Villa Carlos Paz in Sierra Chica

[U.S. of America]

Only half a century ago, densely built Villa Carlos Paz was a bucolic hill town in the Sierra Chica at the outlet of the Rio Suquia. Development around sailboat-studded Lago San Roque - the result of a dam project originally built to store drinking water for the capital in the 1980s - turned it into a summer madhouse for tourists from all over Argentina, as well as a popular weekend destination for cordobeses.

More recently, a four-lane toll road has turned it into a bedroom community for capital commuters. Packed with upwards of 10,000 hotel beds, receiving 850,000 visitors per year, it's become a small-scale Mar del Plata with fresher water but without cultural appeal of Argentina's premier beach resort. - source: Moon Handbooks