Driving from Bariloche to Mendoza
Summary
So if you’re heading through this part of the world where the distances are vast and the flight timings just aren’t working for you, I’d recommend driving from the lake region of Bariloche up to the wine region of Mendoza. Chances are for these regions you may have rented a car anyway, so its a question of if you’re prepared to pay the car relocation fee
The drive is a long one at roughly 14 hours. It includes the famous Seven Lakes route (see Driving the 7 Lakes from Villa la Angostura to San Martin for more details), but quite quickly after that you transition from luscious grassy mountains and lakes to more barren volcanoes / mountains, deserts, scrubland, with very few people and a part of the world that has little written about it – some key ingredients for an unexpected driving adventure
Google maps kept changing its mind whether to take the R40 or the more inland 237/151/143 route. We went for the R40 and were glad we did as the combo of the Andes range to our left and desert / plains to our right was a pleasantly beautiful surprise. Make sure you do keep an eye on the navigation though as it is very easy to get lost, which happened to us a few times. That feeling of having to choose between continuing to head down the dust path you hope will soon change to highway or to cut your loses and drive back the way you came for an hour isn’t that much fun . . . even less so the second and third times!
highlights
#1 Driving through this vast, sparse and little known part of the world
#2 Seeing the gorgeous changes of oranges to pinks and purples as the sun set on the desert . . . middle of nowhere
#3 Stopping at various points to take photos of the far distant volcanoes, such as Lanin Volcano
#4 The Seven Lakes route from Villa la Angostura to San Martin de los Andes
Travel Tips
- Renting a car isn’t too bad in Argentina at roughly USD50 / day, but it is the relocation fee you have to weigh up. We’d already decided to rent a car as we wanted to have one for the driving around the lakes and the wine regions, plus there was 4 of us to share the cost around so it made sense to have this rather unexpected adventure. However, I can understand that for many the roughly USD350 relocation fee would be prohibitive
- Start from Bariloche or San Martin de los Andes, depending on your travel plans. Follow the R40 all the way up to Mendoza, stopping for lunch and to sleep in one of the various towns along the way depending on your travel schedule
- Stay anywhere that makes sense with your driving schedule, but be prepared for little to be shown on some of the typical hotel sites like booking.com and, if hotels are, they’ll be in relatively poor condition from what we saw. We stopped somewhere around 3 hours out from Mendoza that we didn’t remember the name of and wouldn’t recommend
- There is a stunning crater to drive around and catch glimpses of the Lanin Volcano near where the 234 and R40 meet
- We stopped in places as we saw them for food. With having the car we were flexible. Non particularly stood out for recommendations!
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Similar Remote Driving Adventures
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone