Hello fellow travellers,
I have travelled to Argentina with high hopes of an great trip, but I must say from my perspective that it was in many ways quite a disappointment .. why .. ?
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hotel prices in Argentina : I still can not believe that a country allow hotels to charge you in dollars .. secondly not only that but the prices are shown on booking websites without a 20% tax ... which I learned in a very hard way .. as I booked one hotel in Bariloche for few days and than when I arrived they already charged my credit card ..
It is also the way how they do business and things has disappointed me I have booked in my job hotels all over the planet, most serious hotels the only need as we all know the card to guarantee the booking in case you don't show up or cancel and you pay either when arrive or the best one at the end with all other services you use during stay ..
Than the hotels are absolutely overpriced .. I have in the most expensive capitals of this planet for the same money they ask in such a underdeveloped country such as argentina with very low salaries .. -
car rental in Argentina prices:
My plan was to rent a car in bariloche, to drive ruta 40 and than back through chile ruta 7 or carretera austral .. I understand it was december and prices go up .. but can you believe that most car companies
asked me to pay between 2500 of course again in dollars for a 2 week rent even without permission to go to chile .. with border crossing was over 300 dollars ..
and when I asked an honest manager at one of the largest car rental companies, why is this price so extreme .. he said something unbelievable, if it is true I can not know, the government has a limit I believe he said to us of only 5000 cars to rent in whole country to and the reason is strange to him as well, but effect is that is makes prices going through the roof and they have been begging to change this policy for years he said to us ..
We had no other choice but to go to Chile .. where we found our luck and can only suggest to do it as well.. we rented there for total of three weeks at company west in Puerto Montt a the biggest nissan 4X4 (similar or bigger than hilux) 1300 dollars .. with 100% insurance coverage as well. It was amazing than to drive to the carretera austral and back again .. -
Restaurant prices in Argentina:
This was the most ridiculous thing I ever seen in my life after travelling close to half of the world countries .. I only can say .. I have seen strange things in italy where me and couple of friends went once before the euro and were charged close to 100 Deutsche Mark for a pizza and some table water and 2 cola and after complaining this gua sad water in italy is not free and expensive and came to a fight with my friends, which was hard to stop .. and I I have seen greeks giving you extra expensive tourist menu and so on and we all know the so called tourist tax.. but I have never been charged for eating with a spoon .. which later a local man explained and I researched it, so we are really charged for the spoon. 10 %... it is even official + another 10 % so called propina or tips ..(I found some websites that government allows the restaurants to do that but it has to come for many services such as bread and olive oil and ketchup and other things, the reality is most of it was not served .. that`s why the one local told me they joke about it the spoon tax for tourist .. and we paid almost double the price of that showing in the manu ..
I did not understand first what means the cubierto .. but after talking to honest people in Argentina and observing I only can say that most locals are not charged the same prices.. i mean the cubierto and propina .. I was in couple of cities and while i drank my beer at a park next to a restaurant in Mendoza, Santa Fee and so on .. you leave like we know in europe at the end what you like .. and that's it .. this is very dissopointing indeed ...
4.
Security and general situation or hospitality in Argentina:
We did not research a lot this topic because we believed that it is save to travel there .. we were mistaken..
After we arrived we discovered that you can not really use without fear even a taxi .. many of tourists have been robbed of all the things in taxis .. blogs ar full with them .. read before you travel ..
Furthermore there wer every day demonstrations in the city center that you literally could not walk free around it .. even the buses for tourist, which were more expensive than in europe by the way .. were totally disrupted ..
And last thing which brought me even to call the polic is this and made me really writing this here was that in Mendoza we were checking for our bus to go to Santa Fee and than Brasil for ouer flight back ..
The person, who puts our luggage into the bus asked only me bu the way me for propina .. I said sorry don't have .. i really did not have .. only for some water .. cos we were going out and did not want to go to pay high fee for money I don´t need .. this person than throws our two luggages with such a force that it damages a bit my luggages on the metal corners inside the bus .. Every time we entered a bus we wer asked for so called propina again and again, none of the locals was asked and only very few sometimes gave them something ..
and last point I need to make I feel sorry and sad to see so many argentinien people in such sadness and struggle .. there was in every city so much homelessness and begging that was impossible walking around bus stations or even in front of the congress where we stayed at Ibis .. full was the park with homeless and
beggars ..this gave us just a feeling of going really to a country in deep crisis .. from the so called Paris of the South we have not seen anything really .. and also a feeling of insecurity .. we did not go out any night in a 3. nights stay ... cos the hotel lady said she does not recommend it ..
My conclusion is that in such a troubled country, sadly most people have lost the sense of hospitality ..
even the famous steaks were always a disappointment, more a entrecote with bones.. only once after talking in last night to the receptionist and ha send us to his family restaurant and wrote a note to him ..we got a good steak in more than two weeks ..
I must admit that the taxi driver in brasil retiring these days was right he said to us this:
quote: we sadly instead of helping and guiding tourists to explore our wonderful countries and give them an adventure, we are only have one goal, to get out from the tourist all the money as fast as possible .. "
this was exactly my subjective impression of Argentina .. and I only can say we went after that to Chile and yeas there were few times, when we had same impression such as in a fish market in Santiago, but that was the exception .. ( I will write also a long one about CHile as well)..
And finally before I go one more a personal note to the fellow readers and comments will come for sure:
I have been as you a big fan of the community almost since the beginning ... I only started to write recently and help others with my experience, because I could not really understand, why so many argue around us about what others write ..and it stopped me from doing so .. lets not forget that everyone has a unique experience and it is als a bit of subjective view on each country we visit .. secondly everybody goes with different goals into another country .. mine has always been not just to see landscape or hike, but genuinely to discover what this country makes different, what are the unique traditions, but also their troubles and struggles in everyday life .. and furthermore I believe that some of us have more to say than some others, because of their amount of travel and comparison they have made or seen and their job experiences as well. I myself have been for over 26 years travelling as part of my business and extensively through my conference organiser job for 7. years worldwide ... for this reasons, I will not comment any one of you .. if you disagree .. I understand .. if you think I exaggerate, please go and check yourself..
I spoke to many fellow travellers and took many in my car in carretera, there was not a single one who does not agree with this view .. sadly though ..
Cheers and happy travelling
