With the arrival of the hottest seasons in Brazil, many tourists wish to escape to cooler climes. Mendoza, in Argentina, is an excellent option. Besides an excellent cuisine and good wines, the ski resorts are a great local attraction, and there’s an interesting range of museums that tell the history of the region from various viewpoints.
Reaching Mendoza gets easier every day for Brazilians. Connections via Buenos Aires leave several times a day from Guarulhos airport, in São Paulo, making things easier for travelers. And a local airport in Mendoza facilitates their arrival.
The city is situated on the frontier between Argentina and Chile, at the foot of the Andes. This contact with Andean culture gives the town a unique character that differs from all the other popular destinations in Argentina.
Its major attraction, without a doubt, is the local wine production. The region is internationally famous for its drinks and cuisine. Therefore, one of the major tours that must be taken is a visit to the main local vineyards and restaurants. These tours offer competitive prices when compared to other places that offer the same type of tour in South America.
During the snow season, Mendoza gains another important attraction: the ski resorts. They are an excellent option, both with regard to cost and variety of choices when compared to better known destinations, such as Bariloche, for instance. The resorts are relatively far from the center of Mendoza, such as Las Leñas, for example, which is 400km away from the town. All the resorts have good options for accommodation, which makes the trip even more pleasant.
For those who enjoy visiting museums, Mendoza has a huge collection of historical documents about its culture. The Museo del Area Fundacional, situated in the city’s historical center, tells about the cultural construction of a unique region of Argentina. It holds the vestiges of what was left of the colonial era, destroyed, for the most part, by a huge earthquake in 1861. There we find the ruins of the Cabildo de Mendoza, which was the region’s main administrative building. There are also registers of local daily life, such as the water fountain that supplied the town, and parts of Mendoza’s food products market.
La Enoteca tells the story of local wine production, one of the high points of local culture. Situated in the old Escuela Nacional de Vitivinicultura, this museum is all about the production of wine in the region, describing its singularities, which make the product internationally powerful.
Finally, there’s also the Museum of Natural Sciences and Anthropology of Mendoza, which holds a vast archeological, anthropological, and ethnographic collection of the Argentinean Andes region. It’s an unmissable visit for those who are interested in the history and cultural formation of our continent.
In short, Mendoza is a high quality option for tourists who desire a less tropical destination with good cuisine and excellent local wines. Furthermore, it offers excellent options for cultural tours, with museums that tell the story of this rich Argentinean region. It’s a complete tour that offers amusement and cultural knowledge.
