Argentina - Looking for Itinerary Recs for Argentina 10-night Vacation

Hi all,

My wife and I are traveling to Argentina for a 10-night vacation in early March. We were fortunate enough to get two r/t reward tickets JFK-EZE w/ AA miles. Now we need to figure out where to go within AR.

This is what we're thinking: 3 nights each in BA, Mendoza, and Patagonia (and we'll stay for 4 nights in one place for a total of 10 nights). In which one of these three destinations should we stay 4 nights?

About us - We're 30 years old and love to eat, drink, and do anything we possibly can on vacation to have an awesome and memorable time. While we do like to relax, we also realize we're only there for 10 days, so sleep will definitely be sacrificed. We are very active and will look to do some mountain biking, white water rafting, paragliding, and the like. We love to meet new people on our travels and love the randomness of traveling. Our budget for this trip, I would say, is 4*. It's not a honeymoon, so no need for 4S or Ritz or anything like that. On this trip, we would rather stay at a less expensive hotel and eat at the best restaurants, rather than the other way around.

BA - We'll look to stay in a boutique hotel and eat and drink our way around the city while checking out the sites, taking a cooking lesson, taking a tango lessons, going to tango show, and possibly a day trip to Colonia, UR (is a day trip like this even worth our time?).

Mendoza - We'd like to do a hybrid of wine tasting tours, eating at amazing restaurants, and do some activities such as biking, rafting, hiking, etc. Wine touring for 3 days would get kind of boring I reckon. I see that some people prefer to stay in the city and some in the country. While we'd love to explore the city a little bit, we're not really city people as much as we are outdoors/nature people. We love the idea of staying on an upscale-ish ranch/vineyard.

Patagonia - As many FTers are, I see, we are in between Bariloche and Chalten/Calafate. The Lake Region looks beautiful, but so do the glaciers and all of the scenery down south. We're definitely leaning toward the latter, but if anyone has a strong reason why we should do Bariloche instead, pls let me know. We've never really seen glaciers or mountains of any type, so an opportunity to be in a place with such scenery is hard to pass up. We don't have the desire to do both of these, as it would be too much jumping around and checking in and out of hotels.

Regarding flights, it looks like AeroLineas and LAN are the only two intra-AR airlines, correct? Is one better than the other? How easy/difficult is the airport/traveling process in AR? I hope it's not an all-day affair like it is here in the US, especially the Northeast and our NYC airports! Also, I know LAN is OneWorld, but we don't have any AA miles left to get any additional reward flights.

I have spent some time on FT this morning and have read many threads on similar topics. I love researching vacations and FT has become my go-to site for the best recommendations (FTers helped us plan and have the most amazing honeymoon in Vietnam last year! (If anyone needs any Nam advice, let me know!)), so I am grateful for any info and tips that anyone has to offer. AR looks like an amazing country and we're so excited for the trip.

Thanks in advance!

Joe

Hello Joe-- LAN and Aerolineas are the only two principal options... but if you have a choice, please go with LAN. For Patagonia, its a coin toss but if you will pick one place, I would say go to El Calafate... you can save Bariloche for a next trip.

In Mendoza, given your above description I would suggest you stay in either Chacras de Coria, or in Valle de Uco. if you have 3 nights, maybe you can do 2 nights in Chacras and then do the last night in the Valle de Uco. Distances are important, so when you go out to the Valle de Uco to visit the producers there, you can stay one night in that area.

Some places for you to consider are:
- Lares de Chacra (Chacras de Coria)
- Postales del Plata (Valle de Uco)

Buenos Aires has a huge offering in the boutique hotel department... Im sure others will chime in with their experiences, but here are a few for you to consider:

- Bobo Hotel
- Home Buenos Aires
- 1555 Malabia House
- 248 Finisterra

Cheers,
Gaucho100K

Hello Joe-- LAN and Aerolineas are the only two principal options... but if you have a choice, please go with LAN. For Patagonia, its a coin toss but if you will pick one place, I would say go to El Calafate... you can save Bariloche for a next trip.


I agree 100% about the LAN choice. Don't know if it's more expensive, but I have some outrageous tales with Aerolineas that convinced me to never fly again with them.

About the Calafate choice, that's my next target (april) but already been in Bariloche (no snowy/ski season yet), and it's beautiful and awesome. If you like mountain biking, trekking, outdoors, etc., that's the best. I still don't have enough info about Calafate, I'm still researching, but I know Bariloche is not dissapointing at all.

Thank you guys, especially for the tip on LAN. Gaucho, I'll check out your recommended accommodation...

If we stay 3-4 nights in BA, is an overnight trip via fast ferry to Colonia worth it? Or would we be better off doing a day trip outside of BA?

If we stay 3-4 nights in BA, is an overnight trip via fast ferry to Colonia worth it? Or would we be better off doing a day trip outside of BA?

If it's your first time in B.A., I would spend the 3 whole days knowing all beautiful places in that awesome city. If you want to know the most of Buenos Aires, you have to take advantage of your whole stay.

I'm traveling tomorrow again (long weekend holiday), it will be my 9th time in B.A.
I went to Colonia on march, it was my first time (on my 8th visit), it's very nice and the trip in Buquebus is fun too, though you have to get tickets days in advance or you will find only tickets for the slower ships. My suggest, if you are visiting B.A. first time, I'd bypass Colonia for a next trip. But if you choose it anyway, a day trip is fine. The fast ferry travel is few hours, don't need to sleep in the ship. I spent a whole sunday departing 8:30am aprox, and it was enough

I would do 3 nights in El Calafate, 3 nights in Mendoza, and 4 nights in Buenos Aires. In fact, you could even move a night from Mendoza to Buenos Aires (everyone probably won't agree with that.) With limited time, I would NOT spend a night in Colonia... there's just way too much to see and do in BA.

Regarding airlines: I took Aerolineas down to El Calafate and it was ... interesting ... not bad, just interesting. I used LAN everywhere else. Go with LAN. You can earn AA miles with them, too.

Yes I think you're right on giving Colonia a miss. We would rather do BA as thoroughly as we can and not spend the time traveling to Uruguay on a relatively short vacation (10 nights in AR after flying down from NYC). We will be traveling enough and don't really need to sit on a boat and orient ourselves with yet another destination.

I see online that LAN has very limited availability for the days we want to travel (early March) and Aero has much more avail, so we will probably go w/ them, but I'm going to call LAN in NYC anyway and double-check.

OK, my wife and I are in the process of booking everything this weekend, so I want to ask a few more questions and hope that someone can help us make a few key decisions.

What we're looking at now is:
3 nights in BA
3 nights in Calafate or Bariloche (still undecided)
4 nights in Mendoza (2 at a vineyard and 2 in the city)

BA - It looks like we're staying at either Duque or Own. Both look great and both are reasonably priced in in good areas.

Patagonia - We're still stuck between Calafate/Chalten and Bariloche. I am aware that they're two very distinct regions and both have their highlights. We only have time to hit one of these and want to make the best decision. Is there enough to do for 3 nights in Calafate? We'd like to do some hiking, sight-seeing (but not too much) and possibly day trip into Chile if that's feasible and worthwhile. Any thoughts on our Calafate v. Bariloche battle?

Mendoza - We plan to stay at Club Tapiz for 2 nights and at a boutique in the city for 2 nights.

We haven't booked anything so if anyone has any last minute comments/recommendations on this itinerary, please let me know.

Thanks!

If we stay 3-4 nights in BA, is an overnight trip via fast ferry to Colonia worth it? Or would we be better off doing a day trip outside of BA?

Honestly Joe, unless its something you really really want to do, i would think 3 nights in BsAs is too short of a time to bother going to Colonia.

That said, a day trip to Colonia is fine if you choose to do it.

Also.

I know I may have my Frequent Drinker card pulled for saying this but with your description of likes and dislikes above I am surprised you did not include Iguazu instead of Mendoza. The park there is certainly a wonderful chance to hike and enjoy the falls and at the Sheraton all rooms face the falls.

As for where to stay in BsAs. If you're going to put 4 nights in I would highly recommend at least looking into an apartment rental instead of a hotel. Most even though they say 1 week minimum only mean they're going to charge you for a week. Often that weekly rate will be cheaper than a hotel.

Also, there is a wine shop in town I highly recommend you check out. The guy really knows his stuff.

It was the highlight of our trip three years ago. This year we will explore "drunk" territory instead.:p

But Iguazu is a must.

You look like you are planning a great short holiday. Just remember its very unlikely to be your only visit to Argentina. You will want to return again and again.

Club Tapiz is an excellent choice. We've stayed there and it is great.

I, too, would recommend Calafate. Although I've never been to Bariloche I was in Calafate almost a year ago and would return in a minute. If you want to spend a bit more than at Club Tapiz consider Eolo which is out in countryside between the town and the glacier. It is great.

I agree with the advice to skip Colonia until a subsequent visit. There's much more to do in BA than 3 days will permit so don't give up one of those days in Colonia. Its nice on your third or fourth visit to BA.

Have a great trip.

Patagonia - We're still stuck between Calafate/Chalten and Bariloche. I am aware that they're two very distinct regions and both have their highlights. We only have time to hit one of these and want to make the best decision. Is there enough to do for 3 nights in Calafate? We'd like to do some hiking, sight-seeing (but not too much) and possibly day trip into Chile if that's feasible and worthwhile. Any thoughts on our Calafate v. Bariloche battle?


There is definitly enough to do in Calafate for 3 nights IMHO. You can do 4x4 touring one day, the glacier another, and for the last you can take a day trip to El Chalten and do some light hiking there before heading back.

My wife and I LOVED the glaciers and the mountains outside of El Calafate. They were just amazing views everywhere. The whole landscape was surreal, definitly worth it.

Thanks in no small part to the FT community, my wife and I have finally booked our 10-night vacation to Argentina. We depart exactly one month from today and we're extremely excited. We've decided to split our time between BA and Mendoza and really enjoy those two locations. We were originally thinking of adding Patagonia (Bariloche or Calafate) to the trip, but decided that it was too much to do in 10 days. We'll hit Patagonia on the next trip. So here's what we have booked FYI:

Fly JFK-EZE on AA - 2 reward return tickets for 80,000 miles total. Airfare would have cost $2,660 total! A great deal.

BA - Stay 2 nights in Rendez-Vous Hotel, Palermo Hollywood

Fly AEP-MDZ on LAN - 2 return tickets for $762 total

MDZ - Stay 2 nights at Club Tapiz, 4 nights at Villaggio Hotel

Fly MDZ-AEP

BA - Stay 2 nights at Duque Hotel, Palermo Soho

I'll be sure to report back at the end of March! Thanks again for all of your assistance.

Looks like a great itin..... please do come back and report how things go. Enjoy your trip!!! ^

Sounds good Joe.

For your next trip call into AA and see if you can get JFK-EZE/AEP-somewhere else and return. Its the same amount of miles, usually.

Fly AEP-MDZ on LAN - 2 return tickets for $762 total


Wow -- it was US$762 for 2 to Mendoza? That's outrageous, but it's still worthwhile. MDZ is awesome.

Wow -- it was US$762 for 2 to Mendoza? That's outrageous, but it's still worthwhile. MDZ is awesome.

2 years ago RT between AEP and Bariloche was $350 per person.
the following week RT between EZE and Santiago de Chile was $100 per person; go figure out.
flights inside Argentina are terribly expensive.
very discouraging if you want to see several sites.

Pricing for internal flights were very cheap a while back... prices have now adjusted and things are now expensive, unless you can book your internal flights as part as one of those special visitors fares.

Pricing for internal flights were very cheap a while back... prices have now adjusted and things are now expensive, unless you can book your internal flights as part as one of those special visitors fares.

Or as part of an international paid fare. Sometimes it doesn't cost much more than just the international portion of the ticket.

Wow, I didn't know that about the inexpensive / free add-on for intra-AR flights to my int'l itinerary w/ AA/Lan. Well, now I know for next time.