BOOKING

We booked with Hyatt Cash+Points for $125 + 10,000 points per night. Cash rates are easily in the $500+ range, so it makes redeeming points a very attractive offer.

We used a Suite Night Award and were booked into a “Park Suite King” and “59 to 72 sqm: Sitting area: Shower and bathtub: Flat TV: DVD: Butler.”

CHECK-IN

When we were headed to the hotel from the domestic airport (Buenos Aires-AEP), the cab driver had never heard of the hotel– we had to show him name of hotel– but it wasn’t until he read the address that he finally had a general idea of where to take us. Then, he drove right past the entrance, but we said it was fine and just jumped out at the intersection. Walking up, the hotel staff obviously seemed a bit confused that we were arriving by (what looked to be) foot.

At check-in, she confirmed our stay and rate and said, “we have a great room for you in our historic building” — perfect. As it turns out, there are essentially 2 hotels in one: a newer building with many more rooms and the old, renovated “palace” or mansion, connected by a courtyard (and underground walkway).

underground walkway between the two buildings

ROOM

The room, a Park Suite on the Palace side, was very well appointed but somewhat small. In fact, I’m not sure that it could even qualify as a “suite” as it had no separate sitting area or room, just a bedroom with a very large bathroom. From what we’ve read online, the suites are much larger in the newer, more contemporary building, but we really liked the style, feel and decor of the Palace building with the very stately feel of the deep molding around the ceiling and the huge antique windows.

view from room window

Within a few hours of checking in, two of the “butlers” arrived with our welcome gift: a fruit tray with apples, some type of chocolate snack and a bottle of Malbec wine.

BATHROOM

The bathroom was huge- almost as big as the bedroom itself. There’s a bathtub in the main, open area with the sinks and then a closed-in shower and separate toilet area. Plenty of space for two people to get ready at the same time.

SERVICE

While we didn’t need anything special while we were there, we found the service at check-in, breakfast, etc. to be top-notch. They were very helpful if needed, and friendly- everything we’ve come to expect and appreciate in a Park Hyatt.

Welcome letter

PROPERTY

The historic property feels regal and luxurious and, for us, provided a comfortable home base for our stay in Buenos Aires. While we didn’t get as much time to enjoy the courtyard as we would have liked, the view from the breakfast table was charming and it was nice to have the feel of both an old, palatial building coupled with a new, modern one.

One if the lobbys

Big area with an in house florist

RESTAURANT(S)

Breakfast was included with our stay and was served in the larger, more modern building. Totally worth the walk, though, because everything was fantastic: a very fresh, hearty breakfast that we looked forward to each morning. There were many options and we took our time savoring the breakfast each day. It was on par with other Park Hyatts around the world, but much better than the Park Hyatt Mendoza where we’d just come from.

A few pictures of the other restaurants and bars:

BOTTOM LINE: 

The Park Hyatt BA didn’t disappoint. We’d eagerly stay here again if we found ourselves in Buenos Aires. The luxurious-feel, historic building and delicious breakfast all fit into what we’ve come to know and love about Park Hyatts.

The post Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires Review first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Mendoza is quite a small, mostly domestic, airport. They have a few international flights, but mainly just to Santiago, Chile-SCL, just on the other side of the mountains. Our hotel advised us that arriving appx 1 hour before departure is more than enough time to check-in with bags when traveling to Buenos Aires.

BOOKING

We booked this segment as part of a larger Delta SkyMiles award ticket. Finding and adding Aerolíneas Argentinas award space to a Delta award reservation can be a bit tricky, so check out our guides here: Booking an Awesome Argentina Itinerary with Delta SkyMiles + Other SkyTeam Partners and All about our South American trip to Chile and Argentina: Santiago, Mendoza and Buenos Aires.

CHECK-IN

We arrived right at 10:25 am, one hour in advance, and made our way up to the Aerolíneas Argentinas check-in counter. There were only about 3 people in line with plenty of agents available to help. We handed over our passports and checked our 3 bags without any trouble.

BOARDING

There seem to be very few gates and waiting areas, so they had us wait until the small post-security gate was clear. Once we got on the other side of security, the waiting area was virtually empty:

Boarding, from what I could gather, started with rows 22-15 and then everyone else. This makes total sense: let those in the very back board first which, in theory, should speed up the boarding process.

SEAT

Our aircraft was a Boeing 737-700, in a 3 x 3 configuration with appx 22 rows of 6 across in economy + a 1st class cabin with 2 rows of 2 x 2:

We made it to our seats near the back of the plane:

The plane is noticeably older but still in fine shape with cloth seats. The pitch of the seats seemed quite small. It seemed like tighter legroom than most domestic Delta flights, probably more in line with AirAsia or Spirit Airlines.

The plane was only about 1/2 to 2/3 full with lots of empty seats. This might explain why they had already canceled a few of the flights before us in the morning: cancel one and just move those passengers to the later flight.

Seated by the window and ready to take off!

After a quick safety demonstration, we were airborne!

MEAL SERVICE

The drink and snack service was started promptly upon reaching cruising altitude so as to try and serve everyone on the relatively short flight.

While no choice was given, we were handed snack boxes with mini alfajores, cheese crackers, and another small pastry.

If nothing else, the boxes were cool and celebrated the history of flight and the airline

After a short flight, we began our descent into Buenos Aires.

Touchdown at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires!

After deplaning, we rushed off to baggage claim and then into the city to start our few days in Buenos Aires!

The post Aerolíneas Argentinas AR 1413 Mendoza-MDZ to Buenos Aires-AEP first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Turns out, though, that planning a day trip to wineries is a little harder than we thought. Mendoza’s wine regions stretch out over more than 350,000 acres and there are three separate regions within Mendoza. So, with just one day set aside for this, we quickly realized we couldn’t see it all. First, we had to pick a region (we went with Maipú) and then we had to choose a plan. We had the option of paying for a tour that picked up and dropped off at our hotel but, for a fraction of the cost, we could make our own private tour if we were a little more adventurous.

We found “Mr. Hugo’s” bike rental and decided to go that route as opposed to the all-inclusive (and much more expensive) bus tour. For a much, much, much more affordable cost, we could find our own way out to Maipú and we thought it’d be more fun to take the local bus anyway. We took a city bus for 8 pesos to Maipú. The trip is pretty short– only take about 40 minutes total from the city center:

The best news is that the bus drivers know exactly what’s up. They let us know exactly when we should get off the bus and then pointed us (and the two other English-speaking tourists on the crowded bus of locals) toward Mr. Hugo’s.

1- Mr. Hugo’s

Update: Mr. Hugo’s appears to have closed. Instead, try Maipú Bikes (Website / TripAdvisor) which has fantastic reviews and is just a few blocks up the road from the old Mr. Hugo’s.

Mr. Hugo himself welcomed us and we watched as a whole boatload of Americans chugged champagne from the bottle then finished with beer before riding off into the sunset 11 am sunshine. I think the 50 – 70-year-olds all took the all-inclusive & more expensive bus tour choice, so you’re mixed in more with the party crowd on the DIY bike tours. That was fine with us and really more of what we were after anyway, but just something to consider when deciding which route to choose.

We rented bikes for 70 pesos each (looks like it’s up to 100 pesos/bike now because of inflation… still, that’s roughly $5-$7 USD). Mr. Hugo gave us a small paper with a suggested route showing all the wineries around (the drawing isn’t to scale, so some wineries had more space between them than we thought).

We started biking around 12:30 pm and took a total of 4 hr 15 mins of which about 1 hr 15 mins was spent actually biking and the remaining 3 hours we enjoyed eating and drinking in the various wineries and the biergarten.

Here’s a map of some of the highlights:

2- Museo del Vino

Website / TripAdvisor

Our first stop was “Museo del Vino” which is very close to Mr. Hugo’s. Spanish tours are 70 pesos/person but English tours require a reservation (which we didn’t have) and were 100 pesos/group. The good news is that the actual museum is free and it has lots of cool artifacts and old machinery in the wine production department:

They have a nice tasting room and sell glasses for 38 – 328 pesos and tasting for 90 – 220 ARS.

3- Vinoteca La Botella

Website / TripAdvisor

Next, we biked to La Botella for a free tasting advertised on Mr. Hugo’s route. The free wine was obviously pretty bad and was just used to get you in the door, but then we also tried the tasting of three (better) wines for 20 pesos each.

From there, we biked down the main road looking for the Trapiche winery but it was very hard to find! At many times, the road doesn’t have a proper bike lane, but cars and trucks do seem very cognizant of cyclists and pedestrians and move way over, so we always felt pretty safe.

4- El Patio Cervecero Beer Garden

Website / TripAdvisor

Finally, we stumbled across the “Biergarten,” but don’t be dissuaded, as we almost were. It’s really just a cafe with pizzas, empanadas, 3 types of draft beer and wines by the glass. We weren’t really feeling a biergarten on our winery tour, but it had a cool, relaxed vibe and was a great stop for a cheap and quick lunch. The English-speaking staff and free wifi make it fantastic. (3x empanadas for 8 ARS each and 550 mL for 32 ARS. Glass of red for 25 ARS.)

Our weather couldn’t have been more perfect: the leaves were changing and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Perfect fall weather – crisp, not humid at all (and a nice reprieve from the weather back at home with humidity ramping up for our springtime).

We also noticed that there were plenty of others who had rented bikes and were following the same route as us, but we think in peak tourist season, this place would be crawling and quite possibly over-crowded.

5- Trapiche

Website / TripAdvisor

On our ride back to Mr. Hugo’s, we finally found Trapiche! We rode into the perfectly manicured winery that was by far the largest and most well-maintained stop of our day. They waved us right in and actually offered us a free tasting and tours (I guess because it was nearing the end of the day?).

The tasting room overlooked the vineyard, so the view was the best we’d seen all day. Of course, the wine was delicious. This was probably our favorite stop of the day because of the view and the enormous facility.

BOTTOM LINE: Overall, our bus trip to Maipú and the DIY winery tours using Mr. Hugo’s bikes was just what we were after– we didn’t want to blow the bank on a day of the fanciest wineries but just wanted to get the experience. Although the bike trail is usually along main roads and you’re biking with traffic, we still had a great time and were thrilled to have great weather to enjoy the day.

The post Cycling Winery Tour – Mendoza, Argentina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Here’s a map of the route that has a lot of the highlights you’ll want to check out as well as practical info, such as the bus station, airport, grocery stores (to stock up on cheap Mendoza wine!), etc:

Stay

We stayed at the Park Hyatt Mendoza and would highly recommend it. It is in the perfect location and quite luxurious. Find our full review here: Park Hyatt Mendoza Review – Mendoza, Argentina.

1- Plaza Independencia

Start your day at off at Plaza Independencia, the true center of the town. Here, you’ll find plenty of locals, anyone from school kids playing to couples basking in the sun to retirees just hanging out to pass the time. On the weekends and some evenings, you’ll find local vendors selling art and trinkets.

Some kids that insisted on being in the photo

2- Peatonal Sarmiento

From the central square, head east towards the city’s pedestrian mall. Here, you’ll find tons of restaurants with plenty of outdoor seating. Although we found them to feel a bit touristy and expensive, it might just be worth it if the weather is nice to post up and people watch along the lively walkway. Along with restaurants, there are also cute coffee shops and boutique stores, so it’s well-worth a walk.

You might even see an impromptu tango dance!

3- Pasaje San Martin

Make sure not to leave the area without popping into the Pasaje San Martin and the historic shopping gallery’s exquisite stained glass skylight.

4- Plaza Espana & Plaza Italia

After a coffee and snack (we’re partial to alfajores), make your way towards two of Mendoza’s other large squares. While there’s not all that much to see here, it’s just nice to have a seat and take in the city and begin to appreciate how much area has been set aside for parks, squares and green space in this city that hugs the Andes.

Mendoza’s downtown is interesting in that it has one large square in the middle (Plaza Independencia) and 4 other squares spaced equally apart in 4 corners:

The 4 squares were designed to pay tribute to the founders of the city and create a natural retreat for its residents.

Plaza Italia is a memorial to the Italian families who resettled in Mendoza’s Cuyo neighborhood. One of the park’s landmarks is a statue of Romulus and Remus being suckled by the Roman wolf– a well-known myth in Italian culture pertaining to the founding of Rome. Additionally, the fountain is embellished with Italian-style stones and offer a perfect place to enjoy the weather and passerbys.

Plaza Italia

Plaza España, another one of the squares, has a statue portraying two ladies: the older, more experienced one representing Spain and the younger, more lively woman representing Argentina.

Plaza España

5- Avenida Arístides Villanueva

As you begin to head west towards the Parque General San Martin, you’ll walk right along Mendoza’s nightlife hotspot. Simply called Arístides for short, this street is lined with bars, pubs and restaurants that are packed on the weekends with locals and tourists alike.

The Arístides neighborhood has no shortage of quirky painted buildings and graffiti

6- General San Martín Park

Following Avenida Arístides westward dumps you straight into the General San Martín Park. While the park is host to a zoo and football (soccer) stadium, this is really just an excellent place to relax and kill some time in the afternoon. Make sure to check out the few statues (there are apparently over 34 covering the grounds!) and cafés housed in the park.

Entrance gates of General San Martín Park

If you’re up for a walk, be sure to scale Cerro de la Gloria (Glory Hill), a small hill that will give you a good vantage point of the whole city. It also hosts one of the bigger and more impressive monuments in the park: the memorial monument to the Army of the Andes.

Memorial Monument to the Army of the Andes

La Fuente de los Continentes (La Fontaine de L’Observatoire)

 7- Mercado Central

Once you’ve seen enough greenery, head straight down Avenida Emilio Civit from the park gates back towards the city. Once you take a left on Avenida Belgrano, you’ll be walking along Mendoza’s one and only tram line.

Before long, you’ll reach the Mercado Central. This old-fashioned market is still a beehive of locals that have stopped in to stock up on meats, cheese, produce and fruit.

Mercado Central: also the premiere place for all your chicken feet and neck needs

There’s also a sizable (and quite cheap!) food court that we ate at a few times. We snagged a few empanadas from Harry’s Fast Foods, one of the vendors for about $0.50 each.

8- Avenida Las Heras

After a small snack in Mercado Central, spend the rest of the day walking up and down Avenida Las Heras.

The streets are lined with stores selling just about anything and everything, but we suggest checking out the leather goods if you’re in the market for a nice jacket or boots. We decided not to buy a leather jacket because we thought we may find a cheaper selection in Buenos Aires, but immediately regretted our decision: this street in Mendoza offers a better and cheaper selection, so be sure to buy here if you’re at all in the market!

And, lest we forget, don’t skip out on having an espresso and alfajor at every café along your stop, especially here (we recommend Havana’s)!

9- Dinner at Ocho Cepas

For an out-of-this-world dinner experience, head to Ocho Cepas (just a block or two from the Park Hyatt Mendoza). Before arriving in Argentina, we read that, while there’s plenty of cattle in the country, almost no restaurant knows how to cook a good steak; they seem to always overcook it. However, we did not find this to be the case at Ocho Cepas and enjoyed some delicious steaks that were cooked absolutely perfectly.

The post Self-Guided Walking Tour: Mendoza, Argentina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

The 5-star hotel is a bit smaller than several other Park Hyatts, but it’s perfect for a small city like Mendoza. I really love how Park Hyatts stay true to the culture and history of the city and especially loved the restored 19th-century Spanish colonial façade.

The hotel lobby is grand and full of marble, with large, floor-to-ceiling windows and a beautiful dining room.

Main Lobby

We were shown to our room and felt like we were staying in a palace. Since Jeffrey used one of his Hyatt Diamond Suite Upgrade Awards, we had been upgraded to a suite, so we had SO MUCH ROOM! The room and the hotel were very nice, but arguably not as fancy as, say, the Park Hyatt Vendôme in Paris.

I always love the tasty welcome treats at the Park Hyatt- and the Park Hyatt Mendoza left a treat for us each night of our stay instead of just the first night! #winning

Living area of our suite

More of the living room

Bedroom

Views of the city

Bathroom

We had breakfast each morning at the M Bistro, the hotel’s dining room, where breakfast is included for Hyatt Diamond members.

Breakfast/dining room

The only choice was the buffet, which included made-to-order eggs — all we need for a filling and delicious breakfast. They also had a great selection of pastries, bacon, sausage, cold cut meats, cheeses, and even a smoked salmon bar (with capers, cream cheese, egg whites, lemon slices, etc.). The fresh-squeezed fruit juices were also a treat for us  — whenever fresh-squeezed carrot juice is available, Jeffrey drinks about 5 glasses.

Breakfast buffet

More breakfast options – free breakfast is probably the very best perk of being a Diamond member!

The best part is that breakfast is served until 11am, so sometimes we’d show up right at the tail-end for an early lunch — perfect for saving a bit of time and money.

View of the hotel from Plaza dela Independencia

The hotel’s location was perfect for a few nights’ stay in Mendoza – it’s just across the street from a beautiful park – the Plaza de la Independencia – and within walking distance to many delicious restaurants and shopping. The Plaza de la Independencia has plenty of green space, fountains and a few museums – it’s a great place for people watching and orienting yourself with a new city, as locals are strolling through and enjoying life with their friends and families, too.

The post Park Hyatt Mendoza Review – Mendoza, Argentina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

I was (secretly) dreading our day-long bus trip. What if it snowed and we couldn’t cross? And, more importantly, what if the roads were so bumpy and curvy that even I got car sick… and then had to stay on the bus for 5 more hours? Yikes. Luckily, none of my fears came to fruition and we arrived in Argentina unscathed and happy.

Window where we purchased our bus tickets

If you’re interested in more detail on how/where to book a bus ticket in Santiago, check out this post: How to: Booking a Bus Ticket from Santiago to Mendoza.

Gearing up for our ride

Boarding/The Seats

We departed the bus terminal a few minutes after 10 am and were on our way. The nice, more expensive seats are on the first floor of the bus (about 10 seats), then the cheaper seats are on the top floor. Fancy, plush leather seats were on the bottom floor – I mean these seats looked like Lazy Boy chairs were just wheeled into the bus and bolted down. Nothing to complain about there… but we opted to save $12 each and ride up top in the cheaper seats.

Here’s a copy of the seating chart. We recommend upstairs!

So, not knowing what to expect, we climbed the stairs to the top floor and found cloth seats that definitely weren’t as big or as nice as downstairs, but did just fine. Even the cheaper seats are much nicer than seats on charter buses in the US. These seats lean back to about a 45 degree angle – not so bad. Neither floor was anywhere near full – out of the 46 seats on the top floor of the bus, only about 14 people were riding. I’m not sure if that is because it wasn’t peak tourist season or because the buses run so frequently. Either way, Jeffrey and I could spread out, so we each took a row.

Downstairs leather seats

Our seats upstairs– not bad at all!

Before we even got out of Santiago, I fell asleep. Luckily, I woke up as we were literally climbing right up the mountains. The Andes are a beautiful mountain range and the snow-capped majestic – and huge! – mountains are a sight to see themselves. Along the pretty, scenic ride through the mountains, we crossed lots of bridges, went through countless tunnels and we feel like we can successfully claim we’ve seen about every winding road in the Andes.

The Ride

Here’s a map of the route:

The 225 mile trip took a total of 7 hours, while it’s still better than the 8 hours that they advertise it as, the total moving time was only 5 hours.

Saying the roads were “windy” would be a bit of an understatement

Meal Service

About two hours into our journey, around 12:30pm, when we had plateaued and weren’t climbing as rigorously, ham and cheese sandwiches were passed out, and then some fizzy grapefruit-tasting drink. While it won’t win any awards for its tastiness, the sandwich was filling and by no means terrible. Jeffrey pointed out that the box the sandwich came in said the sandwich would be good through next week — a little disconcerting when it has cheese and mayonnaise on it… If you truly don’t want to eat the ham and cheese sandwich that is passed out on the bus, just hold your horses a few more minutes until you get to immigration control – there are three “restaurants” there that will serve you sandwiches for about $5 USD each.

Here come our ham sandwiches

Yummy… mayo that stays good for a whole week!

Dessert consisted of coffee and an alfajor:

Yumm….instant coffee….

It’s important to note that there’s not really any water onboard the bus. They have a free dispenser that has hot water and cold water but I wasn’t willing to risk drinking the cold water. Jeffrey did use the hot to make coffee but, we figured, if it was boiling then it’s probably fine to drink. So, make sure to bring at least a few bottles of water for the ride if you end up taking this trip. Also, a few snacks wouldn’t hurt either.

Border Crossing

When you get to immigration control, be prepared to stay a while. We were under the impression that we could walk around for a few minutes, go through a passport check and be on our way… In fact, our experience took, at least, two hours. It’s not bad (especially when the weather is great!), but just good to know what you’re in for (we left our backpacks and personal belongings on the bus thinking we’d just be off the bus for about 5 minutes).

Ready for the long wait

At the border – about to cross over into Argentina

When we asked the bus driver how long we’d be, his response was, “as long as we need to be.” But, then, he followed it up with, “Maybe an hour?” There were about 3 small little restaurant kiosks to grab a sandwich, beer, water or coffee… interestingly, all places advertised that they accept Argentinian pesos, Chilean pesos, Brazilian reales and US dollars. Because those ham sandwiches on the bus hadn’t really done it for us (and we were bored), we bought a “Chorida”–a chorizo sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes for appx $4 US.

Passport control and customs processing

Immigration control at the border- waiting to get our luggage back

Finally, after about 3 or 4 buses were processed we were up. Interestingly, since it is an official border crossing right on the border, we all lined up, were processed by Chilean passport control, our official “exit” from Chile and then lined up in front of the Argentinian agent to be processed into Argentina. I suppose that we were in neither country for a few minutes there while waiting to officially enter Argentina. Good thing the power didn’t go off at that precise moment. Once our passports had been processed, it was back to the bus to wait and have our bags checked by customs and immigration. The officials started unloading the “checked” luggage in the luggage stores beneath the bus. They ran everyone’s bag through the x-ray scanner and then selected, possibly randomly, about 3 bags to visually inspect. However, all 3 happened to belong to this Bolivian woman traveling with her two children. An agent then had us unzip backpacks, purses, etc. – anything we were carrying with us on the bus – for a very quick visual inspection. Not sure what he was looking for, if anything. Then finally, the green light! We all boarded the buses and hit the highway. In all, we were stopped for right at 2 hours:

Here’s a chart of our speed on the trip. We stopped at about 2.5 hours into the trip and resumed at 4.5 hours in.

We made it to Argentina!

Here are few more pictures of the part you’ll not want to miss–the scenery!

The ride passed quite quickly as we rolled into Mendoza about 7 hours after leaving Santiago.

All parked in Mendoza!

All in all, the trip from Santiago to Mendoza was quite painless– and much less so than what I was expecting. The views of the Andes as you approach them and then begin to climb them — it’s pretty incredible! The actual ride is very smooth and rocked me to sleep for the majority of the trip. And, although we had to wait at the border for roughly 2 hours to pass into Argentina, we were allowed to get off the bus and visit the cafes at the top of the mountain — walk around, etc., so it wasn’t miserable at all.

The post Bus Ride Through the Andes: Santiago to Mendoza first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

When we were planning our trip to South America, we had settled on going to Santiago, Mendoza and Buenos Aires but had to sort out how to get from A –> B –> C. After reading a few trip reports and seeing a few photo galleries from the bus ride over the Andes, our mind was made up.

Bus vs. Plane

If the breathtaking pictures aren’t enough, also consider that a bus ticket will only set you back $40-50 vs a few hundred if you decide to fly:

Cost of a 1-way plane ticket from SCL to MDZ. Yes, that is $ US!

Book Online vs In Person

My recommendation is to do your research online before arriving in Santiago or Mendoza and then go to the bus station to buy your ticket. A few reasons for this:

• Just about all of the online booking websites are in Spanish; this could pose problems depending upon your knowledge of the language.
• How can you know the online booking agency is reputable?
• How can you know that the bus company you purchase your ticket from is reputable or safe?
• Will the bus company actually be making the trip on the travel date you purchased? We had heard from my sister that the roads across the Andes had been closed for a few days. Some of her friends were in Santiago trying to go to Mendoza and had to stay in Santiago for a few days waiting for the roads to be cleared of snow. Some bus companies might make the trip where others won’t.

The best site for researching dates, times, prices and companies: Central de Pasajes. I would also cross reference everything at Andesmar’s website: Andesmar.com

A quick sample search will reveal the 4 companies that are bookable on this site for the route (note that CATA doesn’t appear on Andesmar.com, just Central de Pasajes):

• CATA – 4x daily
• El Rapido Internacional – 2x daily
• Coitram – 2x daily
• Andesmar – 3x daily

This site will also show you the classes of service and seat map so you can check how full a particular bus is. Here’s a sample booking on the Andesmar website.

And the seat selection map– you’ll want to take note of this because just about all of the buses have 2 levels and you’ll probably want to book a class of service that allows for the better view on the upper floor:

On an Andesmar bus, the nicer cabin with “suites” is on the lower level- not the best for sightseeing

Classes of Service for Argentina Buses

Andesmar

• Suite Primera Clase – “Suite”
  
• Cama Ejecutivo – “Bed”
  
• Semi-cama – “Semi-bed”
  

CATA

• Royal suite – “Suite”
  
• Cama ejecutivo – “Bed”
  
• Semicama – “Semi-bed”
  
• Común – “Standard”
  

El Rapido Internacional

• Cama – “Bed”
  
• Semicama – “Semi-bed”
  

Coitram

• Común – “Standard”
  

Here’s a fantastic description of the classes of bus service in Argentina/Chile from Omnilineas:

Comfort classes

Bus services in Argentina are available in a variety of comfort classes, each with its distinct characteristics. The classification is prescribed by law (Decreto 2407/2002 Annexo II) in an attempt to improve the comparability of the services. Every service is assigned by the bus company to one of five comfort classes and has to comply with the minimum requirements of this class. Below we present a summary of the available classes to give you an impression of the respective levels of comfort.

For quick and easy reference we have introduced a numbering of the categories and assigned the number one to the best comfort level (“first class”), while the most basic service is number five.

Class 5: Común

This is the lowest category with no additional requirements other than the basic technical standards for bus transportation.

Class 4: Común con aire

As the main difference to the lowest class, services in the “comun con aire” category offer air conditioning, i.e. the buses are equipped with a heating and cooling system. Also the number of passengers is limited to the number of seats (no transport of standing passengers). Normally there are individual seats with soft cushioning, although this is not required by law for this category.

Class 3: Semicama

Services of this class offer better seating comfort. The buses are equipped with rows of individual seats (4 seats per row), with soft cushioning, arm and foot rests, and reclining back rests. There are also rests to support your legs when the seat is in a reclined position. The service either includes catering of food and drinks or a minibar with self-service where you can get juices, coffee and tea. An air conditioning system with individually adjustable air flow for every seat is mandatory. The following dimensions are minimal requirements for a semicama service:

• distance between armrests: 45 cm
• distance between seats: 75 cm
• maximum reclining angle: 40 degrees
• depth of the seats: 45 cm
• width of armrests: 4 cm

All semicama buses are also equipped with a toilet compartment with certain minimum dimensions.
After all, the comfort level of the semicama class is thus slightly better or about equal to typical bus services in Europe and North America, and similar to the economy class on a flight.

Class 2: Cama-Ejecutivo

This class offers even better seating comfort, and because of the larger seats there are only three seats per row. Consequently every row has a single seat on one side and two adjacent seats on the other side of the aisle. A cama service has to comply with the following minimum requirements for the seats:

• distance between armrests: 50 cm
• distance between seats: 86 cm
• maximum reclining angle: 55 degrees
• depth of the seats: 46 cm
• width of armrests: 6 cm

Needless to say that the larger seats and wider reclining angle are favorable for sleeping on a night bus. The cama-ejecutivo class has the same requirements as the semicama class with respect to air conditioning, toilet department, and minibar or catering. In addition there is normally also an audio and video system installed for your entertainment.

Class 1: Cama Suite

The only additional requirement for this class as compared to the cama-ejecutivo class is that the maximum reclining angle must be at least 85 degrees. In practice this means that the seat can be reclined until it is completely flat and you will really have a bed (spanish: “cama”) to sleep in. Normally there is some sort of separation between your seat and the one in front and behind in order to preserve your privacy.

Where to buy a bus ticket in Santiago, Chile

Like I mentioned, we had heard from my sister that the roads across the Andes had been closed for a few days just prior to our trip. As a result, we opted to not purchase our tickets online in advance and instead went to the bus station to A) find it ahead of time to make our lives easier when we’d show up later with lots of luggage and in more of a time crunch and B) to get first hand info from the bus companies about a road condition update.

Finding the bus station, it turned out, was exceedingly difficult– and for no apparent reason. We were working with just a map of the downtown area and in no place could we find a symbol or even hint of a bus or bus station. Contrary to my travel style, we broke down and asked someone where to find the “bus station for buses to Mendoza;” they seemed highly confident in their answer and drew precise directions on our map. This bus station, however was a very small one and for only one company. They did, in fact, have a few daily departures to Mendoza but the buses at the station looked small and not as nice. It also didn’t help that, in all of my online research prior to our trip, I had not once come across the name of this company. The internet was so slow, but, when I finally was able to use Google, I learned that there are 4 bus stations in Santiago, the largest being Terminal de Santiago with the majority of international departures. We asked for directions to Terminal de Santiago and were told to take the red line subway to Universidad de Santiago.

We followed the signs out of the subway to the buses and found a huge plaza of buses for “Pullman.” After scouring the area, I couldn’t find any of the bus companies I hoped to find like “Andesmar,” “Cata International,” or “Coitram.”

Ahhh, buses everywhere in this part of town!

We began to feel as if we were on Candid Camera and the victim of a prank. Since I had a really slow connection on my phone, we found an Internet cafe. There is SO little info on the web about these buses it’s crazy. I did, however, find the Terminal de Santiago website who confirmed that Andesmar has a ticketing office in stall #42. Ok, great, back downstairs we went for stall #42 and found nothing, just more Pullman ticketing lines. After some hunting around the area, we realized that we were, again, in the wrong bus station. It turns out there is a bus station RIGHT next to Terminal de Santiago called Alameda (and that’s where we were), with very few signs to make that known to the uninitiated.

Here’s a map– hopefully someone can learn from our mistakes. If you’re headed to Argentina, you’ll want the station with the yellow star, Terminal de Santiago:

Ok, NOW we’re finally in Terminal de Santiago, and we went straight to stall #42 and it’s STILL not Andesmar, not even close. Hmmm, time to take a spin around the station. Couldn’t find Andesmar, Coitram etc… anywhere. UGH. Is this a joke, Chile?!?!?!

Then, FINALLY, after getting very close to leaving and then reevaluating, we found that we were in the domestic area of Terminal de Santiago. We doubled back around to the international area and, there it was: the Andesmar ticketing office. There were many companies all lined up selling tickets to Mendoza. We checked with a few of the companies for prices and road conditions. They all said the same: the roads were currently open to traffic and buses operating normally but, you never know, things could change at anytime. Oh well, good enough for me.

Ok, seeing names I recongize must mean we’re close!

We went to the Andesmar counter and requested 2x tickets. We were quoted a price of 19,000 CLP each (~$34 US). This sounded fine, and, in fact, was a better price than purchasing online because they were charging in Argentine Pesos which came out to appx ~$40 US. The agent requested our passports, which we didn’t have with us, but, fortunately, we had a picture of McCown’s. This seemed sufficient for the time being. He told us to be back by 9:30am, 30 mins before our scheduled departure with my passport on Sunday.

Finally found them!

He asked us at least 3x if we had paid our reciprocity fee for Argentina, to which I said, yes, already taken care of.

It was our intention to take the subway from Las Condes to Universidad de Santiago– it’s a straight shot on the red line but would take close to 50 mins and required a few minutes’ walk on each side, with our bags… Not to mention the stairs of the subway. The subway fare is just 620 CLP each (appx $2.25 total) but, since we were running a bit late and it was starting to rain, we had to grab a taxi. The cab got us there in 20 mins door-to-door and cost 8,000 CLP with tip (~$14.50 US).

BOTTOM LINE: We ended up booking a “Semi-cama” seat in person with Andesmar for less than we were quoted online. This allowed us to speak with the agent to make sure the buses were running before purchasing. It also forced us to go find the bus station in advance, which proved to be invaluable because it took a lot longer than expected and we surely would have missed our bus otherwise. I think this is the best way to go for most travelers.

The post How to: Booking a Bus Ticket from Santiago to Mendoza first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Always our first stop in any city…? Coffee!

Even though the main square of the town (Plaza de Armas) was closed while we were there, our favorite part of being in Santiago was just walking around the city streets and watching life happen. Like I said, there’s plenty of restaurants and shops but not too many “tourist attractions” that you feel like you need to visit – so it’s nice to just walk around and explore on your own.

Here’s a map outlining some must-see sites as well as the location of hotels that will allow you to stay for free using just points:

CERRO SANTA LUCIA

We got off at the subway at the Moneda stop and headed towards the nearby Cerro Santa Lucia. This little hill (an easy 15 min. hike up to the top) is in the center of Santiago and provides fantastic views of the mountains that are so close to the city that they feel like they are closing in on you. This is the smaller of the two hills in the city (the other is a little ways outside of the center, Cerro San Cristobal), but provides excellent 360 degree views of the city with the added bonus of not being too hard to climb. The hill just springs up out of nowhere (the surrounding area is flat!) and I just couldn’t get enough of the snow-capped Andes off in the (nearby) distance.

Headed up Cerro San Lucia – first stop: this beautiful fountain

Climbing Cerro Santa Lucia

Can’t beat the views from the top of the hill

Castillo Hidalgo is on top of Cerro Santa Lucia, built in 1816

On our way down, we tried the Mote Con Huesillos

Although there’s not much to do along the way, there is a beautiful yellow fountain on the way up and an opportunity to try a decidedly Chilean drink: the Mote Con Huesillos (700 CLP). It’s a chilled peach nectar juice with cooked wheat kernels and a whole, sugar soaked peach. It was delicious and very, very sweet. At first, we thought it was apricot-flavored and were pretty skeptical — mixing odd juices with odd fruits and ever stranger grains and/or beans– we just weren’t sure about it. Once we dove in, it was super flavorful and quite filling given all the wheat kernels.

Feeling tired? There’s an elevator to ride down from the top of the hill.

From the Cerro Santa Lucia, we walked down Calle Mercedes to Lazarita Calle. We checked out a few of the cool restaurants and then made our way down the road to Boquena to hunt down La Fuente Alemeda.

LA FUENTE ALEMADA

This diner-style restaurant was packed elbow-to-elbow with limited actual seating. Seats lined the bar/counter area where you order from a waitress.

Headed into La Fuente Alemada for their popular lunch

The kitchen at La Fuente Alemada is right in the middle of the restaurant.

Here’s our delish sandwich from La Fuente Alemada

We went with the popular Lomito Completo, complete with mayo, sauerkraut and salsa (3,800 CLP). Our gigantic sandwich came out within 4-5 minutes, and we dove right in. It’s more like a meat sandwich with a giant mayo salad on top. Most of the locals had guacamole on theirs, making me immediately envious. Can’t deny the freshness at this place, though.

SOPAIPILLA

From the restaurant, we crossed the river down Pio Nono and found a sopaipilla salesman– a very enthusiastic one at that. Sopaipilla is a very traditional Chilean snack made of zapallo squash and dough, then grilled. This guy literally insisted that Jeffrey jumped behind the grill and man the helm.

Awkward family photo?

…That’s more like it!

We then bought our (very overpriced?) sopaipilla. He threw on some salsa picante and other mustard-based sauce and we gave it a try — and it was tasty but tasted more like fried dough than squash. Maybe the squash is just minced in together with the dough?

The sopaipillo, at long last…

Either way, the highlight was the zesty salesman more so than the actual snack. Interested in trying it at home? Here’s a recipe!

LA PIOJERA

This literal hole-in-the-wall near the fish market is probably my biggest “must do” in Santiago. It’s a dive bar with tons of locals – in fact, we were the only tourists in the whole bar when we went. Jeffrey and I visited, and it was wall-to-wall with locals having a good time.

Told you… hole in the wall

Terremotos for all!

The rowdy crowd at La Piojera

By the looks of it, Jeffrey’s pretty pleased with his first terremoto!

It was fun to be so intertwined with locals instead of tourists, and we ended up meeting a middle-aged couple who spoke great English and wanted to chat with us all night. I wouldn’t eat here but get a “Terremoto” which is Chile’s version of a Hurricane drink. Delicious …and dangerous. Terremotos are made with pipeño (a type of sweet, fermented white wine) topped with pineapple ice cream. Terremoto translates to “earthquake” and its said that the drink has this name because it makes your legs shaky once you drink it! If you’re brave enough, try a “Replica” (or “Aftershock”) next — it’s the same drink but only half the amount.

OTHER STOPS

Santiago’s Fish Market

La Moneda Palace, the seat of Chile’s President

Iglesia de La Merced, built in 1736

It’s not Chile if you don’t see a lama on the street!

Exploring Santiago is a nice respite from a city filled with hoards of tourists. Don’t forget to buy a “completo” – a burger or hot dog topped with avocados, tomatoes and tons of mayo). You can find these in any street stand, restaurant, etc. This street-side meal will really make you feel like you’re one of the locals.

Completos!

Once you’ve visited the hill and, of course, La Piojera, sit back and enjoy the laid back attitude of the locals!

The post Walking Tour: Exploring Santiago De Chile first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

The Deal

Book flights from New York-JFK or Miami-MIA to Iguazu Falls-IGU for as low as $474 to $524 for travel in January, February or March 2015.

Available travel dates for New York-JFK to Iguazu Falls-IGU in March 2015

By: …your local connection – CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

How to Get It

1. Head to ITA Matrix Airfare Search
2. Use the “See calendar of lowest fares” search functionality and enter a date range of something like 1-8 days, 3-10 days, or 5-12 days etc….
   

   Use the “See calendar of lowest fares option”

3. This search will return a calendar of possible departure dates:
   

   Available travel dates for New York-JFK to Iguazu Falls-IGU in February 2015

4. When you click on a date you’ll be prompted to select the trip length:
   

   Sample dates/prices available for one of the departure dates

5. Once you’ve selected your travel dates, click through to the next screen to see all available flights at that price:

   

6. Unfortunately you cannot book directly from ITA Matrix but now that you’ve found specific travel dates that are valid, head to either Kayak, Orbitz or Expedia to perform a search with the specific travel dates that you honed in on above.
7. Select your flights are you should be all set to book directly from Kayak, Orbitz or Expedia.

Don’t forget: 

• Some people have reported being able to price in a stopover in one of the typical connecting cities such as Lima-LIM, Santiago-SCL etc…
• A few of the booking sites will give you a cancelation window of up to 36 hours, consider booking today before the fares disappear and then canceling tomorrow if you must.

BOTTOM LINE:  This is a great deal to Brazil for the Spring 2015, don’t forget that US citizens will need a visa to visit Brazil.

Featured image source: By: SF Brit – CC BY 2.0

The post Cheap flights to Iguazu Falls, Brazil/Argentina ~$500 Jan, Feb, March 2015 first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

CHECK-IN

We arrived at the hotel after one 10-hour, nearly sleepless flight (Delta Flight 147 – Atlanta-ATL to Santiago-SCL – B767-300ER) and one van ride from the airport– looking pretty rough around 10am, I’m sure. Thankfully, the front desk agent confirmed that our room was, in fact, ready for us immediately, giving us a chance to take some much needed showers.

THE ROOM

Jeffrey booked the room with Cash + Points for 6,000 Starpoints + $110 per night and, on top of that, applied two SPG Platinum Suite Night Awards to the reservation. The SNAs cleared exactly 5 days out and we received a confirmation that we had been booked into a Marvelous Suite.

The room was, well, Marvelous. It was extremely “W-esque,” with tall ceilings, very modern decor and the signature W soundtrack. The Marvelous Suite had a nice, big balcony with a table and chairs and a breathtaking view of the Andes Mountains (who knew they were so close to the city?!). Truly, the view of the city and the majestic mountains just a stone’s throw away is the best part of this hotel (and city, for that matter).

THE BATHROOM

The bathroom — for all of the strides toward modernity, was completely open to the bedroom. Fortunately, the toilet (but not the shower or bathtub) had a separating door, but it would still make for quite an awkward experience if traveling with a friend or family member.

The bathroom off of the living room — in case we have guests…

After checking out our freakin’ awesome room (and taking a small nap), we checked out the rest of the hotel. One of the staff members made sure to tell us about the nightclub that the W houses:  Whiskey Blue. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see Whiskey Blue for ourselves, since he told us that it doesn’t really get crowded until 4am… what?!

THE LOBBY

NOSA RESTAURANT

We did get plenty of chances to experience the restaurant and lobby bar. Being an SPG Platinum Member, Jeffrey always chooses the free breakfast option when traveling with me. We’re never big breakfast eaters, but make it a point to eat late in the morning and essentially turn it into a significant head start on lunch. Breakfast for SPG Platinums at the W Santiago gets you the breakfast buffet at NoSa, the in-house restaurant. Typically, the breakfast amenity will only get you a continental breakfast at most properties, but there’s only one choice at NoSa: the sprawling buffet. I’m not quite sure how much it normally costs for breakfast, but they had a sign advertising a Sunday afternoon brunch for 23,000 CLP ( = $25.56 USD each at today’s exchange rate, or~$41 USD each at the exchange on the date we were there) and the offerings sounded identical to the morning breakfast.

The buffet selections were varied and fresh — exactly what you’d wish for — with a chef to specially make omlettes with your choice of toppings. And, best of all, we were there over the weekend and had access to their self-serve, bottomless mimosa and Bloody Mary bar. Not bad at all for a free breakfast at the W.

BOTTOM LINE:  There’s never a bad stay at any W Hotel, but this W Santiago is especially glamorous– boasting A+ views of the Andes Mountains and free, bottomless Bloodys for breakfast on the weekends. What more could a traveler looking for a little glamor want?

The post W Santiago Hotel Review – Santiago, Chile first appeared on Weekend Blitz.