Breakfast at the Jardin Escondido was excellent and the only breakfast experience that did not involve a buffet. Options were available from a menu, from which we selected a salmon and egg bagel and a spinach omelet. Also, I found the coffee to be the best yet of this trip, followed shortly in second place by the coffee from Finca Azul, our hotel in Uco Valley.

Final thoughts on Jardin Escondido:

• They don't offer supper, but according to Google Maps (we are in counseling and have not yet given up on each other), there are 30+ restaurants within a reasonable walking distance of the hotel

• Best coffee and tea service of all the places that we have visited on this trip

• Excellent breakfast service with options from a menu rather than the traditional buffet

• The din of traffic can be annoying when trying to sleep, but this may not affect guestrooms that are further in the building from the street

• Excellent Internet connectivity

• Beautiful rooms

This pretty much wraps the interesting parts of the adventure so I will exclude all the subsequent travel imagery.

Our final conclusions summarize what we learned and what we might recommend to others who want to take the same path.

• The initial plan was to travel by car from Mendoza to Salta, visiting all the wine regions in between. We sort of accomplished this, only having visited a fraction of the bodegas that we wanted to visit and skipping San Juan's actual wine region completely, but we would not do the same thing next time. The biggest wine regions are in Mendoza and Cafayate. Although good wine is produced in San Juan and La Rioja, they are not as easy to visit and don't offer the variety that Mendoza and Cafayate have. Although we enjoyed the drive through these regions, our itinerary for the next trip would involve more time in Mendoza and Cafayate, grabbing domestic flights between them, and skipping the regions in between.

• Private tours are the next best thing to planning everything yourself. Private, in contrast to a bus full of other tourists who are visiting bodegas from which the driver is likely getting kickbacks. Although I generally prefer making arrangements individually with bodegas that I want to visit, my two most important advantages of a private tour are:

• Not having to worry about the logistics of a structured schedule. This is a particular concern in the post-COVID era when all bodegas (and tasting rooms in the US, for that matter) require making an appointment. In addition to available appointment times at each desired location, you also have to consider time-on-location and distance between locations.
  

• Not having to worry about being impaired after an afternoon of wine enjoyment

• Having a walking restriction prevented us from enjoying the quebradas in the north and national parks. When we do this again, we will take extra time to take tours of these areas, as there are many available that look like a lot of fun.

• Plan South America was excellent at planning our trip and making sure that everything flowed smoothly for us. We could not have asked for a better experience. There are some aspects that we could have changed but  we were not disappointed with anything.

• We are not picking favorites among the accommodations that were selected for us. Refer to the Final Thoughts summaries as we left each location for details. Each location had something special about it that could serve as a top ranking, even it that something was a strategic necessity to allow us to transition from one chapter of the adventure to the next.

• As long as Argentina's problem with inflation persists, tourists need to know about the exchange rate and how to get the best value. The unofficial blue dollar rate essentially doubles the value of the US dollar. Western Union served us well to get the best rate, but was difficult to use for several reasons. Using credit cards directly with merchants or ATM to withdraw cash is the worst way to pay or acquire AR pesos.

• Malbec was and still is in my top tier of favorite red wine varietals, but this trip acquainted us to Torrontés, which is now in my top tier of white varietals.

• Be aware of the later times that evening meals are served. This includes restaurants, many of which don't even open for dinner service until after 8:00 PM. This may be a cultural difference compared to earlier evening meals in the United States, but could be completely normal for Europe and other parts of the world.
  

• Most of the tours, whether to bodegas for wine tasting or for outdoor adventures, offer the tour in Spanish, English, and other languages. Unless you are comfortable with Spanish, it is a good idea to take advantage of having a guide who speaks your language.

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