Mendoza · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Wine country on a hostel budget — cheap bus routes to the vineyards and the Andes an hour away.
Sleep near Aristides
Hostels cluster in the blocks around Avenida Aristides Villanueva, the bar street, all within walking distance of Plaza Independencia.
What a day costs
Inflation makes peso figures stale within weeks, so think in dollars: bed $10–20, food $10–18, buses and tastings $8–15. Around $30–50.
Getting around cheap
A rechargeable Red Bus card covers the city and the buses out to Maipú, where vineyards are strung along a flat road made for hired bicycles.
Free by day
Parque General San Martín and the climb to the Cerro de la Gloria monument, the weekend craft market, and the shaded irrigation-channel streets.
Plaza Independencia
Free walking tours leave from the central plaza most mornings and dissolve into the Aristides bars afterwards; hostel asados do the rest.