The Best Resorts in Argentina

At the edge of Ushuaia village – and at the ends of the earth – Los Cauquenes has views looking out over the scattered islands on the broken tip of South America. Subpolar wilderness is literally outside the front door – so you can hike through forests and mountains, visit wild penguin colonies and take boat excursions through fjords carved by ancient glaciers, before returning to log fires and spa pampering. Top tip – reserve a Beagle Channel room and settle in for fjord and forest views.

Fine food, wonderful wine and snowy mountain horizons – what could be better than feeding on prime cuts of Argentinian beef prepared by celebrity chef Francis Mallmann, while savoring dark Mendoza reds served by the campfire under shimmering stars or the moonlit Andes. The Vines Resort & Spa is home to a handful of villa rooms – with private rooftop terraces – the size of houses, with floor-to-ceiling windows and expansive wooden terraces, they’re perfectly designed for you to enjoy superb views from the comfort of your room.

The setting is spectacular – a broad, dry valley shaded green with extensive vineyards that run to the base of the snow-covered Andes, Casa de Uco offers wine-and-dine stays – hearty Mendoza reds and red-raw Argentinian barbecued steaks – just the thing you need after a mountain hike. Accommodation is either in the main resort – a towering modernist block fronted with neck-craningly tall glass walls – or in lakeside villas. Decked out in raw-woods and furnished in lush leather and cowhide, the rooms are real winners.

Here you are on the edge of a complex of lakes as big as an English county, in Northern Patagonia’s popular Bariloche region. Surrounded by magical forest-covered mountains, this sprawling Rhineland-flavored hotel looks like a 19th-century Bavarian sanatorium. With several restaurants and enough timber-walled rooms to house a village, it’s hardly intimate. Yet stays are fittingly recuperative – try the plush spa, golfing on the resort’s 18-hole course, a little fishing or simply go for a scenic hike.

With Mykonos-meets-Morroccan-kasbah villas, snow-capped Andean views at every turn, in-the-vines al fresco wining and dining and a seductive spa, the Cavas is prime territory for romantics seeking intimacy. The restaurant is excellent but – vegetarians in particular take note – there’s not that much on the menu beyond beef, as is the case with most Mendoza hotels.

Here’s a peaceful place to lay your head in villas of unmanicured stone and warm wood, tucked in a woodland glade under whisper-quiet pines and star-filled skies. There’s a long beach a few minutes’ stroll away, as well as a generous pool, a spa and barbecue restaurant that, you guessed it, majors in steak. Welcome to Rincón del Duende, 239mi (385km) southeast of Buenos Aires. It translates as Elf’s Nook, but it’s more Rivendell-restful than suburban twee.

It’s not in the national park – only two exclusive hotels are next to the mile-wide Iguazu Falls themselves. But the Grand is a great choice for families needing a place to spend the night having travelled to see the world-famous waterfalls. The hotel has an enormous pool that’s perfectly kid-compatible, as well as family-sized suites, and it stands in rainforested surrounds where butterflies and hummingbirds whizz around. And there’ll be no cries of “Are we nearly there yet?” The falls are less than 15 minutes’ drive away.

Rincón hides away among pinewoods on the edge of San Martín village in Argentina’s Lake District – perfect for travelers mindful of budgets, with its simple dorms and cheaply priced pine chalets that can accommodate families. Young ones will be happy to splash in the big indoor pool and you’re not far from the vast, stunning Lácar Lake, among forests stalked by puma.