Mr & Mrs Smith

Finca Valentina

Salta, Argentina

Petite and perfectly formed, Finca Valentina hotel is a rustic, refined ranch just outside Salta in the grape-strewn foothills of the northwestern Andes. Play pampered patrón as your eponymous hostess and her Andean staff saddle up the steeds and prepare the parilla. Or just enjoy the white-linened, warm-wooded interiors and chill out with a glass of fruity Argentine red.

Need to know

• Rooms Five, including two suites.
• Rates Double rooms from $115.00, excluding tax at 21 per cent. Finca Valentina is unable to accept payment by credit card.
  Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency ($115), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
• More details Rates include breakfast, tax and return airport transfers.
• Facilities Library of books, CDs and DVDs, in-room spa and beauty treatments, lounge and free WiFi throughout. In rooms, free bottled water and handmade local bath products.
• Poolside An unheated pool commands majestic mountain views in the finca’s gardens, complete with big-cushioned recliners and wooden decks.
• Check-out Midday, but flexible for 50 per cent of the daily rate. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
• Children This hotel is better suited to couples - leave the children at home!
• Also In-room massages and beauty treatments can be arranged on request; cooking classes take place in the finca’s cosy kitchen.

Food and drink at Finca Valentina

• Hotel restaurant

  Meals are mostly taken at the large wooden table in the finca’s living room, a serene, intimate space of deep white sofas, hide-strapped chairs, and carefully placed gaucho artefacts. Candlelit at night and open-fired in winter, this is sophisticated country eating at its best. Breakfast is a cornucopia of cereals, croissants and, rather disconcertingly, absolutely scrumptious sponge cakes.

• Dress code Neutral linens to match the colour scheme; native shawls with big brooches for Mrs Smith.
• Top table In summer, ask for a garden dinner a deux for your very own specially prepared parilla.
• Last orders Folk turn in early in the country, so plan to eat before 9pm.
• Room service Valentina and her staff are happy to bring anything to the rooms, except perhaps in the dead of night.
• Hotel bar

  Valentina and Fabrizio are Italian, so their love of wine equals their passion for food. The bar itself is ‘pop-up’; at the table with cigars, in front of the fire, out on the veranda counting the stars.

Finca Valentina Ruta Nacional 51, km11 La Merced Chica, 4400, Salta, 4400