It was about 11 am when we pulled in for our Estancia Santa Susana day trip, and the meat was already cooking. That tells you almost everything about the day. The next six hours went like this: empanadas, horses, a grandmother’s wardrobe, a lot of meat, tango, ponies and, finally, tea.
Trip ABC: Buenos Aires
🏨 Where to stay
- Alvear Palace Hotel: Grand French-style palace on Avenida Alvear, Recoleta’s most elegant street.
- Magnolia Hotel Boutique: Three blocks from Plaza Armenia, surrounded by Palermo Soho’s best restaurants.
- Home Hotel: Palermo Hollywood design hotel with a garden pool and a much-loved weekend brunch.
✈️ Getting there: Flights to Buenos Aires on Kiwi.com, rental car with DiscoverCars
🎟 What to do: Tours and tickets (GetYourGuide)
🛡 Travel insurance: Heymondo, 5% off for Museumist readers
These are partner links: if you book through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
I’ve been riding for 15 years and have competed in show jumping, so a day at an Argentine estancia was always going to be on this trip. My first polo lessons in Pilar were on the plan too. We never got to them this time, so polo will have to wait for next time.
We went to Santa Susana on Wednesday, 1 July 2026, in the middle of the Argentine winter. To be upfront about this as well: Museumist was a press guest at the estancia’s invitation. You’ll find the regular visitor prices at the end of the story.
What kind of place this is
An estancia is a large Argentine ranch, and “día de campo” means a day in the countryside: city people drive out to the pampas in the morning and are back in town by evening. Santa Susana is a big family estancia in Campana partido, near the village of Los Cardales. Los Cardales is about 70 km from Buenos Aires.
According to the estancia itself, the land was named at the end of the 19th century by Francisco Kelly, a man of Irish descent, in honor of his wife Susana Caffrey. The property covers 1,200 hectares, and most of it is still farmland. The estancia welcomes tourists from Tuesday to Sunday, all year round.
Empanadas, and a grill already going
We were welcomed with empanadas. Meanwhile the parrilla, the Argentine charcoal grill, was already in full swing: chorizos, big cuts of meat and a chart on the wall showing which part of the animal each cut comes from.
Out on the estancia land with the horseman
Then a horseman took us out across the estancia land for about half an hour. We saw horses and everything else that comes with an estancia: paddocks and open pampa. A few horses were stretched out on the grass in the middle of the day.
The family museum houses and grandma’s wardrobe
The estancia’s old houses have been turned into a family museum, and the tour takes you into the owner’s grandmother’s house. Her clothes are still there, and grandma was a very stylish woman. The rooms are furnished the old way: a white fireplace, antique chairs, a gramophone.
Besides grandma’s house, you see old living quarters and a chapel. The chapel is a red building with a tower, its wooden doors open, with a cross and holy pictures inside. One of the houses has a wall full of framed photos of gauchos and horses.
Lunch: music, tango and a whole lot of meat
Lunch is in a hall of long tables built for big groups. There was music and dancing while we ate: locals sang, then came a local dance show and finally tango. If you’ve already been to the tango show at Café de los Angelitos, here you get the same dance in a completely different frame, in a dining hall in the middle of the pampas.
And meat. A lot of meat. A lot of food, full stop, and dessert at the end on top of that. According to the menu description from the tour company Tangol, the Santa Susana asado includes sausages and blood sausage, loin, bife de chorizo and chicken, plus salads, with red and white wine brought to the table. There is a vegetable option for vegetarians and for celiacs if you mention it when booking.
If the asado somehow isn’t enough, or you want to keep eating in the city, check out my friend Dani’s tips in our Buenos Aires restaurant guide.
The horse show and sortija
After lunch came the horse show, a classic Argentine program, and inside it a game where the rider has to catch a small ring at a gallop. This is the corrida de sortija. The ring hangs from an arch 2 to 3 meters off the ground, the rider starts from about 100 meters away, stands up in the stirrups and has to spear the ring with a small stick. Touching the ring isn’t enough, it has to stay on the end of the stick.
The game wasn’t invented in Argentina. It comes from the tournaments of medieval Europe, Cervantes mentions it as early as 1613, and in the lands of the Río de la Plata it is still part of the gaucho tradition today. There were lots of ponies in the show. Very cool.
Tea and the drive home
The day ended with tea. Altogether we spent about six hours at the estancia. That’s a full day, so don’t plan anything else for the same day. By evening we were back in Palermo, home with the cat.
If you want to see estancia life, eat asado and watch gauchos play their horseback games in a single day, Santa Susana gives you all of it in one place. For our whole Buenos Aires trip and what else to do in the city in winter, read my Buenos Aires winter travel guide.
An estancia in winter
Our trip was in the Argentine winter, at the end of June and beginning of July. Buenos Aires was cold but sunny, about 12 degrees, and I needed a jacket every day. On the estancia day the sky was blue and the palms were in the sun, so winter is no reason to skip this day. The average July high in Buenos Aires is 15.5 °C and the low is 7.5 °C. Because of the urban heat island effect, the city is 1.5 to 3.5 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside, so out on the pampas wear one more layer than in town. In summer, from December to March, midday is hot and it pays to find some shade.
Santa Susana or San Antonio de Areco?
The other well-known gaucho destination is San Antonio de Areco, a small town in Buenos Aires province with the Parque Criollo and the gaucho museum Museo Gauchesco. It hosts the Fiesta de la Tradición, which in 2026 runs from 13 to 15 November, and on Sunday, 15 November at 10 am there is a traditional parade with riders and herds of horses on Plaza Ruiz de Arellano. Next to that, Santa Susana is the simpler choice: one place, a clear schedule and everything right there on site.
Practical info for an Estancia Santa Susana day trip
- Location: Ruta 6 km 188, Los Cardales, Campana partido, Buenos Aires province. Los Cardales is about 70 km from Buenos Aires; according to El Cronista, the estancia is 84 km away and the drive takes about an hour and a half via Ruta 8.
- Days: according to the estancia, Tuesday to Sunday, all year round. Tour companies mostly go on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. We went on a Wednesday.
- Duration: we arrived around 11 am and stayed about six hours in total. With a tour, count on 8 to 10 hours including the drive: Tangol picks up from hotels between 8:45 and 9:45 am.
- Tour prices (November 2026): Tangol 286 USD per person including transfer, guide, lunch, drinks and the show. Civitatis from €225.69. GetYourGuide from 169 USD.
- Driving yourself: I couldn’t find a public price without transfer on the estancia’s website (the site wasn’t working in November 2026). Ask them directly: estancia@esantasusana.com.ar, tel. (0230) 452 5016.
- Bring: a passport or ID, because there may be a police checkpoint on the way (Tangol). Comfortable clothes and shoes.
- Tips: not included in the tour price.
- Food: vegetarian and gluten-free menus if you let them know in advance.
- Car: we had a rental car in Buenos Aires straight from the airport. If you want to drive yourself, compare rental cars on DiscoverCars.
- Internet: you need mobile data to navigate on the highway. Argentina is outside the EU, so an eSIM makes sense: Saily eSIM.
- Travel insurance: Argentina is outside the EU and the European Health Insurance Card is not valid there. Heymondo travel insurance gives Museumist readers a 5% discount (not available to US residents).
- Where to stay: if you want to spend the night in the countryside, the Los Cardales area has the Sofitel La Reserva Cardales (Booking lists its location as Río Luján). In the city, the tour bus pickup area includes options like Urban Suites Recoleta or, in Palermo, The Glu Boutique Hotel.
- Tours: Estancia Santa Susana tours on GetYourGuide.
Frequently asked questions
The estancia is near Los Cardales, about 70 to 85 km from the city. The drive takes about an hour and a half.
Our day had empanadas to welcome us, a roughly half-hour tour of the estancia land with a horseman, the family museum houses and the chapel, a long asado lunch with music, a dance show and tango, a horse show with sortija, and tea at the end.
In November 2026, the Tangol tour with transfer cost 286 USD, Civitatis from €225.69 and GetYourGuide tours from 169 USD per person. If you drive yourself, ask the estancia directly for the price.
According to the estancia, Tuesday to Sunday, all year round. Tours mostly go on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.
The corrida de sortija is an old horseback game in which the rider gallops from about 100 meters away under an arch and tries to spear a ring hanging 2 to 3 meters off the ground with a small stick.
We spent about six hours at the estancia, from 11 am into the afternoon. With a tour, including the drive, it takes 8 to 10 hours.
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