Paraguay rewards curiosity. It's one of the least-visited countries in South America, and most travellers who come are heading to or from somewhere else — usually the Iguazú Falls. That's a mistake. The country has real depth, and the absence of tourist crowds is itself part of the appeal.
The Jesuit mission ruins near Encarnacion are among the best in South America. Trinidad and Jesús de Tavarangue are UNESCO World Heritage Sites — vast, pink-stone complexes half-swallowed by vegetation. They're quieter and in some ways more moving than the better-known missions on the Argentine side. Budget at least a full day.
Asuncion is one of South America's oldest capitals and one of its most overlooked. The historic centre has a handful of genuinely impressive colonial and neoclassical buildings — the Palacio de los López, the Panteón Nacional de los Héroes, the Casa de la Independencia — alongside crumbling streets, decent cafes, and a lively riverside promenade that comes alive at weekends. It's a city that rewards wandering.
The Gran Chaco covers the western half of Paraguay in flat scrubland and dry forest. It's one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in South America, home to jaguars, giant anteaters, tapirs, and hundreds of bird species. Most visitors base themselves in Filadelfia, the main Mennonite colony town, and take 4WD excursions from there. The roads are rough and the heat is serious, but the Chaco is genuinely wild in a way that few places left in South America are.
Ciudad del Este is primarily known as a border-crossing and shopping city — think electronics, cosmetics, and counterfeit goods in a frenetic market environment. Nearby, the Itaipu Dam is one of the largest hydroelectric projects on earth and worth visiting for the sheer scale of the thing. The Iguazú Falls are 20km away over the Brazilian border.
The Circuito de Oro is a day loop east of Asunción through the rural heartland: Yaguaron with its remarkable 18th-century Franciscan church, Aregua for pottery workshops and strawberries, and Lake Ypacaraí at San Bernardino, where Asunceños come to swim and socialise at weekends. It's a pleasant way to see something of rural Paraguayan life.