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Welcome to Trelew in Chubut Province, Argentina. If you're thinking of visiting Trelew, you're probably the kind of traveler who enjoys quirky destinations, and this place delivers on that front. This Patagonian town is home to dinosaurs, Welsh history, a hotel linked to infamous train robbers, and some really great restaurants. So, it's worth adding to your itinerary if you're already visiting neighboring Puerto Madryn and Península Valdés. Trelew doesn't receive a huge number of international visitors, but if you're looking to go off the beaten track in coastal Patagonia, it'll be right up your alley. We certainly enjoyed it.
This is our travel guide to Trelew, Argentina. Getting to Trelew is pretty easy. You have direct flights from Aeroparque Airport in Buenos Aires, or you can fly into Puerto Madryn and then transfer down to Trelew, which is just 45 minutes away. And if long-distance buses are your thing, you can get buses all the way from Buenos Aires to Comodoro Rivadavia, so it is quite well connected. One of the main draws to Trelew is the opportunity to see dinosaurs. The Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum, locally known as the dinosaur museum, is one attraction we couldn't miss.
They have over 30 dinosaurs on display, and we even got to see dinosaur eggs. The most famous dinosaur of them all is the Patagotitan mayorum, the largest dinosaur in the world. This titanosaur was discovered in early 2013 and measures more than 8 m in height and 40 m in length, and it is estimated to have weighed around 74 tons. This is the one museum I would prioritize if you only have a few hours in Trelew. Even if you're not usually a museum person, the scale of the dinosaurs makes this one memorable. So, we are now going to visit a small little museum called Museo Regional Pueblo de Luis. To learn more about the history of Trelew, you can visit the Regional Museum Pueblo de Luis. The name really says it all.
Pueblo de Luis is Spanish for Town of Lewis, which is Trelew. This museum is set in the former railway station which dates back to 1889. It tells the story of the Welsh immigrants who crossed the Atlantic Ocean, arrived on the shores of Puerto Madryn, and went on to settle the valley along the Chubut River. Well, guys, that was a pretty cool little museum. I really enjoyed it. We ended up learning a whole lot about the Welsh, why they came here. Basically, they were leaving Wales because of poverty. There was famine. They'd had a
lot of failed crops. Also, the English were trying to impose their language on them, like in the schools they could no longer speak Welsh. It was English. So, I guess they felt like they were being pushed out of their own lands, and they decided, "Let's come down to Patagonia and form our own community where we can keep our culture alive." And they did, but it was not easy. Apparently, they got here and well, the landscape is very different from Wales. It's just not as green and fertile and rainy. Here they found it very difficult to grow their own crops. Um and they also had lots of failed crops. So, basically, they only survived thanks to the Tehuelches, the natives who inhabited this area in Chubut. Um and
they taught them how to hunt. They shared their meat with them. Um and they had a pretty peaceful coexistence. Yeah, that's all I learned inside the museum. Pretty cool. Yeah, and they had I mean, so many interesting artifacts as well. I mean, they've done a really good job of preserving some of these different items and there was lots of really cool theme rooms. I'm glad we went. of artifacts that they actually brought over from Wales, like big pieces of furniture and like stuff that you'd use in the kitchen and yeah, nice little museum. It's worth visiting.
Another big reason to visit Trelew is that you can go on a day trip to nearby Gaiman. This is one of the many Welsh towns you'll find in Patagonia and it's just a 20-minute journey by bus or by car. The main thing to do in Gaiman is to visit a Welsh tea house for afternoon tea. Welsh bread and cream pies make an appearance on almost every menu along with other baked goods. Plus, it's a very green town set on the banks of the Chubut River with lots of farms and orchards. Next place we are showing you guys, Laguna Cacique Chicichano. That name is a bit of a mouthful. So, we thought we'd walk around this lagoon. It's directly behind the bus terminal. It's pretty nice. There's some ducks in there.
There's a 1.9 km trail that goes all around the lake and it's a nice place for a walk or a run if you're looking to get a workout during your visit. You can also see swans, ducks and flamingos, but I would treat this as a daytime walk rather than a late night wander. If you're looking for a ghost town, I would say Trelew on a Sunday. Desolate. We've seen a few cars here and there. Can hear one coming over my shoulder. How rare. Some dogs roaming the streets. It's like super quiet. Everything has shut down. Because part of our visit fell on a Sunday when most places in town were closed, we decided to go on a little
tour of Trelew's plazas. We visited Plaza Centenario where there is a monument to Trelew's founder, Lewis Jones, plus they had lots of colorful murals painted by the community. That was Plaza Centenario for you. Hope you enjoyed the street art. Onwards to the next Plaza. One more. And then we continued on to Plaza Independencia. Yeah. This is probably the prettiest square in all of Trelew. I like it a lot. There is a bust of José de San Martín, the nation's liberator, right in the middle of the square. There's also a nice gazebo. If you're looking for a
place to enjoy a quiet stroll on a Sunday, this fits the bill. Hello San Martín. Hello Sam. Hello gazebo. And lots of pigeons. There is a visual arts museum that overlooks this plaza, so we also stopped by and checked out some of the photography and paintings produced by local artists. We had some very memorable meals in Trelew, which we were not expecting for a smaller and less touristy destination. So here are three of our favorite spots.
One of the best meals we had in Trelew was at a place called Sugar. And I know it sounds like it's a dessert place, but actually it's a restaurant with a very impressive menu. So the food is here guys. I went for one of the specials of the day, which looks amazing. You should have seen it when it arrived at the table. Had this glass lid on it, and there's like a bit of charcoal there. So it was kind of like infusing it with a smokiness. So cool. the lid, the smoke came out, and we it was so impressive we asked them to do it again. But the is when we did it again, there wasn't nearly as much smoke. So, it was one of those cases where we should have had the camera rolling, but we didn't. But, yeah. We are having beef with
ground lamb and peanuts. And then, we have a potato in a mushroom sauce. And we have a spicy carrots coated in paprika. And of course, the bits of charcoal there. So cool. So, I'm going to try the beef first. Mhm. How's that beef? Mhm. So tender. And the crispy bits on top with the crunchy peanuts. Wow. No, this is very nice. This is good stuff, huh? So excited for this. I think it's my first time ever to try beetroot gnocchi in a blue cheese sauce. Ooh, my. Guys, like just look how purple they are. Sauce is so thick. Look, I'm just bathing it in there. Yeah, when you first placed the order, I thought it was going to be a beetroot sauce, but it turns out the gnocchi are made with beetroot.
This is next level, man. That blue cheese salsa that sauce. Yeah, you're a real fan of blue cheese, so. Yeah, it's so potent, salty. Like if you love blue cheese, you would love this gnocchi with the sauce. All right, so we got a couple desserts. I ordered some walnut cake. Yes. It's got two fillings, dulce de leche and cream. Looks so decadent from over here. Is it? So good. Lots of chunks of walnuts in there. And it's kind of like a heavier, yet spongy cake. Reminds me a bit of like a banana bread. Yeah. But, it's walnuts. Guys, I got a slice of cheesecake. It has a mountain of berries on top. Oh, man. I already had a bite. I tell you, it's so good. So rich, decadent, creamy.
It's got strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. It's next level creaminess. If you're craving pasta, you need to check out Raices. I got their spinach and ricotta cannelloni with a tomato and beef sauce. The cannelloni are kind of like thin pancakes or crepes and they absorb the sauce nicely. This dish brought back childhood memories. I have not had this since I was a child and lived in Argentina. My mom used to make them really often with spinach and a white cream sauce. This is so good. Love it. Delicious, huh? Meanwhile, Sam ordered the plum and bacon stuffed gnocchi. This was our first time trying stuffed gnocchi and we haven't come across it again since. It was served in a rich and creamy mushroom sauce and it was amazing.
So, mine has plum and bacon stuffed inside. Look at the size. Look at those mushrooms, guys. We can sure eat lots of those for the first bite. That sauce is so creamy. Yeah, fantastic selection. I can't wait to try yours, too. We came to Hotel Touring Club for the history. This hotel hosted many famous guests back in its heyday, including the writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry of The Little Prince. He was a frequent guest in the 1930s and today there's a plaque commemorating his stays. The hotel also hosted, perhaps unknowingly, an infamous gang of bank and train robbers, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
There's a room out back where they've set up a little museum. Today, this is a one-star hotel, so we did not spend the night. However, we can recommend their bar. Eating here felt like stepping back in time. Plus, the food portions were very abundant. We ordered a picada, which is kind of like a snacking platter, and we could not finish all the food. Well, guys, picada for two is here at the table. Oh, yeah. Good decision. So, we got French bread, some chips. We have crackers with, I don't know, like a Roquefort cheese. We'll have to try that.
Uh black olives, looks like they're spicy. Green olives. Here we have peanuts, palitos, they're like little sticks, fried sticks. kind of. That's it. We've got sweet salami, spicy salami, there's mortadella, cheese. We have these grilled cheese sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches. Oh my. And that's just the savory portion. We also ordered a little bit of dessert. And of course, we have red wine. Red wine? From Mendoza. Chin. Oh. It's like a simple meal, but filling, tasty. This is the kind of meal that you really need to have wine or beer. It's got a bit of everything, it's salty.
It's like a basically a savory delight. Oh, look at those sausages. More. The picada just keeps coming and coming. dogs with mustard. Yum. Want to lift that up to the camera? And they're hot, too. Yes. And that is a wrap for our travel guide to Trelew in Chubut Province, Argentina. So, now you know, if you want dinosaurs, Welsh history, and some surprisingly good restaurants, this is the place to visit. If you're already planning to be in nearby Puerto Madryn and Península Valdés, this is a super easy addition to your itinerary. As always, thank you so much for watching, and we'll see
you soon with more adventures.
