[2nd-6th December 2025]

Emerging from the terminal at Mendoza Airport, we get our first view of the Andes, the mountain range that forms the spine of South America.  I’m reminded of my old mate Malcolm who said, more than once, that when you get married you become a mountain range: The Griffiths, The Reids, etc.  But I digress.

No problem calling a Cabify taxi to this airport, the first of many very cheap cab rides in Mendoza, and we arrive quickly at the Park Hyatt, as it turns out probably the best hotel in the city.  The hotel’s impressive neoclassical façade faces onto the attractive park in the centre of the Plaza Independencia.

Originally the site of the Plaza Hotel, which, depending upon which source you read, Eva Peron either stayed at or visited in the 1940s, perhaps as a part of her campaigns on workers’ rights or social welfare programmes.  The new Hyatt rebuilt pretty much everything behind the façade into a modern hotel, incorporating the separate casino which used to stand on the square.

The lift that we get up to our room is right beside the entrance to the modern casino, which also sports a large advert for an upcoming boxing match it will be hosting.  Looking into the casino, we have to conclude that it looks even less glamorous than the one on the MSC Fantasia. The patrons we see emerging appear to be a dowdy and depressed lot – not exactly Monte Carlo.  And the house always wins.

On one occasion, I leave Fi by the pool to come up to our room on the 5^th floor.  When I get in the lift, a man comes out of the casino and watches me trying to get the lift to go up.  My room card should light up the floor buttons, which then allows me to set the lift going upwards, but it doesn’t.  The guy tries to assist and I eventually understand he is saying to go down first then up.  I descend to the car park, but still can’t ascend past the first floor.

I get out in the bar area and ask one of the young ladies who works there to help me.  She also gets in the lift, and we go through the same rigmarole. When we arrive at the car park for the second time, an American chap gets in.  So now there are three. 

For reasons best known to my subconscious, I greet him saying: “Hi. I’ve just kidnapped this young lady.” She giggles.  He smiles uncertainly and gets out at the Lobby.  Perhaps he’s gone to contact the police.

Eventually, I go to Reception, who tell me that I have picked up the card that the cleaners use to keep the room lights on whilst they service the room, and not my room key.  This explains why it doesn’t work in the lift.  The only consolation is that Fiona does the same thing on two further occasions during the rest of our stay.  The cards look very similar, honest.

Our main reason for staying here is that we reckoned by now we’d welcome a little chill out time, and the opportunity for a swim.  The pool area is large and comfortable, and the pool itself is cold but welcoming, apart from the frequently visiting wasps.

After a day of r’n’r’ we head out for a slice of what Mendoza is famous for, its location allowing it to afford access to the huge wine growing region, which stretches outwards and upwards towards the mountains.  At home we habitually order Malbec from the Trapiche Bodega from Tesco, so we thought we’d visit the source.  After a bit of difficulty, the cab driver locates the tour entrance, protected by another security point, though not quite as rigorous as the one at Estancia Villa Maria.

We are met at reception by Marina, who takes us on a personal tour of the bodega.  I think the only vineyard tour we have been on in recent times was at Binifadet in Menorca, a few years ago, though we’ve done a number of port and sherry bodega tours more recently.

We see the corridor of fermentation vessels – mostly concrete, as wood is in short supply in this area – with wooden vessels used only at the end of the process to create the bodega’s finer offerings.  We sample 5 wines (I think), all the reds being delicious, and end up with a taste of Trapiche’s best, at the end of our visit. 

Our guide’s passion for wine comes across loud and clear. She gives very intriguing descriptions of not just what, but where in the mouth, we taste each of the wines which we sample.  We both agree that this is the best bodega tour we’ve been on, and that Marina’s knowledge and enthusiasm has helped make it so enjoyable.  She really loves her job.

It was interesting to learn that, although firmly based in Mendoza, Trapiche also owns vineyards in other parts of Argentina, e.g. in Patagonia, on the coast near Buenos Aires, and in the Uco Valley, the latter still being in Mendoza Province but heading up towards the mountains.  This policy allows them to make wines in a range of environments and climatic conditions, thus broadening their offerings.

We have a cooling iced cocktail outdoors, beside the old railway trucks which have been converted to bars – they like to preserve their history in Argentina – then it’s off for lunch in the Bodega’s Michelin Guide restaurant.

Each course, naturally, has a paired wine from the vineyard.  The food is good, and inventively presented.  The paired wines are served in tiny measures.  I tell the sommelier, who is like the speaking clock,  that I don’t like the first one.  He smiles and ignores me.  I tell him I really don’t like the second one.  He has to go off and get me something to replace it.  The general attitude is at odds with that in the bodega itself, with a perfunctory, almost passive/aggressive air about the staff.  First World problems, eh!

More pool time, then we decide to take the Mendoza city bus tour.  In 2.5 hours it takes us around Mendoza, and also the adjoining town of Godoy Cruz.  Fi warns me that the reviews are very mixed, but we feel that the temperatures (30-32 degrees) have prevented us from exploring on foot, so we should try to see a bit more of the city. I mean, how bad can it be?

As the bus takes off from the Plaza Independencia, we note a plus point.  Unlike the BA tour, this one has a red awning across the open deck, protecting us from the worst of the sun.  That is the first and only plus point.

After about 5 minutes, we suss what must have happened.  A team of social scientists must have been sequestered in a conference room for a week, with only basic provisions and amenities.  They have been tasked with designing the most chaotic and unprofessional bus tour in the history of human civilisation.  They have succeeded royally, and no doubt all gone off to the pub in high spirits.

As people board, the “background” Latin rock blasts out at roughly the volume of the third row at a Deep Purple concert in the early 1970s.  This continues for the entire duration of the tour. It’s not even very good Latin rock.  The first commentary connection point produces no sound.  When I get one that works on the English channel, most of the time quite different non-Latin rock plays on the commentary channel, with brief periods of semi-audible commentary which sometimes repeats itself. 

The resultant cacophony reduces me to a tormented person – deeved, as my old mum used to say. I end up switching the commentary volume to zero, and wearing the headphones as simple earplugs to reduce the other noise as much as possible.

The consolation is that there are so few points of interest on a tour of urban Mendoza that it would be hardly worth listening to the commentary anyway.  Godoy Cruz is slightly more well-to-do and marginally more interesting.  All that keeps us going is that about three quarters of the way through the tour we go through the lovely General San Martin Park, which contains the Estadio Malvinas Argentinas.  Built for the 1978 World Cup, Scotland played out our thrilling 3-2 win over the Netherlands here, featuring the famous Archie Gemmill goal, and still managed not to qualify for the knockout stages. The Stadium was renamed in 1982, following the Falklands War, to reflect Argentina’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

At the end of the road is the Cerro de la Gloria mirador, which we hope will give us a closer-up view of the Andes.  We get off the bus, which departs immediately.  It becomes apparent that the viewpoint is at the top of a very steep hill, which cars can go up, but buses presumably can’t.  We decide we are not climbing that in these temperatures. We Cabify a taxi, which in due course shoots past us and drives on up the radical road to the viewpoint. 

Twenty minutes of to-and-fro messaging founder on the language barrier, and we decide to cut our losses and thole the last section of the bus tour.  As the bus arrives and we climb on, naturally we see our cab drawing up at the spot we’ve just left.  Well, he got a free fare and a nice view for his trouble.

Mercifully, the final section on the bus delivers us back to the Plaza Independencia and our hotel in about 5 minutes, hearing still mostly intact.

On our final evening, we have booked a table for dinner at Los Toneles Bodega.  Their Abrasado restaurant is very cool, in both senses of the word, and has very friendly, helpful and relaxed staff.  We have a fantastic meal washed down with beer from the Andes and a lovely bottle of their Mosquita Muerta Black Malbec. 

Mendoza is a bit scrubbier than we expected.  Most untended grass is yellow, and dry dusty patches feature everywhere.  Rain is infrequent here, yet each road has quite deep, cobbled channels adjacent to the pavement.  As we suspect, this is confirmed as being a measure to deal with melting snow in the mountains, which then floods down into the city.  The further out of the centre you go, the bigger the channels become, until they turn into effectively small canals on the outskirts.  The lack of rainfall means that bodegas like Trapiche have to have their own ponds/reservoirs to maintain an adequate water supply for their business.

Mendoza really comes across as a provincial town (inevitably when compared with Buenos Aires), whose main attraction is that it is the gateway to this major wine-growing region of Argentina – Malbec country!  The combination of chill time, and food and wine, definitely works for us though. And the city seems to be in a potential earthquake region, so from time to time the earth really does move.

My dozen favourite images from our stay in Mendoza are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image. If you’re using a mobile phone, turn your screen sideways to see the bigger image to best effect.

Image Gallery