With the advent of winter vacations, the Copa de America football tournament and the constant flow of European and North American visitors to the region, hotels in Mendoza are running at 100% occupancy. Today presidential candidate Elisa Carrió was forced to stay in neighboring province San Luis, since all hotels were full.
On Friday a wave of Chileans coming to support their national soccer team caused traffic to back up for 17 kilometers at the international border. To accommodate the new arrivals, many local residents rented out their homes and the government opened up 6 shelters. Statistics show that on Friday night there were a record 35,000 foreign tourists in the city.
The Copa America is being played throughout the country in various stadiums including the ex world cup stadium in Mendoza. On July 17 Chile will play again in San Juan, and if they win they will play in Mendoza on the 20th. The department of tourism is expecting record amounts of visitors during this week.
It has been further reported that many bus companies of sold out of tickets to and from Santiago this week. Transport companies have doubled their capacity, but are unable to keep up with demand. Furthermore a major snowstorm could close the pass at anytime for a period of up to a week.
Winter vacations in Argentina last all of July, but tourism should peak around the 18th of the month. Mendoza is a popular destination in winter due to its dry pleasant climate.
Note: If you plan on visiting Mendoza in the month July you must have a reservation. To check availability, see our page on Hotels in Mendoza
