Estancia del Carmen

You’re close to Bariloche if you have a car, but far enough out to enjoy the landscape, and the location is superb. The view is spectacular and it’s very quiet. There are newer and older cabins, though the hotel and older cabins are a bit rundown. The games room and pool badly need maintenance and repairs. It’s a shame they don’t seem to be investing in upkeep.

The hotel has a great location, and we got a very warm welcome, but it looks dated. That wouldn’t bother us by itself. Our ground-floor bathroom needed work, like the rest of the hotel, and hot water took more than 10 minutes to come through. When we asked, they said the cold glacier water takes longer to heat. We also had no towels. We asked, but none were available, so we would have had to shower without them. The next morning we asked again, and the receptionist was visibly shocked and gave us towels. Breakfast was very limited: butter, dulce de leche, and cream cheese, with coffee that tasted like water with coffee flavour. There was no water or juice, only coffee and milk. At check-in they told us each person could have just two slices of bread and two medialunas. They’d be better off dropping their so-called breakfast than telling guests how much they can eat. The bread was dry, the croissants were ordinary small French ones, and we no longer felt comfortable. It didn’t seem clean either. Around 30 minutes after the kitchen closed, one of the staff sat in the guest area on the balcony and ate breakfast, with orange juice, scrambled eggs, and bread. Cleanliness around the hotel was so-so. Dust, sand, dead flies, dirty windows, and visibly dirty light switches were in places that hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. It’s a real shame, this hotel has probably seen better days…

We loved waking up to the stunning views from this hotel, and felt so lucky to be there. The staff were lovely, and having a kitchen available was great.

The view was the only good thing. The room wasn’t cleaned for three days, and management was very poor. Breakfast was just coffee and bread, with no butter or jam. There was no useful briefing on arrival, so every bit of information came as a surprise. The receptionist was cold and didn’t seem to care whether we stayed or left. The place is dirty, poorly maintained, far from the town center, and has rude staff and no service. I’d never recommend staying here.