Our 5-Day Mendoza Wine Itinerary: the Perfect Wine Trip to Argentina

Day 1: Arrive in Mendoza & Begin in Luján de Cuyo

Luján de Cuyo is an excellent introduction to Mendoza. In fact, it’s often considered the birthplace of Argentine Malbec. Historic wineries, tree-lined vineyard roads, and spectacular views of the Andes make it the perfect place to ease into wine country.

Because international travel days can be unpredictable, we intentionally kept our first day relaxed. That decision turned out to be one of the smartest parts of our itinerary.

🍷 Planning Tip

Avoid scheduling multiple winery visits on arrival day. Even if your flights go perfectly, you’ll appreciate having time to settle in, enjoy a leisurely meal, and simply absorb your surroundings.

Morning

Arrive in Mendoza

Check into your accommodations. We chose Susana Balbo’s Winemaker’s House for its intimate atmosphere and exceptional hospitality, but there are several wonderful boutique hotels throughout Luján de Cuyo depending on your budget and travel style.

Afternoon

Lunch at La Vida

Begin your Mendoza experience with lunch at La Vida Restaurant which is onsite at Susana Balbo. Excellent service, beautifully prepared dishes, and thoughtfully selected wine pairings made this one of our favorite meals of the trip. La Vida earned a Michelin star this year, and we absolutely understand why based on our meal.

Visit a Luján de Cuyo Winery

Choose one winery for your first afternoon.

We visited Susana Balbo Winery, although if we were planning the trip again, we’d choose a winery a little closer to the hotel to reduce driving time on arrival day. That said, the experience itself was outstanding and set the tone for the rest of our trip.

Evening

Relax at Your Hotel

Rather than rushing to another reservation, spend your evening enjoying a glass of wine on the terrace, taking in the vineyard views, and recovering from your travels.

Sometimes the best moments of wine travel aren’t inside tasting rooms—they’re the quiet ones between them.

Read our full Day 1 story →

Our Takeaway

Rather than rushing to fit in multiple wineries after traveling, we found that slowing down made for a much better introduction to Mendoza and gave us the flexibility to absorb our travel delay without any issues. Between the incredible hospitality at Susana Balbo Winemaker’s House, a memorable lunch at La Vida, and an immersive winery experience, our first day set the tone for the rest of the trip – and reminded us that the best wine travel isn’t about checking wineries off a list. It’s about taking the time to enjoy each experience…even if that experience is just catching up with each other and soaking it all in.

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Day 2: Discovering Mendoza’s “Hidden Gems” in the Uco Valley

When planning fatigue settled in, we decided to take advantage of one of the services offered at the hotel, and allow them to plan our second day. The Susana Balbo team offered several options and we chose their day of “Hidden Gems” – This curated experience promised to take us off the beaten path to explore unique boutique wineries and vineyards personally recommended by the Balbo family. It sounded perfect, so we left the planning and coordination of day 2 up to them. By this point in our trip, we had already spent several days exploring Chile’s Colchagua Valley, and our winery research list for Argentina had grown…well, a little overwhelming. Sometimes the best decision is letting local experts guide you.

🍷 Planning Tip: Don’t feel like you need to plan every winery yourself.

Mendoza has hundreds of wineries spread across multiple regions, and coordinating reservations, drive times, and meals can quickly become a full-time job. Many boutique hotels and experienced drivers have relationships with wineries and can create thoughtful itineraries based on your interests.

Morning

Depart the hotel & First Winery

We met our hotel-arranged driver after a delicious breakfast. And the first stop was Bodega Piedra Negra. Note that we spent the day in the Uco Valley, so it was about an hour and a half by car. We had expected the “Hidden Gems” to be in Luján de Cuyo, so keep these distances in mind as you plan. They’re all Mendoza, but that doesn’t mean they’re close.

Our first stop was Bodega Piedra Negra, founded by French winemaker François Lurton and one of the early wineries to recognize the potential of the Uco Valley. We were intrigued by its French influence and focus on high-altitude, terroir-driven wines.

Afternoon

Wine tasting lunch at Claroscuro

Rather than a traditional tasting, we enjoyed Claroscuro’s five-course wine pairing lunch. This style of wine experience is common throughout Mendoza and is a wonderful way to slow down, enjoy the food culture of the region, and experience a winery – and its wines – beyond the tasting room.

Winery visit at Solo Contigo

Our last winery visit for the day was at Solo Contigo. Solo Contigo offers stunning views and is also adorned inside with beautiful artwork. It offered something different from the traditional vineyard experience: incredible Andes views, modern art and architecture, and a relaxed atmosphere perfect for the end of a long tasting day.

Evening

Relax at Your Hotel

After a full day of wine and an incredible lunch, we appreciated having the flexibility to slow down. A quiet evening at the hotel was exactly what we needed before another full day exploring Mendoza.

Read our full Day 2 story →

Our Takeaway

It was a fun surprise to let someone else choose the wineries—and we enjoyed every one of them. We’re admittedly a little control-freakish when it comes to choosing wineries and coordinating our agenda, but handing over one day to people who knew the region better than we did introduced us to places we may not have chosen ourselves. Sometimes it’s worth leaving a little room in the itinerary for someone else to surprise you.

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Day 3: From Luján de Cuyo to Gualtallary

On our third day, we checked out of Susana Balbo’s Winemaker’s House and began making our way south toward Gualtallary. We had arranged a private driver and guide for Days 3 and 4, giving us the flexibility to visit two more wineries in Luján de Cuyo before continuing south.

🍷 Planning Tip: Hire a local guide

We’ve chosen to hire private guides in several places we’ve traveled over the years and found them to be particularly helpful in not only relieving us from having to navigate foreign roads, but also to serve as our designated drivers. While we’ve used small private companies in Napa, in Argentina, I took the chance on a guide that I had found in an online group. Do your research, don’t ignore your gut, and try to “meet” via a web conference in advance if possible. We hit the jackpot and now consider our guide, Dom, to be a friend.

Morning

Depart the hotel & First Winery

Dom picked us up bright and early from SBWH in his truck. Roads are rough in parts of Mendoza, so a truck made perfect sense, although if you prefer more comfort, please be sure to ask your driver about what kind of vehicle you can expect.

We headed out with Dom to our first winery during our transition day which just so happened to be a short 30 minutes from the hotel – still in Luján de Cuyo.

Wine tasting at Bodega Caelum

Caelum is a small family-owned producer in Agrelo that originally began as a pistachio farm—and yes, they still grow pistachios (and yes we bought some! You’ll want to, too). We chose it because we wanted to experience smaller quality producers and were intrigued by Caelum. Its location also made it an easy first stop as we began making our way south toward Gualtallary.

Afternoon

Wine tasting at Finca Decero

Next was Finca Decero, also in Agrelo. One of the reasons it landed on our list was its range beyond Malbec, including Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot – two varietals we’re always interested in tasting. The winery’s “Decero” philosophy centers on starting “from zero” and producing wines that reflect its Agrelo vineyards.

Lunch at Rincón Atamisque

We asked Dom to select lunch spots for the days we spent with him, and he selected this beautiful spot. Atamisque is a winery in and of itself, but this was a standalone restaurant which was a perfect spot en route to our hotel for the night.

🍷 Planning Tip

When hiring a personal guide, we recommend that you plan to purchase their meals. We’ve found this to be one of our favorite experiences when traveling – getting to know someone who lives in the area you’re visiting. They don’t always accept our invitations to dine together, but we’ve had some great meals meeting new people, learning about what it’s really like to live and work in these areas, and hearing funny stories about some of the encounters they’ve had serving as guides. This does not, however, take the place of tipping them at the end of the trip if they’ve been good guides.

Hotel drop off

After a leisurely lunch, Dom dropped us at our hotel, the Auberge du Vin, in Gualtallary. We chose this hotel because it sat amidst vineyards and appeared to have a beautiful pool area. We visited in Argentina’s summer and looked forward to a relaxing afternoon by the pool. However, this hotel is located in a very isolated area called the Tupungato Winelands. It sits amongst acres of vineyards in an almost deserted-looking development with nothing else around. If activity and people are your thing, this is not the hotel for you. There is a nice restaurant and bar onsite, but it’s not walkable to any other options. Please consider this when you book.

After our drop off, we took the evening to rest and recover at the hotel, including dining at their bar. Unless you have a vehicle and want to make a relatively long ride to dinner, it’s your only option if you choose to stay at this hotel.

Read our full Day 3 story →

Our Takeaway

Hiring a private guide who wasn’t affiliated with our hotel turned out to be one of the best decisions we made. We certainly learned plenty about Mendoza wine, but we also learned about the region, the people who live there, and everyday life beyond the wineries. It added another layer to the trip that we wouldn’t have experienced on our own.

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Day 4: Exploring the Wineries of Gualtallary

We started our last full day in Mendoza with breakfast at the hotel, and then packed up for Dom’s pickup. The three wineries for the day were all close to the hotel in the area called Gualtallary, so we headed out for a 20 minute ride to our first winery of the day.

Morning

Depart hotel

Dom picked us up at the Auberge du Vin and we headed off to our first stop.

First stop: Zorzal

Zorzal is a small, yet highly acclaimed winery in Gualtallary, originally family run, but now owned by a small group of investors. We chose it due to its small size, and famously terroir-driven wines. This is a must-visit if you’re serious about wine and less serious about all of the bells and whistles. It’s beautiful, but not in a Disneyland sort of way.

Second stop at Bemberg

The second winery of the morning was Bemberg Estates, a large, modern, and beautiful winery. We chose Bemberg because it is still family-owned and produces only estate-grown wines. The property itself is stunning and worth the visit for the experience alone.

🍷Planning Tip

If you are coordinating the wineries yourselves, be sure to have phone numbers/contact information readily available. When your guide coordinates, he or she will keep you on track and can phone ahead if you’re running late. While they’ll likely still do that even if you coordinate, they may not have phone numbers or contact information. Also, in remote regions (even in areas of Napa), cell service is hit or miss, so make the calls before leaving the previous winery to let the next winery know you’re running late.

Afternoon

Lunch at Ruda Cocina

This popular restaurant was located on the opposite end of Tupungato Winelands from our hotel, and while it was amazing, we’ve heard from Dom that it has closed since our visit. We recommend asking your guide, or your friend Google, for other restaurants in the area.

Final Winery: Per Se

After lunch, we visited the final winery of our trip: Per Se Vines. This winery does not have a regular tasting schedule at their winery (or they did not when we visited, so please verify!), but agreed to host us after we emailed them directly. Per Se is the passion project of two friends – the world-renowned viticulturalist, Edy del Pópolo, and the world-renowned winemaker, David Bonomi. It was an incredible visit to their vineyard on the grounds of the Monastery of the Cristo Olvidado. It is absolutely worth an outreach to them (or at least worth purchasing their wine if you find it while in Argentina, or here at home!).

Depart to Mendoza City

From Per Se, we began the approximately two hour drive back to Mendoza City, where we shared a final bottle of wine with Dom before calling it a night at the Hualta Hotel Mendoza (A Hilton Curio Collection). We chose Hualta Hotel because we wanted to spend our final evening within walking distance of restaurants and close to the airport for an easy departure the next morning. Additionally, because it is a Hilton brand, we were able to use points to cover the cost.

Read our full Day 4 story →

Our Takeaway

Sometimes it pays to simply ask. We’d read that Per Se rarely accepted visitors at the vineyard, and even Dom, after years of guiding in Mendoza, had never been. But my Partner in Wine wrote a thoughtful email explaining who we were and, more importantly, why we genuinely wanted to visit. They said yes – and it became one of the most memorable experiences of our trip. Many of the wineries we’re drawn to are small producers run by equally small teams, so we learned that a thoughtful, personal request can go a long way. Don’t just ask for a tasting. Tell them why you want to experience their winery.

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Day 5: Departure

We had a leisurely morning, grabbed some breakfast, did a little sightseeing, and then packed up for our return trip home. Downtown Mendoza is very close to the airport, so we allowed ourselves 30 minutes to get there. We arrived in plenty of time, but note that the airport is pretty small, so plan accordingly.

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Final thoughts

Our trip to Mendoza will forever remain one of the most memorable we’ve ever taken. We tasted some of the most amazing wines where you could literally taste the terroir you were standing on. The people were amazing, and because it’s only 1 hour ahead of us in the eastern US, the travel was not overly difficult. And even if you don’t envision ever making a trip to Mendoza, please add their wines to your list. We knew it was going to be great, but even that was underestimating it.

To borrow a line I wrote in my day 2 post, wine experiences like this remind us why we fell in love with wine in the first place. It’s never just about what’s in the glass — it’s about the people who make it, the hosts who pour it, the landscapes that shape it, and the memories created around it.