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What to do in Buenos Aires for the day??


Kiwi_cruiser
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We have never been to Buenos Aires, Argentina before.

 

I was wondering would you recommend doing here for the day??

 

and if you have been to Buenos Aires before, what did you do there for the day??

 

Does the cruise ships dock near the city? or do we dock a long way from it?

 

Any ideas / suggestions are very welcome :)

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We (group of 4) had a port stop in Buenos Aires on New Year's Eve 2016 and spent the day with Jessica from Buenos Tours (https://www.buenostours.com/buenos-aires-tours). It was billed as a walking tour but we were met by Jessica at the port and then taken by van to the furthest away point to start our mostly walking (we also rode a bus or two) tour. It was fantastic and Jessica (a US ex-pat) clearly loves her adopted city. It was more than 90 degrees out that day and at the end of the tour we elected to get a taxi back to port instead of walking. Jessica hailed the cab and made sure the fare was known in advance so there was no fear of 'being taken for a ride.'

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My suggestion is that if you are there on your own then extend your stay a couple of days. There is no way you can see and more importantly experience BA in a day.

 

If you are there on a cruise and you have a one day stop, good luck. I would suggest a full day small group tour from a good tour operator. That way you can get a good overview of the city and not waste time getting lost and waiting for transportation. Every second counts. If you are still there at night go to a good tango show. It is extremely touristy but ya gotta do it.

 

The Princess ship that I was on docked in an industrial type port. We had to take a shuttle bus to the terminal and from there find a taxi. It takes a while for the bus the bus to fill up and finding a taxi. I think it was about a 20 to 30 minute drive from the terminal to the city center without traffic. But my memory may be off.

 

Good luck. You are really going to enjoy BA.

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Suggestion for one day in Buenos Aires: https://www.buenosairesbus.com/servicio.php?lang=en. It's a HoHo bus that runs @$30 US pp. We are doing that on our arrival day from the states. This might be the most efficient way to see the highlights if you've only a day; for us, it provides a chance to get our bearings AND recover from any jet lag.

 

For our remaining two days in the city, after we board the Eclipse for an overnight stay, we are touring LaBoca/San Telmo with Jessica who is so highly recommended (thanks, capriccio!) on late Sunday afternoon and hope to spend time in the market that day and catch some street tango!

 

The following day we will be spending time at Recoleta Cemetery and elsewhere with Fabian of Tours by Locals.

 

Hope these ideas help you Kiwi_cruiser!

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We did the HOHO bus the last time we were in BA. We also did a tango show. We booked the tango show with https://www.bsas4u.com/en/.

The taxis wait at the cruise terminal and in our experience charge way more than they should for a trip to downtown and generally don't have meters. There was a free shuttle put on by a jewelry store that takes you close to the Galerias Pacifico and there is a stop for the HOHO bus if you walk down Cordoba - stop #24

https://www.buenosairesbus.com/index.php We bought our tickets online on that site for around $28.00 US each. We then took a metered cab back to the port. There are two ports so make sure you ask for Benito Quinquela Martin, the other is for the ferry that goes to Uruguay.

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Buy your HoHo tickets online. If you buy at the kiosk you may need to pay cash which was the case 2 years ago. The bus also fills up quickly. You may want to ride the entire route and start to go around again and get off at the place you want to explore. You can then take a taxi back to the hotel if the lines is too long. This is a great city. Enjoy!

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Buy your HoHo tickets online. If you buy at the kiosk you may need to pay cash which was the case 2 years ago. The bus also fills up quickly. You may want to ride the entire route and start to go around again and get off at the place you want to explore. You can then take a taxi back to the hotel if the lines is too long. This is a great city. Enjoy!

Agree HOHO bus is a great way to get a feel for the city. We got on an early bus which was pretty empty.

Made the mistake of getting off at Recoleta Cemetery..great to visit but buses very busy when wanted to get back on. In fact no room on first one, but another followed relatively quickly. Didn't get off again till we had completed the loop !! Then took taxi(quite reasonably priced) back to ship for last night onboard.

Spent a further three days in B.A. when disembarked from Cruise ship. A great place to visit.

There are many warnings of pick pockets and street crime.

Fortunately we didn't encounter any..but as in any large city......be alert !

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The cruise terminal is not real far from downtown, but the area immediately outside the terminal is not a great area. Downtown BA is relatively safe from muggers, but pickpockets are always an issue.

 

Not sure how much time you have. If only a day (if a night, do a tango show) stick to the downtown area. The HoHo is an option, but the subway system is cheap as are taxis. We did a great free walking tour, check online for that.

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  • 2 weeks later...
We (group of 4) had a port stop in Buenos Aires on New Year's Eve 2016 and spent the day with Jessica from Buenos Tours (https://www.buenostours.com/buenos-aires-tours). It was billed as a walking tour but we were met by Jessica at the port and then taken by van to the furthest away point to start our mostly walking (we also rode a bus or two) tour. It was fantastic and Jessica (a US ex-pat) clearly loves her adopted city. It was more than 90 degrees out that day and at the end of the tour we elected to get a taxi back to port instead of walking. Jessica hailed the cab and made sure the fare was known in advance so there was no fear of 'being taken for a ride.'

 

We also used Buenos Tours and they were amazing! very professional from pre-trip planning to the days we were there. We had Richard (also a US ex-pat) and he was terrific. I have blogged our adventures with them, if you want to see what you can possibly achieve in a day, or even a half-day!

 

First link - scroll down for our half-day Recoleta tour with Richard:

https://baskeytravels.com/buenos-aires-pre-cruise/

 

Buenos Tours then arranged for us to be taken back to our hotel, where we picked up our luggage and then embarked. We went out again that night to Milongas (also arranged via Buenos Tours) - that story is also on link below, so you will have to scroll past it to get to the day trip.

 

The following day, we were picked up again and did a tour of La Boca / San Telmo:

https://baskeytravels.com/embarkation-buenos-aires-2/

 

Heather

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Agree HOHO bus is a great way to get a feel for the city. We got on an early bus which was pretty empty.

Made the mistake of getting off at Recoleta Cemetery..great to visit but buses very busy when wanted to get back on. In fact no room on first one, but another followed relatively quickly. Didn't get off again till we had completed the loop !! Then took taxi(quite reasonably priced) back to ship for last night onboard.

Spent a further three days in B.A. when disembarked from Cruise ship. A great place to visit.

There are many warnings of pick pockets and street crime.

Fortunately we didn't encounter any..but as in any large city......be alert !

 

Does the hop on hop off bus stop at the cruise terminal? If not, how far a walk was it? I understand the area around the cruise terminal is dodgy.

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We got on the shuttle offered by H Stern( a jewelry store) from the cruise port. It drops you off downtown on Florida. We walked a few blocks and picked up the HOHO bus on Cordoba.

This is the website to buy tickets and you can see the map if you click on Additional Information.

https://www.buenosairesbus.com/index.php?lang=en

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  • 7 months later...
On 6/3/2018 at 4:16 AM, coconutmonkey said:

 

Does the hop on hop off bus stop at the cruise terminal? If not, how far a walk was it? I understand the area around the cruise terminal is dodgy.

 

From what I have read I dont think the hop on hop off bus stops at the cruise terminal.

 

You need to get some sort of transport from the cruise terminal to the start of the hop on hop off bus route.

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Go to Café Tortoni on Avenida something de Mayo... a short walk from the Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo.  You might have to stand in line to get in, but it is well worth the wait for both the history and the wonderful milkshakes and pastries.

 

The HOHO bus does not stop at the cruise terminal.  And the buses can get really, really full, with long lines at a few of the stops.  Do buy tickets on line ahead of time, otherwise they only accept BA pesos cash.

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