The staff is great. Breakfast is very good with a lot of variety, the also have a Restaurant for dinner where I had the best rissoto ever! Rooms are spacious and very clean. There is a car at the hotel that take you to/from town whenever you want for free. If you book for 2 nights you get a free shuttle to/from airport and for 3 nights they take you to the glaciers. Expect a very relaxed and pleasant stay here :)

We chose La Cantera because it was not only recommended by English websites but also by Spanish ones. It seemed to be a new hotel, the price was also acceptable, so we decided to give it a try and contacted the hotel directly. The booking service responded fast and we got a nice offer for 7 days including a free excursion to Perito Moreno Glacier, a half-day excursion and a free transfer to the hotel (from the local airport). We were picked up professionally by a receptionist guy in a dark blue Cherokee Jeep. It took us apporx. 45 min to get to the hotel. Initially, we were a bit shocked to see that the hotel was on the hill, outside of the city (10 min walk) in a dusty area with a lot of building areas around. The view to Lago Argentiono was there... But it was somehow bugged by the house that was built 20cm (! very tight !) away from the hotel property and by the old car wrack in front of our window... But, I guess this is Argentina (no offense, guys!). We took a junior suite, which was in every way great. The room was very spacious, decorated in a rustic style with a nice bathroom. Given that there were other houses in the vicinity and that the hotel did not have any kind of "green" fence, we really watched out to open the window, while in the bathroom in order to avoid striptease for the neighbors. Breakfast was very rich with a loot of tartes/cakes (nothing we could eat early in the morning). The hotel cook was a nice guy imagining that he was THE Chef - the reality was different. We only ate once in the hotel and did not tolerate it well... For the rest of our stay, we were appreciated guests in the chic Casimiro Bigua Restaurant (not the Grill place!) down town El Calafate. Walking to El Calafate Center we did preferentially during the day, since it good kind of spooky to climb back to the hotel in the night. The taxis were cheap and comfortable. Now to the excursions: As a part of our package we got a free excursion to Perito Moreno Glacier and a half-day excursion. The first was only a "transfer" to the Glacier, for the rest you needed to pay extra. The latter was a great choice on the rainy day to go the Cerro Frias by an old Land Rover Jeep and have a great lunch for 30 Peso at one of the nearby Estancias!! We even witnessed a birth of an Argentinian calf and seen the condors from 20m! We really recommend it! Generally, all excursions in El Calafate were mass excursions. We have seen the Glaciers, did some hiking on the Glaciers and even went to see the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Together with at least 50 other people... El Calafate does not offer you small or private excursions that you can pay (the price starts at 300$ per person for whatever you want to do). On the last day, we rented our hotel driver to drive us to the Fitz Roy mountain (El Chalten). Almost 4 hours in each direction, but it was worth of every cent. Great landscapes, armadillos, Lamas, etc. We did a 5-hour hike at the base of Fitz Roy and made hundreds of great pictures. We also experienced changing of 4 seasons at least twice in a row, while doing the hike. The driver waited for us in the village with a small treat - coffee/tee break with assorted cookies and danish pastry. Thing No 2 to recommend! In general, we should have stayed shorter in El Calafate and instead went to Chile. Nevertheless, there are 3 things we will never forget: 1. excellent cuisine at Casimiro Bigua (watch out because prices are in medium/high European range), 2. visit to Cerro Frias with the lunch at the Estancia 3. visit to Fitz Roy and its magnificent beauty