We stayed 2 days at Lares de Chacras and it was excellent. Not only was it a good place to base wine tours from, but this suburb of Mendoza is extremely nice. There are gated communites nearby, but from this hotel you can stroll to the local town square and see how the natives live. Highly recommended.

We stayed at Lares de Chacras in early April 2007 and absolutely loved it. We had just spent 7 days in Buenos Aires and met up with some friends to enjoy the wine country in Mendoza. There are over 1000 wineries in Mendoza, and the Lares de Chacras is in an excellent location, within a short drive to the wineries.

The lodge is small, with less than 15 rooms so it is quiet and intimate. Our room was incredible - clean, very spacious, comfortable bed, had a fireplace and sliding doors onto the lawn. The bathroom was very spacious and had a huge jet tub. Our friend's room was upstairs and had a huge balcany, about half the size of their room.

When we arrived, we ordered a cheese plate which was delicious, more than enough food for 4 people and only about $10 US. They have a wine cellar where you can choose your own wine, and also offer tastings in the evenings.

The staff were very welcoming and pleasant. They helped with restaurant recommendations and reservations, getting taxes, confirming our wine tour reservations. The breakfast was great - breads, fruit, yogurt, coffee, juice, and of course dulce de leche!

The only complaint I had was that we seemed to run out of hot water quickly, but other than that we loved Lares de Chacras and would definitely recommend this hotel - we had a great stay here and would stay here again if ever in Mendoza.

A few tips:
Restaurant musts if you are ever in Mendoza: Azafran - in the downtown area - this was one of our favorite restaurants of the whole trip. They recommend reservations, but we didn't have any and still were seated. They have an amazing wine celler to choose wine for your dinner, and the food was incredible. The other restaurant is 1884, also located downtown (about 25 minutes from the hotel). This restaurant is a bit more "upscale" but is known to be one of the top 10 restaurants in the world and was fantastic. Order from the brick oven.

Wine tasting:
We used Adventura Wine and they were fantastic - picked us up in a private van with a driver and english speaking tour guide. Our guide was very knowledgable about the area and the wineries. We visited 4 wineries, and had a 5 course meal at Ruca Malen which has stunning views of the Andes. Most wineries require reservations in advance to visit them, so the wine tours are a great way to go, for a very reasonable price ($85 USD/person for the entire day, driver, guide, and lunch).

Chose it somewhat blindly- the webpage was good... And we weren't dissapointed. Our room was gorgeous, overlooked the backyard and pool, balcony was perfect. The bathroom was clean and spacious... we couldn't have asked for more.

Chacras de Coria is beautiful- small, near lots of vineyards. We took the bikes from the inn (free) and tooled around town one day.

It was just spectacular- a perfect retreat in the country after a week in Buenos Aires.

The staff is great- most are English speaking and waited on us hand and foot-- anything we needed, arrangements, everything. It was perfect...

Eat at El Patio if you can, we stumbled on it and it's fabulous barbeque one afternoon. SO much food, we could barely walk home-- and CHEAP!