Argentina
Villa La Angostura
Cinnamon-barked arrayán trees forming one of Earth's rarest pure myrtle forests on a misty lake peninsula.
Villa La Angostura in Neuquén Province occupies a narrow peninsula on the northern shore of Nahuel Huapi Lake — its name means 'the narrowing' — where the town centre sits between the lake on one side and a forest of arrayán trees on the other that turn papery orange in autumn and have trunks the texture of cinnamon bark. The Bosque de Arrayanes, a protected forest of Luma apiculata on the Quetrihué Peninsula accessible by boat or a 12-kilometre trail, is among the rarest forest types in the world. The town is 82 kilometres from Bariloche and operates at a pace that makes Bariloche feel metropolitan.
Villa La Angostura is the gateway to the Arrayanes National Park, which protects a 20-hectare pure stand of Luma apiculata — the arrayán tree — unique in the southern hemisphere for its density and age. Walt Disney visited the park in 1942 while researching visual references for Bambi, and the twisted, copper-coloured trunks of the arrayán forest are considered the inspiration for the forest scenes in the film. The town serves as the southern terminus of the Seven Lakes Route, a 110-kilometre road linking Neuquén's most scenic Andean lakes — Correntoso, Espejo, Villarino, Falkner, Machónico, and Lácar — in a single drive through protected national park terrain. The Cerro Bayo ski resort operates above the town in winter, offering a lower-key alternative to Bariloche's Cerro Catedral.
Couple
Villa La Angostura has the quality of a lake town that hasn't been overtaken by its own reputation — the streets are walkable, the lake is visible from the restaurant terraces, and the arrayán forest requires a proper half-day to explore fully. Two nights here, one of them in the Bosque de Arrayanes at dawn, is the correct pace.
Family
The boat trip from Villa La Angostura to the Bosque de Arrayanes, with the forest walk through the copper-trunked trees, holds most ages simultaneously — the biology is genuinely interesting, the scenery is dramatic, and the scale is right for a morning with younger children.
- The Arrayanes National Park on the Quetrihué Peninsula protects the world's largest known grove of arrayán myrtle trees.
- The arrayán bark is smooth and cinnamon-coloured — the trees lean over the lake path, roots exposed on the bank.
- The village has a pedestrianised wooden-boardwalk high street with local chocolatiers and craft cheese shops.
- The Circuito Lagos day route from Bariloche passes through here — the lakeside light on the return is unlike anything else.
Chocolate and handmade truffles from the village's artisan shops, rivalling Bariloche's best.
Smoked trout and venison in a lakeside restaurant with arrayán forest views.
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