Argentina - 10 Day trip to BUE/FTE - Please Critique

Hello,

My wife and I have planned a ten day trip to Argentina in mid November.

Currently we are planning in spending our first 3 nights in BA (at the Fierro Hotel Boutique in Palermo), followed by a side trip to El Calafate / Perito Moreno Glacier for two nights, and then returning to BA to finish off the final few nights at the Park Hyatt (cashing in our remaining Hyatt points from our wedding).

I have a few questions:

1.) For a ten day trip, am I wasting too much time by flying down to El Calafate just to see the glacier ? Are there other trips I should be considering (I'm not interested in the falls. I have heard that Uruguay makes for a nice day trip. Mendoza is also something we've been thinking about, though we've done a lot of wine tasting in the US, so we may just try to find a wine store or restaurant that does a wine tasting in BA)

2.) The trip to El Calafate is only available on AR. I've heard some mixed things here about their reliability. Does the lack of a LAN flight make this side-trip inadvisable ? (There is a LAN flight available on the return segment if that makes any difference)

3.) I have not seen any reviews/reports here for the Fierro hotel (http://www.fierrohotel.com/hotel-overview.html) though it is highly rated in Tripadvisor. Does anyone here have any experience with this property ?

4.) In El Calafate, we are currently booked at Las Dunas (http://www.hosterialasdunas.com.ar/) (no mentions on here FT, but highly regarded on TA). Any recent thoughts on this or other properties in El Calafate

5.) Will the volcanic ash present difficulties getting down to FTE ?

Muchas Gracias!

-SS

Your trip sounds fine to me.

I think some people try and cram too much into a short space of time when they come here on holiday. Your itinerary sounds very relaxed...just what a holiday should be. The trip to Patagonia is certainly worth including.

I agree with Hiddy, although you should work on some sort of plan B in case this darned volcanic activity continues to create issues....

Thanks for the input.

Worst case, if there is a travel disruption (and hopefully it happens while in BsAs), I don't mind spending the extra nights in BA. In that case, we may do a day trip to Uruguay or perhaps take the bus to Mendoza.