Visiting wine regions all over the world is one of my favorite things to do. Argentina has several wine regions, but Mendoza was the one I wanted to visit most. I had a really romantic idea of Mendoza, didn’t even know it was the name of a really large city in that region. Luckily we had the best stay in Mendoza, so no disappointments this time around. The Mendoza area is the perfect area for a longer stay; we loved the wineries, the foodie/fine dining culture, the climate, the kind people that live there and the amazing views of snow capped mountains overlooking the sunny vineyards.
Money issues in Argentina
We arrived in Argentina by bus from Valparaiso, Chile. The bus-ride took us about 8 hours and was comfortable enough (Cata International, € 24 per person). The only problem we had when we arrived was that we didn’t have any Argentinean Pesos. In the busstation of Mendoza you will find two ATMs, but they limit your withdrawal to 4000 ARS, about € 60, with a transaction fee of over 600 ARS, about € 9. The transaction costs of taking out cash are thus over 15%. I had read that getting cash in Argentina is not straightforward or cheap, but I had no idea it would be this bad.
When we got to the city center we quickly learned that the ATMs at Mendoza busstation were pretty standard and that you would incur transaction costs of about 15% at each ATM. Luckily most hotels, vineyards and nice restaurants will let you pay by creditcard. We also discovered that you could get money at Western Union. They charge a flat fee of € 4,90 per transaction and you can take out pretty much unlimited amounts. We tried to pay as much as possible by creditcard, but you definitely need cash for taxis, little shops and cafetaria-style restaurants.
Where we stayed
We stayed in Mendoza city for one night at hotel Xumec, before we left for the countryside to stay within the vineyards. Hotel Xumec had the perfect location in the city; all the major sights are within walking distance. Our comfortable room cost € 35 per night, including breakfast, which I think is very reasonable for Argentinean standards.
You really only need one night in the city and we were happy we got to check in at our new hotel the next day. We chose to stay at Posada Mawida for three days and we were really glad we chose this hotel. It is located in the countryside; 20 minutes outside of Mendoza by car in the Maipu/Lujan de Cuyo area. The hotel is run by Gonzalo & Gino, who were our charming hosts and were always available for questions. The Posada used to be the family house and the hosts made it into a hotel themselves. Because of this, it has nice details and decorations and it is really easy to feel at home. It is a small, intimate hotel with only a few rooms, but it offers the services of a large hotel (such as: wine cellar, swimming pool, restaurant service, climbing/trekking/horsebackriding tours, taxi services etc). We really spoiled ourselves by staying here as it costs € 75 per night; it felt like affordable luxury and money well spent! The dinner service is about € 10 per meal and it was delicious. As Posada Mawida is located in a quiet area, you need a car or taxi to get around. The owners know really nice drivers for the Posada and Alejandro & Miguel definitely helped making our stay super enjoyable!
City visit
I wouldn’t recommend staying longer in Mendoza than one day, because there is better things to see outside of the city. We liked having a night in Mendoza because it gave us the opportunity to do some western-style shopping and sort our money issues. The city itself, though large, is quite charming because of all the beautiful trees that surround the streets. They also provide some necessary shade to shelter from the heat. We thought Mendoza had a Barcelona-vibe, but without having all the amazing sights of Barcelona. We would recommend to spend one afternoon enjoying all the parks in Mendoza and have some drinks at Peatonal Sarmiento, the city’s pedestrian area filled with wine bars. We were a bit surprised that most restaurants downtown are more like glorified cafeterias, so we would recommend to do a little bit of research before you eat out. Funnily, we did have one of the best steaks in one of the cafetaria-style restaurants.
Bicycle tour of the vineyards
You can easily arrange a bike-tour in Mendoza city, but as we were already staying near the vineyards we took a taxi to the bike rental shop. We decided to rent a bike in Chacras at Baccus, as our hosts told us this was the most beautiful and relaxing area for cycling. But, you can also rent bikes in Lujan de Cuyo and Maipu. The bikes cost about € 10 per day and the bike rental shop can help you plan the route to the wineries. We spent the day cycling with two cool French girls that we met at Posada Mawida. What I found interesting about cycling through Mendoza was that not everything you see is super pretty. Mendoza has amazing mountain views and beautiful vineyards, but in-between you will see all sorts of houses and gardens. This was different compared to South Africa, where we found the wineries really glamorous and where all less pretty things were more or less covered up. I kind of had to get used to this while cycling, but ended up really liking it, as it turned out that in Argentina poor and rich people live next to each other. We experienced less social segregation in Argentina, felt really safe because of it and didn’t experience the guilt that we felt in South Africa.
We cycled about 20KM and visited the following wineries:
Pulmary: This is a small winery, a tasting with them costs about € 5 per person and includes three glasses of wine and a glass of beer. We really liked our host at this winery. The surroundings of this winery are not fancy at all and you also can’t visit the vineyards itself, but the tasting was really intimate, interactive and enjoyable. The Argentinean culture can be a bit slow, you need some patience with service and we spent quite some time here, but all in a good atmosphere 🙂
Viamonte: We had lunch at Viamonte. At many wineries you need to make a reservation to have lunch but at Viamonte you can just cycle by. We had a super tasty a-la-carte lunch including a glass of wine for € 15 per person. They also have more elaborate meals, we would definitely recommend having lunch here! Viamonte is definitely one of the wineries with the best views. Here it is really easy to take a picture of the vineyards with the mountains behind you, for me this really felt like the ultimate Mendoza view. You can do a tasting for about € 7 per person.
Altavista: At Altavista you need reservations for the tastings and lunch, so we had a glass of wine in the gardens instead. We both really loved the Malbec at Altavista, definitely one of the best we had tasted. We wanted to see some more of Altavista, so we went back for a picknick later during the week.
Degustacion menu
Mendoza is known for its fine-dining options and culture. We heard good stories about the food at Clos de Chacras, which is a winery with a beautiful restaurant. They offer several kinds of tasting menus; we decided to go for the four-course menu, including three glasses of wine. They also have a six-course-tasting-menu, but I discovered that portions are usually very large in Argentina and that four courses would probably be sufficient. I absolutely loved our afternoon at Clos de Chacras; the food and wine were delicious, we had lunch in a good, relaxed atmosphere and we went home super satisfied. We paid € 55 in total for this extravaganza food fest (€ 27,50 per person). I was happy we didn’t go for the large menu, as my belly was already exploding after this one.
Wine picknick
On our last day in Mendoza we went for a wine picknick at Altavista. Altavista has really nice gardens, where guinea pigs will often hop by, where you can have your picknick. A three course picknick costs € 15 per person, this includes food & wine, a picknick blanket and pillows. The picknick was definitely less fine-dining than our lunch the day before, but we really liked the atmosphere of the picknick. The personnel at Altavista was super relaxed and kind and we loved hanging on our picknick blanket all afternoon. The weather was absolutely perfect this day; we often had to move our picknick blanket to find some shade. The picknick was the perfect end to our days in Mendoza: we felt so relaxed and spoiled 🙂 Mendoza definitely is the perfect location for a honeymoon or a romantic getaway.
Hallo genieters……jullie smikkelen en smullen wat af…..geniet er nog wat van want jullie beginnen af te tellen..!…..nog veel plezier…gr.xx