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Friends, good morning and welcome to Estancia Villa Maria. We are about 40 minutes from Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires. And guys, I think this may be one of the best ways to unwind and just spend a luxurious relaxing day before catching your flight back home. So, we are spending the night at this Tudor style country hotel here in the Pampas. It is so lush, so green, so relaxing, and we are so happy to be here. This is a great way to be finishing off our time in Argentina. And that we're going to bring you along for the experience and show you everything.
The food, the horse rides, the grounds, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Estancia Villa Maria started as part of a large cattle ranch founded by Vicente Pereda in the late 1800s. These were the days of Argentina's cattle boom when it rose to be one of the most important beef producing countries in the world. Then, in 1919, Vicente's son, Celedonio, hired Alejandro Bustillo, Argentina's most famous architect, to design a summer villa for the family. The result was this beautiful Tudor-Norman style manor that we see today. Completed in 1927, this space became a countryside retreat where the family could escape the city, entertain guests, and enjoy Estancia life in style. So, let's give you a tour of the place.
Estancia Villa Maria has 16 guest rooms, which are divided across two buildings. 11 rooms in the main house and five rooms in the French house. The French house, or Casa Francesa, is an annex a few steps away from the main building, and it's an adult-only space featuring even more luxurious rooms, including a penthouse. We stayed in one of the suites in the main house, and we loved our room. It opened into a receiving room and office-type space, which then led into the bedroom with a four-poster bed and a massive bathroom with beautiful details. Normally, you would check into the Estancia in time for lunch. However, we arrived in the late afternoon with just enough time to have merienda or afternoon tea. We were brought a
two-tier serving tray featuring a savory plate with scones and sandwiches and a sweet plate with a brownie, coconut and dulce de leche square, quince cookie, and a red velvet cookie with white chocolate chips. Sam had a cappuccino and I had a cup of tea, and I found it to be the perfect size snack seeing as we still had dinner to look forward to. And speaking of dinner, it was a three-course meal served in the dining hall in front of a crackling fireplace. For our starters, we got the fried mozzarella sticks with tomato and basil sauce and the soup of the day, which was broccoli and cheese. Then for our mains, the creamy mushroom risotto and the grilled salmon with a green pea puree. And for dessert,
pancakes with dulce de leche and artisanal strawberry ice cream. The following day, we started the day with more food. You will be very well fed at Estancia Villa Maria. Breakfast was buffet style with a nice spread of medialunas, bread, cakes, loaves, ham, cheese, fresh fruit, cereal, yogurt, orange juice, tea, and coffee. And just when we thought that was it, we were offered eggs and bacon, which we happily accepted. And meanwhile, we sat in the sunroom, which has beautiful views of the garden. Well, good morning, friends. It is time for our first activity here at the Estancia and that is a horse ride. You can actually choose between a regular horse ride or you can do a carriage ride which I think is a great option if
you're visiting with little ones, visiting as a family. So, we've got the hotel back there and we're just walking over to the stables. They're going to saddle up the horses for the guests and we are going to head out. They actually offer a horse riding both in the morning and in the afternoon. In the mornings, it's from 10:00 a.m. till noon and in the afternoons, it's from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. So, yeah, this I think this is going to be a really nice way to explore the property and I'm really looking forward to it. We're walking over to check out the little foal. Month and a half old.
Month and a half old, wow. Little one. A little one, just like you. It's a little horse. Just like you. Oh, a little one. It's a little horsey over there. do Woo. Estancia Villa Maria has 74 hectares of park with over 300 species of trees and vegetation. The surrounding gardens were designed by Benito Carrasco, who had worked with the famous landscape architect Carlos Thays. So, we got to enjoy all of this during the carriage ride, which covered quite a bit of ground. So, we just finished the family wagon ride, and that was a lot of fun. We got to see the more or less the entire property, and it's so beautiful. So, we
were out in the open sunlight for a little while. And then as we kept going on, we hit the shade and we got to see some of the most beautiful trees and some of the nicest areas of the property. And it's just really relaxing, really fun. Really slept most of the time, but we sure had a fun time. Because it's autumn right now, a lot of the trees are turning golden, and it was just so nice with that morning light, that soft golden glow. So, yeah, a beautiful way to see the property. It was maybe about a 20 or 30 minute ride, so just enough to get a taste of the place. And now we're going to head off on our own two feet to explore the rest of the parks. They have some trails that
weave their way through the estancia. So, that is next. I am fascinated by this flower. I have never seen anything like it. It's like all red. It looks like little feathers almost. If anybody knows the name of this, let me know in the comments. It's so beautiful. And it's also been fantastic just exploring the place on foot. It is such a gorgeous autumn day. Light jacket weather. It's warm, it's sunny. The colors are beautiful. And having the chances to wander around at a nice leisurely pace, it's just Oh my gosh, it's so nice. It just feels so relaxing. And there's nothing I'd rather be doing
right now than taking it easy. And this is one of the most relaxing things we could be doing right now because this evening we have a flight. We're leaving Argentina. And this is just such a nice tranquil way to spend an afternoon before we board a long flight back home. Yes, guys, do understand the estancia before you fly out. This one is close to the airport. Exactly. And it's just so convenient, such a peaceful way to unwind. I honestly couldn't think of a better way to be spending this afternoon right now. This is just girl's enjoying it, too. Loving it.
Loving every moment. No, don't follow mama. Look, you can play. So, this is actually really sweet and thoughtful for any families visiting with little kids. They've got this little playhouse. Kids can climb up on this side here. Then they have a slide. They have stairs. it. She's been checking out every aspect of it. She's done a little 360° tour. Girl, you're exploring. She's exploring.
ready? Taking off. I'm going to explore these estancia grounds. Now, let's talk about other activities you can enjoy because there are loads of things to do at Estancia Villa Maria and we feel like we only scratched the surface with our one-night stay. To give you an idea, they have an 18-hole golf course, a clay tennis court, a swimming pool, a football field, croquet, a billiards room, and stacks of board games. Plus, they are also able to arrange private polo lessons, matches, and demonstrations at an additional cost. All righty, friends. An important piece of information. If you want to enjoy barbecue here at the estancia, they've got the grilling station back here. You want to visit on a weekend or on a holiday. We were just chatting with the
guy who was cooking and he said Friday, Saturday, Sunday, they were barbecuing and today is Monday. So, we're going to go in and order off of the regular menu. Um but there was a couple who came here all the way from France and they had requested a barbecue, so that's why they were cooking here today. So, yeah. Beautiful day, beautiful setting, and I'm ready to eat.
And then it was time for lunch. Since we had missed lunch the previous day, the staff were kind enough to accommodate us. Sam and I both started out with two empanadas each for our starter. One beef empanada and one ham and cheese empanada. It's so cute. She's there. Then we ordered the steak and salad for our main, which also came with chimichurri and salsa criolla. Lastly, for dessert, Sam got the chocolate marquise, while I had the flan with dulce de leche and cream. And their lovely waitress insisted that her daughter get dessert, so we got two scoops of artisanal vanilla ice cream, which our little girl devoured.
And that is how we finished our stay at Estancia Villa Maria. All right, friends. So, that concludes our 24 hours, our action-packed day here at Estancia Villa Maria. As you can see, it was the perfect way to end our time here in Argentina. It was just such a relaxing day in a very peaceful landscape. Like it's just you're surrounded by gardens and these ginormous trees, and you just hear birds chirping and pigeons like honestly it was so nice. We're actually feeling really relaxed and ready to go catch our flight. But that's why I always like to suggest talking on an Estancia stay if you can at the very end of your time in Buenos Aires. It's just like a little slice of luxury and well, you have seen
that first hand today. This one is actually super accessible. Estancia Villa Maria is only a 40-minute ride from the international airport. So that in and of itself makes it so easy to visit and yes, as you can see a slice of paradise here in the countryside. We loved the food. We ate so well. We ate abundantly guys and when you're making a booking at an Estancia like Villa Maria, it includes your meals. In this case, it is four meals per day. You arrive at 12:00 noon. You get lunch. You get Meridian which is afternoon tea. You get dinner. The following morning you get breakfast and then you check out. And of course some activities are also included like horse rides and carriage
rides. Plus if you want to do additional stuff like Polo, that can be arranged for an additional sum. But that just gives you an idea of how you can spend a day at an Estancia. We hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, we invite you to give it a like, subscribe and we'll be seeing you guys very soon with more travels. Ta-ta.
