Argentina
Argentina runs some 3,700 kilometers from the tropics toward Antarctica. Mendoza and Bariloche sit a thousand kilometers apart and share neither climate, food nor architecture. Below is what each region is good for, when to go, and how long it deserves.
Five days · Best October to April
Argentina’s wine heartland, and the opening five days of every journey. Luján de Cuyo is the historic home of Argentine Malbec; the Uco Valley, an hour south, grows at up to 1,500 meters and produces the country’s most structured wines. Expect private tastings at Cruzat, Matervini and Zuccardi, lunch at two Michelin-starred kitchens, and one night in a lodge among the vines with the Andes filling the window.
Three days · Best Most of the year
A different Argentina entirely: high desert, cardón cactus and red rock. The drive from Salta to Cafayate runs through Quebrada de las Conchas, a gorge of wind-carved amphitheaters you stop at for as long as you like. Cafayate grows Torrontés above 1,700 meters, and there is the option of a 4x4 day to Colomé, one of the oldest wineries in the country, with a James Turrell light museum attached.
Three days · Best October to April
Northern Patagonia, and the point where the journey stops being about wine. Circuito Chico traces the shoreline of Lake Nahuel Huapi across the forested Llao Llao peninsula. The following day is spent on the water in a private boat, with the route decided by the weather and your mood rather than a timetable, or on land with a certified guide inside Nahuel Huapi National Park.
Four days · Best Year round
Every journey closes in the capital, and it is deliberately the least scheduled part. Dinner at Don Julio, the one-Michelin-star parrilla in Palermo. A private city tour built around whatever you actually care about, whether that is Belle Époque architecture, Recoleta or the bookshops. Live tango in the city that invented it. Then a final day with nothing planned at all.