Things to do in Trelew & Some Great Nearby Day Trips!

If you’re looking for things to do in Trelew, Argentina, you’re probably the kind of traveller who enjoys destinations that are a little quirky, historic, and off the usual Patagonia route.

This may not be the most obvious place to visit in Chubut, but it surprised us with its mix of Welsh heritage, dinosaur fossils, classic Argentine restaurants, and easy day trips through the Chubut Valley.

Trelew sits in eastern Chubut and its name means “town of Lewis” in honour of its Welsh founder, Lewis Jones. The city dates back to 1886 and grew around the railway that connected the Chubut Valley with the port of Puerto Madryn.

This destination doesn’t receive a huge number of international visitors, so it feels like a bit of a diamond in the rough. But if you’re looking to go off the beaten track in coastal Patagonia, this is a place to add to the list!

Aside from Welsh culture, this city also boasts some of the biggest dinosaurs on the planet, is home to a hotel with links to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, plus it’s a jumping-off point for day trips to a petrified forest, a geo park and a whole slew of Welsh communities in the area.

So if this sounds like your kind of destination, read on for ideas of things to do in Trelew, Argentina:

Things to do in Trelew, Argentina

Trelew is not the prettiest city in Patagonia, and it is not packed with flashy attractions, but that is also part of its charm. It feels local, low-key, and surprisingly rewarding if you are interested in history, paleontology, and Welsh culture.

This is the kind of place that works best if you arrive with realistic expectations and let the destination surprise you. With this in mind, let’s dive into the attractions!

Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum

If you want to see dinosaurs, Trelew needs to be on your list of places to go in Patagonia.

Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum is locally known as the dinosaur museum, and we knew this was an attraction we couldn’t miss!

Our visit began in a gallery focusing on the early human settlements of the area, which date back ten thousand years. We then jumped back in time to the Mesozoic era when dinosaurs roamed these lands.

There are over 30 dinosaurs on display at the Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum, and we even got to see dinosaur eggs, which was completely unexpected!

However, no dinosaur in the museum is more famous than the Patagotitan Mayorum – the largest dinosaur in the world! This titanosaur was discovered in early 2013, and measures more than 8 metres in height, 40 metres in length, and is estimated to have weighed around 74 tons.

If you have time, the museum also screens a dinosaur documentary narrated by David Attenborough, which plays a few times a day.

This is the one museum I would prioritize if you only have a few hours in Trelew. Even if you are not usually a museum person, the scale of the dinosaurs makes this one memorable.

Biggest Dinosaur in the World Sculpture

If you still want to see more dinosaurs, you won’t want to miss the sculpture of the biggest dinosaur in the world on the outskirts of Trelew.

You just have to head north on Ruta 3 a few minutes outside of town, and you’ll spot the Patagotitan Mayorum on the left-hand side.

It’s located directly across from Trelew Airport and it’s massive, so you really can’t miss it!

It’s a short drive, so if you don’t have a car, you can always take a taxi and ask the driver to wait for you while you snap a few photos.

Hotel Touring Club

Trelew’s Hotel Touring Club is known to have hosted many famous guests, including writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry of The Little Prince. He was a frequent guest in the 1930s, and today there’s a plaque commemorating his stays.

The hotel also hosted an infamous gang of bank and train robbers. Do the names Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and Ethel Place ring a bell?

They were on the run from US law enforcement and ended up hiding out in this remote corner of Patagonia. They bought land, set up a ranch in Cholila, and would come to Trelew for business. (You can still visit the Butch Cassidy Ranch if you make it to northwestern Chubut.)

It may not look like it today, but Hotel Touring Club was once considered one of Argentina’s most luxurious hotels. It was constructed in 1898 and remained an it destination hosting multiple presidents through to the 1930s.

Today, it oozes faded charm and stepping through its doors transports you to a different era.

We did not stay the night (as a heads up, it is a 1-star hotel), but we did eat at the Touring Club Café. The cafe feels like a bar from a bygone era, the walls are covered in Butch Cassidy memorabilia, and it has bright fluorescent lights. The food is good, but we’ll get to that in the restaurant recommendations down below.

Regional Museum Pueblo de Luis

To learn a bit more about the history of Trelew, you can visit the Regional Museum Pueblo de Luis. The name really says it all: Pueblo de Luis is Spanish for Town of Lewis, which is Trelew in Welsh.

This museum is set in the former railway station, which dates back to 1889. It tells the story of the Welsh immigrants who crossed the Atlantic Ocean, arrived on the shores of Puerto Madryn, and went on to settle the valley along the Chubut River.

The museum is split into different rooms starting with the Mapuches and the Tehuelches who lived in these lands. It is followed by the early exploration of the area between 1520 and 1865, and then the arrival of Welsh immigrants.

You can see farming equipment, furniture, homewares and other items that would have been brought over from Wales by the early settlers.

Our visit was short and sweet, but it gave us a glimpse of what life would have been like for the first Welsh immigrants.

Plaza Independencia

Another place to visit in Trelew is Plaza Independencia or Independence Square. This plaza has a beautiful pavilion and is surrounded by centuries-old trees, so it’s a nice place to enjoy a quiet stroll.

It’s where many city events are held and sometimes there’s even live music. There wasn’t a whole lot going on when we were there, but we just enjoyed walking around and being in a green space.

Trelew Visual Arts Museum

Directly across from Plaza Independencia on the west side of the square, you’ll find the Trelew Visual Arts Museum. This museum showcases the work of local artists and the exhibition is constantly changing.

We popped in for a little visit. The works featured were mainly photography and paintings by students and local artists.

Cacique Chiquichano Lagoon

Cacique Chiquichano Lagoon is located in Trelew’s city centre, directly behind the bus terminal.

There’s a 1.9-kilometre trail that goes all around the lake, and it’s a nice place for a walk or a run if you’re looking to get a workout during your visit.

You can also see swans, ducks and flamingos. I would treat it as a daytime walk rather than a late-night wander.

Day trips from Trelew

There are multiple day trips you can take from Trelew, ranging from 20 minutes to just under 2 hours of driving time. These include:

Gaiman

Driving time: 20 minutes

Gaiman is the place to visit if you want to experience a Welsh town in Patagonia. We made time to enjoy a proper Welsh afternoon tea in one of the town’s many tea houses, we visited a local farm where we bought berries and Welsh cake, and we learned about Welsh immigration to Argentina in the town’s various museums. We enjoyed it so much, we visited twice!

Rawson

Driving time: 20 minutes

Rawson was the first town founded by Welsh immigrants who sailed to Patagonia aboard the Mimosa in 1865. The city sits next to the Chubut River, not too far from where it meets the sea. If you’re craving a beach day or want to do some dolphin or whale watching (season dependent), this is your destination.

Dolavon

Driving time: 30 minutes

Dolavon is another Welsh community you can visit in Chubut and its name translates to ‘river meadow’. This is a very small, sleepy town that can easily be visited in half a day. Some of the highlights include walking along the canals and visiting the old mill turned museum and restaurant. I would save this for a weekend visit, because we went during the week and almost everything was closed!

Bryn Gwyn Geopark

Driving time: 30 minutes

Bryn Gwyn Geopark is a natural geological reserve and its name translates to ‘white hill’ in Welsh. The park is in an area that separates the Chubut River valley from the Patagonian steppe. There is a hiking trail, and along the way you can see fossils – both real and replicas.

Puerto Madryn

Driving time: 50 minutes

You’ll want more than a day to visit Puerto Madryn and Península Valdés, but if a day is all you have, a full-day excursion is the best way to do so. You’ll get to see this port city in passing and then continue towards the peninsula for some wildlife viewing. We’re talking penguins, sea lions, elephant seals and more! We loved our visit, but we spent several days here.

Petrified Forest Florentino Ameghino

Driving time: 1 hour 50 minutes

If you don’t mind a bit of a drive, you can visit a petrified forest in the province of Chubut. Here you’ll come face to face with petrified logs that were part of an extensive forest that were carried by rivers to the sea coast of that time. The tree logs are estimated to date back 60 million years!

Punta Tombo

Driving time: 2 hours 10 minutes

You can also visit Punta Tombo National Reserve on a day trip from Trelew. This is a narrow and rocky peninsula known for its Magellanic penguin colony. It’s an alternative to Peninsula Valdes if you’re looking for a destination with less tourism. September to April is the time to see penguins. The chicks hatch in mid-November and in late January, the colony is at its peak, with adults, juveniles, and chicks sharing the space.

Where to eat in Trelew

Trelew offers a nice variety of restaurants featuring all your classic Argentine foods, and that means plenty of steak, pizza and pasta! These are places we personally ate at during our stay in Trelew, so this is not meant to be an exhaustive restaurant ranking. It is simply a short list of meals we genuinely enjoyed.

Sugar

Sugar is a gourmet restaurant specializing in Argentine cuisine with a contemporary twist. It is the best restaurant we visited in Trelew and it left us ooh-ing and ahh-ing at every bite! Their menu is ever evolving but we really enjoyed the smoke-infused steak and the beetroot gnocchi in a blue cheese sauce. A delightful foodie experience from start to finish.

Tía Camila

If you’re craving pizza, then make your way over to Tía Camila for some of the most delicious pizza you’ll ever have! This is very much a local eatery with prices to match. I’d recommend trying the Pizza Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons Pizza), so you can sample 4 different pizza toppings.

Raíces

Another restaurant we visited in Trelew is Raíces, which specializes in pasta dishes. We tried the spinach and ricotta cannelloni with a tomato and beef sauce, as well as the plum and bacon-stuffed gnocchi in a creamy mushroom sauce. Pair that with a bottle of red wine, and you’ve got yourself a wonderful meal!

Francesca

This is a cute cafe for breakfast or afternoon tea. They have all sorts of pies, tarts, cakes and pastries to choose from. If you’re craving something savoury, you can’t go wrong with their classic grilled ham and cheese sandwich. It’s a relaxed setting where you can linger between all the sightseeing.

Hotel Touring Club

We mentioned this place under the attractions, but don’t miss out on the chance to eat here. The vibe is a bar stuck in time, and the food is good. I would recommend ordering the picada, which is Argentina’s version of a snack. That’s what we did, and we got lots of little plates with salami, cheese, mortadella, olives, peanuts, chips, fries, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Order a pint of beer to go with it, and it’s a complete meal!

Where to stay in Trelew

Hotel Libertador – This is a centrally located 3-star hotel close to most attractions and it offers breakfast.

Apart Hotel Argenta – These are spacious self-catering apartments with a kitchen, living and dining area. This is where we stayed!

La Casa de Paula Bed & Art – This is a bed and breakfast option set in a residential neighbourhood with a familiar touch.

Hotel Touring Club – If you’re visiting Trelew for its history and Butch Cassidy connection, then you may be interested in this hotel, however, keep in mind it is a 1-star hotel!

How to get to Trelew

Trelew has a small airport (Almirante Marcos A. Zar – REL), so it is possible to fly into the city. The national airline Aerolineas Argentinas operates a few weekly flights.

However, you’re most likely to arrive in Trelew by bus via the port city of Puerto Madryn. There are two bus companies that operate regular routes between Trelew and Puerto Madryn, and those are Mar y Valle and 28 de Julio. The travel time between the two cities is 53 minutes.

If you feel comfortable driving in Argentina (keep in mind most cars have manual transmission!), an even better way to explore Trelew and the surrounding area is by renting a car. This will give you the flexibility to explore at your own pace without having to depend on public transport. Plus, it’ll make the day trips a lot more accessible.

That’s our travel guide to visiting Trelew! Hopefully, this gave you a few ideas of things to do and day trips to go on during your visit.