Chile & Argentina Recommendations

[WinterWine]

Hi Ladies, my home board is MM but I thought I'd venture over here for some travel recommendations.  I have been lurking and love seeing all of the gorgeous photos. 

H and I are headed to Argentina and Chile for just under 3 weeks in August.  We are spending the first 1.5 weeks doing some backcountry and resort skiing in and around Bariloche, Argentina.  If anyone has recommendations for hotels or restaurants there, I would love to hear it.  We're trying to keep that portion of our trip fairly open so we can move around based upon snow conditions, but I am hoping to at least book our first 2 nights in a hotel before we go.

After Bariloche we will be spending 2 full days in Buenos Aires (3 nights), followed by 4 full days in Santiago, Chile.  Hoping that some of you may have recommendations for areas of town to stay in (or hotels in the $100-$175 range max), as well as activities to do and must-see items.  I've been focused on planning the skiing portion and haven't done much research into the cities.  We generally like exploring the city, local towns, seeing the local culture/eating, etc.  

I saw Colonial, Uruguay recommended as a day trip from Buenos Aires - has anyone been?  As neat as it would be to "see" another country, I'm not sure if it is worth devoting 1 of our 2 days to.  I would also love to do visit some wineries around Santiago if anyone has recs. 

Anything else we should know before going?

Thanks in advance for any insight/recommendations!

[frlcb]

Do you need a place to stay in Bariloche? We loved Llao Llao.

[WinterWine]

Thanks RnV. I posted a few months ago on MM about this and the ladies had some recs, but my plans were pretty darn vague then. Hoping to hone in on more now that I know what the heck we're doing

[WinterWine]

Jul 25, 2014 14:23:21 GMT -5 frlcb said:

Do you need a place to stay in Bariloche? We loved Llao Llao.

Yes, we do.  I'm planning to book the first few days in Bariloche and then we'll probably head out into the mountains, but hoping to find a hotel where we can leave some of our stuff for a few days. Llao Llao looks gorgeous, but I'm not sure I can convince H to spend that much.  Hoping to find something a bit more in the $150-175 range.

[emilyinchile]

*Colonia, not Colonial I would not do that trip if you only have 2 days in BA. It's a cute town, but there's so much to do and see in Buenos Aires that I'd rather just stay there. Your budget is plenty for hotels there, there are a LOT of places that are good and around $100-150/night. I liked the Fierro Hotel (good rooms, amazing breakfast esp for Argentina where it's usually nothing special), but they are in Palermo Hollywood rather than right in the Palermo Soho neighborhood. If you don't mind walking 20ish minutes to get closer to the action then it's an option. I've also stayed at the Moreno in San Telmo, again cute place and good neighborhood if you want to be more over there. If you want to stay in Palermo Soho, there are millions of hotels with different promotions often going on, so I'd honestly just look on somewhere like TripAdvisor to find the best rate somewhere decent. As far as things to do: www.emilyinchile.com/tag/buenos-aires Definitely recommend the walking tour on your first day so you can get an idea of the city, and for sure do a puertas cerradas dinner!

In Santiago hotels are more expensive, so you will be at the top of your budget. I'm not as up on current rates here since obviously I don't ever stay in hotels, so again I'd just look at what's available in the following neighborhoods (some of which are very small and overlap, don't be alarmed by the length of this list!): Parque Forestal, Bellas Artes, Lastarria, Providencia, El Golf. If you are close to a red line metro station in any of those areas, you'll be able to get around easily. The following wineries are accessible in the city itself via a combo of metro and taxi (FYI, taxi drivers do not speak English): Cousiño Macul, Santa Carolina, Aquitania, Concha y Toro. Honestly, Concha y Toro would not be my suggestion because while it's the biggest winery, the tour is really not great. Check their websites for tour options, and you'll have to book ahead. If you want to go to other wine valleys - Casablanca, Maipo, even Colchagua (the best but 2.5 hrs away) - you should book a tour. There is a zero tolerance law for driving after any alcohol, so renting a car isn't an option. I have a bunch of restaurant recs here, although you'll have to wade through other stuff as well: www.emilyinchile.com/tag/saturday-in-santiago

I haven't been to Bariloche, so no help there, but let me know if you have other specific questions!

[bunnysmom]

Jul 25, 2014 14:14:50 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Ironically, there are two MMers who will probably be great resources: emilyinchile, bunnysmom

Op, I live in BA, so I probably have a few recs. I'm not familiar with Bariloche, though. The last time I've been there I was 10, so I can't help much.

Right now I'm heading to school, but I'll be back later!

[WinterWine]

Thanks for all of your help and insight emilyinchile. We ended up booking a hotel in Recoleta for Buenos Aires but am open to any ideas of things to do or places to see bunnysmom.

I just looked at our flight times and it turns out we essentially have 5 full days in Santiago. Trying to decide what to do, whether we should plan to stay in Santiago the whole time and take day trips out from there, or perhaps spend a night in Valparadiso or another town. In looking at the wine tours, I'm a bit surprised by how expensive they are - looks like going with a company is around $200/person for a day group tour. Does that sound in-line with what you have seen?

How much are meals typically? We'll probably do normal mid-priced (whatever that ends up being), with a few nicer meals sprinkled in.

[alleinesein]

Jul 25, 2014 23:28:17 GMT -5 WinterWine said:

Thanks for all of your help and insight emilyinchile. We ended up booking a hotel in Recoleta for Buenos Aires but am open to any ideas of things to do or places to see bunnysmom.

I just looked at our flight times and it turns out we essentially have 5 full days in Santiago. Trying to decide what to do, whether we should plan to stay in Santiago the whole time and take day trips out from there, or perhaps spend a night in Valparadiso or another town. In looking at the wine tours, I'm a bit surprised by how expensive they are - looks like going with a company is around $200/person for a day group tour. Does that sound in-line with what you have seen?

How much are meals typically? We'll probably do normal mid-priced (whatever that ends up being), with a few nicer meals sprinkled in.

Definitely spend at least half a day checking out Valparaiso.  There is some cool architecture and graffiti up in the hills.  We hired a tour guide and did Valpo, Vina and 2 wineries on the way back to Santiago.  It cost USD $200 for 2 people for the day; we left around 6am and got back into town around 10pm.  Since it was a few years ago I am sure that the price has gone up.  Our driver catered our tour to what we were interested in.  You could spend a night or two there since its about a 2 hour drive from Santiago.

XH and I went to Santiago in 2009 and we spent about USD$100 each night for dinner.  We ate at nice places and typically had appetizers, main course, dessert and some type of alcohol.  If you can find a hotel that has some type of breakfast included you can budget about $100 or so a day for food for 2 people.  There are cheap eats all over the place- lots of empanadas with various fillings.  There was a little hole in the wall empanada place on Pio Nono (it has 2 small tables inside) that was good and cheap.  Not sure if its still there but if it is its just a few blocks from Patio Bellavista and the Law school (metro red-baquedano).

La Chascona is also in Barrio Bellavista.  Its not very big so you could easily do it in the morning and then head off to something else in the afternoon.  Pueblito Los Dominicos has a ton of little arts and crafts dealers.  Its a one stop shopping spot for any souvenirs that you might want to buy.  There are also a few resident cats that hang around and a few restaurants.  Patio Bellavista has a bunch of restaurants and little shops as well. 

If you like fish check out Mercado Central.  Its the giant fish market and there are food stalls scattered around the edges of the market.

Hopefully you aren't afraid of dogs.  There are quite a few stray dogs in Santiago.  All of the ones we encountered were friendly and the law students had a pack that they fed every afternoon. 

[emilyinchile]

I second most of alleinesein's comments, although I will say that we rarely spend as much on dinner. $50.000 for two - or more - is definitely the price for dinner at top restaurants, but you can go somewhere nice for more like $30.000 if you're sharing an appetizer and only having a drink each (dollar is around CLP550/USD1 these days, but I always just multiply by 2 and drop the 3 zeroes for an easy conversion). H and I rarely spend more than $35.000 including tip (10%) unless it's a special occasion, but as I mentioned we don't usually go big on alcohol or each get both a dessert and an app. DO go to Mercado Central if you like fish, but don't eat at Donde Augusto which is in the center of the market because it's more touristy and expensive for the exact same thing. We like Tio Willy's (back left corner from the main entrance), but in general look for somewhere with a crowd and yummy-looking plates around the edges.

Wine tours are expensive, and $200 is not surprising. Do you speak any Spanish? If so (or if you're more adventurous and up for getting written instructions to show a cab driver to get from metro to vineyard), and if you don't care about going outside of the city, I would definitely look at the options I mentioned so you can DIY a wine day. Or if you are nervous about doing it alone, you could do a bike and wine tour to one of those (Cousiño Macul) with La Bicicleta Verde for $25.000 pp: www.labicicletaverde.com/tours/cousino-macul-half-day/ H used to work for them years ago, and their city tours were always good, so if you'd be interested in doing one of those as well you could always ask them if there's a discount for doing two.

It's very easy to take the bus to Valparaíso, so personally with all the moving around you're already doing I would probably rather do a day trip than change to a 4th hotel. We had lunch at faunahotel.cl/ last time we were there, and it's awesome, I totally recommend it (make a reservation as it's very popular lately). Great view, great food, and I would be tempted to stay there if you do decide to do an overnight (not sure of price though). With 5 full days, you'd have 1 day for wine, 1 day for Valpo and 3 days for Santiago itself, which is plenty of time and also means you don't have to rush Santiago if you're feeling tired by the end of your trip. Or hey, if you still have energy, you could see Santiago stuff for 2 days and spend another day skiing nearby! Skitotal (.cl? .com? not sure) does transfers up to the various resorts that are nearby.

[WinterWine]

Thanks so much for the recommendations ladies!! I was able to book a hotel in the Recoleta area of Buenos Aires, so should be set for there- just checking out some of the other recommendations. For Santiago I think we'll probably stay in town so we don't have to change hotels with all our gear yet again. I'm leaning towards a day trip to Valpardiso, and 1-2 days of skiing at Portillo, and the rest of the time exploring Santiago. (The fish market sounds great). I'll have to look into either a ski shuttle or car rental.

H is fluent in Spanish and I speak some (am rusty but get better when traveling), so hopefully that will help. We're generally pretty brave travelers and have no problem with navigating the metro of going the untraditional route. Thanks for the info on food prices. We don't have a super tight budget but it's nice to know what to expect, and where we should splurge. I'm super excited for our trip as I haven't been to South America. I'll follow-up if I think of anymore questions :-)

[alleinesein]

If your H is fluent in Spanish he should start contacting some of the local tour companies. Our tour guide spoke some English but it helped that XH and I were both fluent in Spanish. If you do check out some of the wineries it will definitely help out. All of the tours we did at both the wineries and La Chascona were in Spanish; English tour were available but only at certain times and they didnt fit into our schedule.

We definitely did splurge on food every night. Since our airfare was free we actually had a decent amount of spending $$ so dinner typically involved a few drinks or a bottle of wine plus tons of food.

If you like archaeology and want to see one of the giant heads from Rapa Nui hit up the Fonck Museum in Vina Del Mar. It was closed by the time we got over there so we didnt get a chance to check it out; we just got pics with the giant head.

A few food items to check out
-Parrillada Chilena aka meat lovers heaven
-Mote con Huesillo (its more of a summer thing but you might be able to find it)
-Pastel de Choclo (corn pie)

[scout8]

Thanks for starting this thread! I am bookmarking it for our trip to Chile in November.

I have been to both BA & Colonia Uruguay. Colonia was lovely, but with just a couple of days in BA, I wouldn't do it. There is so much to see and do in BA.

Our hotel budget is lower than yours in Santiago and we have found some good deals on B & B's. So, you might want to look at those too. We are dividing our time between Santiago & Valparaiso, but we have a little longer trip.

You have to make sure to do a trip report when you get back!

[emilyinchile]

Valparaíso, no d Sorry, I am not meaning to pick on you!

Portillo is supposed to be great skiing, but I think it's about a 2 hr drive, so I would probably take a shuttle rather than dealing with an unfamiliar car on unfamiliar roads after a day of physical activity. And it sounds like you've got the winery situation figured out without spending too much on a tour!

[WinterWine]

Thanks for the additional recs ladies!! We were able to book our accommodations and stay way under my budget (H's picks are always much cheaper than mine). I'll make sure to post a summary when we get back. Thanks for correcting my horrible town spelling emilyinchile- that's what I get for trying to remember town names when posting from my phone ;-)

[starryfish]

I was in BA in March and we stayed at the Marriot Plaza hotel. They have an AMAZING fancy restaurant in their hotel and its VERY reasonable. $20 for a 3 course meal featuring filet mignon. OMG soooo good!

[Captain Serious]

Portillo was amazing. I say it's definitely worth the trip, even if you are skiing in Argentina, simply so you can see where the land speed record was set and their unique tows designed for the terrain so steep they couldn't put in lift towers. It's also gorgeous, and you feel like you are living a lifestyle of the rich and famous. If you get up and out early, you can ski the corduroy all by your lonesome. Later in the day, you ski right beside Olympians, literally. There are four gourmet meals a day and guests are treated like royalty. DO IT!

I agree with Emily, and suggest you arrange for someone from the mountain to drive you. The road is a crazy mountain road, with such steep drop-offs in some places that I couldn't look. We saw trucks turned over because they took the turns to quickly. It's just not worth the worry.