Recommend Me A Tour For My Parents!

[PhilipDT]

Philip, you are not screwing around. I would need a serious vacation after that vacation.

That feeling is how I know I had a good vacation

 

[lamarque]

I second the choice of Water fall plus Glaciar, is amazing to see so spectacular contrast, i did that on October 2012 and was amazing we had very good weather, adding the wales spot (really good if you go to the beach in the half way from the city to Puerto piramides and that the best you can do, the wales are just few meter from the beach you see them and hear them very loud). My girl friend got amazed about that week and a half, all the 3 of them are just incredible, Bariloche is very nice as well, but hey you cannot do all in a week . Of course we did a lot of hiking but the good think about this places is that you have plenty of offer for old people or people that don-t want to hike that much.

 

[baraka]

I did a driving trip with my mother a couple years ago in north, that we both liked a lot. We did the trip renting a car with GPS, but there are a number of English speaking guides that will drive you around in the north such as Tracy at [email protected], we didn't use his services in the end as I wanted to do the driving myself, so can't personally vouch for him.

The trip was bascially:

- start at San Miguel de Tucuman
- drive to Tafi del Valle
- on to Cafayate
- on to Molinos and Colome winery
- Jujuy province and the towns of Purmamarca etc
- city of Salta
- and back to San Miguel de Tucuman


These were some of the hotels we stayed at and places we visited:

Tafi del Valle: http://www.estancialascarreras.com/ old jesuit mission + they make manchego style cheese there - stayed 2 nights

Cafayate: didnt spend the night here - but most people would stay here a night or two

Molinos: http://www.haciendademolinos.com.ar/ - stayed 2 nights here - former home of the governor of Salta 200 years ago or something. Nothing to see in the town itself.

We went up to the Colome winery for lunch and wine tasting from Molinos and took the tours of the winemaking and art gallery, and fortunately the Hacienda suggested making a reservation for the lunch as we would not have had a table otherwise. http://www.bodegacolome.com/estancia/estancia.php?lang=en -(if you want to splurge it's supposed to be a nice place to stay as well. If it's out of your budget, then stay at Hacienda Los Molinos and drive up for the day to have lunch.)

http://www.termasdereyes.com/ - hot springs in a nice setting in Jujuy province - we stayed at this hotel for 2 nights and hung out in the pool heated by hot springs.

http://museopachamama.com/ - we liked this museum - nice outdoor sculpture gardens - on the way from Tafi del Valle to Cafayate - but could also be a drive out of Cafayate too, along with the Ruinas de Quilmes.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ruinas_de_los_Quilmes - didn't stop at the ruins because it involved a bit too much walking and hills for my mom...interesting historical site

http://www.hotelmanantialdelsilencio.com/ home.html - we were going to have lunch at this hotel in Purmamarca but couldnt get there because of a multi-day manifestacion blocking the only highway...but this might be an option for spending the night in Purmamarca.

http://www.cafayatewineresort.com/galeria.htm - another place we thought about having lunch at .... but didn't, can't remember why not.... expensive to stay at I think.

(the part from cafayate to molinos and on to colome is a gravel road....beautiful drive but I would have felt better in a 4 x 4 just for the worry about getting a flat tire - but we were very happy we included this in the trip - makes the trip more adventurous to go to Molinos and Colome I think)

We never actually stayed in Cafayate....but passed through and had lunch twice.

Colome winery has a map that shows Cafayate, Molinos, Colome, and Salta. http://www.bodegacolome.com/estancia/como-llegar.php?lang=es

Cachi is supposed to be interesting as well, north of Molinos. I didn't get up to Cachi but I would consider looking into that too...as well as the short cut back to Salta over the mountain....I was with my mom and didn't want to chance breaking down...but that would be a way to avoid going back through Cafayate (I think ?)

Also we never got to the towns in Jujuy province as there was a manifestacion blocking the highway...but the places to visit are evidently:
Purmamarca, Tilcara, Humahuaca and Iruya. You may be able to use Purmamarca as a home base for a couple nights and visit the other places which are in one direction, and the salt flats in another direction.

Re Bariloche, a nice trip for people in their 60s or 70s would be the cruce de lagos trip from Bariloche to Puerto Varas. You basically take a series of buses and boats in a scenic stretch between the two towns, then you can either do the reverse or we just took a comfortable bus back directly. http://crucedelagos.com/ Not sure about English speaking guides...