Marambio

We spent a week in San Carlos de Bariloche, Patagonia. It was a family trip but as we like to be together but not cramped we all stayed in different places and flew in different dates. The girlfriend and I flew LAN Argentina which was OK — both flights were on time and service was good. BRC gets 9 flights a day from AEP/EZE during the summer, so lots of availability and both flights were not full. We managed to get the row of 3 seats for the two of us in both ways.

On the way back a troupe of 4 unaccompanied minors was seated behind us and they behaved really well. When they entered the plane, the ground agent bid them farewell by saying “bye bye Smurfs” (“chau Pitufos”, it’s a cute Argentine way of saying “little ones”). With the girlfriend we wondered whether a bunch of 8 year olds in 2016 know what a Smurf is.

We had booked a car at Alamo through Despegar.com (Argentina’s Expedia) which proved to be a good idea since all rent a car agencies were sold out. Plenty of people were strolling through the different companies at the airport trying to unsuccessfully get a car. A lady even tried to “sub-rent” our Renault — of course we declined. The guy at Alamo gave us a brand new Renault Clio which, while tiny, behaved surprisingly well in the gravel roads of Patagonia.

Home for the week was Hostería Pájaro Azul. It is not a “small leading hotel of the world” but at 60 USD/night, breakfast included, for 2 people, it was very reasonable. It is located 200 meters from the Lake half-way between downtown and the Llao Llao area, and since it’s on a small hilltop, we got fantastic views of the lake. The room was nice and tidy and breakfast was great, with homemade pastries and marmalades. The whole hostería only has 5 rooms and the owner, Mónica, really took care of us. Wi-fi signal was excellent — much better than in my last hotel in Paris. The hostería does not normally offer dinner, but you can ask Mónica to cook dinner for you for a reasonable price. I’m not sure whether Mónica speaks any English (all other guests were porteños) but if you speak some Spanish and don’t expect big luxury I recommend.

Regarding food, we tried Il Gabbiano, which is an Italian restaurant. I found it nice, the girlfriend really liked it, and it was very popular with US-American tourists. Another night we went to Bahía Serena — the food was nothing to write home about but it is right on the lake, which, with sunsets at 9:30pm, was very nice. We wanted to try La Masía but they were fully booked for the whole week. My brother went there with his wife and they liked it.

We also went to the Sirius, which is the restaurant of Hotel Aldebarán, suggested by the front desk chap of Llao Llao (another part of the group was staying at Llao Llao, they absolutely loved it). Sirius/Aldebarán is a bit off the beaten path but it is worth it. It’s a very small boutique hotel with a 4-table restaurant. I had the lamb and was pleasantly surprised. The girlfriend had the trout and also enjoyed it.

We also had lunch one day at the Llao Llao, which offers a buffet at the winter garden overlooking the lake. I am not really a fan of hotel buffets, but this one was pretty good.

That said, the one restaurant we really enjoyed was Cassis. If you happen to go to Bariloche, make sure you book a table there. It is hidden in a fantastic location, overlooking Gutiérrez Lake, some 15 km away from downtown Bariloche, and they offer a 7-step menu which takes you through the best of Patagonian cuisine (lamb, trout, berries, etc.) with a sophisticated “central European” touch, applied by the owners who are a German couple. We were served by young Ona, the owners’ 9-year-old daughter, who was an absolutely great waiter (seriously, she spoke in Spanish with us, in English with a British couple seating next to us and in German with an Austrian group) and we really fell in love with the place and the food. At roughly 2,000 ARS (150 USD) for the two of us with a bottle of wine, coffee and tea, we thought it was also very good value for money.

But it’s not only eating that took us to Patagonia. We climbed Cerro López in 3 hours and while we were extremely tired afterwards, we loved it. Make sure you carry something for lunch in your backpack, as there is a restaurant in the first stop but at the top there’s only a small shelter. We popped in La Anónima supermarket before the climb and bought stuff to make sandwiches and since we were so exhausted it was probably the best lunch in our entire trip.

We also booked a horseback riding excursion with a fellow called Tom Wesley, who is 100% Argentinian despite his English name. The guide was a chap from northern Santa Fe, a great horseman, and the excursion takes you in 3 hours through the mountain forest to a small, private beach on Lake Moreno. We were quite lucky as the other people on the excursion cancelled so it was just the guide and the two of us. We both know how to ride horses, so we even managed to gallop for a while, which is frowned upon in big groups.

On the one cloudy day we took the car and drove to San Martín de los Andes, 190km north of Bariloche. The road is worth the trip, as you drive through the forest past seven different lakes. The whole road is paved and in good condition, but make sure you load petrol in Bariloche and in San Martín de los Andes as the only station in between is in Villa la Angostura, a very small town, and occasionally they run out of petrol there. Petrol in Patagonia is 20% cheaper than in Buenos Aires (a subsidy to seduce people to move there).

Finally, on the last day we took the ferry to Isla Victoria and the Bosque de Arrayanes. It was perhaps a bit too touristic for my liking but the whole group wanted to do it and we obliged. The ferry —“Cau Cau”— is new and they have a first class which costs 300 ARS extra (700 ARS is the normal price). We took it and it was worth it as they offer you lunch, tea, coffee and soft drinks through the voyage. Bosque de Arrayanes I found OK, Isla Victoria was really nice and I wished we had stayed longer. Maybe next time with my own boat! There's a small luxury lodge there which looks interesting as per their webpage (funnily enough, they don't accept children, pets and smokers).

On a side note, pretty much everywhere we went in Bariloche they took credit and debit cards, which I found very good and is not common in Argentina. I’m not able to vouch for the hostería on that, since we had already paid through a bank transfer before getting there.

I hadn’t found any reports here covering Bariloche, so I thought it would be good to add my two cents on the place. It was my first time in Patagonia during the summer and I really liked it.

HIDDY

Great report. ^

I've been to St Martin de los Andes and Villa la Angostura on a fishing trip but not been to Bariloche yet so thanks for the tips. Interesting to know about the petrol subsidy I didn't know about that. How much did your car rental cost?

Marambio

We paid around 6000 ARS for the car for 7 days inclusive of the complete insurance, which I always pay because I'm pessimistic by nature.

HIDDY

Yes car hire doesn't come cheap here. If we go we'll just drive down in our own car stopping off for the night somewhere on the way. It takes us two hours in the opposite direction to get to AEP so there's no point flying down and even though the Bariloche bus stops here there's no way I'd go by bus again no matter how comfortable it is. I had quite enough of that the last time.
Your accommodation sounded good although I'd prefer renting a place and catering for ourselves.

Marambio

Renting a car here is expensive when compared to Europe, but in this case we had no choice. We thought about taking the car but it really makes no sense to drive from Buenos Aires to Bariloche for just one week (it's 1,600 km), and once there you do need a car, as distances are quite big even within the city and public transportation doesn't get you everywhere. My brother drove from Buenos Aires (he stayed for 3 weeks) and said the road was fine. He slept in a hotel in Piedra del Águila which was just average but is the only pet-friendly hotel in the area and he was travelling with his dog.

There's plenty of bungalows in Bariloche and during the summer many locals also rent their houses. We wanted a hotel because we're lazy, but a house has many advantages and some of them are really nice (the brother rented a house right on the lake, one of the most beautiful properties I've ever been in).