Avenida del Cipresal 2140
Getting here
The lodge stands three kilometres west of the centre of San Carlos de Bariloche, on the uphill side of Avenida del Cipresal, where the road leaves the last of the houses and the lenga starts.
You will see the stone gatepost before you see the building, because the roof sits below the road and the drive turns down and to the right. Drivers overshoot it about once a week. If you reach the second bridge you have gone four hundred metres too far.
Parking is free, on gravel, behind the kitchen wing. In winter the drive is cleared by six in the morning and gritted, but it is steep in its last twenty metres and a two-wheel-drive car with summer tyres will struggle after heavy snow. Telephone ahead and the porter will meet you at the top with a shovel, which happens more often than you would think.
The address
- StreetAvenida del Cipresal 2140
- PostcodeR8400
- CitySan Carlos de Bariloche
- ProvinceRío Negro, Argentina
- Telephone+54 294 442 7318
- Parkingfree, 30 spaces, gravel
- Chargingtwo points by the kitchen wall
Arriving
By air
Teniente Luis Candelaria airport is sixteen kilometres east of us, on the far side of the town. A taxi takes about thirty minutes outside rush hour and a good deal longer in the first week of July. Tell the driver Avenida del Cipresal and the number; local drivers know the road.
We can send a car if you give us the flight number the day before. It waits at arrivals with the lodge name on a board.
By bus
The long-distance terminal sits beside the railway station, six kilometres east. Buses come in from Buenos Aires, Neuquén, Mendoza and across the pass from Chile. From the terminal take a taxi, or the town bus to the centre and a second one west.
The last town bus heading our way leaves the centre a little after ten at night. After that it is a taxi.
By car
From the town centre follow the lake road west for three kilometres. From the Chilean border at Cardenal Samoré it is a long and spectacular two and a half hours. From Neuquén, five hours on Route 237 through the Limay canyon.
Carry chains from June to September. The provincial police turn cars back at Cerro Catedral without them on bad days.
The neighbourhood
This stretch of road is residential and wooded. There are no shops on it, but there is a bus stop a hundred metres east, a bakery that opens at seven in the hamlet below, and a path down through the trees to a small stony beach that is almost always empty.
The town itself is a twenty-minute walk downhill and a forty-minute climb back. The Civic Centre, with its grey stone and its clock tower, is the place everyone photographs. Around it are the chocolate shops the town is known for, the lakefront walk, and a Saturday market.
Further out, the Circuito Chico loops around the peninsula past viewpoints and small lakes, and makes a good half day on a bicycle if the wind is behind you on the way back, though it rarely is.
Distances and times
- Beach below the lodge5 minutes on foot
- Lenga trailhead400 m, 5 minutes
- Bakery, hamlet below10 minutes on foot
- Civic Centre3 km, 20 minutes downhill
- Cerro Campanario chairlift8 km west
- Llao Llao peninsula22 km west
- Cerro Catedral ski area20 km, 35 minutes
- Puerto Pañuelo, boats23 km west
- Airport16 km, 30 minutes
- Bus terminal6 km, 15 minutes
Walking from the door
Three routes start within five minutes of the gate. The short one drops to the beach and comes back along the shore in forty minutes. The middle one climbs through lenga to a bench above the treeline in about an hour, and that bench has the view most people came to Patagonia for.
The long one carries on along the ridge for five hours and finishes at a refuge. Tell the desk if you are doing that one, take water, and look at the sky before you leave, because weather here changes faster than the forecast does.
When to come
- December to Februarylong evenings, sun on the terrace to nine
- March to Aprilthe lenga turns, still air, our own favourite
- June to Septembersnow, skiing, the fire lit all day
- October to Novemberwind, wild flowers, fewest people