Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Argentina Trip Report

My husband and I just spent 2 weeks in Argentina, visiting Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Bariloche and Peninsula Valdes. The posts on this forum were a wonderful resource in planning our trip (many thanks to Drdawggy and many others who have shared their experiences!), so perhaps this review will be helpful to future travelers. We traveled on our own and booked hotels and flights (on Aerolineas Argentinas) through Cintia from Wow Argentina (we contacted Cintia based on what we read about her in this forum and also the Frommer's boards). I must say that all the positive comments about Cintia are right on the mark - it's hard to add to all the nice things that already have been said about her, but she was simply a pleasure to work with and was extremely professional and responsive. (Frankly, I am afraid that having worked with Cintia, we will be forever disappointed with future travel agents, as it is not often that you get to work with someone so nice and professional).

1. Buenos Aires. Taxi from Airport - as someone had suggested on this board, there is a booth located right in the center of the arrival area after you get out of customs and after you pass the first set of more expensive booths. The rate was 48 pesos to Recoleta, and the invoice also had a coupon for a return trip to the airport for 32 pesos. We used this coupon on our way back, and everything worked great, the car came on time and was very nice.

Hotel- Loi Suites Recoleta; certainly not a five star luxury hotel (it actually could potentially be operated as a luxury hotel if it was managed differently), but very clean and great location. The front desk staff was not very helpful and, especially in the evening when I suspect management was not around, seemed to have the attitude that they just couldn't be bothered with anything (they do not have a concierge desk, so you have to ask the front desk to call you a taxi, etc.). We were a bit surprised by this, especially since we had very few requests to begin with. The breakfast was good, and they also have free internet access in the business center. Despite the unhelpful staff, based on what we've heard about other BA hotels, and since we did not want to pay to stay at the Four Seasons or Alvear Palace, we would definitely recommend Loi Suites.

Taxis - as others have suggested on this board, we took radio taxis only, and didn't have any safety issues. We were overcharged twice in radio taxis, when the meter for some reason ran much faster than it should have (one time the fare from hotel to a restaurant was almost double the return fare from restaurant to the hotel, although both times the meter started to run at $1.60). We also had a few taxi drivers take some pretty bad "detours" on the way to our destination (such as going in a completely opposite direction), which was pretty annoying since after we became familiar with the city it was very obvious what they were doing. But, the good news is that the taxis are so inexpensive that even if you get overcharged, it's not that big a deal.

Side trips - having unfortunately ignored what we read on this board, we did not make a reservation for the boat to Colonia and when we got to the boat it was sold out. Definitely get your tickets in advance! We took a train to Tigre instead, which was nice. When we got to Tigre it was confusing at first with all the different options for boat trips offered by various companies, but there is a tourist information center near all the offices that sell boat tickets and they had an english speaking person there who was very nice and explained the various options. Our boat ride was about 1 1/2 hours and cost 15 pesos each, and there was another option for a shorter and less expensive trip.

Restaurants - We had dinner at Cabana Las Lilas (the food was good, but the service was very impersonal and we felt like we were just treated like tourists who will never be back again), Ovieto (very good food, atmosphere and service as well) and Nectarine (great food and service, but instead of the tasting menu I would recommend just ordering a la carte. We did the tasting menu, and while the food was excellent, it was just very expensive when compared to what dinner costs at other very nice restaurants in BA. This is purely subjective, of course, so others may disagree).

Tango show - we went to El Viejo Almacen, which was described in the guidebooks as very authentic and one of the best shows. We don't pretend to be experts on tango shows, but to us it felt like a major tourist trap, and we were very disappointed. After this experience, we asked Cintia for a recommendation and went to see Piazzolla Tango, which we liked a lot better, and the building that it's in (the show itself is underground) is very interesting to see.

2. Mendoza. We stayed at the Park Hyatt - it's a nice hotel, but certainly not on the level of some other Hyatts, despite not being very old. Our plan was to spend one day touring the vineyards and one day driving out to see Mt. Aconcagua. We had reserved a car with Hertz, which turned into a major disaster because somehow our reservation got completely lost - i.e., the Hertz office in Buenos Aires, which apparently processes all Hertz reservations for Argentina and forwards them to the various local Hertz locations, had no record of our reservation even though Hertz International had it in their system. We've rented cars from Hertz in many different countries and this has never happened before. Of course, even after acknowledging that losing our reservation was their fault, Hertz had no more cars for the rest of the day and could not get cars from anywhere else. By the time we rented a car from a local company, we only had time to see 2 vineyards, both of which were nice - Norton and LaRural. There is a Wine Map available in Mendoza from hotels and certain shops that lists various vineyards and when they are open, and also whether you need to make a reservation. If you're not visiting the vineyards on an organized tour it's important to check this map first, because we drove up to Catena Zapata (which requires a reservation) thinking that they will just let us in, and they did not, so this was a major waste of time. Also, the roads are pretty bad and the street signs even worse (that is, when there actually are street signs), so give yourself enough time to get lost on the way from one vineyard to another. Surprisingly, we did not find wine prices at the vineyards to be better than at the wine stores in BA, it seemed like the prices were the same everywhere, or at least very close (I don't know if there is official price fixing in the wine industry, but it kind of seemed like it). We had dinner at Francis Mellman 1884 (the food was excellent, the service a little less so, but still good), and at the Park Hyatt, which was also very good.

3. Peninsula Valdes. We stayed in Puerto Madryn at a small hotel (felt like a B&B) called Solar de la Costa, recommended by Cintia. It's nothing fancy, but very clean and recently renovated. It's a bit out of the way from the center of town, but there is a nice restaurant across the street, right on the ocean, so we just ate there both nights. There are many companies that run tours to Peninsula Valdes and Punto Tombo, they all charge the same price, but the routes vary somewhat. We chose one that used small buses and minivans rather than a big bus, so as to avoid being a part of a big tour group, and this worked well on the tour of Peninsula Valdez, when they used a very nice mini-bus for about 15 passengers, but for the tour of Punto Tombo they used a regular van and completely packed it with people, which was not a great way to spend the day (you cover about 400km on both tours).

4. Bariloche. We loved Bariloche and wished we had more time there, there was so much to do. We spent 4 nights there, and could have easily spent a full week. It is such a beautiful place! We stayed at the Llao Llao resort, which was wonderful (it's expensive but did not feel overpriced). We had reserved a car from Hertz here as well, and of course had another problem when we went to get the car at the airport. This time, although Hertz did have our reservation, they said that we didn't reserve at the airport, but in downtown Bariloche. We thought that this was our fault and we must have just made a mistake when making the reservation. When we got to downtown Bariloche, they did have our car, but asked us to prepay for our rental and also said that if we paid with a credit card, we had to pay 10% more. (and the guy even asked us to pay in US dollars, although he backed off that request pretty quickly). We called Hertz International again, and the first thing they told us was that our reservation was for the Airport, not downtown Bariloche! At this point we were so fed up with dealing with Argentinian Hertz, that we just took the car and left. This was the worst car we had ever rented anywhere, but we just didn't care anymore. Overall, Bariloche is a wonderful place and a definite must see. We ate at the resort every night, so no restaurant recommendations here.

Regarding the luggage weight restrictions on Aerolineas Argentinas, we were charged for extra weight on our very first internal flight (you're only allowed 15kg per person plus 5kg carryon luggage, but fortunately they never weighed our carryon, as we certainly were over the limit there as well), but the woman who made us pay told us that, even though she did not know for sure, but she heard that after you get charged the first time, they no longer charge you on the subsequent flights. A slightly surprising comment considering that she works for the airline and, if anyone, she should know what the actual policy is. Either that was actually true, or we just got lucky on our subsequent flights, but they never charged us again for the extra weight.

Hopefully this will be helpful and good luck with your own travel plans to Argentina - it really is a great place to visit!