Experience the best of Asunción

Asunción stands on a bend of the Paraguay River, with Argentina on the opposite shore, and was founded in 1537, becoming a base from which Spanish colonists set out to found other cities in the region. The Palacio de los López, a white neoclassical palace on the riverfront, is the centre of government, and the Panteón de los Héroes, a domed pantheon, holds the tombs of national heroes.

The Casa de la Independencia is a small colonial house where the plot for independence from Spain was laid in 1811, and the Manzana de la Rivera is a block of restored colonial houses. Mercado 4 is a sprawling market of crafts, food and household goods. Lace workshops in Itauguá, ceramics in Areguá and Lake Ypacaraí lie a short drive east.

Paraguayan food is built on corn, cassava and cheese: chipa, a cheese bread, sopa paraguaya, a dense cornbread that is not a soup, and grilled beef. Summer heat is intense, so tereré, cold mate with herbs, is sipped everywhere through a metal straw, and Guaraní is spoken alongside Spanish.