Argentina · Neuquén Province
Where to Stay in Neuquén, Neuquén Province
Neuquén is a city of northern Patagonia in Argentina, the capital of its province, set where two rivers join at the head of a green fruit valley.
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Where to stay in Neuquén
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Where you stay in Neuquén turns on the town or the rivers. The streets around the centre keep the museums, the markets, and the parks within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the city. The wide avenues run straight.
Poplars line the streets. Out toward the rivers and the valley, the town gives way to the orchards, the riverbanks, and the wine country. A room by the rivers trades the streets for the green confluence, the fruit farms, and the vineyards of the valley.
The steppe runs dry beyond. Stay downtown for the museums, or by the rivers for the orchards. Neuquén's centre is never more than a short drive from the valley edge.
About Neuquén
Neuquén is the river city of northern Patagonia.
What is Neuquén known for?
Where the Limay and the Neuquén rivers join to form the Río Negro, it is the biggest city of the Patagonian north, and it keeps the green fruit belt of the Alto Valle with its apples and pears and vines, the dry windy steppe that runs south into Patagonia, the fossil country nearby where the largest dinosaurs were found, and the oil and gas fields of the desert around. The two rivers braid below. The dry steppe runs south.
What are the main landmarks in Neuquén?
The joining of the rivers is the mark of Neuquén. The green confluence where the Limay and the Neuquén flow together into the Río Negro, with parks and paths along the banks, lies at the city's edge, the emblem of the valley, on the water. Fruit fills the valley.
The orchards of the Alto Valle spread green up the rivers, while the dinosaur country, the wine bodegas, and the river parks mark the country around Neuquén.
What is the history of Neuquén?
Neuquén is a young city of the frontier. For ages the dry steppe was the land of the Mapuche and other peoples of Patagonia, until the state pushed south and, when the railway reached the joining of the rivers, laid out a new town in 1904 as the capital of the territory. Water made the valley bloom.
Canals were dug from the rivers to green the desert, and the dry land of the Alto Valle turned into a great garden of apples, pears, and vines. Fruit and then oil built the city. Trains carried the fruit of the valley to the ports and the world, and Neuquén grew as the market and capital of the north.
The rocks held older secrets. In the desert around, diggers found the bones of the largest dinosaurs that ever walked, and later oil and gas from the deep shale made the province rich, so that Neuquén grew into the busy heart of Patagonia's north, keeping its rivers, its orchards, and its wide dry steppe. The wind still crosses the valley.
Neuquén keeps its rivers and its orchards at the head of Patagonia.
Where is Neuquén?
Neuquén lies in the north of Patagonia in Argentina, at the joining of the Limay and Neuquén rivers. The city sits in a green irrigated valley between the two rivers where they run together into the Río Negro, ringed by dry brown steppe and desert bluffs, under the wide Patagonian sky. Green orchards fill the valley.
The bare steppe runs beyond.
What is the climate of Neuquén?
Neuquén has a dry, windy desert climate. Hot summers and cool winters cross the steppe, with fierce sun and little rain the year round and a wind that blows hard off Patagonia. The summer sun beats down.
The wind never rests.
How do you get to Neuquén?
Neuquén lies in northern Patagonia, where the rivers join in southern Argentina. Roads and flights reach it down from Buenos Aires and up from the Patagonian south, and a rail line once ran the fruit north. Trucks cross the dry steppe.
Bariloche lies southwest by road.
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Updated August 2026