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.

A rustic ranch with plenty of character. This property is in a rural location. It is somewhere to chill out with a book, enjoy good food, get away from the stresses of life, relax and reset in nature. Had a great 2 night stay. The staff are wonderful and their chef is excellent. You will not starve here.. meals are all 3 courses and very big portions. There's also an afternoon tea as well.. just incase you were still feeling hungry. A lot of the produce comes from their own organic garden and orchard. The property is all single storey with rooms and suites leading off the main hallway. A large lounge offers reading material and some card games. Meals during the warm months are served on the exterior covered terrace with lovely views of the surrounding mature grounds/gardens. The property is tastefully decorated with a collection of the owners antique furniture. There are also open fires, which I think they light in winter. This ranch has lots of horses which (amongst other uses as well), are bred for polo. One of the staff very kindly took us to visit the neighbouring polo "farm" to find out a bit more about the sport. La Bandada has an outdoor swimming pool with loungers and bicycles free for guest use. We were also treated to a barrel racing demonstration by their gauchos.. one of whom is basically a horse whisperer who has great love and affection for the animals and gave us an extra incredible demonstration of the skills he has taught/ bond he has with the beautiful horses. Whilst at the ranch we were also shown how to make empanadas by one of the lovely ladies and enjoyed some gentle horse riding around their paddocks and gardens. The riding circuit takes about an hour walking because the ground is uneven. We were able to ride several times and the stable boys are great. We wanted to go a bit faster, so they accommodated us and found a place we could have a gallop. The countryside around the ranch is beautiful. We saw loads of different birds and they have some pet goats, sheep, chickens and llamas. One thing to improve the guest experience would be some toppers on the beds. My hubby and I found them a little firm. A great stay. Thank you and will definitely recommend. 😊

Beyond expectation. Room was lovely. Food excellent. Staff was so very helpful, always going the extra mile. We enjoyed cooking class, riding horses, garden tour, pool, bird watching. Very restful. Asado was delicious and abundant.||We particularly appreciated Grace's efforts to enable our birdwatching experience, taking us on a field trip to a neighboring estancia. In addition to bird spotting, we learned much about polo and horse breeding. ||Debora greeted us and gave a helpful tour. Later she showed us how to prepare empanadas. With her help, we three students soon had the knack of sealing the edges beautifully. ||Carlos was an excellent host. We appreciated his efforts and happy conversation while seeing that we had an early breakfast before departing.||Juan lead our horseback riding adventure. He is clearly a skilled horseman and has a good sense of humor. We had an easy ride through beautiful landscape.||The intimacy of the place was noticeable. We were able to get to know other guests, though one could certainly have privacy. We enjoyed meeting families from Buenos Aires and Ireland while we were there over Mother's Day weekend. ||If you are a bird watcher, there are many varieties of birds to see and hear. The chorus of doves in the woods was remarkable.

This was one of our favourite parts of our trip. The estancia is beautiful.. we loved sitting in the lounge area drinking Argentinian Malbec|We were made to feel so welcome by Agustina and the lovely staff ( including Oreo the cat , Filo, Luba and the other doggies) |Come hungry, with breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner all on the menu and they don’t skimp on the portions! We had a lunchtime BBQ one day and they literally had to roll us off the terrace after eating the empanadas we’d made earlier on followed by chicken, sausages and beef done on the BBQ topped off with desert! One of us was a pescatarian and she didn’t feel disappointed! |They have their own kitchen garden which you can explore as well as a herd of friendly goats|We did a quick half hour ride out on the farm to see the estate, the horses and llamas. Perfect for us who aren’t experts on horses..the gauchos were great|We stayed in the 2 bedroom suite which was perfect for us group of friends but would imagine would suit families too. Slept really well and felt very relaxed after our hectic itinerary|Would highly recommend, we loved this part of our trip and would love to come back

We spent half a day here & enjoyed the experience. Our host/guide Augustina was amazing. Very warm, welcoming & full of great info about the ranch and their surroundings. The empanadas cooking class followed by lunch was delicious. Meeting the gauchos was icing on the cake. Highly recommend!!!

I had a wonderful time there with my boyfriend. The place is so nice quiet and beautiful. We did horseback riding around the farm every day. The dog name’s Filo is my favorite one.

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.

We had a great time, we really felt like we were welcomed in a new home. The cuisine was excellent, we were shown around the crops, goats, cattle, and did a horseback ride. We also did an empanada cooking class the following morning. Everyone on site was warm, welcoming and acconmodating. This is a great getaway for anybody who needs to get away from any urban or even suburb area!