Estancia la Bandada

This is the place to go, to unwind after a long flight and before you do the big trip around Argentina. It’s also the place to come to after you’ve done it all and want to rest in a beautiful environment before you fly home. Everyone is so welcoming, the food is delicious, there’s a pool, horse-riding - anything you’d like to relax.

We stayed 2 nights at Estancia La Bandada and we had a lovely stay (quite, relaxing time) - I did hesitate between an Excellent and a Very Good rating but opted for the latter, maybe influenced partly by the fact that the weather was pretty poor (a lot of rain) for a good part of our stay. The place is cosy and exudes authenticity. Definitely the right place to rest and relax at the end of an active holiday. The service was great, discrete. The food was good (but sometimes more about quantity than quality) but I have to say the wine list was a bit disappointing by Argentinian standards (short list of mostly basic wines). We enjoyed the short horse riding tour (cut short due to the incoming rain) and used the bikes for a tour of the estate (although 1 to 2 of the 4 bikes were almost broken). One negative is it felt the staff were more focused on (i.e. attentive to) the day guests (people coming only for the day for the "estancia experience"). First of all, I am not sure the practice (of welcoming day guests) is a great idea if ones wants to foster an homely atmosphere but also it felt a bit wrong for us and other overnight guests. In retrospect, I would probably stay only 1 night at Estancia La Bandada.

This is actually a hard review to write. I completely agree with other posters that the property is beautiful and Grace is a gracious host. Food is solid. The Estancia is just over an hour from BA with a moderately aggressive driver which is great. The Estancia and surrounding property have been in Grace's family for several generations and it's definitely charming. We really enjoyed the grounds and sitting under the myriad 100+ year old trees relaxing, playing a game or two, etc. Unfortunately, I have to focus on some negatives and feedback to the property. Frankly, I don't know exactly my room rate as the stay was part of a month long custom itinerary that was quoted as an all in price. Checking rates today it looks like our room was in the range of $1000 which definitely impacts the review. I don't see reviews that mention that there is no air conditioning. My wife and I have a slight disagreement on whether that's an issue as she sees at least some nostalgia benefit. I think at $1K/night I should have a space where I'm not sweating. The biggest issue, however, was that it was impossible to sleep. I don't see a way to post a recording, but the room(s) are 50-100' from the kennel and the dogs barked loudly and absolutely incessantly throughout the night. I could choose between the windows open and the night breeze which admittedly was nice and cooled the room or closing the windows and shutters, slightly moderating the din but losing the cooling breeze. The above leads me to some feedback for the team. We weren't given a way to contact the staff after hours. So, when I finally went looking for where the dogs were there was no one to talk to. A more minor suggestion is that it would be nice if there were drinks/snacks available throughout the day given it's a very captive property.