The city of Neuquen, capital of Neuquen province, is situated in the northernmost part of the Lake District. It is a large sprawling affair which serves as a commercial hub for the surrounding fruit growing industry, however many visitors now increasingly stop over or use it as a base from which to visit some fascinating dinosaur-related attractions nearby.

The Museo Paleontologico de Ciencias Naturales in Neuquen itself has an impressive display of dinosaur fossils while to the south in the small settlement of El Chocon, beside the Embalse Ezequiel Ramos Mexia, there’s the excellent Museo Paleontologico Ernesto Bachman where the fossilized remains of the Gigantosaurus Carolini (larger than the T-Rex) are on display as well as a life-size model. Also, alongside the reservoir you can observe some amazing fossilized dinosaur footprints. Some 80 km west of Neuquen is the small town of Plaza Huincul where the Museo Carmen Funes houses an extrordinary skeletal reconstruction of the largest dinosaur discovered to date, the herbivorous sauropod Argentinosaurus Huinculensis. And if you really dig dinosaurs then it’s possible to help excavate their fossils on the Dino Project at Lago Barreales, some 90 km to the north of Neuquen.