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4.0
#34 of 74 hotels in El Calafate
Location
Rooms
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Situated about one mile from El Calafate downtown, the Design Suites Calafate is an excellent choice for guests who seek tranquility during their holidays. This boutique hotel is located in the upper area of the Nimes Peninsula, where you can admire the low vegetation, hills and lake invite during a pleasant walk. If you want to visit the city, the hotel offers a shuttle to downtown on a regular basis. As a guest of the Design Suites Calafate, you will have free access to the heated pool, sauna and gym. In addition, the hotel provides a health club and spa treatments in order to optimize your relaxation during your stay. A restaurant and a bar provide meals and drinks from the morning until late at night.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
River View
Lagoon View
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish, Portuguese
Location
Calle 598 Numero 190 Playa Lago Argentino, El Calafate 9405 Argentina
The hotel architecture is impressive and has a good view over Lago Argentino. Our suite was in a corner position and also had a very nice outlook. The bedroom and bathroom were spacious; a down side was that we could hear all the conversations taking place in the next bedroom due to what must be extremely thin walls. The gentleman who greeted us at reception was very helpful and assisted us by making restaurant reservations and helping order packed lunches etc. When we dined at the hotel restaurant our waiter Facundo was charming and extremely friendly. He helped us with wine choices and food options and greatly added to our enjoyment of the evening. Breakfast was disappointing in a hotel purporting to be of this standard. The tables weren’t laid and the offerings looked somewhat sad, especially the two tiny plates of fruit and the runny eggs. The final disappointment was the location. We knew it was out of town but the advertised shuttle service didn’t really work and was not at all regular enough so we ended up spending money on taxis to get to and from the town. In general this is a nice hotel but not a great hotel. The lack of transport in the out of town location is a problem.
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Date of stay: January 2020Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Mobile761921, Director de Recepción at Design Suites Calafate
Responded 28 Apr 2020
Dear Guest, We deeply appreciate the time you spent sharing your experience. We will share with the team of Hotel Design Suites El Calafate their suggestions, they are of great value and help us to continually improve our facilities and services. We hope to have the opportunity to host you again on your next trip to El Calafate.
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This hotel has neat, modern architecture featuring sweeping vistas onto Lago Argentino from the dining hall and all of its north-facing rooms. We loved looking out onto the lake from the full glass wall in our room.
The room was very clean, featured a clean modern look, and was big. The bathroom was downright spacious, including the large bath/shower.
The hotel is just a few minutes drive from downtown (don't mind the dogs that will run at and after your car as you make your way into town). The staff was professional and helpful. Breakfast was good, though nothing special, and a staff member was kind enough to teach me how to properly make mate. I'd happily stay here again!
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Date of stay: February 2020
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip:Get a room with a lakeview!
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Mobile761921, Director de Recepción at Design Suites Calafate
Responded 28 Apr 2020
Dear Guest: Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experience at Design Suites El Calafate. His comments are very flattering and generates in all of us who are part of the Hotel the desire to improve ourselves. We hope you can visit us again soon. Again we appreciate your encouraging words.
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Two nights here for visiting Moreno Glacier. Hotel has modern decor with great lake views through large expanses of glass. Clean facility. Helpful hotel staff. Despite inside location, the restaurant is a separate operation with operating hours not normally associated with a hotel. Guests are advised to check only with restaurant staff regarding dining times. Excellent food and service.
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Date of stay: January 2020
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Mobile761921, Director de Recepción at Design Suites Calafate
Responded 28 Apr 2020
I thank you very much for the time and dedication in writing your opinion about your visit to our Hotel. It is a great satisfaction to know that you were able to enjoy your stay. We hope to welcome you again on your next visit to our city. greetings
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I had booked a 5-night stay for in this hotel before the COVID pandemic ( january 2020 ). I payed immediately around € 800 for a stay in november 2020. I have been sending mails ( at least 20 ! ) starting from september! 2020 to all e-mail addresses I could find. We called the reception and finally I got one mail from Paula Airas asking what I had already sent several times. I just asked for an refund or voucher but nobody respons to anything. I had to do this for a 5 week stay in South America with a lot of hotels and flights and all of them managed to refund or delivered a voucher. Design Suites Calafate is the only hotel that does not arrange a refund or voucher, but totally ignores all communication. It is not polite and a total lack of respect for a so called 4-star hotel.
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Date of stay: November 2020
Value
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from , Propietario at Design Suites Calafate
Responded 21 Jan 2021
Dear Sr FrankPlanet. We are very sorry that you have not been able to stay at our hotel, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during 2020. Our Reservations Executive has been contacting you repeatedly to give you an answer to your claim. I understand that you could finally be contacted and we will have the opportunity to receive you at some point in Design Suites Calafate, and thus be able to visit this beautiful Patagonian destination. Kind regards and see you soon. Diego Gonzalez Gerente General Design Suites Calafate
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I stayed here one night in February. The hotel is quite far from El Calafate main street but it has the nicest views of the lake and the mountains. A taxi can take you into town but I walked in which was like 40-60 minutes. There are sand dunes in front of the hotel which is nice for a little morning trek and then you get down to the lagoon.
Reception staff were lovely and let me into the room early, which was great since I had an overnight flight. My room had a lake view, it was breathtaking, I couldn't stop staring out the window. The room was spacious with a nice minibar. Bathroom was really big and well equipped including a hydro bath tub.
The rooms have floor heating and when I entered the room it was a sauna and my feet were burning on the floor. The air conditioning was very weak and you can't open the windows so it took a whole day to cool down the room a bit which wasn't ideal and other guests had the same problem.
Breakfast was very nice, however you need to book if you want to have dinner.
The spa was pleasant with great views again.
All in an all, a very pleasant stay apart from the tropical temperatures in the room!
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Date of stay: February 2020
Value
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Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Mobile761921, Director de Recepción at Design Suites Calafate
Responded 28 Apr 2020
Thank you very much for your kind comments! At Design Suites we work to achieve the best service attention, so all the suggestions received help us to make the necessary adjustments to achieve our objective. We hope to welcome you back to our guests in the near future.
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Seeing all the mixed reviews we still wanted to give it a try for a night. And, true, the location is outstanding and the views over the lake are outstanding. Check-in was quick and efficient as well, but service beyond that just average. Staff in the restaurant at dinner or breakfast wasn't really taking much notice of guests unless you approached them. And with only 5 tables taken that night it still took almost an hour to get some food after placing an order. During breakfast, staff picked much from the buffet themselves - obviously to prepare room service orders for guests, but leaving nearly empty trays for those guests in the restaurant. Rooms were large and comfortable, but the full glass front construction seems to be a perfect sound bridge to you neighbors, so you can clearly follow everything discussed next door.
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Date of stay: January 2022
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Stayed here as part of an Inspiring Vacations tour. It isn't the type of place you want to stay if on a tour and wanting to see the destination city. Design Suites Calafate is technically I guess in Calafate, but in reality is located about 7km from the part of town as a tourist you'll want to go to and spend most of your day at, or even as someone who is hungry and wants to buy either a meal or just a bottle of soft drink or snack from a shop. There are no shops whatsoever in the vicinity of Design. It's one of those places where if you gave someone directions those directions include turn off the paved road. I did walk into "town" the first day of my stay, you walk down a lot of dirt roads, there's some derelict houses between you and the tourist area (I never felt unsafe at all), as well as plenty of newer houses, hotels and lots of buildings under construction. In fact the great view which is the number one thing this place has going for it, I think if you came back in five years, would be completely different.
But at the moment you get a great view from your room (if you get one facing Lake Argentina) or from the dining room and other common rooms. It's nice but it's like a painting, it never really changes. For me I'd rather walk 7kms to see a nice view, stay there for long enough to take it in, then go back to my accommodation where the main town/tourist area is. You really need a car if you're staying here, although they do have to free scheduled shuttle drop offs and pickup times, although they are not very convenient times so I never used it.
Room comes with breakfast which is a buffet serve yourself what you want from a couple of tables. Juice, various sliced bread to toast, fruit, cereals, pastries. There were scrambled eggs and on the first day these weird bacon fat things. The second day some little frankfurt things were mixed in with the bacon fat. I preferred it without them.
The staff were always quite friendly and helpful. Room was a decent size, two beds had been pushed together to form a double, the second night kind of noticed the gap as you sort of fall in between them. But it was comfortable. These weird leather women's purse type pillows were on the bed and were very uncomfortable along with great normal ones. An odd collection of wires hung above the bed for some reason. Was it art? I don't know.
Bathroom toilet was excellent. Shower unfortunately was in a bath tub. No need for a shower curtain with how it was designed. The wash your hands basin though was too shallow. Like the depth of a dinner plate.
Walls were really thin, you could here everything that was being said by the loud talker in the room next door.
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Date of stay: January 2024
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Gestor de Experiencia, Guest Services / Front Office at Design Suites Calafate
Responded 23 Apr 2024
Thank you for sharing your detailed review of Design Suites Calafate. Your feedback on the hotel's location, amenities, staff, and room conditions will be extremely helpful for other travelers. Your review will not only help them understand what to expect but also assist them in making an informed decision. Safe travels! - James S
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Very good hotel, with surprising architectural design. Our room had a spectacular view of Lake Argentino and the window is inclined, following the intricate geometries of the hotel. Underfloor heating is reinforced by an AA unit, hot-cold, to find the temperature you want. The bathroom has a modern and spacious design. I estimate that the hotel must have been built in the '90s, and is very well maintained, and during this time of low season improvements were being made to the building. The bed was very short, so we had to stretch the blankets higher, the room was serviced every day. The very friendly and attentive staff, with more will than experience, fulfilled everything we required.
The restaurant was of good quality, with a somewhat limited menu, but we always found something for dinner, since we had lunch outside during the excursions. Here the lack of experience of some of those who served was also noticeable, and on a couple of nights with many diners, the service took quite a while.
In short, a great hotel, where the mere fact of spending a few days in that work of architecture makes it wonderful, the only problem is that it is far from the center and when picking up the buses for the tours we were the last to be searched and returned . They wanted to have their own car to get around El Calafate.
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Date of stay: December 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
After 40 hours of travel from South Africa to El Calafate, plunging into the indoor pool at the hotel felt like returning to the womb., they have a great happy hour drinks special, and breakfasts are excellent. This hotel is situated on the outskirts of what can only be described as a North American pioneer town. Great views of Lago Argentina, and a quick ride into town. The food in Calafate is amazing, and you havto try the Asado at any of the resturants along the main street. Most people are only in town for a day or two before heading into Patagonia, but the streets bustle with people all night, and it's a great place for good food, ice cold Patagonia beer and of course more lamb asado. Must visit in the area is the Glacier Moreno, 70km outside the town but so worth the trip. Remember to pack for 5 seasons when you go that far south, the weather changes all the time, we arrived in sunny hot conditions and the next day it was snowing.
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Date of stay: October 2022Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This hotel isn’t awful, but it’s too far outside the center of El Calafate. It’s a 40 minute walk to the center, and the free shuttle the hotel provides does not run at convenient times. We had to get a taxi every time we wanted to go into town. We saw plenty of nice hotels in the center of El Calafate that would have been better. As far as our room, it was very hot and stuffy I think because of the light coming through the large windows. We had the air conditioning cranked up the whole time to make the temperature bearable. The room had a nice view of Lago Argentino. I recommend they put blackout curtains on the windows because it’s hard to block out the light when you’re trying to go to sleep. As others have mentioned, the walls are thin so you hear everything going on in other rooms. The breakfast was decent, although it would have been nice if they provided a milk alternative (almond, soy, etc.) as I don’t drink regular milk. Other hotels we stayed at in the Patagonia area provided milk alternatives. The hotel provides boxed lunches for a fee. We did this on two days where we had all day activities planned. The boxed lunches were good!
We had a very disappointing experience when we tried to pre book a taxi for the day of our departure. We inquired at the front desk the night before to see if we could book a taxi for 7am the following morning to take us to the bus station. The guy at the front desk told us we didn’t need to book a taxi, we could just come to the front desk at 6:45am the following morning and ask them to call a taxi and it would be there by 7am. We took his word for it and unfortunately that is not what happened. We went to the front desk at 6:45am and they called a taxi, but it didn’t arrive for an hour which caused us to almost miss our bus. There was a different guy working the front desk in the morning and he told us that taxis are very busy in the morning, which is not what the guy had told us the night before. We were very angry about the situation because it could have been avoided if they had pre booked the taxi for us as requested.
Overall, I recommend you give this hotel a miss and book something in the center of El Calafate.
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Date of stay: February 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Gestor de Experiencia, Guest Services / Front Office at Design Suites Calafate
Responded 23 Apr 2024
Thank you for your detailed review of Design Suites Calafate. We appreciate your feedback about the location, room comfort, and transportation issues. Your suggestion of having blackout curtains and providing milk alternatives for breakfast is duly noted. We will work on improving the pre-booking taxi service to avoid any inconvenience to our guests. We value your input and hope to enhance our services for a better guest experience in the future.
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Buen día Bruno, al momento solo tenemos autorizado el uso de la piscina con turnos, segun el protocolo provincial.
SPA y masajes por el momento no.
Saludos
There are more places to choose from in the El Calafate area.
PRICE RANGE
₹15,450 - ₹22,710 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
design suites calafate hotel el calafate, design hotel el calafate, design hotel calafate
LOCATION
ArgentinaPatagoniaProvince of Santa CruzEl Calafate
NUMBER OF ROOMS
60
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect average nightly room rates, including taxes and fees that are fixed, known to our partners, and due at time of booking. Please see our partners for more details.
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