Design Suites Calafate

Design Suites is a pretty hotel, with a stunning view from the restaurant area. My room was comfortable, and the interior/exterior of the hotel is quite striking. Yes, it's out of the middle of town, but it's an easy 20-30 minute walk into town, or you could take a taxi.

המקום מעולה עם נוחיות מעל ומעבר, ארוחת בוקר טובה ברמת הסטנדרט בארגנטינה

We had a junior suite with lake view (309). Large and very comfortable. The views over the lake are simply gorgeous. The bathroom was large also and with a jacuzzi.

The only problem with the room is that it gets very hot because of the large windows – and you do not want to draw the curtains because you absolutely want to see the view. There is one window that you can open but it is very difficult to keep it open as it keeps closing because of the strong wind. We found a solution by sticking a shampoo bottle in the window so it wouldn’t close. But it needs some kind of a proper latch to keep it open.

The staff was very professional but perhaps not quite as warm or welcoming as in other hotels where we stayed in Chile and Argentina.

The hotel is nice and the views superb but the location is a bit far from the town centre, about 3.5 km, so it's not really practical to walk. You can get a taxi easily enough – the hotel ordered one for us and we hailed one more than once to get back from the town centre without any problems. Just something to be aware of.

The food in the restaurant was OK but nothing special.

I have rated 4 **** overall but would give 5 for the room.

El paisaje, la limpieza, el orden y la atención

Friendly staff, extraordinary views from the room, nice restaurant.

O hotel é belíssimo! De frente para o Lago Argentino, é uma delícia acordar e tomar café da manhã com essa vista. Funcionários muito educados, café da manhã muito bom, quarto e banheiro espaçosos. No verão tivemos que fechar bem o black out da janela, pois é muita luz tipo das 5h da manhã até 22h, hahaha. Dá para reservar almoço, café da tarde e jantar - o valor é um pouquinho alto (como quase tudo em El Calafate), mas tudo que comemos estava muito gostoso. Tem um serviço de van que leva para o centro da cidade de manhã (vai 10h busca 14h) e à noite (vai 18h busca 22h) que foi útil, pois não tem Uber na cidade, só taxi. Contratamos uma massagem que foi excelente.

Hopefully this will be read as a balanced view of this hotel. The hotel is built like a glass house so in hot weather it’s boiling in the common area and the restaurant and breakfast area has no air con.

The weather has been particularly warm here (23 degrees) which is about 10 degrees warmer than usual.

We have a very nice room with a lovely outlook over the lake but you can’t keep the window covers open because it makes the room unbearably hot.

The food seems ok but it’s so hot at the moment in the restaurant that I wouldn’t want to eat there.

There have been problems with our room. Firstly with the air con off the room is stifling and it’s turned off every day. the electric card reader on our bedroom door goes wrong every night, the toilet seat is loose and should have been picked up by housekeeping or cleaners if they’re doing their job properly, the room tea and coffee has not been replenished, the bottled water doesn’t have a nice taste and the bathroom is not in the air con system, there are no dressing gowns or slippers.

The hotel is run by a number of (very nice) youngsters who don’t seem to have much experience.

The hotel is out of town, but they do have a free shuttle bus at 6pm and 10pm only and an indoor pool but it was stifling down there too!

Can you do better….? There are some other nice hotels which are better located but some of them lack air con in their bedrooms.

Overall a reasonable choice but could be so much better run!

The view

Super relaxed

As instalações do hotel são excelentes, quartos muito bons, qualidade dos lençóis e toalhas, nota 10!

El estilo del hotel muy bonito, buena atención y limpieza, bien ubicado y su personal amable.

A vista sem dúvidas é o diferencial!!
Hotel limpo, funcionários atenciosos e prestativos, piscina boa, saunas também mas a “academia” é micro.
Café da manhã ótimo!

Very nice place with incredible view to the sea from suite room.
Very friendly staff and nice food.