Mixed bag: highly rec Mine Hotel in BA, excursions in El Calafate
Argentina
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Mar 19 - Mar 27, 2024
We loved our trip to Buenos Aires and Patagonia, specifically El Calafate. We highly recommend both. That said, the actual execution was a mix of good and not. We were pleased with the overall planning process and the overall itinerary suggestions by Agustina and her responsiveness to questions about the trip.. However, the actual execution fell short in a few ways:
Our transfer to the local airport to fly to El Calafate was a no-show, and we didn’t get immediate response from our original local contact, who turned out to be on holiday a lot of the time we were in BA. It was very stressful, and we never got an apology or really any sympathy, just a quick refund of the cost we paid to get a taxi ourselves at 4:30 a.m. with the help of the hotel.
Speaking of the hotel, we loved the Mine Boutique Hotel in BA and would highly recommend it, but only ended up there after we asked for multiple more options from those originally suggested.
(Also the country guide materials shared with us stressed the strictness of luggage weight limits, and so we took the time to repack for El Calafate. However from what we could see, there was no apparent attention paid to many of our fellow passengers very large suitcases.)
We also requested additional options for hotels in El Calafate from the one originally suggested, and eventually without notification, when we went to review the final itinerary, the hotel to which we had agreed was not the one listed in the itinerary. Only after asking did we get a reply that the original one was no longer available, and so Agustina had booked an alternative. That one didn’t appeal to us, and set off another round of hurriedly reviewing options. We ended up at Terrazas del Calafate, which was tolerable but not great.
We had two walking tours in BA. While we were happy with them and the plan, the first one was rained out and rescheduled for the last day of our trip. That guide, Sandra, did a great job but we were surprised that she showed up without any apparent knowledge of the places that we were expecting to see that day. We then lost some time dealing with public buses over to La Boca that could have been easily saved with a taxi. No blame for Sandra, I don’t think, but someone didn’t get the message about the tour plan for the day.
On the positive side, the excursions in El Calafate were amazing: boat to Estancia Cristina, Perito Moreno glacier via both walking platforms and boat, and a day at Nibebo Aike sheep ranch including 3 hours on horseback. A note about Nibepo Aike—it is a long, bumpy ride to get there. However for us it was definitely worth it, but I wasn’t mentally expecting the gravel road trek.
As mentioned before, we highly recommend the Mine Hotel, but also generally that part of the Palermo neighborhood is a great great place to be, particularly for restaurants and shopping, as well as a base to go to other parts of the city and proximity to the National airport too.
Hotel Reviews
Somewhat dated. Walkable but a long way to main drag, though taxis are easy. Nice view of lake but not really to the mountains. Mix of great and surly staff. Pretty much lives up to its website—calibrate your expectations. I wouldn’t recommend seeking it out, but if you’re short other options, it serves its purpose.
Activity Reviews
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