FYI - I spoke with Vines of Mendoza this morning and they no longer offer a customized wine tour service. They, instead, recommend a bunch of other tour companies.

I would also like to just hire a car for the day, but am also unsure about how to go about it without booking through a tour company. The tours seem very expensive. My understanding was that a private driver is about $200P (<$70USD) a day for the car and driver, and the tours start at about $150USD pp -- a big difference in budget for 2 people! I know the tours include the price of tours, tasting and lunch, but I can't imagine those cost >$200USD for two people if booked outside an agency. I'd love to hear about other people's experiences.

No, no! We paid much less than that! We paid 300 pesos for one day and 400 for the other for the driver. We paid nothing or next to nothing for the tours and tastings. We did find huge differences in prices between the two different organizations we contacted when trying to arrange tours. Please feel free to contact me privately for more information.

I'm sorry. I did not read your letter carefully enough. That is too bad about The Vines. You could try to contact the wineries yourself and if you do not eat the lunch you would not pay that much for the tours.

I, too, will be in Mendoza in April and had been wondering how to visit the wineries. It sounds as if the best bet are the wine tours although they do seem expensive. Que lastima.

I just emailed my hotel (Hotel Argentino) and they said can make the reservations and book a driver to go to the wineries. We just tell them when we want to go and which wineries we want to visit and they set it all up! Sounds similar to the Vines service, only you have to pick the times and wineries.

Thanks for info!

The advantage to doing a tour is you get a guide who can provide lots of good info about the winery you're visiting, how those wines compare with others, etc. The folks at Trout and Wine are all native English speakers, and their groups are real small -- no more than 6 people. Our "tour" was just us and one other couple. We usually avoid tours at all costs, but this was a wonderful exception.

Thanks - that makes sense.

Brilliant Melicob! a little research will give you information to help you compare. I found that we could quickly tell what each winery was all about.

One interesting thing is how new they all are (the buildings and the companies, not the vines). We found it interesting to learn who owned each vinyard.