I am considering a trip to Salta/Jujuy in the NW of Argentina. Using AA miles it seems the closest I can get through Santiago is to Cordoba AR or to Calama in Chile. Since we were planning on renting a car and spending about ten days exploring the area, would either of these locations be feasible? I thought that LAN flew to Salta, am I mistaken or did they discontinue this flight? Any comments on the Salta area or suggestions for places to stay or eat? Our Spanish is limited. We prefer smaller family-run places or estancias and would prefer to keep accomodation costs under 100USD/night

LAN was supposed to have started to serve Salta some 6 weeks ago, but the flight has now been put on hold.

Also, if you are on a limited budget, please note that renting a car in Argentina is not exactly cheap (I cant speak for Chile as I have no rental experience there).

Any suggestions for places to stay around Salta? We are still considering driving from Cordoba to Salta, so any info on the area would be appreciated. I know it is a long drive, we would probably take several days exploring the area along the way then taking the more direct route back.

As posted in another thread, the LAN flight to Salta is now confirmed beginning March 26th.

Regarding places to stay, three places come to mind:

Hotel El Lagar
Patios de Cafayate (a Starwood Luxury Collection resort)
Colome Estate (winery of the Hess Group)

Ive stayed at all three places and each is IMO a great place, but all are very different and located in different settings. El Lagar is an ex family home that is now a small boutique hotel, with 7 rooms. Patios is a more typical large chain resort, but with definite special touches that makes it a great place to stay. Also, Patios is a great place to use your SPG points. Colome is a winery with an annexed high end lodge, located in the middle of the Calchaqui Valley. For the ultimate Salta experience, I would suggest you stay a couple of days at each place. Since you will have a vehicle, this is perfectly doable.


For details of Colome Estate, please see:

www.bodegacolome.com

For details on Patios de Cafayate, please see:

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1702

For details on El Lagar, please see:

http://www.argentinacontact.com/es_argentina/HotelElLagar_1020.html