In short
Mendoza produces two thirds of Argentina's wine, in a desert irrigated by Andean snowmelt. The bodegas of Luján de Cuyo and the Uco valley are visited by bike or car, less than an hour away.
Aconcagua, six thousand nine hundred and sixty metres, the highest peak in the Americas, is three hours up the road. The park can be walked to base camp without being a mountaineer.
What it really costs
Argentina is cheap for a visitor holding foreign currency, but inflation makes any figure perishable: a budget drawn up two months ahead is worth little.
Finding out the exchange rate in force before you leave changes the cost of the stay more than any decision about accommodation.
What nobody tells you
This is a desert: three hundred millimetres of rain a year, very dry air, a wide gap between day and night temperatures. The city is green only thanks to an irrigation canal network inherited from the Huarpe people.
The harvest, February to April, is high season: the bodegas are full and prices rise. October and November give the same landscapes with the vines in flower.
The road to Chile over the Cristo Redentor pass closes regularly in the southern winter for snow, sometimes for several days.