Road Trip to Bariloche

[cafeamericano]

My wife and I are planning a road trip to Bariloche in November. Has anyone done the drive from BA? Can it be done in 2 days? Any recommendations on where to spend the night on the way?

 

[Bajo_cero2]

I used to do the road to Neuquen several times per year before the Covid-19. My advice is to leave BA at midnight. It is a road full of trucks until Tres Arroyos, so, if you start when they sleep, you will be safer.
Take the high way to Ezeiza airport and you turn left to Cañuelas by road 202. At Cañuelas you take National Road 3.
In this country you should try to drive on National Road as much as you can. You go straight until Bahia Blanca.
Tres Arroyos is Ok for lunch and BB is a good place to sleep and dinner. Just before Rio Colorado river, there is a good restaurant on the right just beside the oil station. Do not refuel there, do it after Colorado River because the tax is lower since you enter Patagonia.
The maximum you can do the first day is untill Gral. Roca but it is not a good idea. That road is known as the desert road and it is dangerous because is all straigh. People get sleep and die.
After Rio Colorado there are many towns and the road is under construction in many places.
Neuquen is a bad place for lunch/dinner. Zapala is even worst. They are petrol and military cities.
Gral. Roca has good restaurants, mainly parrillas like Diablo Rojo.
Refuel at Las Flores at ACA on the road, Tres Arroyos, BB at ACA downtown a brand new YPF on the left 10 kms passing by, Rio Colorado, Gral Roca. Only refuel at YPF. At those I mentioned are the gasoline dispensers are not "fixed".
After Neuquen the road goes by the river. Do not speed there, it is full of cliffs.
2 days is possible if 2 drive.

 

[cafeamericano]

Thanks Bajo Cero. Another question for the audience. We’re planning on renting an apartment in the center of Bariloche for a week and I’ll be working remotely from there. As a general rule is the internet pretty reliable in Bariloche?

 

[jblaze5779]

driven from BA to NQN 6 times in the past year. DO NOT take 232 to Cheiforo, this is a VERY VERY bad dirt road that will eat the shit out of your car. I only took this road once (google maps got me) and saw a couple families in cars white knuckling it at 20kmph. I have a hilux with offorad tires and it was still very rough.

It is best to cross the desert using RT 20 and come down to NQN from the north on 151, it's still not a great road but at least it's paved and has traffic on it incase you need help. I also took the Bahia Blanca route once (RT 22 from General Roca to Neuquen is under construction so this is a severe delay) but find the RT20 route to be quicker for me so I always elect to go that way.

When making this trip I wouldn't be worried about peso pinching at the YPF stations. Get gas before and after you cross the desert and you will be fine. Plus you'll avoid waiting in the horrendous lines you find at most YPFs.

You can make it from BA to NQN in 11 hours if you don't stop often. Don't know where you are from but if you're from the states you're probably more accustomed to driving long distances so it's totally doable to make it one go. I would try hardest to drive in the daytime and keep an eye out for rain that will flood the highway and make driving very dangerous, proper highway drainage is not a thing outside BA.

If you want meat in Neuquen eat at Boliche de Alberto for dinner. Restauraunts here are pretty simple so it's limited to mainly the based Arg diet of meat, pasta, pizza, empanadas, and hamburgers. But it will be the same story at any of the surrounding towns.

Bariloche really only has one way to get to it from NQN. So not really any options there. You can make it in 4.5-5 hours. The internet usually sucks there but if you're in the city cneter it might be ok.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Thanks Bajo Cero. Another question for the audience. We’re planning on renting an apartment in the center of Bariloche for a week and I’ll be working remotely from there. As a general rule is the internet pretty reliable in Bariloche?

Last time I was in Bariloche the fasted internet service available was 56k.

 

[Tilda]

What is reliable Internet to you? We have been teaching online on a 4mb connection with students on a similar connection that only works if it isn’t snowing.
I was gob smacked to find out that the owner of the school had 56mb at her home in Buenos Aires.

I’m in Villa la Angostura so I would imagine that Bariloche has a wider pipeline coming in. But when the tourists come and the weather is bad the MBs are spread quite thin.
I haven’t driven to Buenos Aires but many people from here drive non stop when they can trade off the driving with a partner. I would suggest using the speed control to avoid the speed creeping up. There are weird accidents around these parts all the time. Either people doze off or they go to fast, there is a side wind and they get stuck on the edge. Then they roll.

 

[cafeamericano]

Thank you for all of the advice. In the end we are going to do the drive over a 3 day period. Stopping the first night in Bahia Blanca, second night in Nequen and then into Bariloche. We have plenty of time (will be in Bariloche and the surrounding area for 1.5 months. My wife doesn’t have her license so it’s just me and I have some moderate back issues that mean 10 hours sitting driving a car is not super fun.
as far as internet goes 4 mb is plenty honestly. Gives me an excuse to turn off video on Zoom calls. I’m spoiled here in Vicente López with consistent 300 mb internet, so just a bit of a change.

Any recommendations on activities to do in Bariloche? Especially those that would require us to book something ahead of time.We are definitely going to do plenty of hiking, but I assume we don’t really need to plan ahead/reserve anything for that. We mainly like nature related activities, but nothing too extreme.

 

[jeff1234]

We were there a few years ago. If you can still tolerate more driving, we greatly enjoyed the Road of the Seven Lakes, from Barlioche through Villa L'Angostura to San Martin where we stayed for a few days. The views were breathtaking. In San Martin we drove around the lake to the land of the Mapuche which was beautiful and interesting, a highlight of our trip. In Bariloche we went to Cerro Catedral which we enjoyed.

 

[Tilda]

If you like hiking and nature you should get in touch with CABA. They can point out a couple of hikes with overnight cabins in the mountains.
I haven’t done any of the ones close to Bari, but I have been to Tronador. If you have got time and money you drive there one day, stay at the histeria in Pampa Linda. The next day you walk up to refugio Otto Meiling where you can buy dinner. Then a guide will take you over the glacier to the other cabin “Roca”. This refugio is bigger and more modern. Again they can cook you both lunch and dinner. Then you go back down to Pampa Linda and go home, or stay another night at the hostería. It’s lovely.
I’m Villa la Angostura there is another nice cabin in the mountains called El Dormilón. You have to find someone to bring you over the lake and then it’s a moderate walk up to the cabin. (We kayak over the lake, but I wouldn’t recommend it you’re not familiar with the area and the local weather pattern. We have gotten stuck because the wind turned).

 

[D.B. Cooper]

There’s a website dedicated to tourism in Bariloche. The page is in English.