Minimoon in Mendoza, Argentina

I first heard of the term "minimoon" a few years ago, and I'm pretty sure it made me roll my eyes - yet another way that weddings are getting more and more ridiculously complex and making people part with even more money, I thought to myself.

However, a few years on, following my own wedding in December 2024, I in fact did end up having a minimoon myself, though kind of by accident!

Despite living in Chile for most of his life, my husband Claudio had actually never been to Argentina before, and seeing as we had a couple of weeks left in Chile after our wedding, we decided to take the opportunity to go on a little trip over the border to the city of Mendoza.

I got on to the task of booking a hotel on Hotels.com, and discovered that I had two promotions available to me: Member Prices reduced the price of most hotels by a large percentage, and I also had £73 of OneKeyCash built up that I could apply to my reservation. We had a think, and eventually decided that in order to celebrate our recent marriage, we should book the fanciest 5-star hotel in the city, the Park Hyatt Mendoza. This hotel would have been around £220 for a night, but with the two promotions applied, it worked out at less than £90 - still more than we'd generally spend on a hotel (we usually go for budget hotels, like Ibis), but an amazing deal for what we were getting. So that was how we ended up having a rather fancy minimoon!

We decided to go by car, as the journey between Santiago and Mendoza is really picturesque with several interesting sights to see along the way. I took this journey by bus in 2023, and enjoyed it a lot, though I wished I could stop, get out and look at some places more closely. Of course, in the car, we were able to do just that, starting with Laguna del Inca, a lagoon high up in the Chilean Andes, right next to the border with Argentina.

Interestingly, there is actually an Inca legend based around this lagoon. It is said that an Inca king's wife was buried there and that the colour of her eyes turned the water emerald green. Supposedly, you can occasionally still hear the king crying with grief at night...

Despite the spooky legend, the lagoon is a very beautiful place, and very peaceful at this time of year (it gets busier in winter when people come up there to ski). Apparently, you can go kayaking on the water - something we'd like to try in the future!

After crossing into Argentina, we arrived at Parque Provincial Aconcagua, where we could park the car, and walk for a few minutes to a viewpoint, in order to look at the tallest mountain in the western hemisphere, Mount Aconcagua. It's hard to appreciate how tall it is from this distance, but it's still incredible to know that you're looking at the highest point in the world outside of the Himalayas.

We then drove to the official border crossing, which was where we hit a problem. Though we ourselves passed through customs with no issues, the car was not allowed through, as it apparently had an unpaid motorway tax from 2017. We knew this was an error, as Claudio had recently paid all the car's taxes, and there certainly wasn't an outstanding one from 2017 - obviously, it hadn't been correctly cleared from the system at the time when it was paid. But as it was Sunday, we couldn't phone up to ask about the error, so there was nothing we could do. We were beginning to think that we would have to give up our trip, but then one of the customs officers told us we could leave the car at the border, and pay to go the rest of the way in a bus if there were any spare seats. Fortunately, there was a bus just about to leave which had two seats free, so we did get to Mendoza after all! Unfortunately, we couldn't stop at Puente del Inca or Potrerillos Dam as planned, but the important thing is that we got there.

Once we arrived at the bus station in Mendoza, the first thing we did was book our return tickets for the following night. Frustratingly, we had to pay a full price ticket, even though we were only going to be doing less than half of the journey, which did make the trip as a whole a lot more expensive than we were expecting.

But once we got to our hotel, all the stresses of the day melted away. The Park Hyatt Mendoza was definitely one of the most special places we've ever stayed in! It's located right in the heart of the city, in front of Plaza Independencia, and is an absolutely beautiful building.

Our room was also pretty special. It was so spacious (the bathroom was like three rooms in one!) and had all the nice extras you get in a posh hotel, like dressing gowns, fancy toiletries and a Nespresso machine. I think it was my fourth time staying in a 5-star hotel and Claudio's first, so it was really a cut above what we're used to, and we definitely made the most of it!

After settling into our room, we were pretty hungry, as all we'd had to eat all day were the road trip snacks we'd packed - we'd planned to buy a lunch from the vendors at the border, but couldn't in the end, as we'd had to quickly jump on the bus.

Fortunately, in Mendoza, there's a lot of good food to enjoy. As a country, Argentina has a lot of Italian food, as most people there have some Italian ancestry, so we decided to go to a nearby Italian place, Pizzaiolo, where I had pizza and Claudio had an Argentinian steak.

Afterwards, Claudio went for a walk around Plaza Independencia, but I had stomach pains from the long day of travelling, so went back to the hotel for a soak in the bath and a cup of tea in the big, comfy bed. A nice way to end the day!

Our bus back to the border was at 22:00, which meant that we had pretty much the entirety of the following day to enjoy the hotel and the city. We started off with a delicious breakfast at a café called Chiamo, where we had avocado and eggs on toast, freshly squeezed orange juice, Argentinian coffee and a medialuna.

Following a little walk around Plaza Chile, one of the city's squares, we went back to the hotel to pack up our things and check out. But luckily for us, even after checking out, we still had the rest of the day to use the hotel's facilities, including the swimming pool and spa! So we spent a few very happy hours making the most of that!

For lunch, Claudio wanted to try milanesa, a typical dish from Argentina. However, he didn't realise quite how massive the portion was going to be! I had cannelloni, which was also pretty huge but very nice!

We then spent the rest of the day exploring the city on foot, including its squares, avenues, train station and Parque General San Martín. Given that we walked many kilometres, of course we also had to stop for gelato at Famiglia Perin! 

I didn't take many photos, as it was my third time in Mendoza (I first went in 2018 and visited for a second time in 2023), so I could just enjoy the experience of being there. To be honest, I hadn't really enjoyed my first trip there that much; I went on a big coach tour in the middle of winter, and we spent a lot of the time being shuttled from one photo spot to the next (most of which, I didn't find that impressive) and getting on and off the bus. We also stayed in the most horrible hostel imaginable, which didn't help matters! 

The second time I went was a solo trip in order to renew my Chilean visa, and although I had a strange and slightly scary experience of being harassed by another guest in my hotel on my first night there, it was overall a much more pleasant trip. I realised that Mendoza is a city that is perfect for strolling around and relaxing, particularly in the warmer months. I think it's a city that grows on you over time; it's not somewhere with lots of famous landmarks or super Instagrammable streets, but it's a great place to have some good food and drink and take things a bit more slowly.

I actually felt quite sad when it was time to collect our luggage from the hotel and head for the bus station, as I didn't feel like leaving Mendoza just yet - though that probably had quite a lot to do with not wanting to leave the Park Hyatt!

In any case, the bus ride to the border may not have been a 5-star hotel, but it wasn't as far off as you might expect! The seats were huge and could be reclined 180 degrees (why they don't offer this on long-haul flights, I can't understand), and so we dozed off easily during the couple of hours' journey to the border.

We were woken up by the bus attendant around midnight and dropped off on the side of the road to go and collect the car. Fortunately the journey home was smooth sailing, and we arrived back in our Airbnb in Santiago in the early hours of Christmas Eve, tired but very happy!

Overall, I found it was a really nice idea to have a minimoon - it was great to have a (mostly!) relaxing time away together and to treat ourselves with a luxurious hotel stay for the special occasion. I also think it makes sense to have a smaller, lower key trip straight after the wedding and to have the big honeymoon later, which is what we're going to be doing. We did consider going straight from Chile to another destination after the wedding, but I'm glad we decided against it, as it would have been a pretty full-on itinerary. Plus, it's nice to spread out the festivities and have our honeymoon to look forward to for a couple of months! So maybe I'll take back my initial eye roll over the minimoon trend (though I'll still retain it for anyone who flies abroad for several days and calls that a "minimoon" - that's definitely a honeymoon in my book!)

Following our arrival back in Chile, we had another week left to enjoy the sunshine, as well as Christmas with Claudio's family. In total we spent three weeks in South America, and I plan to publish a write-up of what we got up to outside of our wedding and trip to Argentina, very soon, right here on this blog!

The Journey Between Santiago and Mendoza (200th Post!)

Since the start of this year, I seem to have had a bit of a theme going on of revisiting places from my Year Abroad, starting with Valparaíso, then Algarrobo, and now Mendoza.

My previous trip there was not one of my favourite travel memories, I have to say! I went on a big group coach tour, which involved two nights of sleeping on the coach, one night of sleeping in the most horrible hostel, and a lot of time standing around in the cold May weather while the group took endless photos. Admittedly, I was very worried about a situation in my personal life during the trip, and the day after I got back, I found out that everything I'd been worried about was actually happening. The days that followed were incredibly tough, and I suppose I really linked Mendoza to that awful time when thinking back on the trip later. (But as it happens, I did learn some important lessons from that bad situation, and I was lucky that new and lasting happiness came into my life very shortly afterwards.)

So, even though I did enjoy spending time at Cacheuta Spa, visiting a vineyard, and attending a chocolate tasting session during that long weekend in Mendoza, I didn't really envisage myself going back to this part of the world in the future.

Why did I go back, then?

Well, as my Chilean visa ran out last month, I had to leave the country at least for a couple of days in order to be able to stay here in Chile for another 90 days. I was previously thinking of going to visit some new places in Peru, but there has been a lot of political unrest there in recent months, so I needed to change my plan. Mendoza was always going to be the cheapest and most convenient option, and as I'm currently trying to save money and also fly less, I decided to go there and to travel by bus.

I wanted to use the opportunity to try white-water rafting for the first time (I'll be writing about that soon!) and to make some more positive memories of Mendoza.

In addition, I wanted to travel there and back by day in order to see some of the amazing sights along the route from Santiago!

I chose to travel in a salón cama bus (a bus with huge seats that recline almost completely) run by the operator Tas-Choapa, which was actually around the same price as standard tickets from other operators. On both journeys, the bus was half-empty, and I had a whole row to myself, meaning I could use the seat next to mine as a table for my things, and I could also jump across to the seat on the other side of the aisle to look at interesting views! There were also TVs showing movies throughout the journeys. All in all, it felt like a really comfortable first-class travel experience that I've certainly never had on a plane!

To be honest, I would even say that the journey there and back was the best part of the trip! Not only because of the nice bus, but mainly because it's just such a spectacular route, taking you through the very highest part of the entire Andes mountain range. It gives you amazing views of beautiful scenery, as well as important landmarks. I took lots of photos, though it goes without saying that they are far from perfect, having been taken through a bus window!

The first couple of hours of the journey from Santiago involve driving through the countryside of central Chile, first north to the city of Los Andes, and then east to the border with Argentina. It was fun to spot these people skydiving (I think?) towards the start of my first bus journey!

Things get exciting once you start going up the mountain! There is a road called Los Caracoles (The Snails), which takes you right up into the Andes, and yes, it does kind of look like the shell of a snail! From what I'd read about the journey online, this is meant to be quite scary, as the road has no barrier. However, the edge of the land is quite far from the edge of the actual road itself, and the vehicles move very slowly, so I was able to relax and just enjoy the views.

Right before crossing the border, you pass through the ski resort of Portillo, though of course there's no snow there at the moment, as it's summer. However it's a tourist destination all year round, because of Laguna del Inca (Lagoon of the Inca), which is a really picturesque place, where you can kayak. But I was only able to catch a small glimpse of it on the way back from Mendoza!

Next it's time to cross the border! I was hoping to go past Cristo Redentor de los Andes, a big statue of Jesus that is located right on the border, but unfortunately the bus just passed through a tunnel both times. 

Crossing the border takes about 30 minutes to an hour, and consists of passport control and then a baggage check. It's not a bad opportunity to stretch your legs and get some fresh air, and it breaks up the journey a bit.

And then just across the border into Argentina, you can see one of the most important sights in the entire American continent: Mount Aconcagua. This is the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas, though it's hard to believe it from my photo! It doesn't look very big through the bus window, but the amount of snow on it shows you just how high it really is. I would have loved to have stopped at the viewpoint at the side of the road, but unfortunately that's not an option when you're taking public transport!

About a minute further down the road, you're treated to another amazing sight: Puente del Inca (Bridge of the Inca). Although its name suggests it was built by the Incas, this is in fact a natural arch with many interesting colours, thanks to the minerals from nearby hot springs. I believe that both Puente del Inca and Laguna del Inca are located along Qhapaq Ñan (the Inca road system), and that's how they got their names. 

Again, there were people parked next to the bridge taking in the sight, but I made the most of my few seconds each way enjoying the view!

After this point, there's a couple of hours before the next important sight, but plenty of scenery to soak up. It starts off mountainous...

...and then turns into green countryside. There's a definite difference between Argentina and Chile in this respect; the countryside of central Chile is quite dry, with lots of cacti and palm trees, whereas Argentina is much greener, with willow trees and other types of trees that are similar to those we have in England. It was great to see lots of horses in the fields too - very typically Argentinian scenes!

Finally, about an hour before reaching Mendoza, we passed Potrerillos Dam, a huge reservoir of beautiful blue water. I could see people relaxing next to the water, as well as others kayaking. This is definitely another place where I'd like to spend more time in the future.

It was almost a bit disappointing to arrive in the city of Mendoza later in the afternoon - the city itself has some interesting things to see, but I think the surrounding mountains and countryside are the real attraction of the province.

My time in the city got off to a bad start, as I had a bit of a scary experience in my hotel during my first evening there. What happened to me could have been a lot worse, but it left me quite shaken up, and it has made me feel less confident about travelling solo in the future. Fortunately, the problem was resolved by the following morning, and I enjoyed the rest of my stay in the hotel (which was very nice actually - a million times better than the horrible hostel I stayed in the previous time!). I also enjoyed the rest of my time in Mendoza, which consisted of two days sightseeing in the city, and one day of white-water rafting in the countryside.

But overall, the journey there and back was a real highlight of the trip, and I hope to repeat it again, whether that's soon or sometime further in the future. Next time, I plan to go with Claudio in the car, so that we can stop at all of the interesting places along the way!

Before signing off from this post, I want to celebrate the fact that this is my 200th post on Charlotte's Travel Adventures! Since writing my 100th post in January 2021, I've achieved some big dreams both in travel and in life in general - most importantly, I moved back to Chile a year ago, and Claudio and I moved into our first apartment together. In addition, I've been lucky enough to visit some of the places that were at the very top of my bucket list, including Machu Picchu and Rio de Janeiro.

So I'm excited to find out what adventures we'll have between now and post number 300... 😃