All-inclusive resorts

Argentina has very few true all-inclusive resorts, and only one hotel appears on this page: Little Ranch Hotel & Spa, a three-star spa hotel in Del Viso, in the Pilar district, some 44 km north-west of central Buenos Aires. It scores 8 out of 10 across 2,371 reviews. Each night includes full board, breakfast, lunch and dinner, with two-course menus at lunch and dinner, but drinks are not included. So this is full board with unlimited use of the facilities (pools, sauna, hydromassage), not a Caribbean wristband resort with an open bar. The stay revolves around the facilities: a dry sauna at 80 °C, two hydromassage pools at different temperatures, a heated indoor pool and an outdoor pool, plus an on-site restaurant with Italian-American cooking. The Argentine cousin of the idea is the estancia, where a día de campo or an overnight stay at a ranch in the pampas usually bundles the asado and activities such as horse riding. Ask for the "qué incluye" list in writing for drinks and spa treatments, because the words todo incluido are used loosely in Argentine hotels. Without a car, the Belgrano Norte line from Retiro to Villa Rosa stops at Del Viso, a little over an hour from Retiro; the last stretch from the station to the hotel is by remís or taxi. From the airports it is a road trip: long-haul flights land at Ezeiza (EZE), domestic and regional flights at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP), on the river in the city, so plan a remís or a booked transfer. I would avoid driving out on a Friday evening before a fin de semana largo, the long weekends created by Argentine public holidays, when the roads leaving the capital are at their slowest. Who it suits: travellers ending a trip in Buenos Aires, or flying in tired, who want two or three nights of pools and sauna without organising meals. Who should skip it: anyone after a beach or an open bar. Another full-board option near Buenos Aires is Delta Eco Resort & Spa in the Tigre Delta, rated 8.2 over a thin 32 reviews, with a spa and indoor and outdoor pools. For the sea, Mar del Plata and the Costa Atlántica work differently: hotel rooms plus balnearios where you rent a carpa for the austral summer, roughly December to March.