Tiny houses in Argentina

Bariloche sits on the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi, ringed by Andean peaks and native lenga and coihue forest — a landscape so alpine that early 20th-century settlers built it in a Swiss-chalet style that stuck, chocolate shops and all. It is the usual start of the Route of the Seven Lakes, one of Patagonia's great drives.

An hour south, El Bolsón is the quieter sibling: a valley town under the granite spike of Cerro Piltriquitrón, known since the 1970s for an alternative, back-to-the-land crowd, and today for its craft breweries and Tuesday-and-Thursday artisan feria. It is a good base for slower days between hikes.

The two stays we have verified here are plain, honest mountain cabins for four rather than architect-built tiny houses — one tucked by a stream outside Bariloche, one on a campsite outside El Bolsón. December to March, the Southern Hemisphere summer, is high season for hiking and the lakes; June to September brings skiing at Cerro Catedral, right by Bariloche. Our verified selection here is still small — we keep adding as we verify more.