San Carlos de Bariloche → San Carlos de Bariloche (2)

San Carlos de Bariloche → San Carlos de Bariloche (2)

Date: Sunday, March 14, 2027 · Distance: ~31 mi · Driving time: ~1h 30m (excluding stops) · Open in Google Maps

Road surfaces
Asphalt · 23 mi · 74%
Compacted gravel · 5 mi · 17%
Dirt · 2 mi · 5%
Gravel · 1 mi · 2%

There are days on a road trip that function as crossings, and days that function as pauses. The Circuito Chico is emphatically the latter: a 60-kilometre loop west from San Carlos de Bariloche that traces the shorelines of lakes Nahuel Huapi and Moreno, passes through forest so dense it dims the morning light, and deposits you back in the same city by late afternoon — rested rather than spent, and with a better understanding of the landscape you've been driving through.

Cerro Campanario

The day begins at 8:00 am, heading west out of Bariloche along Avenida Exequiel Bustillo, which follows the southern edge of Lago Nahuel Huapi. At kilometre 17.5, the road arrives at the base of Cerro Campanario, where a short chairlift — the aerosilla — climbs to the summit in about seven minutes through a canopy of coihue and cypress. The alternative is a steep but brief hiking trail that gains the same summit in under thirty minutes.

At the top, a cluster of viewpoints opens in every direction: Lago Nahuel Huapi to the north and east, the smaller Lago Moreno and the inlet of Laguna El Trébol below, Isla Victoria floating in the distance, and to the west the massed peaks of Cerro López, Cerro Capilla, and the white cone of Cerro Tronador on the Chilean border. The Llao Llao hotel and peninsula are clearly visible to the southwest. The mountain received its name after Monsignor Miguel de Andrea held a camp mass here in February 1930; a small iron cross still marks the site. A café at the summit serves pastries and hot chocolate.

Parque Municipal Llao Llao

From Cerro Campanario the road continues west, passing the Regata Club and rounding the Península San Pedro before arriving at kilometre 23 and the entrance to the Parque Municipal Llao Llao. This free municipal park — distinct from the surrounding Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi — contains a network of easy walking trails through arrayán and coihue forest, with branches leading to the shore of Lago Moreno and to the pier at the hidden Lago Escondido, a small mirror lake a few minutes' walk from the road.

Just beyond the park entrance, the Capilla San Eduardo occupies a small hilltop at kilometre 25.5. The chapel was designed by architect Alejandro Bustillo and built in 1938, the same year as the adjacent Hotel Llao Llao — and by the same hand. Its neo-Gothic silhouette of cypress timber and stone, with a pitched roofline that mirrors the mountain forms behind it, was a deliberate architectural choice: Bustillo wanted the building to feel grown from the landscape rather than placed upon it. Fifty-eight stone steps lead up to the entrance terrace, from which the Llao Llao hotel and the peaks beyond fill the view completely.

The Hotel Llao Llao itself sits at kilometre 25 on a low promontory between Lago Nahuel Huapi and Lago Moreno. Bustillo's original 1938 hotel — built of cypress logs and larch tile roofing in a Canadian mountain style — burned to the ground in October 1939 under circumstances that were never fully explained. It was rebuilt in concrete and reopened in December 1940. The hotel closed again in 1978 for fifteen years before a third opening in 1993 as a full resort. Guests staying here have full access to the restaurants and grounds; independent visitors can use the café and take in the exterior and grounds.

Bahía López

Continuing west and then south, the road enters the deeper forest of the circuit at around kilometre 33, where the Puente del Arroyo la Angostura crosses the narrow channel connecting Bahía López with Lago Moreno. From the bridge there are views of both lakes simultaneously, with Cerro López rising steeply to the west. Just beyond the bridge, the road reaches Bahía López itself: a quiet pebble-and-sand beach on the southeastern arm of Lago Nahuel Huapi, tucked below the rock walls of Cerro López and Cerro Capilla.

The beach has no fixed services — bring water and food. Kayaks can be rented at the beach, and the calm water of the bay makes it one of the better spots on the circuit for paddling without fighting wind. A trail from the beach also leads upward toward the Mirador Brazo Tristeza, a moderate-effort ascent that opens onto a panoramic view of the lake's western arm. The name — Brazo Tristeza, or Arm of Sadness — has the melancholy of a Patagonian weather forecast. Foxes are occasionally seen near the bridge.

Punto Panorámico

A short drive beyond Bahía López, at roughly 945 metres / 3,100 feet above sea level, the road reaches the Punto Panorámico of the Circuito Chico: a designated pullout with a broad wooden platform from which Lago Moreno lies below in its entirety, its blue arms curling around the forested Península Llao Llao, with Cerro López framing the background. This is a briefer stop than Cerro Campanario — a single fixed viewpoint rather than an explorable summit — but the lake composition here is different and arguably more composed.

Colonia Suiza

From the panoramic point the road descends and forks; a short detour on gravel leads into Colonia Suiza, 25 kilometres from Bariloche at the foot of Cerro López. The settlement was founded in 1895 by families from the Canton of Valais in Switzerland — the Goyes, Mermuods, and Crettons among them — who had come to the region via Chile. They found in the lake district a landscape that reminded them of home and an Argentine government offering free land to settlers. They built in local cypress wood, planted orchards of cherry, plum, and apple, ground grain by hand, and shipped goods east to Bariloche by boat across the lakes they could see from their doors. Descendants of the original families still live here.

The most characterful reason to visit on a Wednesday or Sunday is the curanto, a cooking tradition the settlers carried with them from Chile. The word is Mapuche and means roughly "hot rock": a pit is dug, stones are heated in a fire until they glow, and layers of meat — beef, lamb, pork, chicken, sausage — and vegetables are placed over the stones between coihue leaves, then covered with earth and left to cook for two to three hours. The settler Emilio Goye introduced the tradition to Colonia Suiza in the 1930s, adapting the coastal Chilean version (which used seafood) to what was available in the Andes. The preparation itself is ceremonial, and visitors can watch from the moment the pit is opened. On other days, the small craft market, tea houses, and the Cervecería Berlina brewery still make the detour worthwhile.

Return to Playa Bonita

The return leg follows the circuit east along the south shore of Lago Moreno, crossing back to Av. Bustillo and retracing the lakeside route to Playa Bonita at kilometre 8. The beach faces Isla Huemul about 1,200 metres offshore and has restaurants and bars at the old jetty — a reasonable place to wind down, pack, and get ready for the road the following morning. The microcentro is a short drive further along Bustillo if the evening calls for it.