Located in the central-west of Argentina, the province has a strategic position that makes it the gateway to the region of Cuyo. It spreads from the western end of the Pampas to the sierras. Its landscape is mostly hilly.

The city of San Luis is a small and quite provincial capital used to the constant traffic of travelers going to Mendoza, San Juan and San Rafael, and from there to the Andean Range and into Chile and the Pacific Ocean. It was founded in 1594 by Luis Jufré de Loaysa y Meneses and rebuilt in 1632. It still keeps the typical features of a small XIX century Mediterranean city: a quiet life pace, the old colonial manors with ample courtyards that melt with the more modern buildings that gather mainly in the commercial and shopping streets. One of the most important historic buildings is its Cathedral. It is an eclectic masterpiece of architecture that was built between 1883 and 1944, with strong neoclassic features in its façade. It was built over the lot formerly occupied by Governor Dupuy's house, where General San Martín was a guest while he was getting ready for the military campaign to free Chile, Bolivia and Peru from Spanish tyranny. The cathedral is located opposite to Plaza Pringles, where all the commercial life of the city gathers, along the main street that leads directly to the train station. Just opposite to Plaza Independencia is the Santo Domingo Convent, the oldest building in town, built back in the XVIII century. At present the set includes the colonial style convent and a church more recently built. The old convent rooms now house a Handicraft Market and factory of carpets traditionally woven in the loom, widely known because of the excellent quality of its production. The Government House is also an interesting architectonic example -a palace-like building with a richly ornate façade and beautiful interior courtyards- and occupies the place formerly occupied by the Jesuit primary school, during the colonial times. The Train Station, built in 1903, boasts also the remarkable French academy style.

81 km (51 miles) from San Luis, on a road that skirts the Sierras de San Luis and the Conlara River Valley one can find La Toma, the national capital of onyx, a green marble which is characteristic of the province. It is possible to see there the craftsmen's ateliers where very elaborate articles are made. Continuing on, one reaches Merlo, famous for its excellent microclimate. The scenically beautiful city offers basic but abundant facilities for tourists, including casino, and hotels of different categories. Its architecture, such as the simple chapel located in front of the palm-covered main square, still shows some traces of earlier times. Upon returning to San Luis, the road leads to a region abundantly covered by palm-trees, in the surroundings of a small town called Papagayos where nice palm leave crafts are produced.

Situated nearby the Potrero de los Funes Dam is a green valley surrounded by hills where there is a dam and a small resort with its houses and inns almost hidden among the trees. There is also a very good 4-star hotel & casino in the area. Along the same road it is possible to visit the traditional summer resort preferred by the locals: El Volcán. The beautiful summer resort lies at beneath the foothills of the sierras and is surrounded by lush vegetation.

Another traditional summer resort is El Trapiche, a small hamlet of narrow and winding streets, repeatedly crossed by the river of the same name. The small settlement started in 1772 when they built there a trapiche (kind of mill to grind the minerals extracted from the mine) called Mina Carolina. 2 km (1.20 miles) away from El Trapiche, La Florida Dam was built. An important flora and fauna reserve around its artificial lake (800 sq hectares) can be seen.

The mining town of Carolina is located to the north of El Trapiche. This is where the rich mines of San Antonio de las Invernadas were discovered in 1770. From 1830 to 1850, the mine exploitation reached its peak, and the veins were completely emptied. Nowadays, there is only a kind of handicraft extraction by washing golden sands that keep some sediments of the rich mineral. The activity increases during January and February when the high level of the river makes the waters more productive.

It is interesting to visit the Intihuasi Caves, situated 2 km (1.20 miles) away from Carolina and 1,715 meters (5,710 feet) above sea level. The word Intihuasi stands for "the sun's house" in Quichua. It is an important archaeological site that revealed interesting aspects of the aborigine culture of the Ayampitíns, descendants of the first human migrations into the American Continent. The cave presents a few pictographs, and it is supposed to have been already inhabited by the year 6000 B.C.

The Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas (Las Quijadas Sierras National Park) is located 120 km (75 miles) north from the city of San Luis. It was created in 1991 and is one of the most important attractions in the province. It has a surface of 150,000 hectares covered by Mesozoic geologic formations of reddish and grayish sedimentary rock layers. Those rocks -eroded by wind and water for centuries- have developed rather peculiar shapes. The most remarkable example is the area called Potrero de Aguada, a sequence of terraces, cliffs and abysses. From the upper rim of this kind of amphitheater, it is possible to observe the highest mountain in the area: Mount Portillo (1,200 meters/3,996 feet). Near the western boundaries of the park there are a series of unconnected and mostly temporary small lagoons. They are rather shallow and the volume depends on the waters provided by the Desaguadero River. This hydric system compounds the complex called Guanacache Lagoons. Vegetation there is scarce. It is mainly represented by rockroses and great variety of shrubs and cactuses. Native fauna is also abundant in spite of the lack of water; it is important to mention some endangered species such as pumas, gray foxes, maras (a species of hares) and wildcats. The lizards are the most common reptiles and it is also possible to observe a wide variety of birds such as imposing Andean condors, 'ñandúes' (rheas) and flamingos in the Guanacache Lagoons. Near the entrance gate there are some traces of the ancient aborigine inhabitants of the region. There are trenches dug into the soil that are called 'hornillos' and allegedly belonging to the Huarpe aborigines, the first primitive inhabitants of the region. Some interesting fossils have been found there, belonging to two different species of prehistoric flying reptiles: the pterosauros. Only a few other specimens have been found in the rest of the world, which renders the Park most important from the paleontological Point of view.