A travel agent was trying to talk us into staying right in the town of Bariloche. But after reading about how noisy a lot of hotels are in town, thank God we didn't listen to her and instead booked Design Suites on Expedia. With its location 2.5 kilometers (approximately 1.5 miles) out of town and panoramic views of the lake right across the street, we thought the place was amazing!
There's a long driveway to get up to the main building from the road which we had to hike up a few times since we didn't have a car; however, we were there to hike so we really didn't mind. A couple of times we used the shuttle the hotel provided for getting into town. Note that it only goes into town at noon and 7:00 p.m. Since a lot of stores in town close down from 1:00 to 5:00, we rarely used the noon shuttle. If we wanted to go to town or down the main road that runs along the lake in the direction of the Llao Llao Hotel during the day, we'd just hop on the public bus that stops right in front of the hotel. It got us everywhere we wanted to go in either direction. Buses come along every 20 minutes, so we were never waiting long.
The main building of the hotel contains the lobby, restaurant, computer room, restrooms, and a separate tour office on the main level with the indoor/outdoor pool and a gym with showers and lockers downstairs. My husband and I took full advantage of everything. Twice I worked out in the gym, which had a couple of treadmills, recumbent bikes, elliptical trainers, weights, and a TV. Some of the equipment wasn't in the best of shape, but most of it was. It totally served my purposes. The indoor/outdoor pool was awesome with panoramic views of the lake. The outdoor infinity pool even had strong jacuzzi jets on one end. The showers and lockers were first-class with all of the amenities anyone could need.
We booked a boat trip to Victoria Island in the tour office. The girl who helped us couldn't have been nicer. (Warning about the boat trip though. The tour is not in English. Fortunately, the girl in the tour office warned us ahead of time so we knew what to expect. It was a great trip anyway because quite a few people on board spoke English and were more than happy to let us know what was being said.)
As for the food in the restaurant, we thought it was great! Every morning we had the buffet and then twice we ate dinner in the restaurant. We thought our dinners at the hotel were some of the best meals we had on our entire trip. Great presentation. The first night, I had the trout and my husband had steak. Both meals were scrumptious. My husband thought the steak was one of the best he had ever had. (Warning: The meals are huge, which wouldn't be a problem if you were at home and could take home the leftovers, but since we weren't, we left a lot on our plates. After that, we got smart and one person would order a salad and the other would order a dinner.)
The rooms of the hotels are up a small hill behind the main building. We had no problem walking up there; however, we can see how it could be a problem for someone with walking difficulties. Our luggage was driven up to the hotel itself for us, so we never had to carry our luggage up or down from the hotel to the main building. Once you get to the hotel, there is an elevator for the various floors.
Our room was on the first floor of the hotel and although we only had a partial view of the lake from our balcony, the room was wonderful: King-size bed, couch, coffee table, dresser, TV, CD player, in-room jacuzzi bath, stone shower, and balcony (everything very artsy).
We would both totally recommend this hotel!
