We’re on the road full time which adds up to a lot of nights in hotels. Some aren’t worth remembering, but others have added real magic to our Journey. Welcome to part 2 in our Best of the Trans-Americas Journey 2019 series. This is our guide to the Best Hotels of the year including city luxury, vineyard camping, estancia perfection, and much more in Argentina and Chile. Part 1 covers our Top Travel Adventures of 2019, part 3 covers the Best Food and Beverages of the year, and part 4 tells you all about our Top Travel Gear of the year.
Use this list to plan your own stunning stays in Argentina and Chile.
Best Hotels of 2019 in Argentina & Chile
Epic suite #3 at Aldogon Mansion in Buenos Aires.
Best suite: All nine rooms at Algodon Mansion in Buenos Aires, Argentina are suites. However, room #3 is special. Its 1,400 square feet (130 square meters) includes a true living room, a true dining room, 1.5 bathrooms, two televisions, a glassed-in wine cellar, an enormous master bedroom, and a huge desk. If you’re celebrating a special event during your stay at Algodon Mansion (an anniversary, a birthday, etc.) management always tries to upgrade you to this suite. For even more reasons to stay at this hotel, check out our full review of Algodon Mansion for Luxury Latin America.
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Even the key chain was perfect at Estancia La Bamba de Areco in Argentina.
Best key chain: Pretty much everything is top-notch at Estancia La Bamba de Areco hotel in Argentina. From the on-site polo pony stable to the traditional asado barbecue lunches to the service, they get it all right. Even the tiny details have been perfected, including the key chains which are made from mini versions of carved traditional stirrups. Read about all of the other reasons this Relais & Chateaux hotel is worth booking in our full review of Estancia La Bamba de Areco for Luxury Latin America.
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That’s the gym at The Vines of Mendoza in Argentina.
Best hotel gym: You won’t normally find us in the hotel gym. Too cramped. Too stuffy. Too much of an afterthought or someone’s idea about how to use a space that’s too small for a guest room. But at The Vines of Mendoza in the UCO Valley in Argentina, the fitness facility was given as much planning and care as the rest of the hotel. The standalone gym is a large, airy, light-filled glass rectangle built on stilts in the middle of a vineyard with a wrap-around patio and epic views of the Andes. It’s the kind of space that could make a gym rat out of any of us.
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It’s worth the upgrade to get access to the new Club Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton Santiago.
Best club lounge: Ritz-Carlton hotels are working hard to up their Club Lounge game and it really shows at The Ritz-Carlton Santiago in the capital of Chile. Located on the 10th floor, the space was recently renovated (along with much of the rest of the hotel) and it’s now a bright, airy, and inviting space for working, meeting, and relaxing. Food and beverage services (from 7 am to 11 pm) include breakfast, snacks, lunch, appetizers and cocktails, a light dinner, and wine and beer all day. And did we mention the great views over the city and awesome Club Loung concierges? Get more booking inspiration in our full review of The Ritz-Carlton Santiago for Luxury Latin America.
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Polished and playful touches, like this full moon light and intricate hidden-figure wallpaper, abound at Entre Cielos Luxury Wine Hotel & Spa in Argentina.
Best little touches: It’s not remarkable for a high-end hotel room to have lovely design elements. It is remarkable for those elements to have real playfulness. For example, the Vineyard Suites at Entre Cielos Luxury Wine Hotel & Spa, near Mendoza, Argentina, all feature wallpaper designed with hidden images (you’ll be tempted to study the rich patterns for hours) and there’s a round light over the bed that’s fronted by a high-resolution image of the surface of the moon. Turn on the light and you have your own private full moon. There are, of course, many other reasons to book at a stay here. Read about them all (including the Hammam spa) in our full review of Entre Cielos for Luxury Latin America.
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Book this room at La Posada la Escondida in Villa Pehuenche, Argentina for a view of Lake Alumine right from bed.
Best bed with a view: La Posada la Escondida in Villa Pehuenche, Argentina has offered rooms and cabins on the forested lakeshore for years. In 2019, they completed new apartment-style rooms and the Antonio Berni apartment is the room to book for a fantastic view of sparkling blue Alumine Lake right from bed.
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Hotel breakfast gets taken to a new level at Las Balsas in the Patagonia region of Argentina.
Best hotel breakfast: You expect the food at a Relais & Chateaux hotel to be good. At Las Balsas, a Relais & Chateaux hotel in the Patagonia region of Argentina, they’ve elevated breakfast to an art form. You will not find a pre-set breakfast buffet in this boutique hotel’s homey but elegant dining room. Instead, everything your heart desires is brought to your table including great coffee in an elegant silver coffee pot, freshly-squeezed juice, lovely chopped fruit salad, eggs to order, toast, soft butter, homemade jams (including one made from rosehips which is like a spicy apple butter), and the best medialunas we had in all of Argentina this year. At Las Balsas, this croissant-like and ubiquitous breakfast item is elevated to a richly sweet (but not cloying) flaky pastry which displays some of the best characteristics of an almond croissant, but lighter. Be sure to look up from the table long enough to appreciate the lake and mountain views as you somehow manage to stuff one more medialuna into your mouth.
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Glaciers, lakes, Andean peaks….it’s all part of the view from the bathtub in this room at the Llao Llao hotel in the Patagonia region of Argentina.
Best tub with a view: The historic and iconic Llao Llao Hotel near Bariloche, Argentina is very much in the style of grand national park hotels in the US: massive, lots of wood and leather, and in the middle of trip-worthy natural beauty. Book room 6204 in the Moreno wing of the hotel and you get a bathtub with views of Moreno Lake and the extinct Tronador Volcano which is now dotted with glaciers.
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This trippy tile was all re-created by hand before being installed in the bathrooms at the Matetic La Casona winery hotel in Chile.
Best bathroom tile: Matetic La Casona is a 10-room boutique hotel in a Colonial house on the Matetic winery property in Chile. The house was restored by architect Raúl Irarrázabal and we expected to be charmed by antiques and ambiance. But what really thrilled us were the bathroom tiles. Each green and white tile, called baldosas cordova, is a hand-painted reproduction of the original tiles and they give every bathroom a trippy touch that we loved.
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Dream camping at the Nant y Fall winery in Trevelin, Argentina.
Best vineyard camping: Viñas de Nant y Fall in Trevelin in the central Patagonia region of Argentina has a secret. Sure their vineyard is picturesque, their wine is good, and their winery tour is fun and informative. But they’ve also created one of the best campgrounds we’ve ever seen. The dozen or so campsites are level and grassy and spread out around a large creek with shade trees, electricity, a grill, and a picnic table at each pristine and peaceful site. The shared bathroom and shower building is spotless and also has a large area for washing dishes or clothes and even provides drying racks for laundry. And if you’re traveling around in an RV or even a large Overlanding vehicle, they’ve got you covered too with seven RV sites that have electrical hook-ups and there’s even a proper dump station (a very, very rare thing in Latin America). Toss in friendly dogs, gorgeous vineyard views, a family atmosphere led by your host Sergio Rodriquez, a small on-site tienda with basic necessities, a fridge stocked with craft beer, plus the family’s lovely wines (including gewurztraminer, riesling, blanc de noir, rose pinot, and pinot noir) and it’s pretty hard to leave this place.
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Every apartment-style room has an ocean view and many eco features at Océano Patagonia in Puerto Piramides, Argentina.
Best eco beach hotel: The 12-room Océano Patagonia apartment-style hotel is right on the beach in Puerto Piramides on the Atlantic Ocean side of the northern Patagonia region of Argentina. Even more unusual are the hotel’s many sustainable practices including LED lights, greywater treatment and reuse, construction and furniture that uses wood salvaged from a building demolition in Buenos Aires, solar panels, and more. And all of that comes in a sleek and modern package and all rooms have ocean views and kitchenettes.
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More than 500 works of art can be found (and purchased) in El Casco Art Hotel in Bariloche, Argentina.
Best hotel for art lovers: The owners of the El Casco Art Hotel in Bariloche, Patagonia also own art galleries in Buenos Aires and their personal art collection is vast. That explains why their luxury lakeside hotel is filled with more than 500 pieces of art including paintings, sculptures, and more (and everything is for sale). All 33 rooms are named after artists. Walls are painted a shade that best supports the art that’s hung there. Mona Lisa’s face is on the ladies’ room door off the lobby and Dali’s face on the men’s room door. Painter Juan Lascano produces a series of paintings showing the view from the lobby (lawn, sculptures, lake, mountains) in each of the four seasons and all four paintings are displayed in the lobby. The painting from the current season is always placed by the lobby elevator to be sure guests see it. The meeting room walls are lined with iconic images created by artist Molino Campos for the annual calendar given out by a company called Alpangatas. And even the spa has art on the walls, albeit reproductions. The owners were afraid the humid conditions in the spa would ruin original works.
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The view of Ushuaia, Argentina (aka the end of the world) and the Beagle Channel from our room at Arakur Ushuaia Resort & Spa.
Best view of the end of the world: Book any even-numbered room at the Arakur Ushuaia Resort & Spa, which is located on a hill in a private reserve above Ushuaia, Argentina, and you get stunning views of the Beagle Channel and the city that’s been called “the end of the world” because its the southernmost city in the world. Bonus points: Leonardo DiCaprio stayed here while filming some scenes for The Revenant.
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Here’s more about travel in Argentina
Here’s more about travel in Chile
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