Thank you for helping us plan a wonderful trip to Argentina. Here is our review and picture.

Thank you Mariana, Yuna, and Say Hueque!!

My husband and I traveled to Argentina for our honeymoon in Oct 2011. After researching different agencies, we decided to plan our trip through Say Hueque. I am so glad that we did! They were very organized and helpful throughout the entire planning process. Because neither one of us is fluent in Spanish, Say Hueque was vital in making all of the arrangements and setting our itineraries. I shared some of the places we wanted to visit along with activities and they put it all together. Once we arrived in Argentina, it was nice to know that everything was planned at every location. We especially liked the notes our local contact left for us at our hotels. The main places we visited (Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, El Calafate, and El Chalten) were beautiful. Trekking on a glacier was definitely a unique experience. We had an amazing trip and have already convinced our friends/family to start thinking about traveling to Argentina.

Thank you so much for making our honeymoon trip unforgettable.

Best,

Kristine and Eric

Hi Carmen,

We arrived home safely last Wednesday – More than 24 hours from the pick up from the hotel at Buenos Aires to arriving our home in Sacramento, California. I finally came back to work yesterday and back to my normal life—sitting all day long in front of a computer. Yesterday I had to spend a few hours at work to talk about Argentina with my co-workers. I showed them the pictures and let them know what a wonderful and unforgettable trip we have experienced!

We definitely love Argentina and miss it so much! We have traveled many other places in the world and I want to say that Argentina is one of the most interesting and most beautiful places we have been to. We love its stunning natural sceneries, rich culture, nice people, and of course all the good food. We also love its diversity. We saw beautiful glaciers, snow capped mountains, rivers, lakes with icebergs, and wildlife in the windswept Patagonia; we eye witnessed the spectacular Iguazu Fall in the subtropical rain forest; we love the friendly atmosphere in Buenos Aires as well as the lovely tango show and the colorful Caminito in La Boca; we really had fun during the Live Pampas visit….So many good memories from Argentina. I wished we would have more time to stay so that we can visit at least the wine country – Mendoza. We will go back for it next time and also for other beautiful places that are mentioned in books but we didn’t have time to visit this time.

Argentinean cuisine and wines are definitely fantastic! Argentina has the best beef I have ever tasted. All the restaurants we had been to were very good and served a great variety of food. We especially love the restaurant that close to our hotel in Buenos Aires. I cannot remember its name, but we go there every time. The waiters were very friendly even though we don’t know Spanish and they don’t know English. We always order steaks and the spaghetti with meat stew. They were very tasty. Thank you so much for the wine you gave to us the first day when we got there. I saved it and bring it back home. We won’t drink it until we can find another bottle of Argentinean wine.

Thanks Say Hueque for the great tour in Argentina. I searched internet for all kinds of Argentina tours and Say Hueque offered the most interesting itineraries and gave the most reasonable price amount them all. The quality of the service and sightseeing arranged by Say Hueque is excellent. We enjoyed our trip in Argentina a lot. If next time we go back, we will definitely consider Say Hueque again. Also, Carmen, thank you very much for your warm greetings and hospitality. Please let Say Hueque know that we think you are the best!

We had a wonderful time in Argentina. If we would have any complains, that could be the domestic flights. They seem to be delayed all the time. Other than that, everything was very well.

I will start learning some Spanish now. I think it is a wonderful and powerful language and it will be very helpful for us to communicate with all the friendly local people.

Finally, thank you very much for the recipe for Argentinean Empanadas and the list of Argentinean wines. I will try the recipe and let you know how good it tastes.

Hola Veronica!

Thanks for your e-mail. Of course, I recall speaking with you on the phone the day we arrived in Buenos Aires. We had a great trip and enjoyed our time in your lovely country. We made it back to New York just fine and survived our first week back at work.

I would be happy to share some impressions of our trip and the logistics. Overall, everything was fine except for the little mix up on the arrival day. My girlfriend and I travelled on different flights and both of us had difficulty meeting the Say Hueque representative at arrivals. I arrived first and could not spot anyone from your office waiting with a sign for me when I emerged from the international arrivals. I wandered around for probably 20 minutes and was about to try to phone your office before I finally spotted Marianne with the sign for my name. My girlfriend Alex missed you completely and ended up getting a ride into the city with the friend she travelled with who booked her trip with another agency and was met at the airport by her driver so it worked out, but it was not optimal. Alex's flight arrived early and she is not a US citizen so she did not have to wait in line to pay the fee so I think she emerged from the arrivals much earlier than you were expecting and after waiting around for 20-30 minutes when she did not find anyone from Say Hueque waiting for her she walked to the other terminal and come back and when she still could not spot anyone from Say Hueque she took the ride with her friend who had a driver waiting for her. She had to pay the driver $25 for the transfer which she was not happy with, but at least she got a ride into the city and I met her at her friend's hotel so everything worked out. To prevent this in the future I would suggest you advise arriving guests exactly where to look for the Say Hueque representative and that they be there early enough to meet the arriving flight. You may also want to consider asking your guests whether they are American citizens or not so you know whether they have to wait in line to pay the fee since if they don't they emerge much earlier from the arrivals hall.

The rest of our trip logistics were fine, but there are a few other points to mention. Our scheduled flight from El Calafate to Ushuaia was cancelled by Aerolinas but I recieved a call at our hotel before we left from the airport by the local agency telling me the flight had been cancelled and that they had rebooked us on the next flight 4 hours later so at least we knew what to expect so I appreciated being informed in advance.

Our room in the hotel "The House" in Ushuaia was in the basement and quite small so we would have preferred a room in the upper level with a view of the city, but it worked out. The breakfast at "The House" was also quite minimal compared to the other hotels we stayed in.

Finally, our last day excursion to the Brazilian side of the Falls in Iguazu was not ideal. We were picked up quite early from the Sheraton (7:45 am) only to be driven to the park entrance on the Brazililan side of the Falls where we waited 45 minutes in the sun to be assigned to a larger group to walk the falls. The guide on the Brazilian side spoke no English at all so we had to rely on translations from other guests to be informed of what was happening. The visit was also very rushed and we were not provided with sufficient explanations of where to meet the group at the end. Due to the crowds on the walkways we became separated from the group and it was only by chance that we recognized some members of our group at the exit and were able to rejoin the group. We had a very tight connection to our flight back to Buenos Aires and by the time we emerged from the park, crossed the border and arrived at the airport it was only 30 minutes before our 14:10 flight. We still had to wait in line to check our luggage and were concerned that we would miss the flight until Aerolinas called out our names and brought us to the front of the line so we ended up making the flight with only minutes to spare. We never even had time for lunch so had to settle for the small sandwich we received on the plane. I would suggest that you allow more time for people to visit the Brazilian side of the Falls to fully enjoy them, that you ensure there is an English language speaking guide available for English speakers and that you not schedule such an early connection back to Buenos Aires. I would have been happy with spending the afternoon in Iguazu so we would have had time for lunch and taking a late afternoon/early evening flight back to BA.

Anyways, overall the trip was great and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it including the hotels, the tours, the fantastic natural wonders and of course the excellent steaks and Malbec! I'm attaching two photos from the Minitrekking on the Perito Moreno glacier (which I would definitely recommend to other guests!) and from Iguazu. Thanks for organizing such a memorable trip and for the "little gift" you left in the hotel the first day as well as for the empanades recipe and wine list below. We hope to return to Argentina again one day and would recommend Say Hueque to other travellers. Please let me know if you need any further information from us.

Regards,

Ken Rock and Alexandrina Damianova

Hola Mariana!

We had a great time, thanks so much for all the help! It would have been very hard to plan this trip without Say Hueque. It was an unforgettable trip to some beautiful parts of the world. We really enjoyed visiting Argentina and Chile, and found everyone to be very friendly and helpful. All of the excursions went smoothly, and I would certainly recommend Say Hueque to anyone considering a similar trip.

I don't want you to think that we didn't have a good time, i just have a lot of suggestions :)

We enjoyed our stay in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the trip. We were a bit worried about the flight to El Calafate, since many flights were being canceled that day, after a few long hours waiting at the airport, we made it. The glacier trek was really cool, very special to see the glacier up close. It would have been nice to have the Park Entry fee of 100 pesos/person (cash required) mentioned in the itinerary so we would be prepared.

We had no trouble getting to El Chalten, and found it to be beautiful as well. Perhaps a map of each city we were going to visit, with the hotel and bus terminal marked would be nice. We found that Hosteria Senderos is right across from the bus station, but we saw other travelers (maybe not with Say Hueque) get cabs only to go across the street since they didn't know where it was. We enjoyed hiking in El Chalten, and also went on a horseback ride at Bonanza.

Back in El Calafate, we had no trouble with a cab back to Posta Sur, and a pickup by Always Glaciers (very early) the next morning. After we crossed into Chile, we were told that we would need 15.000 Chilean Pesos/person for the park entrance fee. There was no ATM at the border crossing, so we were glad we had enough cash to exchange (though the rates for argentine pesos were very bad). We enjoyed Torres Del Paine, also a beautiful area. I've attached a picture of us at the base of the Torres.

When we arrived in Puerto Natales, we had to ask directions to get from buses gomez to the buses pacheco office. Again, a map would have been helpful here. It was only ~6 blocks, but we were uncertain if we were going the right way. We were able to get on an earlier bus to Punta Arenas, which was nice.

We had a great time in Ushuaia. Again, there was a 85 peso/person park entry fee that we were not aware of ahead of time, so the bus had to stop at an ATM for us. The guided trekking was a little bit slow, but the lunch from nunatek was great (sodas, wine, bread and cheese, hot soup, coffee and tea), and the rafting in the river was a lot of fun. The Beagle Channel boat trip was good as well.

We had a bit of trouble finding our driver at the airport back in BA, as you probably remember, but eventually we did.

I don't know if it's feasible, but perhaps offering your travelers a mobile phone for the duration of their trip, with important numbers already programmed in would be possible. I would have gladly paid a bit more for this, since it was sometimes difficult to find a pay phone when we needed help. It would also allow you to reach us when there is a change, such as our flight home on the last day.

Thank you for putting together a wonderful trip for us!

David

Hola Mariana,

As I mentioned, we loved every minute of our trip, and were so impressed with Argentina in general. Friendly people, beautiful architecture, amazing natural flora and fauna, and a well-developed tourism infrastructure made our trip really special.

Tango Porteno was wonderful...we loved the show and dinner. And, after spending 3 days in Buenos Aires we enjoyed having a quiet day in Colonia. We really enjoyed our city tour. Being in a smaller group was a lot more fun than being on a big tour bus and it was a great overview of Buenos Aires in a short amount of time.

We had a great time on our whale-watching trip and we really loved Punto Tombo. It's unbelievable how close you can get to the penguins and the chance to see the penguins, whales, and sea lions up close in their natural habitat is once-in-a-lifetime. I can't recommend Huinca...they tried to double charge us for our whale watching tour and the part of the tour after Punto Tombo, when they took us to Gaiman and Trelew, they took us and basically dropped us off for free time. There's not much to do in Gaiman and Trelew if you are on your own. We visited the paleontology museum and had lunch, but we thought we'd be with a group going for tea and on a guided tour of the museum, and that's not what Huinca does. Not enough for us to complain, just not what we expected. Huinca also tried to double charge several other people who were on our tour. It seems to be what they do.

The minitrekking was out of this world!! That tour is spectacular. Not only the hike, but also the whiskey, the boat ride, and then they take you up to view the glaciar from the new platforms. Great, great, day. I'll never forget that experience as long as I live. It was truly the highlight of our trip.

The support we received from Say Hueque was wonderful and exceeded our expectations. Mariana, your meeting us at the airport, waiting with us while we changed money, and taking the time to review our itinerary with us, word by word, when we arrived at the hotel really made us feel secure that we'd made a great choice working with Say Hueque. We really appreciated being taken to the hotel in a private car, with you as our guide, instead of being on a huge bus. We appreciated your help on our last day,seeing us off at the aiport, and we loved the bottle of wine! The personalized attention that we received from you and from our sales rep, Mariano, made our trip very special and comfortable. Even when we arrived back in Buenos Aires from El Calafate, our flight was diverted from Aeroparque to Ezeiza due to ash, and was two hours late, arriving at 2am, and there was a guy with a big smile waiting for us at the airport to get us to our hotel...fabulous. I would recommend Say Hueque to anyone traveling in Argentina.

We thank you whole-heartedly for your excellent service and support during our amazing trip. You do a great job and we'll remember this trip happily for the rest of our lives!

Thanks again and best wishes from the freezing USA,

Katie

Hola Veronica,

Of course I remember you - the lovely young woman who came at 02:45 in the morning to pick us up and take us to the airport!!!

The rest of our trip was without problems - we had a great time. This is a picture of Kathy and me at the end of the continent. Of all the things we did, I'd have to say that the Stella Australis boat trip was one of the very best. That and Valparaiso were probably my favorite parts (I had already spent 3 weeks in Buenos Aires 4 years ago). We met a couple of travel writers from Australia who had taken the boat trip in both directions. They said the north to south direction was the better (albeit more expensive) direction if you could only do one way. I tell you this to pass along to your clients. I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to do it again, but I'll go the other way if I do. Also to pass on to your clients - avoid Aerolineas Argentina when at all possible. We were truly amazed by the number of stories we heard about travel plans ruined by that airline. We would have gladly payed a bit more to fly LAN had we known the reputation of A.A. Other than that, 2 days in Punta Arenas was probably too long (and the hotel just a bit ordinary) - all other arrangements you made for us were great. We were picked up and delivered as planned with NO problems. This was a new experience for me (getting picked up at the airport and taken to the hotel) and I must say - it was REALLY nice! We received credit from Say Hueque just a few days after we spoke - thank you for your prompt attention.

Thanks so much for the empanada recipe. I will be trying it soon. We had lots of good food on our trip and one of my favorites from Argentina was the empanadas! The seafood in Chile is a must.

I hope all's well in B.A. Don't hesitate to ask if I can provide any more info and / or you come to San Francisco!

Fondly,

Terri Johnson

I recently traveled extensively in Argentina. Say Hueque set up our entire trip, including in country air tickets, hotels, local tours and local pick ups to and from the airports. They did a great job arranging the entire trip by email from the US.

Once we got to Buenos Aires they had a local rep from the company leave a welcome letter and present (bottle of wine).

Every new place we went had an instructional letter waiting for us. We always knew where we were going. On departure from BA we were greeted by the local tour representative to make sure all had gone well.

The price is right, and I recommend this travel agent to anyone going to Argentina.

Thank you Say Hueque!
Greetings,
Doug, the US

Hi Araka and Veronica,

Sorry it has taken so long to write you regarding our fantastic trip. We can't thank you enough for your superb service. We were extremely impressed by every tour operator and guide on our trip. They were all very knowledgeable and friendly. The accommodations in each city visited exceeded our expectations. The hotel staff in each city made us feel like family. We were fortunate to have spectacular weather and enjoyed missing the crowds of the high season. The only change we might suggest is an extra day or two in El Chalten. We would have enjoyed more exploring in that area. All in all it was the perfect trip and we thank you so much for keeping an eye on us throughout the adventure. We will HIGHLY recommend Say Hueque to anyone seeking an adventure in Patagonia. Please feel free to use us as a reference. I will send a couple of separate emails with some of my pictures.

In sincere appreciation,
Larry and Debi Rector

Thank you Veronica for the wine list (we DID love the wines) and the empanada recipe. We brought home some Torrontes and Malbec wines.....yum, yum.....and are looking for some more in our local markets.