thebadger

We just got back from our trip to Argentina, and I wanted to share some of our thoughts. We spent a total of 3 nights in BA (3 upfront and 1 on the back end), 2 in Iguazu, and 4 in Mendoza.

All in all, each location offered something very different – and I think we planned our trip pretty well.

Buenos Aires: Stayed at Park Tower (Starwood) – good central location, allows for a walk to Puerto Madero.

Restaurants:
1) Ate at La Cabrera – and I’m glad we ate here first, because wow, did this leave something to be desired. No joke, I’ve had a better quality ribeye at a Lonestar / Outback Steakhouse. I just don’t get the hype.

2) Visited i Latina, which is more of a “closed door restaurant” concept. We had an amazing dinner here and had a great time chatting it up with Camilo and Santiago – the brothers who co-own this restaurant (Santiago is the chef, and Camilo runs the service side). This restaurant is more of a “foodie” type of a place – lots of attention to detail as well as to the food. We thought it would be a good balance to the prior night, when we dined at a larger steakhouse type of a concept. Highly recommend i Latina, and actually sent some people who we met at our hotel in Mendoza to this place

3) Desnivel for lunch in San Telmo – Delicious empanadas and meats here – and in fact, we returned here for dinner on our last night, after we got back to BA from Mendoza. Very casual spot – and while it was pretty slow at lunch it was hopping on the Friday night when we returned. Definitely recommend this spot.

Finally, I also wanted to call out that we had an opportunity to visit Alex (Gaucho100K) at his wine store in Palermo (Terroir Fine Wines). Alex has an impressive selection of wines, spirits, and cigars in a lovely store – and was a gracious host to my wife and I. We had a chance to select a Malbec while there (which we polished off on our last evening in BA), and had a great time getting to know Alex and to learn a bit about BA. After we picked up some other great bottles in Mendoza, I have no doubt I’ll be sending him a note pretty shortly for a replenishment shipment

Iguazu: Stayed at the Sheraton…Basically, this is a mediocre hotel that serves mediocre food, in one of the most beautiful, perfect locations on earth. Suffice it to say, the Sheraton is the only hotel actually in the park – and so I’d highly recommend this as the best jumping off point in Iguazu – PERIOD. By staying at this hotel, you get to hit the trails before the other tourists – so you get some pretty unfettered access to the waterfalls.

We upgraded rooms to a view of the falls – and while this isn’t necessary, per se, it’s a nice option.

Highly recommend the boat ride through the falls while you’re there.

Mendoza: While we loved each city we visited, Mendoza was the highlight of our trip – by far. Let’s begin with accommodations. We stayed at Finca Adalgisa, a boutique hotel (11 rooms) in Chacras de Coria (Lujan de Cuyo), about a 20 minute drive from downtown. This hotel has a vineyard on site, and is in a tranquil location off the main road. The staff, food, pool, and rooms could not have been better. Huge, huge recommendation for this hotel.

While in Mendoza, we had a light dinner at Finca Adalgisa twice (the 2 days that we had 5-course pairings at vineyards, we opted to eat a light dinner at our hotel), and had 2 truly amazing dinners the other two evenings:

1) Nadia O.F.: Nadia is the wife of the owner of O’Fournier winery – and is one of the highest regarded / up and coming chefs in Mendoza. We went to Nadia OF our first evening, and sat under the stars on their patio. As our luggage didn’t make the connection, we were stuck with shorts and t-shirts, and the maitre d was entirely understanding. We ordered our 5 course, prix fixe meal (which allowed for a few selections) with the premium wines (O Fournier of course), and had a wonderful time. We met a couple from BA, and had a great conversation with Nadia.

2) Siete Cocinas: Siete Cocinas is a restaurant located in downtown Mendoza (probably 20 minutes from our hotel). Fun ambience, good crowd, and I had the best steak (a strip steak seasoned with garlic and chimichurri) of the trip here. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

On two of the days we were in Mendoza, we did full day wine tours with our guide, Miguel Sanz.

First off, let’s talk Miguel. Amazing, top notch guide. ^^^ We had a blast with him – he knows the city incredibly well, seems to know everyone in it, and made great recommendations for us (wineries, restaurants). I must have emailed him 100 times leading up to our trip, and at no point did he seem annoyed. He provided insight throughout, made changes per my request, and the trip wouldn’t have been the same without him. Oh yeah – when our luggage didn’t make it to Mendoza until the day after we arrived, he arranged to have expedited delivery from the airport to our hotel. I can’t say enough good things about him and encourage everyone thinking about visiting Mendoza to connect with him.:-:

First vineyard tour day: Lujan de Cuyo:
1) Terrazas
2) Belasco de Baquedano (lunch)
3) Vistalba
4) Carmelo Patti (no tour, but had a chance to hob nob with Carmelo himself – and to practice my Spanish – that much more fun after having drank wine all day )

Of these 4, I’d recommend Terrazas and B de B for tours, and would recommend a short visit to meet and chat with Carmelo. Lunch at Belasco de Baquedano was incredible, and this restaurant offered some amazing views. Vistalba was just so-so.


Second vineyard tour day: Uco Valley
1) Pulenta Estates (technically still in Lujan de Cuyo)
2) La Azul (lunch)
3) Andeluna
4) Domaine Bousquet

Of these four, I’d recommend each. We did tours at Pulenta (amazing Cab Francs here) and La Azul, and bought wines from each of these 4 vineyards. At Pulenta, we got a great tour (I forget the guide’s name – but she’s from Missouri), and picked up a few bottles of the Cab Franc. Our favorite vineyard of either day was at La Azul. We had a great time with Pablo and Jimmy (the chef and a winemaker). The lunch at La Azul was nothing short of ridiculously awesome (more ribeye, waddya know :P), as was the wine. We bought a few bottles of their Gran Reserve Malbec / Cab blend. Delicious.

Of course I could keep going on and on about the experience – but hopefully this gives a good flavor for our trip. Suffice it to say, our taste in wine just got much more expensive

jimmac

Thanks for the great report. We are in Mendoza now and had a great day yesterday with Miguel Sanz taking us to the Valle de Uco. We started at Salentien, had a great lunch at La Azul and then had a great tour and tasting just for us with a wonderful young lady at Domain Bousquet.

Miguel provided great service and is a very knowledgeable guy. I heartily endorse your recommendation of him.

HIDDY

Super feedback and full of good information for those following in your footsteps. ^
Glad to hear you had a good trip.

thebadger

Guessing you met Paula at Domain Bousquet? We were there at the tail end of our day in Uco - so by that point we were really enjoying ourselves! Definitely enjoyed meeting Paula and took home a couple of bottles of their Gran Reserve Malbec (one of which is long gone)

jimmac

Yes, we met Paula. She was excellent. And, yes, their Gran Reserve Malbec was fabulous. We did the all Malbec tasting of 4 Malbecs including a sweet one.

PagoFlyer

A nice, "easy" to read report.

Dieuwer

When did you go? What was the weather like during your stay?

Gaucho100K

Great report... and thanks for the kind words... ^

thebadger

We took our trip in mid January.

In Buenos Aires it was generally hot during the day (mid 80s - 90F, strong sun) and warm at night (70ish). Sunny throughout

Iguazu - very hot / humid - upper 80s-low 90sF, very humid. It was probably mid / upper 70s in the evenings - and still very sticky. Generally sunny throughout, though some clouds rolled in the last day. It's my understanding that rain isn't infrequent, and so I think we were pretty lucky.

Mendoza - low - mid 80s in the day, low humidity and generally comfortable. On a couple of days it only reached upper 70s. We got a mix of clouds, sun, and rain - and overall we didn't have great weather in Mendoza (some heavy rain in a couple of the evenings...so heavy that there was a bit of flooding at our hotel!). My understanding is that this is pretty rare as well.

thebadger

Thanks...we'll be back and let me know if / when you'll be in Chicago!

thetravelabstract

Great trip report! Your part about Mendoza makes me want to go back there right now.

Sorry to hear about La Cabrera. Of the more touristy parilla's in Palermo I prefer Don Julio which you should try next time. Not as cramped or rushed and I think they have better steaks.

Gaucho100K

On the subject of Barrio Parrillas, La Raya has been getting decent reviews from some of my friends... I will need to visit and report back.

allanfan

Any suggestions on whether it's worth going to the Brazil side of Iguaçu fall? We only plan to spend 2 days/1 night (prob will stay at Sheraton) in Iguaçu, although I found reviews saying views from Brazil side is better, but seems only a couple hours from Brazil side is enough. This coupled with the fact that we need to get a Brazil visa beforehand and it costs $160 makes me wonder whether if it's worth the hassle.

On the other hand, I see wiki travel says about half of the sights on the Argentina side are closed (due to flooding?), so I wonder if any one has any recent experiences/recommendations?

ha, I think we'll prob also try to visit Gaucho100K's store in Dec, especially that we are not going to Mendoza, would love to pick up some Malbec in BA.

Villavic

YES. Both sides are worth it. Each side has its own value, IMHO.

M60_to_LGA

I haven't actually been to the Argentina side, but I have been on the Brazilian side - so I can't compare the two, but I can talk about what's across the river.

The park on the Brazilian side is great, and the walk around the top of the falls is spectacular.

Not at the falls, but on the same public bus that goes to/from Foz, is a bird sanctuary that I found very interesting.

I'm assuming you could take the boat ride under the falls from either side, and since you're going in the middle of the river the experience will pretty much be the same either way.

Foz itself doesn't really have much to recommend it as a destination in its own right - it's a perfectly pleasant city, but Rio it's not :P

I assume that the Brazilian side would be rather more expensive than the Argentinean side, simply because of the real's strength - although a local would probably be better able to speak on that. In my experience, Brazil is generally more expensive than Argentina these days.