Salta or Bariloche: choosing the second region
Both are twelve days and both cost the same. The difference is what you want the middle of the trip to feel like.
Updated September 2026
Why this is the real decision
Every journey we run opens with five days in Mendoza and closes in Buenos Aires. Those two ends are not the choice. The middle is.
Two of our journeys are twelve days at the same price per person. One goes north into the high desert of Salta and Cafayate. The other goes south to the lakes at Bariloche. Same length, same cost, completely different week.
What the northern route is
Salta and Cafayate are high desert. The road there runs through the Quebrada de las Conchas, a red rock canyon that is the drive itself rather than the way to something.
Cafayate grows Torrontés at altitude — above 1,700 metres, and higher still at Colomé, which is remote enough that reaching it is part of the point. The Colomé estate also holds a James Turrell museum, which is not a sentence anyone expects about a winery.
It is hot, dry, high and strange. If Mendoza has already shown you what Argentine wine country looks like, this shows you that you had only seen one version of it.
What the southern route is
Bariloche is where the journey stops being about wine. Lakes, forest, and mountain horizons — Circuito Chico by private car, forested peninsulas, and a full day on Lake Nahuel Huapi in a boat that is yours alone.
The contrast is the argument for it. Mendoza and Bariloche are about a thousand kilometres apart and share almost nothing. Going south gives you two genuinely different countries inside one trip, where going north gives you two versions of the same idea done differently.
The practical differences
Season. Bariloche is a summer destination — the lakes and the walking are at their best from October to April. Salta and Cafayate are good for most of the year. If you are travelling in the southern winter, that decides it for you.
Pace. The northern route involves more driving, and the driving is the experience. The southern route involves more stopping.
Wine. If the wine is the reason for the trip, go north. Cafayate is a genuine second wine region, not a scenic detour. Bariloche is not about wine at all.
Drama. If you want the trip to have a hard turn in the middle — a week that feels like a different holiday — go south.
If you cannot choose
The sixteen-day journey does both, with two separate Buenos Aires stays so the internal flights work without long overland legs. It is the most complete route we run and the most expensive, and it is the honest answer for anyone who has been trying to pick between the two for a week.
Common questions
- Is Salta or Bariloche better for a first trip to Argentina?
- If wine is the reason for the trip, Salta and Cafayate — it is a genuine second wine region, with Torrontés grown above 1,700 metres and the remote Colomé estate. If you want the middle of the trip to feel like a different country, Bariloche. Both journeys are twelve days at the same price per person.
- When is Bariloche best?
- October to April. The lakes, the forest and the walking are at their best in the southern summer. Salta and Cafayate are good for most of the year, so if you are travelling outside that window the northern route is the more sensible choice.
- How is Cafayate different from Mendoza?
- Altitude and climate. Cafayate is high desert, growing Torrontés above 1,700 metres, reached through the red rock of the Quebrada de las Conchas. Mendoza is Malbec country beneath the Andes. They are both wine regions and they do not feel remotely alike.
- Can I do both Salta and Bariloche?
- Yes, on the sixteen-day journey. It runs Mendoza, then Salta and Cafayate, then Buenos Aires, then Bariloche, then Buenos Aires again — two separate capital stays so the internal flights work without long overland legs.