Driving from Bariloche to Mendoza

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
4
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
2
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
3
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
10
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
1
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
4
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
52 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
355th/454
Top 80%
continent
South America
country
Argentina
Length of time
1-2 days
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$130 ($200-$200 in 2019 prices)
Time of year visited
January
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Desert Driving Isolation
All Tags
Adventure Cliffs Forests Lakes Mountains Volcanoes
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐

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

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#1 Driving through this vast, sparse and little known part of the world

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#2 Seeing the gorgeous changes of oranges to pinks and purples as the sun set on the desert . . . middle of nowhere

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#3 Stopping at various points to take photos of the far distant volcanoes, such as Lanin Volcano

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#4 The Seven Lakes route from Villa la Angostura to San Martin de los Andes

The Route options (take the R40)

 

Travel Tips

Renting a car isn’t too bad in Argentina at roughly USD50 / day (2023 prices), 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

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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