For those wine lovers out there, this is the spot for you! Getting to Mendoza is pretty easy, it is only a 13 hour night bus from Buenos Aires, Andesmar is the main company. The nightbuses tend to be a little more expensive compared to the rest of South America, I think I paid $40. It is also cheaper to book it at the bus station rather than online. For $40 you get a semi cama (reclining chair and foot rest) and 2 meals, not the greatest veggie option so load up on snacks!
Wine here is cheap and tasty, from Malbec to Chardonnay there are many wineries to visit. The funnest way to visit the vineyards is by bike. Maipu bikes is the best company to go with, the easiest way of getting there is to catch an uber from your hostel as it is about 30 minutes out of town. You have the option of visiting all 8 wineries if you want to, the bikes open at 10am and close at 6pm, I would recommend getting there for close to the opening time as it takes around 20 minutes to cycle between them, and you want to see as much as possible!
At 5pm the bike company open up a bar and offer happy hour (s) and supply free wine, this is the best part of the tour as you are joined by all the other cyclists (backpackers). As we arrived at the bike shed at 11:30 ish we were only able to visit 3 wineries in the time. The first one Mavi was set in a beautiful green vineyard. You are allowed 3 glasses of wine to try for $150 pesos. We spent about an hour and a half here enjoying wine, listening to music and some lunch (empanadas of course!).
The second one Tapiache was the posh, expensive one that you had to book in advance ($400), I would not recommend going to this one unless you want a guided tour of how the wine is made. The wine was disappointing and they only gave you a tiny bit to try (the cheek!). We were in a bit of a rush to find the last winery as some of them close a bit early. We found an olive oil and sweet wine tasting place instead! As we were hungry from the cycling the bread and dips was a welcoming treat. We were also able to try some sweet wines and liquors which always go down well.
The hostel that I stayed in was called ‘Windmill’, I was recommended this hostel by someone I had met on my travels but I was a little disappointed. It was very expensive for what it was, the rooftop was rundown and there was no real common area. Some of the staff were rather defensive and preoccupied with getting a ‘good’ review on hostelworld.
Having said that I met some great people. Apart from the wine there is not much to do in Mendoza, there is a lot of nature and tours to see in the surrounding area such as rafting, hiking, zip lining. These can be a little expensive though (range from US$15- $30) so if you’re on a budget the main thing for you to do would be the wineries!
As I had 3 days here, I decided to book onto the sunset horseriding tour which included a swimming pool and BBQ. The charge for this was US$30 which in hindsight was far too much. The horse riding lasted for 1hr 30 minutes and was a little boring as we stayed riding through the same terrain for 90 minutes. The horses were very docile and tame until the very end where they started to trot a little. After the horse riding we had the opportunity to swim in the pool, we then had to wait for the other group before eating the ‘passada’ which is a traditional Argentinian BBQ. The atmosphere was very local, with the gauchos (Argentinian cowboys) singing and playing traditional music.
After a merry evening spent with my friends, I decided to book onto zip lining for the following day. Zip lining had always been on my bucket list, so I thought I would give it a try. For me doing it in Argentina seemed like the safest option too and it was only $20 which is cheap for European prices! For $20 we were able to do 3 different zip lines over the river and the dry landscape. For an extra $10 you could also do rafting, hiking and abseiling.
I did not realise how dry and barren northern Argentina was! The guide was super helpful and told us some information about the fauna and flora of the area which was greatly appreciated. One thing that was a little disappointing was that the tour was sold as there being a pool for you to relax by whilst you wait for your turn. The swimming pool was green in colour, not inviting at all!
I would recommend staying more than 2 nights here as you could do the wine bike tour more than once and cover more of the wineries. It would good to book a hostel with a pool as you could soak up some sun whilst enjoying a glass (or 2) of wine!
Romy's Roamings 