Carriage-Driving Holiday in Rural Argentina
7 Days / 7 Nights / 6 days of Carriage-Driving … a drive back into the Colonial times!
If you are an avid carriage driver and looking for an off the beaten track carriage-driving holiday, well, then this is it!
Overview:
We will start this tour in one of the most important and impressive carriage houses in Argentina; Juan Gibelli has been collecting and restoring cars for more than 30 years. More than a hundred carriages of great historical importance in Argentina rest in his garage, from hearses, bakery or market cars, to two important Chatas de Cajon, of which one of the most important in the history of Argentina. And in his living room he has parked one of the best-preserved English mail coaches, … with other words; his place has a unique energy that was built around carriage driving.
Juan and his wife Regina will have a welcome prepared in their cozy house where you will spend the first night of your trip to immerse yourself in the world of carriages and prepare for the journey through Argentine history. You will choose the cars that we will use during the week from a selection of the most comfortable and suitable for this type of travel. You can choose between different types of cars, such as the Spider-Phaeton, Phaeton, Double-Phaeton, Stanhope Phaeton, Standhope-Phaeton Labourdette, Hunting-Break Thrupp-Maberly, Bteak-Dog-cart Francesco Belloni.
We know that as a driver you are automatically an enthusiast of antiquities and of the old days. So, on this Carriage-Driving holiday we will take you a few hundred years back into time…. all the way back to Colonial Argentina. To the time when great landlords ruled in South America. The 200-year-old Estancias that you will stay in are the remains of this dominant period. But this is not the only thing that has survived from that period. The unpaved roads that connect colonial villages and Estancias, the landscapes, the culture, the way farmers work with horses on the field, it all stayed the same as centuries ago, as it all stood still in time.
During 7 days you will drive from one stunning Colonial villages and Estancias to the other, During 7 days we will have different accommodations between Estancias, a gaucho mobile hotel, cabins and hotels; the best way to discover in a unique way the soul of rural Gauchos.
The itinerary guides you through the province of Buenos Aires. Beside of this, Argentina is in general a truly remarkably horse country. Locals are just crazy about horses. They even have their proper horse breed, their national pride the Criollo Horse.
But what kind of horses will you be driving with?
The grooms will harness different types of draft horses. Argentina has its own breed of draft; horses called the Argentine Draft, Argentine Percherons and Hackney. You will drive those horses depending on your driving experience.
The idea of this trip is that you of course drive the carriage yourself. As carriage driving is a skill you are therefore expected to have some experience in driving. If you not really have experience in driving a carriage, but you are a horse person with experience, then of course you are welcome as well so we can teach you the harnessing, hitching, the driving and more advanced techniques. But no worries our Argentinian drivers & grooms will always stay close. We take maximum 8 participants per group and/or 4 carriages, according to your preference from 1 to 4 persons per carriage. Keeping it small means that we can keep the quality of our service high.
You will be accommodated in Estancias. Those colonial farms full of history are not hotels, but private houses. The only reason why the owners will be receiving you is because you share the same passion; horses. (some of them are into carriage driving as well) So, they exclusively open their doors for you! During this journey all is included, from south American wines, fine gastronomy, private haciendas, to the constant assistance of grooms and a Entre Orejas driver-tripleader.
Lastly, on some routes you will have the possibility of getting out of the carriage and riding a horse for half or a whole day.
Your host and coachman master Juan Gibelli is not just any Juan or coachman. Juan drove with many international celebrities, such as with his personal friend David Rockefeller, they shared the same passion of carriage driving and together they drove in Argentina and Uruguay.
In the embrace of rural Argentina, amidst the whispers of centuries past, your carriage awaits—an emblem of elegance and a portal to a world where history and adventure intertwine. Welcome to a realm where time stands still, and the spirit of the past beckons you forward.
