurge in investment in the area has brought new developments, many - such as a slightly twee train station and the mega Parque de la Costa - seem to have been built with scant regard for Tigre's distinctive architectural heritage. Don't be put off by your first impression, however - Tigre offers an appealing mix of faded glamour and day-trip brashness and the bars and restaurants around its recently refurbished riverside area provide perfect vantage points for an unhurried contemplation of the comings and goings of Delta life.