Argentina: day tripping at La Canderleria

Remember this pic? We took it on a lovely Estancia just outside of Buenos Aires.  For those of you planning a trip to Argentina, I highly recommend visiting one.

What is an Estancia you ask? Much like an American ranch, it is a beautiful countryside estate. Many have historic castles some of which have been converted into guest houses. Some have cattle and gauchos (cowboys) but mostly all have horses. Expect some great bbq (parilla) lunches and dinners.

When our friends in Argentina initially suggested spending the day at an Estancia, we were not too sure. What would we city folks do on a quiet country ranch? But we decided to give it a go anyway. The recommendation was to go on week day to avoid weekend crowds. With so many options to chose from we went with Estancia La Candeleria, spotted in TimeOut Buenos Aires. This Estancia is about two hours (more during rush hour traffic in the city) away from Buenos Aires and the best option is to rent a car and drive there. La Candeleria’s website has an interactive map to give you a better idea of the drive. Depending on availability you can opt to spend the night in one their quaint guest rooms.

We couldnt have picked a sunnier Thursday morning for our day-trip there.

I was instantly in love with the place. Green fields, gardens stretched for miles and miles.

Breakfast was first on the agenda. Then we took a tour of the historic castle on the estate.

Here are some pics from the inside of the castle.

This is one the guest rooms that you can book for a night or two.

I loved the paintings on the bed and the nightstands.

With a chapel, huge tented ballroom, large grilling area and helpful staff on the property the estate is perfectly suited and equipped for weddings and other social events. In fact they were prepping for a wedding when we were there.

With a chapel on the property the estate is perfectly suited and well equipped for weddings .

Breakfast, lunch and tea time at the salon criollo are part of the day trip package. You can also bike, go horseback riding, get a massage treatment, and on weekends watch a polo match. They also have clay tennis courts and a pool.

The local wines are sooooo good.

Yours truly after a lovely ride on young liberte.

So my dears, here is a round up of our day-trip to La Candelaria. How do you like it? Sorry for the insane number of pics in this post. I had to sort through about 300+ of just this day. Now you can imagine how many pics I must have in total from this trip.

images: manvi drona-hidalgo