Editor Pick
Valle Grande Hotel and Resort (updated & expanded)
This hotel is located in a beautiful area, if you want to be away from everything, and relax. It is at a walking distance from the Valle Grande dam, three blocks away from where you can take an inexpensive rafting tour down the river, and I have been told that there is good fishing in the area. It is in a dry area, so chances of rain are minimal. The distance from San Rafael to this hotel is 15 miles. If you stay 3 or 4 nights (I do not remember the deal precisely) they give you a free tour navigating the lake. Here is the hotel:
www.hotelvallegrande.com
I visited the Valle Grande Hotel and Resort last year during a tour to the Atuel Canyon, and felt that it is a very nice place where to stay. I had lunch here, and it was fine. This is a beautiful 3-star hotel and resort (rated as a 4-star resort by Welcome Argentina) where a double room costs some US$30 to 45 per person and per night (low and high season rates). It is in the rafting area and one mile downstream from the Valle Grande dam and reservoir. Downstream from the dam you can take beautiful photos. And from the top of the dam you have a view of "The Submarine", a curious form that emerges when the lake is low and disappears when it is full.
The program of activities of the hotel includes the following:
Swimming pool, solarium, swimming pool for children, recreational activities, open air activities, soccer, basketball, volleyball, sauna, hydro-massage, rafting, motorboat tour of the lake (complimentary if you are there four nights).
San Rafael is near. A taxi from San Rafael should cost less than fifteen dollars. It is a place to enjoy, whether on a one day outing or staying a whole week. I have been told that there is trout fishing in the area, although I cannot guarantee this, because I did not take my fishing rod with me this time. In any case, some 50 miles further up this river I have caught 5-pound rainbow trout a number of times, upstream from the bridge of National Highway 40 at El Sosneado, on the road from Mendoza to Las Leñas, Malargue and Bariloche.
The whole area resembles some films of the Far West, with vegetation only by the side of the river. It is an ideal place for walking, because the traffic is minimal. And you can even go walking to the lower part of the Atuel River Canyon. The whole place is beautiful, the hotel seems to be very nice, and prices are affordable. Probably the nicest place for staying near San Rafael, although you could find it difficult to get tours from here to Las Leñas and other nice spots in the area, like the Galileo Vitale dam, El Sosneado (thermal baths and a lagoon with good fishing), los Reyunos dam...
Enjoy your stay in San Rafael.
From journal The Atuel Canyon, San Rafael, Mendoza