| Reviews and photos of Mendoza attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Mendoza sightseeing. Mendoza Map |
 | Mendoza Things To Do | Tips 1 - 10 of 159 |  |
 Plaza Independencia by Trekki
Plaza Independencia is huge (compared to others), and it is the place to go during day and night. Huge trees are planted there, a big fountain, and a lot of places to rest.
Although it is in the middle of the city, you never have this feeling of being surrounded by noise.
A perfect place to relax.
During the day (from 10 a.m.) until minimum 10 p.m. a mercado de artesanias is there, a lot of small stands, selling all and everything.
The quality of the things is excellent, e.g. all the leather clothing, belts, purses etc.
During the night, a lot of other artists are there, playing music, performing, etc.
We saw for example a group of schoolkids, performing capueira - excellent !!!
Leave a Comment Address: Plaza Independencia, middle of the town
|
Visiting Mendoza?
Read reviews about Mendoza Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
 Parque San Martin, the lake
and the precordillera by Trekki, 2 more photos
In addition, it offers many parks to rest, the biggest one being Paque José Francisco San Martin.
It was designed in 1897 by Carlos Thays and with it's 420 hectars is the home of around 50.000 trees, a big lake, a rose garden and several sports centers (tennis, regatta, football, etc).
There is a zoo, and of course, famous Cerro de la Gloria - with the monument to the army of San Martin, the south american hero from Argentina.
The picture has been taken at the lake, with a fantastic view to the precordillera (up to 3000 m high mountains).
Leave a Comment Address: west of Boulogne Sur Mer streetDirections: More or less all streets westward lead to Parque San Martin, the famous main gate is at Av. Emilio Civit.
|
 Parque San Martin - arcades
and the lake (left) by Trekki, 2 more photos
You can do a lot of things there, strolling around and explore it's inumerous plants and trees.
Or, just sit, relax, read and ovserve at the lake shore, under nice flowered arcades :-)
Leave a Comment Address: west of Boulogne Sur MerDirections: If you enter the park through the main gate, keep left (south), and follow the signs to Rosedal (the rose garden) - the lake is just behind it.
|
Winery visits in Mendoza are not casual affairs. There's no just turning up at a cellar door at your own convenience such as we are used to in Australia, tasting some (or all) of the wines as you please. Every winery requires you to book and you will only gain admittance if the guy on the gate has you in his book! (photo 1). Following that there will be a tour of the wine making process - through the different rooms of the winery, past gigantic steel tanks of whites and high stacks of barrels of reds (photo 2), your guide reeling off lots of facts and figures as you go. Some visits will be very formal, no wine tasted until the tour is over and you're back in the tasting room where you'll be offered finished vintages. Others are more relaxed and you'll tap into barrels (photo 3) as you go, maybe tasting wines at different stages of their development as you make your way through the winery to the final tasting.
We visited three vineyards in one day and each offered a very different experience. There's a tip on each one to follow this general introduction.
We had a hire car and drove ourselves around. If you're doing it this way, it's a good idea to really suss out just where the wineries are and plan your visits to follow logically as the vineyards do cover a very large area and not all roads are well sign-posted. Tours start at a set time and can include different language groups so you really don't want to be late. Don't try to visit too many wineries in one day - 3, or 4 at most, is ideal.
Your hotel or the Vines at Mendoza Tasting Room will be able to help you plan the day and make your bookings. Your hotel will almost certainly be able to provide you with a map and winery information . Alternatively, if you want to let someone else do the driving, there are any number of wine tour companies operating in Mendoza or you could hire a car and driver for the day - the charge should be very reasonable. Leave a Comment Directions: Bookings must be made at least the evening prior to your visit. Whilst none of the wineries charge for their tours, some (one of those we visited) do charge for tastings. The charge can be nominal for recent vintages or very high for special reserves.
|
 | |  |
The Vines of Mendoza Tasting Room is a stylish addition to the Mendoza wine scene. They offer a great introduction to the wines of a number of the region's major wineries in the hands of their experts who will guide you through the subtleties of bouquet, the influence of soil, altitude and climate, grape varieties, etc. Another advantage here is that it gives you the opportunity to taste wines from several different wineries without enduring yet another full tour through the wine-making process. One room full of barrels looks much the same as another after the first couple of visits and you're probably not intending to write a thesis on oenology so all those facts and figures can begin to pall.
This is the only place in Mendoza that presents the wines of different wineries in this fashion. You can opt for a full-blown session working your way through "flights" of wines, (a flight is typically a comparative tasting of 5 different wines, sometimes all of the same grape variety, or maybe different reds or whites). Standard flights here at the tasting room cost 30 pesos., more esoteric groupings are offered at varying prices. You can also simply buy a bottle of wine to enjoy in the central courtyard - we opted for a bottle of local Chandon method champagnois as we didn't have time to include a visit to the vineyard before we left for Chile.
The information centre here can offer you advice on where to go to taste particular styles of wine, organize itineraries for you and generally give all sorts of wine-related advice. They also run a wine club. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
Visiting Mendoza?
Read reviews about Mendoza Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
It wasn't just the fact that the lovely hotel we were staying at (Club Tapiz) was owned by the Tapiz winery that makes me say this was our favourite winery. Nor was it that as guests we were given a private tour - though that was very nice too. We'd already sampled several of the wines at the hotel's nightly pre-dinner wine tastings - where "tasting" meant a generous glass or two of a different red and a white each night rather than the usual few centilitres in the bottom of a glass - so we knew the quality was there. The best thing was the relaxed way the tour was conducted by the young assistant winemaker who not only knew all the technical ins and outs of the winery's production but was an integral part of the process and loved what she did.
We tasted wines at all stages of their development, tapping straight from the barrels as we went, before finishing with some very fine vintages and reserves., including a wonderful old vine Malbec and a deliciously fruity Torrontes - a white varietal that is an Argentinian favourite.
Tours at Tapiz usually include a horse and buggy ride through the vineyard, which we didn't get as our visit was on a day when the winery was actually closed for tours. Leave a Comment Address: Ruta Provincial #15 (Vieja Ruta #40), kilómetro 32Directions: Tours available Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free but booking is necessaryWebsite: http://www.tapiz.com/wines/index_tapiz.htm Other Contact: turismo@tapiz.com
|
| | |
We didn't actually spend a lot of time in Mendoza itself, our hotel was some distance out of the city and our days were full, but we spent a few hours in the city one evening - enough time to get a little flavour of the place.
The first thing that strikes you is the wide - very wide - tree-lined streets (photo 1) laid out in a regular grid-pattern. This is a deliberate piece of late 19th century city planning following rebuilding after an earthquake in 1861 which totally destroyed the city and killed 4000 Mendocinos. Low-rise buildings and clear evacuation routes were the brief for the new city, still adhered to today.
Mendoza is centred around a group of five attractive plazas - the largest, Plaza Independencia, right in the heart of the city, with four others, Plazas Italia, Espana, Chile and San Martin (photo 2), set out at a block's distance from each corner of this main square. With charming buildings - some wonderfully elaborate, others colourfully colonial (photos 3 and 4) - along the streets connecting the squares, pavement cafes, kiosks, balloon sellers, and evening shoppers, it's lively and pleasant scene.
We parked the car, had a coffee, wandered a bit, shopped a bit, browsed the stalls of a street craft market (photo 5) and the racks of a couple of bodegas, drank some wine - the ideal way to spend a fine Spring evening - the sights of Mendoza will have to wait for another day. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
 by TheWanderingCamel
We struck a hiccup at another winery we were strongly recommended to visit - Carmelo Patti. This time language, not time, was the problem - we were visiting without a guide, Carmelo (one of the most-highly regarded oenologists in Argentina) conducts all the tours of his winery himself, he doesn't speak English and we speak very little Spanish! "La visita es imposible!"
All was not lost - we were able to taste the wines of these vineyards that evening in Mendoza at the Vines of Mendoza Tasting Room after a great day and a fabulous lunch at the places we did visit.
One word of warning - although readily available, maps like this one of Lujan de Cuyo and Mendoza's other wine routes tend to be difficult to follow as they are both schematic and not to scale. Bear this in mind if you're driving yourself around and ask at your hotel for clear directions or you could find yourself driving up and down lots of back roads that all look the same. Leave a Comment Address: Chandon - Agrelo 5507, Lujan de CuyoPhone: Chandon - 0216 490 9966Directions: Both Chandon and Carmelo Patti require bookings for tours. Only Spanish is spoken at Carmelo Patti, you will need a translator if you are not a Spanish-speaker.
|
| | |
 Supports at the San Francisco
Ruins by Bwana_Brown
Due to it's mainly adobe construction, the San Franciscan church was almost completely destroyed, except for the few remaining brick walls, seen here being supported by a permanent scaffold arrangement. Mendoza was later rebuilt to the southwest of this area and, even today, you do not see many tall buildings poking up through the trees in case they too have to contend with another major quake. Leave a Comment Address: Corner of Beltran and Ituzango AvenuesDirections: Close to Highway 40 leading to the Airport.
|
| | |
Maybe this tip should be in the restaurant section, but we made the visit to Ruca Malen as part of our wine-tasting day, so I'm going to leave it all here. Ruca Malen (photo 1) is a relatively new player in the Mendoza wine industry but they don't let that hold them back. The tour with our delightful guide, Mariela (photo 2), wasn't overlong but, as the third tour of the day, was quite adequate, with an explanation of how the grapes are hand-picked, the stages of fermentation, etc, and some tasting of wines still in the vats. Then we got down to the serious business of the day...
The combination of wine and food at the tasting lunch following the tour was just beautiful. It had been recommended to us by Guadelupe at Club Tapiz as one of the best the region had to offer - well - we didn't go anywhere else to compare for lunch but this must surely be hard to beat. Beginning with delicious appetisers on the terrace before moving into an airy pavilion (photo3) surrounded by vines with a gorgeous view to the mountains (photo 4), we were served with a lunch where each course was perfectly matched to an accompanying wine. The food was great, light and luncheony but beautifully cooked and presented. An added touch was a complimentary glass of champagne (from a a different vineyard as they don't make one) when they learned we there to celebrate a birthday.
By the end of our long lunch we were very glad we had opted to end our day of vineyard visiting there so we could head back to our hotel for a siesta before heading into Mendoza for the evening. Leave a Comment Address: Ruta Nacional 7 Km 1059 - Agrelo - Luján de CuyoPhone: (0261) 410-6214Directions: English and Spanish tours available Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 17:00 and Saturday from 10:00 to 12:30 Booking is essentialWebsite: www.bodegarucamalen.com
|
| | |
|
- Nh Cordillera
Avenida Espana, 1324, Mendoza - Hotel Crillon Mendoza
Peru 1065, Mendoza - Ibis Mendoza
Lateral sur acceso este 4241 Guaymallen, Mendoza - Solaz de los Andes - Apart & Suites Mendoza
Brasil 308, Mendoza - Hotel Mendoza
Avenida Espana 1210, Mendoza - Hotel Carollo
25 de Mayo 1184, Mendoza - Park Hyatt Mendoza
Chile 1124, Mendoza - Internacional
Sarmiento 720, Mendoza - Huentala Hotel Boutique
Primitivo de la Reta 1007 (Formerly "Huentala Mendoza" on our site), Mendoza - Hotel Princess Mendoza
25 De Mayo 1168, Mendoza - Hotel Nutibara
Av Mitre 867, Mendoza - Villaggio Hotel
25 de Mayo 1010, Mendoza - Aconcagua
San Lorenzo 545, Mendoza - Bonarda Hotel
Acceso Sur y La Madrid (Uspallata 840) Dorrego Guaymallen, Mendoza - Reina Victoria Suites & Towers
San Juan 1127, Mendoza
|
