What to do and where to stay in Buenos Aires

We are taking a cruise from LA to Buenos Aires in December and will be arriving in Buenos Aires on 12/30 and plan on staying for 4 pr 5 more days. Initially we had planned on taking the ship on to Rio but didn't want to deal with the hassle of getting a Brazilian visa. At least what we have to do with Argentina can be done online.

Right now I know very little about Buenos Aires. Looking at guides, I think it would be nice to stay in Ricoleta, but then there don't seem to be many close subway stops. Any ideas of areas where we might stay, hotels we could use and things to do. Princess is having a sale on airfare now so I think I am going tp go ahead and book it before deciding on hotels but ant advice would be greatly appreciated.

It looks like hotel rates are at least comparatively inexpensive. I would like to have a convenient location, either within walking distance or within a few blocks of a subway stop. And does anyone know how expensive taxi fares are?

We are taking a cruise from LA to Buenos Aires in December and will be arriving in Buenos Aires on 12/30 and plan on staying for 4 pr 5 more days. Initially we had planned on taking the ship on to Rio but didn't want to deal with the hassle of getting a Brazilian visa. At least what we have to do with Argentina can be done online.

 

Right now I know very little about Buenos Aires. Looking at guides, I think it would be nice to stay in Ricoleta, but then there don't seem to be many close subway stops. Any ideas of areas where we might stay, hotels we could use and things to do. Princess is having a sale on airfare now so I think I am going tp go ahead and book it before deciding on hotels but ant advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

It looks like hotel rates are at least comparatively inexpensive. I would like to have a convenient location, either within walking distance or within a few blocks of a subway stop. And does anyone know how expensive taxi fares are?

We stayed 2 nights in BA before sailing back to LA & enjoyed our stay at the Savoy Hotel which was about $95 per night including buffet breakfast. We pre-booked a taxi for about $40 to our hotel: http://www.taxiezeiza.com.ar/eng/

They have a booth just outside of baggage claim area with your name displayed & found it to be a very easy process.

The South America board is a great resource & where your thread will probably be moved.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

Your roll call would probably be another good source of information to check.

We did 72 hours in Buenos Aires 2 years a go. Stayed in central business district. Plenty of nice hotels throughout city-found the BA guide books to be spot on with accuracy. We loved the subte (metro) and rode everywhere. Safe and fast, but can get warm and a little stuffy. Normally, I avoid hop on-hop off bus tours, but we did it here and loved it. We enjoyed self guided cemetery tour (Evita tomb-and the cats) , took subway to Palermo area for dinner- all restaurants desolate until 9 pm- then packed - get a great bottle of Malbec and a steak dinner- don't skip the provoleta. Calle Florida (big shopping street) is hugely crowded day and night. Italian food is the best -as well it should be, given the huge Italians immigrant population. Lots of little road side/sidewalk stands selling steak and grilled onion-excellent. My Spanish is fairly limited but managed just fine as English widely spoken. I loved BA and would go back in a minute. enjoy!

we took taxi from airport -don't recall the fare but don't believe it was too much. We took the taxi drivers business card and used him when we returned to airport.

We went to a great Tango Show on one of the main streets downtown. It was called the Porteno Tango and offered free tango lessons before the show and an excellent steak dinner with all the wine you could drink included in the price. We had a blast learning this dance and the evening was so much fun, I would recommend it.

Laurel

We went to a local ranch just outside of B.A. for a bbq and Goucho show. Interesting.

We are taking a cruise from LA to Buenos Aires in December and will be arriving in Buenos Aires on 12/30 and plan on staying for 4 pr 5 more days. Initially we had planned on taking the ship on to Rio but didn't want to deal with the hassle of getting a Brazilian visa. At least what we have to do with Argentina can be done online.

 

Right now I know very little about Buenos Aires. Looking at guides, I think it would be nice to stay in Ricoleta, but then there don't seem to be many close subway stops. Any ideas of areas where we might stay, hotels we could use and things to do. Princess is having a sale on airfare now so I think I am going tp go ahead and book it before deciding on hotels but ant advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

It looks like hotel rates are at least comparatively inexpensive. I would like to have a convenient location, either within walking distance or within a few blocks of a subway stop. And does anyone know how expensive taxi fares are?

Pleased to meet you. I am from Buenos Aires so I will be happy to help you.

Many tourists stay in the Puerto Madero area, it is the most safe and perhaps the nicest neighborhood in BA. The other choices are Palermo, Recoleta or the downtown. What are you looking for? A local experience? First class hotels as if you were in the USA? Are you more into the city + tango experience, or the country + gaucho thing? You could do both.

With some of these things answered, perhaps I could help you more.

Best regards!

I stayed a week in 2008 and stayed in Palermo Soho with great little shops and places to eat. Taxis are cheap in BA and would recommend this option since rush hour can be very stressful trying to pack into the subway car. I would suggest you go to http://www.tripadvisor.com -<http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g312741-Buenos_Aires_Capital_Federal_District-Vacations.html>

If you can do it I would go to Iguaza Falls for one day. Catch the early am flight there and stay at the Shearton and come back the next day.

I stayed a week in 2008 and stayed in Palermo Soho with great little shops and places to eat. Taxis are cheap in BA and would recommend this option since rush hour can be very stressful trying to pack into the subway car. I would suggest you go to www.tripadvisor.com -<http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g312741-Buenos_Aires_Capital_Federal_District-Vacations.html>

 

If you can do it I would go to Iguaza Falls for one day. Catch the early am flight there and stay at the Shearton and come back the next day.

Iguazú Falls should be a must. There are cheaper places than the Sheraton, but you can't beat it for convenience. It is right inside the National Park.

Yes, taxis are cheap in Buenos Aires but you must always use a radio taxi. It is very easy to get ripped off if you do not.If you are staying in a BA hotel, have them call one for you.

Pleased to meet you. I am from Buenos Aires so I will be happy to help you.

 

Many tourists stay in the Puerto Madero area, it is the most safe and perhaps the nicest neighborhood in BA. The other choices are Palermo, Recoleta or the downtown. What are you looking for? A local experience? First class hotels as if you were in the USA? Are you more into the city + tango experience, or the country + gaucho thing? You could do both.

 

With some of these things answered, perhaps I could help you more.

 

Best regards!

Hi,

I am in the same dilemma as to where to stay in BA. We would enjoy a local experience, don't need a first class hotel, but one with a local feel would be great. I want to visit the cemetery. We will be staying 2 nights before visiting the falls.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lesley

booked the dazzler for a really good rate thru hotwire. location was just around the corner from the cemetery, so I went over there myself, no problem. also did madero dinner tango show and gaucho ranch, both were excellent and food was great!! dazzler had breakfast included and very friendly staff.

Here's another vote for the Savoy, a very reasonably priced hotel in the downtown area - within walking distance of almost everything we wanted to see. We spent a week there in March of this year, flew up to the Falls for 4 days and returned to the Savoy for another 4 days before boarding our ship. The building itself is historic (Albert Einstein, Eva Peron and other famous guests) with beautiful period details in the main public areas. But the guest rooms are all renovated and very modern. Extensive breakfast buffet is included. The very best amenity is Santiago, on duty at the front desk most evenings. He was better than a personal travel guide in helping us make plans and reservations each day. He printed tickets, sent us to his favourite pizza stand, plotted the route for obscure day trips and celebrated the success of each outing when we returned each night. With his help, we took a day trip by ferry to Uruguay, took a local train (for 3 pesos each!!) to the Delta, Rode the subway to Chinatown, toured the Opera house one morning and attended a symphony concert that night, visited a Gaucho ranch for BBQ lunch and horse back riding - and all the regular tourist sights of course. Loved the street markets - one on Saturday, one on Sunday. Plenty of original craft work and interesting jewelry. Don't pass up the chance to tour the Pink Palace if no English tour is scheduled. The interior of the building and the opportunity to stand on the famous balcony was worthwhile in any language. Can hardly wait for an excuse to go back.

Here is the portion of my cruise review of our stay in Buenos Aires. We loved our Bed and Breakfast.

In planning for this trip and cruise, we decided to take the cruise from Buenos

Aires to Valparaiso, so we could spend some days pre-cruise in Buenos Aires. We had already been to Valparaiso and Santiago on the 2011 trip. Delta had a relatively good rate for the open-jaw flights and that is our preferred airline. After researching what to see in Buenos Aires and hotels, we elected to go with a bed and breakfast in an excellent location. We arrived on January 1 and stayed in El Jardin del Tango, a bed and breakfast. It is just a couple of blocks from two Metro stations and walking distance from Ricoleta and the central district.

Our Bed and Breakfast, El Jardin Del Tango

El Jardin Del Tango has to locations, close to each other. We booked Casa Jasmin and took the option not to share the sole bathroom for the apartment. We had the apartment to ourselves. It had a kitchen, bathroom, living room, two full bedrooms and another small bedroom. Price was excellent. Location was great with easy access to the Metro or walking to many areas in the city. The apartment is located on the sixth floor of an apartment building. It was like staying in a middle class Buenos Aires apartment, which gave us a sense of living there. The refrigerator was stocked with juices, milk, yogurt, melon, eggs and more. There were cereals, coffee, tea and bread. Rachael brought us bananas, since I mentioned that I liked bananas.

We made friends with the owner, Rachael. She was great company. Also, she gave us many tips on getting around the city as well as booking our tango show. She spent much time just enjoying our company and pointing out free walking tours, as well as places to see in the city. She showed us bus 29 which cost 35 cents each to go to la Boca. We felt like we made a friend in Rachel as well as had a more authentic Argentine experience. There were inexpensive restaurants in the neighborhood as well as markets. I purchased two bottles of wine for six dollars.

Rachel introduced us to Mate, a kind of herbal South American drink that reduces appetite. We tried it and Ginny liked it more than I did. It is expensive in the USA, but relatively inexpensive in South America.

I would recommend El Jardin del Tango for a family. We had the entire apartment for $80 per night that would have slept at least 5 persons. It was not a luxury hotel, but it was spacious, comfortable with a great location. Also, Rachel was our friend in Buenos Aires.

BUENOS AIRES

The B&B was walking distance from the center of the city, which included the Casa Rosada (The pink house- Argentina’s White House); the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral; the Obelisk of Buenos Aires on 9 de Julio Avenue, which was once the widest avenue in the World; the Congress building and other historical and important buildings. Also, we walked to Ricoleta the afternoon of the first day.

Other areas of the city were La Boca, which the original port area of the city and has many colorful houses and a pedestrian street. The Caminito is where tango artists perform and tango is performed in the street. Between La Boca and the city center is San Telmo. San Telmo is another area where tango dancing takes place. It is also the site of a famous antiques market. Another area of the city is Palermo, an upscale residential area with many parks, the zoo and botanical gardens. Palermo is not very close to the city center. Retiro is an area between Ricoleta and the Puerto Madero Waterfront. Streets in Retiro include Santa Fe, Córdoba, and Libertador Avenues, pedestrian Florida Street (the shops are a big draw for tourists). The Plaza San Martín is located in Retiro, as well as many top hotels and some embassies. Also, Galerías Pacífico, a fancy modern mall in a 19th Century building remolded in the 1940s is in Retiro. The Puerto Madero Waterfront is next to Retiro and not far from the city center. It is composed of a renovated waterfront area with many restaurants.

Our first day in Buenos Aires was January 1. I am not sure when January 1 arrived on our flight, since the pilot did not announce the New Year (no champagne either). Buenos Aires is two hours ahead of Eastern time, so we had little jet lag, but since we didn’t sleep much on our flight, we were a bit tired, so we took a nap after checking in El Jardin del Tango before walking to Ricoleta, probably about a mile away. On the way to Ricoleta, we saw trees planted along the street with names in memorial. We learned later than we had passed by the site of the terror bombing of a Jewish Community Center in 1994. The bombing has been attributed to Iran or Hezbollah. Some in Buenos Aires think the bombing may be related to the center’s investigations on former ****’s in South America. We were told that Argentina has about a million Jewish people of its 35 million people. Ricoleta was clearly a cemetery for important people. There were many elaborate and stately tombs. Eva Peron’s tomb was a modest tomb for the Duarte family.

After visiting the cemetery, we walked toward the Puerto Madero Waterfront (through the Retiro district). It was filled with expensive hotels and other important buildings. It was hot and we finally found a gas station were we could find some water. Rachel had advised us of many nice restaurants in the Waterfront area, but it took a while to arrive there. We finally found the area and it was a nice area with a canal, boats docked there and restaurants on both sides of the canal. We were hungry and stopped at Il Gatto, which is a chain restaurant in Argentina with Italian style food. The food was reasonably good, although more expensive, probably due to the location of the restaurant. We used my credit card, since I needed to acquire the local pesos. That fact made it more expensive in itself.

The Argentine Peso is suffering from 25% or more inflation, per year and the government has currency controls that have created a huge blue (black) market in the country for US dollars. The official rate for one dollar is 5.6 Argentine Pesos. The blue market rate is almost one to ten. Restaurants and businesses will routinely take dollars at close to or at ten pesos to the dollar (probably not reporting the exchange). There are currency exchanges that operate both openly and somewhat openly. The somewhat open ones are called cuervas and located in areas that can be risky to enter. The open exchanges seem to operate with impunity, but they are raided by the police occasionally. The Argentines tell you that the raids are a joke and for show, since the police are likely bribed to allow the exchanges to operate. In any event, we managed to exchange a fair amount of dollars which save us mucho dinero. If you plan to visit Argentina, use your credit card as little as possible. Take cash and go to some effort to find an exchange and get the blue rate. The currencies of Uruguay and Chile are stable and not a problem, so we used our credit cards there.

We returned to our B&B by taking the Metro. We slept through the night, since we had air conditioning. Rachel told us that temperatures had exceeded 100 degrees for some days prior to our arrival. Sections of the city had lost power (brown outs), some areas for several days at a time. Apparently, brown outs are a routing problem in the city.

Buenos Aires is a beautify city (so called Paris of South America). The city has some beautiful bones, with many magnificent homes with late 19th-early 20th Century architecture. It will remind you of Paris or Barcelona; however it is rough around the edges. We walked extensively in the city in all the areas mentioned before. Most of the city seems to need infrastructure improvements. We saw many sidewalks and streets that appeared to be torn up for the likely placement or repair of subsurface power, cable or water lines, yet filled with dirt or potholes that were safety issues. It wasn’t third world level, but it wasn’t pretty. Also, some of the areas that we walked through during the daytime were not advisable for nighttime. One area that we discovered that was almost scary was the area past the soccer stadium between La Boca and choripan. We started to walk there and decided out of caution to hail a taxi.

Don’t get me wrong, we very much enjoyed Buenos Aires, but the city of 13 million people has a million homeless people. Many live in abandoned buildings. We were shown one abandoned building, with great architecture across the street from the Argentine Congress building that is full of squatters.

The second day, we had planned to 11am free walking tour, but it rained until about Noon, so we stayed until after lunch and then took Bus 29 (near our B&B) for 35 cents apiece to La Boca. Rachel had advised us about this bus (public transportation). The bus was packed with locals, so we had to stand most of the trip, but it was good exposure to local conditions. The people of Buenos Aires are great. We loved the people. They were friendly and while most couldn’t speak English, they worked with my poor Spanish and sign language to be patient and assist us.

La Boca was interesting. It had many colorful buildings, some painted concrete, some with tin painted many bright colors. We enjoyed waking around the area, browsing in shops, watching tango dancers. We had a nice lunch in La Vieja Rotiseria at Magallanes 869 in La Boca. The food was very good and the restaurant had live tango dancing. We each had a fresh salad and a chorizo sandwich, referred to as choripan. After departing from La Boca, we decided to walk to San Telmo, but the area was extremely squalid and we started to be concerned for our safety, so we hailed a taxi and went to Palermo. Palermo is an upscale residential area with parks. It is on the other side of the city center. Taxis are inexpensive in Buenos Aires and we paid about $15 for the ride. We had the taxi driver drop us off near the Botanical Gardens, which we wanted to see. Unfortunately the gardens were closed, due to the rain in the morning. Also, the Japanese Gardens and Zoo were closed due to the rain in the morning. We didn’t understand why the facilities were closed, since the rain did not seem that hard and had stopped hours before. We did see the Botanical Gardens through the wrought iron fence. It included many unusual plants and a lot of cats. We had not seen a lot of cats in Buenos Aires, but had seen many stray dogs lingering in the city. After visiting Istanbul, Ukraine and Greece a few months ago, where we saw cats all over the city, we concluded that Argentines tend to be dog people, not cat people like the Greeks, Turks and Ukrainians.

We took the subway from Palermo (green line-Plaza Italia Station) to the Plaza de Mayo, at the city center and saw the Cathedral, the tomb of Jose San Martin (the George Washington of Southern South America), the Casa Rosada, the building which was the Spanish colonial capitol as well as first Argentine capitol building. We then walked up Avenue de Mayo toward the Plaza of the Republic, were we encountered the wide Avenue 9 of July, the widest in the World (except for a new one in Brazil). We continued walking toward Pasteur Street and our B&B. We ate dinner at a pizza restaurant in the neighborhood for a modest amount.

The third day, we took the Buenos Aires Free Tour (http://www.bafreetour.com/english-home), which started at 11am at the Plaza del Congreso. The tour was popular and over 50 persons were there. We met several persons that were going on our Infinity cruise. Our guide was Maggie and she was an excellent guide. She provided in-depth background on the history and cultural points of the places we visited. We walked over some of the same places that we had seen the previous day, but provided an in detail history or background of important buildings. She did very well, especially considering the number of people on the tour. She explained important background on Argentine historical events, including the background on the protestors called the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of the 300. These groups seek to find about 300 missing children who were generally adopted soon after being born to mothers in prison or camps that were later disappeared during the military dictatorship of the 1976 and 1983 period. The Grandmothers protest every Thursday afternoon in the square in front of the Casa Rosada. A bit of humor, Maggie informed us while on the wide avenue looking at a building that had the image of Eva Peron holding a microphone, that it was not a man eating a hamburger. Apparently, a foreign tourist mistook Eva’s image as that. The tour lasted about 2.5 hours. The walking tour was excellent and free, but I did leave Maggie a nice tip. We had a nice late lunch (great and inexpensive meals are available if you can use the blue market pesos).

During the tour, close to Plaza de Mayo, we saw another demonstration by a union. I think we saw such demonstrations every day we were in the city. Maggie told us they were common and she had seen six demonstrations in one day. Apparently, the unions are seeking to flex their political influence. Maggie said that the government wants to avoid anything that reminds people of the military takeover, when such demonstrations were routinely crushed.

That evening we attended the Tango Porteno show located next to the Teatro Colon (beautiful opera house). Link at http://tangoporteno.com.ar

We had Rachel book us dinner at platea level (seats were excellent, although not as good as the executive seats). The dinner was excellent. Service and food were excellent. Further, our waiter kept filling up our wine glasses before we could empty them. The show did not start until 10:15pm, but that allowed us to enjoy our meal. The show was very professional. The singing, dancing, production and set were superb. I highly recommend Tango Porteno. After the show we walked back to the B&B. Rachel had advised us that the streets were safe, but to use the main street of Avenue Corrientes. It was about midnight and many people were out on the street, visiting clubs, restaurants and enjoying themselves. Argentines are very much night people.

The fourth day, we visited the Retiro area, but walking there from our B&B. We did a lot of walking in Buenos Aires since our B&B was at a good location. We were in search of the El Ateneo bookstore, which is a famous bookstore and coffee shop located in a former theatre called “Teatro Gran Splendid.” The first level seating was removed and in its place book shelves were installed, however the boxes on the higher levels are still intact. We found cook books there for local cusine, as well as more paperbacks to read on our trip. We then walked to the Galerías Pacífico, an upscale shopping mall in an old building with beautiful frescoes on the inside of the central cupola. We found more cookbooks and had a beer. From there we took a taxi to our empanada making experience. It was located in Palermo-Hollywood. We booked the event through viator (see link below), but the event was conducted by “The Argentine Experience.” Our hosts were from Britain and Argentina. The evening was quite a treat for us. We enjoyed making our own empanadas as well as eating them. Also, we had a fantastic steak dinner that was one of the best steaks that I have every eaten. During the event, we had discussions of local customs as well as tips on cooking. We enjoyed meeting and socializing with our table mates. It was a great way to spend the evening in Buenos Aires.

http://www.viator.com/tours/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires-Dining-Experience-Empanada-Making,-Steak,-Wine,-Alfajores-and-Mate/d901-5653EXPERIENCE?aid=se1

Hi,

 

I am in the same dilemma as to where to stay in BA. We would enjoy a local experience, don't need a first class hotel, but one with a local feel would be great. I want to visit the cemetery. We will be staying 2 nights before visiting the falls.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lesley

The recommendations made in this post are all great. It is really up to you which hotel to choose, but, for instance, neighborhoods like Palermo, Recoleta or San Telmo can give more of the local feel than Puerto Madero, which is newer and more luxurious.

For example, I work for some people from California, and when they come they stay in Madero Hotel in Puerto Madero because it is near the downtown and almost every touristic places of interest and it is in the best part of Buenos Aires, and has a wonderful buffet breakfast, but there is not much there related with tango or the "city feel".

If you want to, you could post some hotels you've been looking at and maybe I could tell you some pros and cons.

Regards,

Nacho

We stayed in Buenos Aires for 3 nights prior to a cruise in March. We stayed in the Recoleta area in a small hotel called CasaSur Art Hotel that had good reviews on Trip Advisor. Our room was a bit small, but the staff was very helpful. (If I returned I would upgrade to a larger room) The location was great; we were able to walk to almost all of the major sights. It was not close to the subway line, but that was not an issue for us since we either walked or took cabs which were quite reasonable. The hotel offers a free 3+ hour tour of the city on Saturday afternoons which was excellent. The guide was great - he really loved the city and gave us lots of local insight.

We did the Argentine Experience on our first night. The food was excellent and it was a good introduction to BA culture. I would recommend it. Went to Fervor another night (2 blocks from our hotel) which was a very good restaurant. At least half of the patrons were local, which we felt was a good endorsement!

We found that many restaurants gave us a good exchange rate if we paid in dollars. As a result, we did not exchange money on the street - we used an official exchange booth in a shopping mall near our hotel for incidental expenses. While we were there, the difference between the official and blue rates was about 3.5 pesos so while we might have done better exchanging on the street, we didn't have to worry about counterfeit money.

We really enjoyed our stay and hope you have a great experience as well.

I'm surprised that no one has as yet pointed out the way to save a lot of money on your hotel bill and other items. There is a black aka blue market in Arg for US cash and to a somewhat lesser extent, euros. The best rate is given for clean US$100 bills. You should take several thousand in cash with you and exchange the cash for pesos upon arrival. Exchange places abound and you will have no problem finding one near your hotel. Many travel agencies and jewelers do black market exchange. Your room steward or hotel bartender should be able to direct you.

The official exchange rate is 8.1 which is the rate you will get when using your credit card to which will be added another 3% or so for foreign currency transaction fees. The black market rate is now 12.5. See www.ambito.com . That's a savings of more than 50%.

You may have made a hotel reservation using your credit card, but you should be able to get the charge reversed and credited back to your account when you offer to pay in cash with Arg pesos at the hotel. This also benefits the hotel since while they will still be getting the same amount of pesos, they will not have to pay the card processor a hefty fee. They should be happy to do it. Call ahead to confirm.

Moreover, cash transactions are often favored by merchants so that they can avoid paying the local taxes which are as high as 21%. Many merchants post signs in their windows advertising the rate they will give for US cash in some cases as high as the published blue rate in order to generate sales (and avoid processing fees and taxes).

Furthermore, if you are going to buy some large ticket items (i.e. fancy bags, shoes, Jewelry, meals, etc.) even if paying with pesos (acquired at the blue rate), you should inquire how much of a discount the merchant will give for cash in lieu of plastic. It is customary to get 10% off the price. This is also true in many restaurants.

p.s. Cabs are cheap, plentiful and safe. The drop is $1 until 10 pm and then jumps to 1.30. Just be careful of getting counterfeit bills in change although that shady practice is getting harder to pull off since the biggest bill in circulation (100 peso note) is only worth $8. The 20s and 10s in change hardly make it worthwhile to counterfeit. I suspect there is no larger note because VP Boudou has an interest in the co that prints the money and the more notes they print and sell to the govt , the more he earns. He is currently under indictment for corrupt practices.

The recommendations made in this post are all great. It is really up to you which hotel to choose, but, for instance, neighborhoods like Palermo, Recoleta or San Telmo can give more of the local feel than Puerto Madero, which is newer and more luxurious.

 

For example, I work for some people from California, and when they come they stay in Madero Hotel in Puerto Madero because it is near the downtown and almost every touristic places of interest and it is in the best part of Buenos Aires, and has a wonderful buffet breakfast, but there is not much there related with tango or the "city feel".

 

If you want to, you could post some hotels you've been looking at and maybe I could tell you some pros and cons.

 

Regards,

Nacho

Hi Nacho,

I have some hotels for Palermo for your advice,

Van boutique hotel, Krista hotel boutique, Own Palermo Hollywood

, Rendezvous hotel boutique or duque hotel boutique.

They have good Expedia reviews or should we stay in Recoleta?

Which area has best acess to subway sightseeing etc.

Thanks Lesley

Hi Nacho

Some Recoleta suggestions for comment. I think I am leaning towards this area not sure why

Ulises Recoleta suites, dazzler hotel , Recoleta etoile hotel, art suites, loi suites,

Urban suites Recoleta.

Thanks

Lesley

The Glu Hotel in Palermo is really good and the Casa Calma is great as well (this one is is in the micro center).

You might also check out B&B's. We stayed in one in the Palermo area couple years ago. It was nice....roof top patio, run by an English couple. They were very helpful. Got us an excellent exchange on our money. They knew where to go of course and they did it for us and another couple that we met also staying there and going on the same cruise. You can check them all out on Trip Advisor. Taxi's were very cheap and we used them to go everywhere. Several restaurants nearby altho our favorite is Las Lelas in Puerto Madero for steak. Pricey but very memorable.

You might also check out B&B's. We stayed in one in the Palermo area couple years ago. It was nice....roof top patio, run by an English couple. They were very helpful. Got us an excellent exchange on our money. They knew where to go of course and they did it for us and another couple that we met also staying there and going on the same cruise. You can check them all out on Trip Advisor. Taxi's were very cheap and we used them to go everywhere. Several restaurants nearby altho our favorite is Las Lelas in Puerto Madero for steak. Pricey but very memorable.

Hi thanks for the info was it Abode Bueonos Aires you stayed at, was run by and English couple, now by Orlando, we are looking at that.

Lesley

Hi Nacho

Some Recoleta suggestions for comment. I think I am leaning towards this area not sure why

Ulises Recoleta suites, dazzler hotel , Recoleta etoile hotel, art suites, loi suites,

Urban suites Recoleta.

 

Thanks

Lesley

Each section of BA offers something unique. Each has its pluses and minuses - personally I love Palermo (although my screen name is because of the park I jogged in everyday) - but some might say it's too far out - Recoleta has many expensive properties and many Argentines consider that "old money". Bottom line: you can't go wrong no matter what area you choose to stay in.

Hi Nacho

Some Recoleta suggestions for comment. I think I am leaning towards this area not sure why

Ulises Recoleta suites, dazzler hotel , Recoleta etoile hotel, art suites, loi suites,

Urban suites Recoleta.

 

Thanks

Lesley

Here is another option in the same area that comes highly recommended by one of the Buenos Aires Destination Experts on Trip Advisor. She and her husband stayed there while work was being completed on their apartment.

http://www.sileohotel.com/

I have stayed at Art Suites and Etoile. I enjoyed Art Suites very much although it is more like an apart-hotel than a true hotel. Etoile and Urban Suites both front a busy area with restaurants and nightclubs. I would worry about noise, especially on the front on lower floors.

Good choice of areas. I stayed in downtown on my first visit and found it much like the commercial center of any big city. Recoleta is upscale residential with a mix of tourism. It is also centrally located for various tourist attractions.

We stayed at the Claridge Hotel which is right off Florida street shops because my dw like to shop.

Hi thanks for the info was it Abode Bueonos Aires you stayed at, was run by and English couple, now by Orlando, we are looking at that.

 

Lesley

Sorry I didn't get back sooner, we've been out of town for a few days.

Yes, Abode. I see it's still highly rated on Trip Advisor. Is Orlando a new owner? We have stayed in some great B&B's over the years. Some will require 2 or 3 nights. But if you're arriving in the morning after a long flight, you'll be glad to have a room to go to. Be glad to answer any more questions you might have.

I see it's under new management. Viewing the pictures on line, I think they've updated the rooms....they look even nicer than when we were there.

Let me know if you decide on this one (just curiosity).