Things to Do in Mendoza: 20 Plans Sorted by Zone

Every list of things to do in Mendoza tells you what exists. Almost none tells you where it is, and in Mendoza that is the only thing that decides your day. A tasting in Maipú and a tasting in the Uco Valley read the same on a list; one leaves you free by mid-afternoon, the other eats the whole day and 115 kilometres of road.

So this guide is sorted the way we actually build itineraries: by zone. Twenty plans, grouped into the six areas you can reach from the city, each one marked half day or full day, each one with the real starting price from our own catalogue. Pick one zone per day and the trip plans itself.

The six zones, and how far each one is

Mendoza city sits in the middle. Everything else is a drive, and the drive is the constraint. These are the six areas worth your time, in rough order of distance.

One rule comes out of that table and it is worth stating plainly: one zone per day. Two half-day plans work if they are in the same zone. A Uco Valley winery and a rafting run in Potrerillos on the same day do not, whatever the itinerary you found says.

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20 things to do in Mendoza, sorted by zone

Everything below is a plan we run ourselves, so the price is what it actually costs today, per person, for the activity. Half day means you have the rest of the day free; full day means you get back for dinner and nothing else.

The full catalogue, with what each programme includes, is in our Mendoza day trips.

Zone by zone: what each one is actually good for

Mendoza city — worth half a day, not more

Mendoza is a pleasant city and a small one. The centre is a grid of tree-lined streets around five plazas laid out after the 1861 earthquake, with Plaza Independencia in the middle and four smaller squares one block off each corner — Chile, San Martín, Italia and España, the last one the prettiest, tiled in Andalusian ceramic. Parque General San Martín, west of the centre, is large enough to spend a morning in and ends at the Cerro de la Gloria monument, which is where you get the view over the whole oasis.

Do it on your arrival afternoon or on a day when the weather has closed the mountain road. A guided version costs from USD 12; the walking tour, at USD 32, covers the market and the food side properly. Both are in our Mendoza city tours.

Maipú and Luján de Cuyo — the wine day that does not cost you the day

These are the two historic wine regions, about 20 kilometres out on the Tierra Malbec circuit, and they are the reason you can taste wine in Mendoza and still have an afternoon. Maipú is the birthplace of Malbec in Mendoza and one of its oldest wine regions; Luján de Cuyo holds most of the older estates. A two-winery visit with tasting runs half a day from USD 77.

The cheapest serious plan in the whole catalogue lives here too: a combined wine and olive oil tour, two wineries plus a mill, from USD 20 — olive oil is the other thing this land does well, and almost nobody puts it on a list. If you would rather be outside, the bike route through Chacras de Coria covers 13 kilometres of vineyard lanes between two wineries, from USD 87.

Which estates are open, and what each one is known for, is set out in our guide to the wineries of Mendoza.

Potrerillos and Cacheuta — 45 minutes, and the trip stops being about wine

Forty-five minutes up the mountain road, the Mendoza River runs through Potrerillos and the landscape changes completely. This is the adventure zone: rafting from USD 55, kayaking on the reservoir from USD 55, ziplining from USD 45, all of them half-day plans that leave you back in the city for dinner.

Cacheuta, on the same road, is the opposite proposition — thermal pools fed by the hot springs, a full day with lunch from USD 66. It is the plan we recommend most often for the middle of a wine-heavy week, and the one guests are most surprised to find exists. The water programmes are grouped in our rafting and kayaking day trips.

Villavicencio — the cheapest big view in Mendoza

Fifty kilometres north, Villavicencio is a nature reserve on the old road to the Andes, with the shuttered art-deco hotel from the label of the mineral water at the bottom of it. The reserve visit is a half day from USD 19, the lowest-priced plan we sell. The full-day version climbs the Caracoles road by 4×4, from USD 41, and gives you the switchback views that people come to the high Andes for without the high-Andes day. Both versions are in our Villavicencio tours.

Uco Valley — the best wineries, and a whole day gone

The Uco Valley sits 100 to 115 kilometres from the city, at altitude, against the Andes. It has the architecture, the alluvial soils and the view, and it is where most of the wine that made Mendoza famous in the last twenty years comes from. It also takes a full day, every time: three wineries in the north of the valley with lunch from USD 164, three in the south, also with lunch, from USD 320.

The one exception is the sunset tasting at Andeluna, a half-day plan from USD 77 that puts you in the gardens as the light goes off the mountains. The rest of the wine programmes are in our Mendoza wine tours.

The high Andes — the day that is not optional

The road west toward Chile is the single most impressive thing you can do here without walking. It passes Uspallata, Puente del Inca and the Aconcagua Provincial Park viewpoint, where the highest mountain outside Asia is in front of you from the road, and ends at the Cristo Redentor monument above 4,000 metres when the pass is open. A full day, from USD 118, and the whole set of variants is in our high mountain tours.

If you want to be in the park rather than looking at it, the trek to Confluencia camp is a full day from USD 259 and is as far as you can go without an expedition permit. Anyone thinking about more than that should read when to climb Aconcagua first — the mountain has a season, and it is narrower than people expect.

San Rafael and the south — only if you have the days

The Atuel canyon at Valle Grande, in the south of the province, is a full day from USD 77 and it is a long one. It is worth it on a trip of six days or more; on a short trip it costs you a wine region. Kayaking, rafting and the reservoir are all there, and the rock colours through the canyon are the reason people go.

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Free things to do in Mendoza

Not everything here needs a booking. These cost nothing and are worth the walk:

• Plaza Independencia and the four satellite plazas — Chile, San Martín, Italia and España. The España tiling alone justifies the loop; the whole circuit is about an hour on foot.
• Parque General San Martín — the city park, with the rose garden, the lake and the climb up Cerro de la Gloria for the view over the oasis.
• Mercado Central — the covered market in the centre. Free to walk through, and the cheapest good lunch in Mendoza if you eat at the counter.
• The acequias — the irrigation channels running along every street. Once someone points out that the whole city is an artificial oasis fed by snowmelt, you stop seeing anything else.
• Sunset from anywhere facing west. The Andes are right there. It is free every evening.

Some wineries also pour without charge if you turn up and buy, but this is unreliable and shrinking. Do not build a day around it.

What is open on a Sunday

This trips up more visitors than anything else on this page. Sunday in Mendoza is quiet in a way that is not obvious until you are standing in front of a closed gate.

• Most wineries close, and many close Saturday afternoon too. The ones that open Sunday take reservations only, and they fill first. Book before you arrive, not the night before.
• The mountain plans all run. Rafting, the high Andes road, Villavicencio, Cacheuta: Sunday is a normal operating day, and in the case of Cacheuta it is the busiest one.
• The city empties out. Shops shut, the plazas fill up with families, and the parrillas do their best trade of the week around lunchtime.
• Monday is worse than Sunday for wineries. If you only have two days and one is a Sunday, put the mountain on Sunday and the wine on the other day.

How many of these fit into a trip

One zone per day is the rule, and it holds better than any itinerary. From there the arithmetic is simple:

• Three days: one wine region, one mountain day, the city in an evening. That is the whole trip.
• Five days: both wine regions properly, the high Andes, and one of the water or spa days. This is the length that works for most people.
• Seven days: everything above plus San Rafael, or real time inside Aconcagua Park.

We compare the three lengths side by side, with what each one costs, in how many days you need in Mendoza. And because half of these plans depend on the season — the harvest, the mountain pass, the rafting flow — it is worth checking the best time to visit before you fix dates. If you would rather have the whole thing arranged, our Mendoza packages put the zones in a working order with lodging and transfers included.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mendoza worth visiting if you do not drink wine?

Yes, and it is the question we get most often. Take wine out and you still have the high Andes road to the Aconcagua viewpoint, rafting and kayaking in Potrerillos from USD 55, the thermal baths at Cacheuta from USD 66, the Villavicencio reserve from USD 19, horseback riding, and the Atuel canyon in the south. Several of our guests do a full week here without a tasting.

What is there to do in Mendoza besides wine?

The short list: the high Andes day trip, water sports on the Mendoza River, thermal spas, trekking in Aconcagua Park and the Cordón del Plata, horseback riding on working estancias, olive oil tours in Maipú, cooking classes, and the city itself. Roughly half the plans in the table above involve no winery at all.

Are there free things to do in Mendoza?

Plaza Independencia and the four satellite plazas, Parque General San Martín with the climb to Cerro de la Gloria, and the Mercado Central are all free and all worth doing. They fill an afternoon comfortably. Everything outside the city involves either a car or a booked transfer.

What is open in Mendoza on a Sunday?

The mountain plans all run — rafting, the high Andes, Cacheuta, Villavicencio. Most wineries do not open, and those that do take reservations only. Shops in the centre close. If one of your days is a Sunday, spend it in the mountains and keep the wine for a weekday.

Can you do Mendoza with kids?

Yes. The zipline, the Cacheuta thermal park, the Villavicencio reserve and the horseback riding all work with children, and the high Andes day is a drive with stops rather than a hike. We run family programmes split by age band, because what works for a six-year-old and what works for a fifteen-year-old are not the same trip.

Do you need a car to do these things?

Not for anything in the table. Every plan listed includes transfer from your hotel in Mendoza. A car helps if you want to improvise around Maipú and Luján de Cuyo, but it is a bad idea on a wine day for the obvious reason, and it is not the right vehicle for the Villavicencio Caracoles road or the high Andes in winter.

How many of these fit in one day?

Two, if they are half-day plans in the same zone — a Maipú winery visit in the morning and the olive mill after lunch, or the Villavicencio reserve and the city in the evening. One, if it is the Uco Valley, the high Andes or San Rafael. Never two zones in a day; the driving eats what you came for.

Prices in this guide are the current starting rates from our own catalogue, per person, and cover the activity and the transfer. They move with the season and with the exchange rate; the live figure is always the one on the programme page.

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