Bahía Bustamente Lodge

At this remote hotel along the Patagonian coast, vacancies aren’t anything to worry about, as it can only hold eighteen people at a time. Set amongst a factory town abandoned long ago, this lodging signifies the rebirth of this area due to the efforts of the family that started the settlement in the first place. Almost in the middle of nowhere, Bahía Bustamente Lodge promises a visitor a fully isolated experience—unless you count the thousands of animals and wildlife that call this area home. 

In the early 1950s, Don Lorenzo Soriano needed seaweed to extract materials for his hairspray product. This search led him 1,000 miles outside of busy Buenos Aires, to the seaside Patagonian beaches far from civilization. Discovering a large variety of seaweed, Soriano had a factory constructed in 1953. A settlement soon sprung up to sustain the factory, with almost 400 people moving to Soriano’s new village. Thus Bahía Bustamente was born. 

With the factory and surrounding village abandoned by the early 2000s, a new generation saw an opportunity in the site. Matías Soriano, grandson of Lorenzo, and his wife Astrid Perkins inherited the land and realized there was beauty in the vacantness of Bahía Bustamente. Founding the Bahía Bustamente Lodge in 2005, the couple from the beginning have strived to immerse their small guest lists in the remoteness and quiet of the surrounding coastland. Using some structures leftover from the factory town, the new shepherds of these lands have created a site with “360-degree views of nature”, allowing guests to experience coastal rock canyons and petrified forests, and have breakfast with penguins. 

Over the years, the campus at the lodge has grown to include a beachside vineyard, regional museum, workshop, bar, and a restaurant serving locally sourced food and products. Now for almost twenty years, a lucky select few have happened upon this secluded shoreline of Patagonia.