Los Antiguos: Cherry Culture and Nature

Los Antiguos is part of the Corredor del Viento, a tourist route through the Patagonian steppe in the north of the province. The town’s distinctive themes include cherry culture and fruit growing, nature observation, water sports activities around Lago Buenos Aires, and regional crafts. This offers different ways to shape your trip: seasonal tastings, visits to orchards, birdwatching, or a longer road trip with an audio guide. The annual Fiesta Nacional de la Cereza is another reason to visit.

Finding your way between the lake and the route

Water sports activities around Lago Buenos Aires are among the classic things to do in Los Antiguos. The audio guide for Provincial Route No. 41 offers a different perspective on the region. It accompanies visitors along the approximately 115-kilometer route between Los Antiguos and Lago Posadas. The audio guide route begins at the Mirador del río Jeinimeni. Its approximate length describes the scope of this road route, which is a distinct point of interest alongside activities and visits in Los Antiguos.

Orchards, cherries and the festival

Some orchards in Los Antiguos welcome visitors. There, you can tour the plantings, take part in the harvest, and taste and buy fine confections, liqueurs and preserves. The owners of Chacra “Don Valentín” tend it year-round. They offer homemade bread and tortas fritas to taste with preserves made by hand from their own produce. The fruit used includes apples, apricots, plums and strawberries. At Chacra “La Laguna,” you can find preserves made from apricots, plums, cherries and strawberries, as well as liqueurs and cakes.

Timing also matters for cherry enthusiasts: from December to early March, visitors can taste export-quality cherries in Los Antiguos. If the harvest is important to your plans, check the current harvest season locally. The Fiesta Nacional de la Cereza is a recurring celebration of cherries. It has been held in Los Antiguos since 1991 and attracts visitors from different parts of Argentina every year. Orchard visits and the festival offer different experiences: orchards focus on plantings, harvesting and produce, while the festival centers on a shared event.

Nature observation and regional crafts

You can explore the Reserva Natural Urbana Laguna de Los Juncos on foot or by bicycle. There, you can observe more than 60 resident and migratory bird species. This makes birdlife a distinct nature theme in Los Antiguos; water sports activities around Lago Buenos Aires offer a different focus. Choosing between these interests can help you include the destination’s characteristic offerings in your travel plans without combining them into a single excursion.

Textile making is another local theme. Chacra “La Escondida” offers wool textiles made using traditional weaving techniques on the southern loom, the indigenous loom and the triangular frame. This craft offering complements the food products of the chacras with a focus on handicrafts. Los Antiguos thus features both regional foods and traditional textiles as distinct cultural points of interest.

In the wider destination of Lago Buenos Aires Department

Beyond the attractions in Los Antiguos, the wider destination of Lago Buenos Aires Department has its own nature and cultural themes. At Cueva de las Manos, a 1.5-kilometer footpath leads to rock overhangs, cliffs and a cave. The rock paintings there depict hunting scenes, hand stencils, animals and abstract figures. Hunter-gatherers created them more than 9,000 years ago using mineral pigments.

In Reserva Natural Silvestre La Ascensión, an extensive network of trekking trails leads from the shores of Lago Buenos Aires to the millennia-old rock formation of Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires. The trails pass through coirón grasslands, mallines, scrubland and rocky climbs. Along the way are viewpoints, shelters and campsites in the Patagonian steppe. These regional landscape and cultural offerings form a distinct theme alongside cherry culture, orchards and birdwatching in Los Antiguos.

Discover more destinations: El Chalten, Lago Viedma, Lago San Martín, Charles Fuhr, El Calafate, Colonia Francisco Perito Moreno

Back to the broader travel overview: Departamento Lago Argentino.