The experience did not match what was advertised. We booked a private tour and were picked up by a very pleasant guide who took us to San Antonio de Areco. However, the visit was extremely brief, about 30 minutes with little context or exploration. Upon arrival at the estancia, the “private” aspect of the tour disappeared entirely. We were grouped with a large number of other tourists, and the experience felt highly commercialized.
Activities were very limited: a short, approximately 15-minute horseback ride that was run continuously with large groups, offering little opportunity to learn or engage. The remainder of the day consisted mostly of waiting for lunch and a brief horse demonstration with minimal explanation or insight into gaucho culture or daily ranch life, so we decided to cut it short and asked to be returned to the city to try and reclaim whatever was left of our last day on vacation.
Given the cost and the full-day time commitment, the experience felt inauthentic and offered very little educational value. We were hoping for a meaningful, immersive gaucho experience, and unfortunately this fell far short of that expectation.
Operator response
Lisa,
I can tell that the entire team feel very sorry and surprise about your explanation of the day you spend here.
We were specially collecting testimonies from the people involved in the logistics and operation of your reservation, like your tour guide and the owner of the Estancia, and those are the outcomes:
Mr Marcelo, your Tour guide, says:
- He was in time for picking you up 8:30am at the door of the building of your apt. but you did not appear till 9:05am, this of course was one of the reason of your short visit to our gaucho town
- You decided to buy some jewelry at the Museum shop (we never push to do this), which entire process of shopping took another 30 minutes from the visit
- This two circumstances took 65 minutes from the planned 90 minutes visit to our town San Antonio de Areco
Even though the short time, according to Marcelo: You told him that the visit to the town was very interesting:
- Mr Marcelo told you about: “History of the arrival of the Spanish, brief description of the city of Buenos Aires, description of where we were going and what the tour consisted of, description of the province of Buenos Aires and La Pampa, explanation of what a gaucho is and how he originated, description of the activities of La Pampa, crops, livestock, and the divisions between the pampas and the drylands, description of the main activities of Argentina today: agriculture, mining, and oil.”
- Also in the town: “history of San Antonio de Areco, founder of the town, inhabitants, origin of the name, etc., stop at Gaspa's place and explanation of the local colonial architecture of the Pampas, description. Photos showed with my tablet. Second Shadow and Martín Fierro. Also description of the parish”
Description of Mr Marcelo and Pablo (owner of the ranch) about your stay at the Estancia:
- All of these delays in the visit to the town makes arriving to the Estancia a little bit later than planned.
- The day December 29th is the peak of the high season, and that is why there are a bit more guests at the Estancia than normal.
- Marcelo set you apart from the rest of the groups for having empanadas and a drink, then showing you the park and facilities of the Estancia, while waiting for no one at the horseback riding
- You and just another couple went on a horseback riding through the fields of the Estancia with Marcelo himself and some gauchos and you have the chance to trotter with your horses.
- He brought you specifically to see the Arabian horses that the owner bought, and I explained the difference between them and the Criollo horses.
- After this: you spend some time talking with the owner of the ranch (Pablo) who told you about the horse you Lisa had ridden, which had belonged to the most prestigious gaucho of the area.
According to the owner of the ranch: Mr Pablo:
After the Horseback riding: Lunch is always served 1:30pm, and your own table just for 5 people (your group and Marcelo) was ready and apart (because of the indications of Marcelo) from the other groups, but by 1:20pm you decided to go back to Buenos Aires.
Marcelo was very surprised about your words: “brief horse demonstration with minimal explanation or insight into gaucho culture or daily ranch life” since you were not even having lunch nor attending the live folckloric music with dancers, nor appreciating the horsemanship of the gaucho.
Since you were leaving the Estancia 3hs before planned Mr Marcelo says that he had no chance to tell you about all the rest about the ranch, the gauchos, horses, etc.
We feel very sorry that you can not enjoy your excursion to the gauchos place and was not what you were expecting from the description of what you booked.
We can assure that we will try to polish the entire description of the Tour in order to approach it to the real experience, and warn the guests about the days of the peak of the high season.
So, hopefully this situation will not happen again.
Specially Marcelo, who has been guiding our guests for near 12 years, wanted to apologized if you think he had not the right attitude to meet your expectations.
Hoping you had the chance to enjoy the rest of your visit to Argentina with your family.
Cordially,
Guillermo
