Driving through canyons, admiring unique rock formations, and tasting local wine are the main highlights of a day trip to Cafayate. While there are numerous day trip options from Salta, Argentina, Cafayate seems to be the most popular. My fellow tourists showed more enthusiasm on the day trip to Cafayate than they did for Salinas Grandes and Cachi. Still, like all day trips from Salta, it’s a very long day.
Here’s what to expect on your day trip to Cafayate.
Day Trip to Cafayate from Salta
This is all based on my experience. While there are several companies that offer a tour to Cafayate, nearly every tour follows the exact same itinerary. They’ll make the same stops, typically in the exact same order, so it’s not unusual to see several identical looking tour vans at each stop.
Pick Up
Pick up for a Cafayate day tour is early. I was told to be ready for pick up between 6:45 and 7:30 am. Unfortunately for me, my pick up was right at the end of that window (since I was the last stop before leaving Salta). I do wish they’d be able to give more accurate pick up times (even a 15 minute window), but that’s just how the tours seem to operate in Salta. At least they didn’t forget me.
Get settled into the van. It’s a two hour drive to the first stop.
A Brief Stop for a Stretch
After about two hours, we stopped briefly. It was enough time to go to the bathroom or grab coffee and a snack. There were some farm animals nearby, but this wasn’t really a sightseeing stop. It was our quick break before getting back in the van and really starting our journey.
Driving Along Route 68
After leaving your morning break, you’ll continue driving along Route 68. This highway will take you all the way to Cafayate. But instead of driving straight through, you’ll make a handful of interesting stops. Even without the stops, the scenery gets so much better from this point on.
By this point, I’d already done the day trip to Salinas Grandes and I was amazed at how different the landscape looked. Rather than rugged, barren, and colorful mountains, this area reminded me of something out of the southwest United States. If I had to get even more specific, I’d say the closest comparison I could make was Zion National Park. The views were incredible and they just kept getting better.
The Devil’s Throat
The first stop is La Garganta del Diablo, or the Devil’s Throat. This is a rock formation that was carved by waterfalls. The waterfall is no longer there, but what remains is a rock that is shaped like a throat. So many reviews raved about this stop and yes it’s cool, but I think there are other great views throughout the day. But as a first view, it’s a pretty good one.
The biggest downside is that all of the vans follow the same route so hopefully you’re one of the first vans in the pack so you can get just a few minutes to at these different stops to yourself.
At all of the stops, you’ll find locals selling small goods, though a lot is rocks and jewelry. What we noticed is that the prices at Devil’s Throat are the cheapest we found all day. Not that the price increased tremendously (though there were some prices in the town of Cafayate that made us do a double take), but just enough to notice. So, if you see something you like, now is a great time to make that purchase.
The Amphitheater
Just a short drive up the road is the Amphitheater. This rock formation is a naturally occurring room that provides some great acoustics. There’s almost certainly going to a local playing music to really drive home the acoustics of the area.
We managed to beat the rest of the groups to the Amphitheater, so we had about five minutes with the area to ourselves before two full vans unloaded. I cannot stress how much of a difference those five minutes made.
Tres Cruces
Of the three major stops between our “breakfast” stop and the winery near Cafayate, the view point at Tres Cruces had my favorite views for the day. Rather than a narrow area in the rock, Tres Cruces offers a sweeping view of the area where you can see the red rocks, the road, and the surrounding mountains.
I think all three stops were good, but Tres Cruces just had a little something special that really made me go “wow!”. It’s also the area where I really started to think about the similarities between Zion National Park.
Driving to Cafayate
There are more rock formations along the way, but we didn’t stop for any of these. Our guide did make sure to point out some of the more popular ones. There was a rock shaped like a frog and a rock shaped like the Titanic (which explained why she changed the music to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On).
The shaped rocks are fine, but the rest of the scenery is breathtaking.
Wine Tasting at Vasija Secreta
For many travelers, reaching the winery was the highlight of the trip. I suppose if you have a deep interest in wine, this can be exciting, but there’s some really important things that you need to know about your winery visit.
First, the winery visit is short. Yes, you get a tour, but the tour only lasts about 20-30 minutes and it feels like a short shuffle from one room to the next. If you wanted to see more and get an in depth tour, you should really look at booking something independently instead of taking a group tour.
Second, the tour is in Spanish. While your day tour will have a bilingual guide who will do the whole tour is both English and Spanish, your tour guide is not allowed into the winery. At the winery, the tour guides only speak Spanish. So, if you can’t speak Spanish, you’re not going to get much out of the experience. In reading some reviews, many English speakers were disappointed. I know it seems easy to just say “bring your guide along to translate”, but the winery does not allow this. So again, if learning about the wine making process is important to you, book something independently where you can get something more in depth and in your own language.
Lastly, the wine tasting is pretty basic. You’ll get the chance to try three wines. There’s a dry white wine, a dry red wine, and a sweet red wine. It’s a pretty informal experience as your tour guide pours a bunch of glasses with one wine, waits for everyone to drink, and then brings out another wine to refill your glasses.
And of course at the end of the tour, there is a shopping opportunity and you can purchase bottles of wine if you enjoyed them.
The whole wine experience only lasts about 45 minutes to one hour. Considering the whole trip is 11-12 hours, is a super small part of the day. Since I don’t drink or have an interest in learning about wine, this was perfectly fine with me. For others, this could be a dealbreaker. Make sure you know what you are signing up for.
Time in Cafayate
After the winery, you’ll head to Cafayate where you’ll have about two hours of free time. Like with many of the tours from Salta, you’ll be dropped off at a restaurant, but it’s your choice if you want to eat there. While I had a good experience at the restaurant in Purmamacra, I noticed that some of the restaurants that they drop tourists at don’t have the best reviews on GoogleMaps. I believe my restaurant in Purmamacra was over 4 stars, but the restaurant in Cafayate was not. Another traveler and myself walked a little bit and found a small empanada restaurant where we could split a dozen empanadas for a pretty reasonable price.
Cafayate is a small town and there’s not a lot to do. In Purmamacra, I felt like I didn’t have enough time whereas in Cafayate, I had too much time. You can spend a little time on the square, see the church, look for the building with a llama on it, and try the wine ice cream. There are some souvenir shops as well if you’re interested, but in general, there’s just not a lot to do in Cafayate, so you don’t need a ton of time.
I guess my point is that when I was in Purmamacra, I felt like I had to rush to make sure I had time for everything whereas in Cafayate, I could have taken my time and had a more leisurely lunch.
Back to Salta
After the town of Cafayate, it’s just one long drive all the way back to Salta. We did stop again briefly (at the same spot we did in the morning) and by the time I was dropped off at my hostel, I was completely exhausted.
How Long is a Day Trip to Cafayate from Salta?
Like with most day trips from Salta, Argetina, a day trip to Cafayate is a full day excursion. You’ll be picked up from your accommodation between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning and won’t return until after 6:00 pm. While there is some great scenery, a lot of the time is spent in the car driving from one place to the next.
How to Book Your Day Trip
There are numerous tour agencies in town that will be happy to help you book a day trip to Cafayate. If you’re planing to book multiple trips, it’s probably worth visiting (or contacting) one of these offices directly. You might be able to work out a deal if you book multiple tours.
These tours are also widely available on GetYourGuide and Viator. I booked my tour on Viator about twelve hours before departure (though I’d recommend booking just a little earlier than me).
Do You Need to Take a Tour to Cafayate?
If you have your own vehicle, you could drive yourself to Cafayate. If you’re interested in the wine of this region, it’s probably best to rent a car and explore on your own. Wine is just a small part of the Cafayate tour and reviews have mentioned disappointment the the wine tasting was so short. With your own transportation, you can visit more wineries and have a better experience.
However, for me as a solo traveler, it was more cost effective for me to just book the guided tour.
Final Thoughts
Cafayate is a popular day trip from Salta. While most people just focus on the wine, don’t overlook the dramatic scenery that you’ll pass along the way. It’s gorgeous and completely different from what you’ll find on other day trips from Salta.
