jrlaw10

We flew to Buenos Aires from Iguazu on Aerolineas Argentina and unlike most people had no problems and arrived on time! Coming in from the Argentinian side of Iguazu routed us to Buenos Aires’ domestic airport. This gave us two advantages: first we avoided going through Argentinian customs and second we arrived at the much more conveniently located domestic airport. Flying into the domestic airport you truly get the feel for the immense size of the city of Buenos Aires. The airport is literally in the city proper right next to the Rio de la Plata. We were staying at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Recoleta district, so we arranged with the hotel to have a van pick us up.

Staying at a hotel like the Four Seasons always provides vacation mixed results. On the one hand you do have luxurious accommodations and great service, while on the other hand you are deprived of some of the local travel experience as most guests will be fellow Americans. As my wife likes the luxurious accommodations, I opted to abandon some of the “adventure” of local hotel travel in favor of the familiar. If you have ever stayed at a Four Seasons Hotel, you know what you will be getting at the Buenos Aires location. Although the prices in Argentina are quite favorable at this time, the Four Seasons will be at the same rate that you would pay elsewhere in the world. The location of the hotel is in a very nice area known as La Recoleta. There are several good restaurants within a minute or two walking distance and the area is very safe. It is not convenient to the subway or public transportation, but with the price of taxis, that should not be a problem.

I guess this is a good time to segue way into a discussion of taxis. In our one week trip to Buenos Aires we must have taken over 25 taxi trips of varying duration. No ride cost over $2.75 including a small tip for the driver. I had read many posts here and elsewhere about taxi scams and schemes to deprive the “gringo” tourist of their money. Specifically the “counterfeit bill” scam where a “large” bill (say 100 pesos) is given to the driver. He tells you that it is counterfeit and through a little sleight of hand returns an actual counterfeit bill to you while getting a real replacement from you. The solution is quite simple: get a large supply of 10 peso bills before you come to Buenos Aires. We bank with Bank of America. They were more than happy to comply with our foreign currency requests before our trip. We came prepared with many 10 peso notes. Upon departing the taxi, I would hand the driver the 10 peso note and request the amount of change I wanted. I always tipped 10% even though that is higher than the guidelines suggested in the books. The fare seemed small enough that it really did not matter. The cabs from the hotel were radio taxis called by the hotel. The non-hotel cabs were all flagged down on the street. I tried to use radio taxis when I could, but had no problems whatsoever with any cabs.

Anyway, we arrived in Buenos Aires on a Saturday afternoon. The hotel had arranged for our pickup at the domestic airport and a short trip later we arrived at the hotel. We opted to just hang around the hotel for the remainder of the afternoon as we would be spending a lot of time in Buenos Aires. The Four Seasons has a very nice pool area which was occupied by other Americans.......not much of a travel story to tell there! The staff of course all spoke perfect English, but throughout the rest of Buenos Aires a good bare bone basic Spanish vocabulary was helpful. Most people did not speak a lot of English, but most knew enough so that between some basic Spanish (or your part) and some basic English (on their part), language did not present a problem.


No one needs any dissertation on dining times in South America. Needless to say that most restaurants do not even open until 8:00. Dining that early would find you alone. One thing that we did not know about which was a great find is that there is no smoking in Buenos Aires’ restaurants. We did encounter one restaurant that had a stand alone smoking dining room, but otherwise our dining was smoke free. For our first dinner in Buenos Aires we decided to try a small place just around the corner known as Juana M. The guide books touted it as a “hard to find” small family place. We arrived at about 9:30 at night with no reservation. For a small family place we were surprised to find that this restaurant was the only restaurant in Buenos Aires for our entire trip that had an attitude. My son speaks Spanish fairly well so we were able to ask for a table for four and explain that we did not have a reservation. It was like we came from another planet. We were placed at a table at the very front of the restaurant in a corner isolated from every other diner. We truly felt that we were in “gringo” isolation. Although the food was very good, the service and “isolation chamber” treatment were very puzzling and made for an uncomfortable dining experience. This was not a case of nervous tourists as we have eaten in non-tourist restaurants in small isolated towns all around the world. It was just weird sitting in a bustling restaurant isolated from other diners. Clearly there were tables with the other diners. Oh well. Fortunately that was never to be repeated during the rest of our stay in Buenos Aires.

Our first full day in Buenos Aires was a Sunday. We hopped in a cab and headed to the San Telmo district. On Sundays there is an antique fair and a fun atmosphere. This is a fun district to wander through as you can see that this was once an affluent area in days gone by. The antiques fair is fun even if you don’t like antiques (we don’t) as there is a festive atmosphere with street musicians and street performers. There is a large indoor market nearby which sells fruits and meats and has some good photographic opportunities. From San Telmo we hailed another cab and headed to La Boca. Everything you read about La Boca is true: it is a tourist trap. Nevertheless if you approach it for what it is, it still can be an enjoyable experience for a short visit. It is true that every building hosts a tacky souvenir shop and that you can’t walk around without tripping over a street tango performer, the gaudy buildings and atmosphere make for a fun short visit. Besides, this is the only place we found in Buenos Aires which was “infested” with tourists. They did not seem to be anywhere else (except in the hotel!). We wandered around for a little over an hour sticking (as the guide books warn) to the tourist district exclusively. There was a heavy police presence so we never felt in danger at all. But driving into the district we did see the areas around the tourist center and felt that they were not to be visited. We ate lunch in a place known as Barberia, a small over-priced Italian restaurant. The food was OK, nothing great. We were told to come back in an hour for the restaurant’s daytime tango show, but we had had our fill of La Boca by this time. My advice: come for a short time, wander the streets, take some pictures, revel in the tourist tackiness and leave. It’s kind of analogous to Frommer’s Buenos Aires guide: the author spends a lot of ink belittling the La Boca district, telling would be visitors to stay away, while the publisher decides that the most fitting cover to a Buenos Aires guide is a picture of La Boca.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel. From there we walked along Avenida Alvear to arrive at the Recoleta crafts fair. On Sunday the area near the Recoleta cemetery is lined with small craft booths selling jewelry, souvenirs and crafts. A bit of am almost hippy like experience and a lot of fun. A good opportunity to buy local souvenirs if that is your thing. After cruising through the crafts fair, we walked over to Recoleta Cemetery. No matter what you have read you cannot be prepared for the scope of the cemetery. It is literally a small city within a large city. Most visitors congregate around the main entrance and then search through the cemetery for Evita’s tomb. If that is what you are here to do you will be disappointed. She is buried in the Duarte family tomb and has only two small plaques to mark her burial place. Can’t find it? No problem.....just follow any tour group and you will be sure to get here. But frankly, see her tomb if you must, but instead wander through the picturesque streets containing many ornate tombs, statues and monuments. This is the place where the monied class was interred....wander freely but get off the beaten track. After leaving the cemetery, we bought some ice cream at the local Freddo branch (no English spoken and no ice cream on display....so know your Spanish equivalent for what flavor you want to buy as you cannot see and point. We wandered through the area around the cemetery. We were amused by street performers who would jump out in front of traffic at a stop light for a minute performance of juggling to get a few coins. We walked through the Buenos Aires Design Center and then back to our hotel. For dinner we stayed local again, walking around the corner to El Mirasol. This Buenos Aires restaurant has a few locations in Buenos Aires. We found the food to be great, the atmosphere to be friendly and the wait staff to be accommodating. Great service, great food and a great price. A monster steak for only $10.00 that would stand up to any premium U.S. steakhouse steak at a fraction of the price. Very little English was spoken here, so learn the name of your favorite cut of beef in Spanish and learn to specify how you like it cooked. “Quiero un lomo a punto, por favor” got me many a fine dinner that week!

Now at this point in time the advantages of a 5 star hotel came into play. During the day my son had complained of a pain in his eye. We thought that he may be coming down with conjunctivitis. By 9:00 P.M. he was in severe pain. A visit by us to the hotel concierge and within 20 minutes there was a doctor in his room. Within the hour prescription medicine was delivered to his room. By the next morning crisis averted. Try to get that to happen somewhere else. Where we live good luck even getting to see a doctor in 2 weeks!

Anyway, all was back to normal by the next day. This day was to be our heavy walking day using 2 of Lonely Planet’s walking tours as a guide. We walked through the area by our hotel and headed towards San Martin Plaza. We passed by the old British Clock Tower (seemingly abandoned) and the Islas Malvinas Monument (Falkland Islands for us “gringos”). The naval guards were quite lackadaisical and seemed much more interested in chatting it up with a female visitor than displaying the rigid “on guard” posture which was probably required! We passed the San Martin statue and continued south on Calle Florida. A pedestrian shopping street, Calle Florida is a great place to shop and see the shopping scene complete with street vendors, street performers, street musicians and (unfortunately) street beggars (usually very young children). We stopped in may of the shops and also visited the Galerias Pacifico mall. We crossed over the immense Avenida 9 de Julio passing the synagogue, theater, Supreme Court and Plaza Lavalle. We then headed back across Avenida 9 de Julio passing by the famed Obelisk. Try making it across the whole street in one try!


We then proceeded along Lavalle, another pedestrian shopping street, albeit not as upscale as Calle Florida. Heading south we ended up at Plaza de Mayo where we saw the Casa Rosada and the Cathedral. Surprisingly in the heart of the city where Buenos Aires began, there are very few restaurants. We had lunch in the Gran Victoria Café which was a very nice café which, despite its name, had a very Italian-themed menu. After lunch we headed south of the Plaza past two very nice baroque churches which were both closed for renovation. Heading back in the opposite direction we arrived at Avenida de Mayo and proceeded to walk towards the Congresso area. The avenue was nothing special and the area around the Congress was a bit seedy. We hopped on the subway to head back to Plaza de Mayo. The subway line we took was the “A” line which still has its historic subway cars, dating back to the inception of the Buenos Aires subway. Make sure you enter the subway from the station going in the right direction as there is often no access from one side to the other. We learned that the hard way! As 4 subway tickets only cost us around $1.00 it was an extremely cheap education!! From Plaza de Mayo we headed to Calle Florida where we did a little more shopping before heading back to our hotel.

For dinner that evening we had a bit of a dilemma: it was Christmas eve which is the subject of celebration in Buenos Aires (and perhaps all of South America). Most restaurants had a “special menu” which consisted of a special Christmas eve dinner, special Christmas entertainment and a special price. As we do not celebrate Christmas and had no desire to spend $100.00 to $200.00 per person, the search began! Our hotel had a special dinner that would only cost us around $400.00 per person....not happening. If we had any sense I guess we could have asked the concierge to recommend an open restaurant serving from their regular menu, but I’m a guy and I hate to ask! I decided that the much-touted bohemian/funky area of Palermo Viejo would probably have may restaurants that avoided the Christmas traditional dinner. We took a cab to the heart of the area (Plaza Serrano) but found everything closed and the streets to be fairly deserted. Kind of creepy. We immediately flagged down a cab and headed to Puerto Madero. The good news is that most of the restaurants were open, but the bad news was that they all had the special menus. I don’t mind spending money on vacation, but spending $600.00 to $800.00 for a dinner for 4 was a bit too much. We had a nice stroll around the area and then went back to our hotel where we had a great meal from room service!

Christmas day in Buenos Aires does not afford the casual tourist with many opportunities. So we decided to take a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. Colonia is a cute little colonial town with picturesque photo opportunities. It is not a prime destination with great sites to see, but it is charming and it does present a new country to add to one’s roster of places visited (if you are an OCD type traveler). We had the hotel obtain ferry tickets on Buquebus. We took a cab to the port, checked in, received our boarding passes and passed through Argentinian and Uruguayan customs all at once. Those rubber stamps were flying! The large ferry was nearly full to capacity mostly with local families. Most passengers seemed to disembark in Uruguay and hop on a bus to Montevideo. The remainder of people were tourists who trudged into the old part of town. The trip over took about 55 minutes as we had opted for the “fast ferry”. The slow ferry takes quite a bit longer. The tickets were not cheap, running over $100.00 per ticket. The Rio de la Plata is quite huge and muddy in appearance and really is an estuary. Outside of the ferry terminal is a Thrifty Car Rental agency where they rent cars, scooters and golf carts. Walking around a little colonial town seemed a little boring to our kids, but touring in a golf cart....a no brainer. So for about $15.00 per hour we rented a golf cart and rode into the old part of town. We stopped frequently and walked around the scenic areas. None of the small museums were open and all of the shops were closed, but we were there for the pictures and the experience. It was very nice for a half-day trip. Lunch did present a problem as most restaurants were closed and the few that were open had a very long wait. When it’s lunch time, my traveling companions have to eat, and eat now! We ended up eating outside of the old town at the restaurant at the El Mirador Hotel. Without a doubt the worse meal of our trip. Who knew that spaghetti was gray in color and that it was served with salsa! An interesting experience nonetheless! We headed back to the ferry terminal, returned our golf cart and once again checked in, received boarding passes, received many rubber stamps in our passports and were on our way back to Buenos Aires.

That night we opted to see a tango show. The number of shows in Buenos Aires is staggering. Our guide in Rio de Janeiro is quite a tango fan so we decided to follow his recommendation. We went to El Viejo Almacen for both the tango show and the dinner. No problem going to this show on Christmas as they seem to always be open! The “VIP Package” entitled us to an upgraded dinner and excellent balcony seats. It also entitled us to private car pickup and return to our hotel. I had made the reservations on line through their website before we left home. The person who responded was very helpful. We enjoyed the show which was a mixture of dance and music. We could have done without the accordion solo though!!

The next day had us taking a more leisurely pace. We explored the La Recoleta area in more detail and of course engaged in more shopping. We walked through Patio Bullrich on Posadas and also visited the shops on Avenida Alvear. Once again we took a stroll through Recoleta Cemetery as the weather was much nicer than the day of our previous visit. We had lunch at La Biela outdoor café and spent a lot of time walking down Avenida Santa Fe with its many shops. Afterwards we visited the Abasto of Buenos Aires Shopping mall. My son was curious to try a hamburger at the kosher McDonalds but gave the burger a big thumbs down in the taste department. For dinner that evening we went to Chiquelin, a restaurant I highly recommend. It has been around for quite a while, has a great ambiance, great food and a very friendly wait staff. Highly recommended.

It was now time to leave the shopping malls and leather shops behind and head for the Pampas. We booked a trip to the Estancia del Ombu de Arecho through our hotel. The trip was pretty good but certainly not the highlight we thought it may be. It was a welcome break from the day to day city trekking. The hotel arranged for a mini-van (not their van, but a rickety, funny smelling private van) to drive the 4 of us to the town of San Antonio del Arecho. The drive there (mostly via non-scenic highway) took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. We arrived at the main square of San Antonio del Arecho in front of a church where other mini-vans with tourists had arrived including a very angry couple from Canada (their transportation had been screwed up). A tour guide (of sorts) met us at the church. We took a 2 minute tour of the church and hopped back into the vans. The vans then transported us to a silversmith’s shop where we had a 5 minute Spanish tour of the shop translated by the guide. Basically we were shown a gaucho belt and accessories. There wasn’t even a sales pitch or the production of products to buy. We were then asked if we wanted to go to a chocolate shop. We all said no. We then drove by a park in town and were shown an old bridge. We all then played musical chairs in the vans, got in a different van and were driven the 10 minute drive to the estancia. The tour had promised a tour of San Antonio del Arecho but we did not even see the gaucho museum, the main sight of the town. Talk about a whirlwind tour! We arrived at the estancia at around 12:30. We were directed to the porch of the main building and were offered drinks. There we sat for a few minutes wondering what we were to do next. We really did not drive for almost two hours just to sit on the porch. We were asked whether we wanted to go for a swim in the pool. No, we came here to ride we responded. Almost reluctantly a ride was set up for us. The ride was fun. We were given your typical tourist horses...fairly tame and basically in control. We rode through the estancia past the cow herd and groups of horses passing over a stream. This is what we came to see. It was one of those “I can’t believe where I am” kind of moments. The ranch was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was the Pampas! After a ride of about 1½ hours guided by gauchos (or guys and gals in gaucho suits) we arrived back at the main house of the estancia for lunch. Estancia del Ombu is a real working estancia, so there are no tourist shows or gaucho presentations. That was why we had chosen it. But when it was all done, we kind of thought that a little tourist schlock might have been nice. We had an asado lunch of steak, sausages and salad which was served on hot plates and was cooked in the adjoining kitchen. Lunch was served communal style. After lunch we asked to go for another ride, but were told (this was around 3:30) that it was time for us to leave. It was a neat experience to visit an estancia, but overall we spent 3½ hours driving for a 15 minute town tour, a 1½ horse ride and a mediocre lunch. That night we ate at an Italian restaurant called Broccolino, rated as the best Italian restaurant “ever” by my daughter (this after growing up in New York and visiting Italy two times).

One day left to go......I had left the final day open for whatever anyone wanted to do. Our kids decided a day relaxing at the hotel would work for them. The Four Seasons was very accommodating.......we had two rooms at the hotel. They told us that if we checked out of one room at 10:00 AM, we could have the other room free of charge until 6:00 PM, the time we needed to go to the airport. A great deal. As it was drizzling, my wife and I decided to visit the MALBA, a modern art museum. Unfortunately when we got there, it did not open until 12:00 PM! There was a shopping mall next door so we thought we would go there and kill an hour, but suddenly the sun came out. We decided to stroll through the park area of Palermo, visiting the Japanese Gardens and the February 3rd (?) Park. After we visited the MALBA which was your typical very silly collection of modern art (really, a framed photograph that the artist riddled with bullets is art?....takes all kinds). For lunch we hopped into a cab and went to Grant’s Restaurant, a large tenedor libre (free fork) buffet where we feasted on steak and Chinese food (the owners are Chinese!!). Afterwards we returned to the hotel to pack.

We had the hotel arrange for their van to take us to the airport. The international airport is quite a distance from downtown Buenos Aires. This, plus the fact that we left during rush hour, made for a long, slow ride. But we left with plenty of time and were able to check in with no problem. The check-in system and lines were a little chaotic but we made it with time to spare. The flights back home left on time and were fairly uneventful. The great thing about traveling to South America is that there is no issue with jet lag. The time difference between Argentina and home was only one hour.

All in all, a great time and great adventure. A friendly country where the dollar goes far and is fairly easy to get around. Businesses have American type hours, while restaurants would balk at the very concept of the “early bird special” (I live in Florida!!). Any questions.....I would be glad to respond!

drdawggy

Thanks for the detailed and entertaining trip report.

Christmas eve....wow, you spent more for one meal than I typically spend in a week for food when I visit BA. Memo to self: Skip Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires.

jrlaw10

No...not really. We refused to spend that much and therefore ended up with room service!

avrooster

Thank you for a great report, jrlaw10!

Please forgive our famous drdawggy for not reading your post more attentively!

Don't worry, just kidding!

When should we expect you back?

jrlaw10

Our mad dash in search of a reasonable dinner on Christmas Eve was one of our amusing highlights. Otherwise Bs As was a great experience and an easy, hassle free vacation. As for returning, Patagonia beckons...so we hope one day soon. Besides, my jar of Havanna dulce de leche is running low!

owlwoman

Nice report, really enjoyed this and the Iguazu falls portion too! Brought back many fond memories.

You do need to come back and go to Patagonia, it was beyond my wildest dreams, the Northwest is great too, so many places, so little time!

Thank you.

csmith331

Hi! My husband has to go to Rio for a few days for work and offered to take me! From there we wanted to extend our trip to another nearby city (we're looking into Buenos Aires). Is this doable? Would you suggest the Falls for sure? Are there any other MUST GO locations that you would pair with Rio? I have never been to South America and am just beginning my research. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

jrlaw10

We did Rio, Iquazu and Buenos Aires. The falls are a must ONLY if you like scenic natural beauty. If nature is not your thing, skip the falls. The falls also were a good break between 2 husting/bustling cities.

annetti

Very nice trip report. Thank you. By the way, two years ago in Berlin, my husband felt ill. I asked the desk clerk around 11:30AM where we could find a local doctor. She said, she would call a doctor for us and that he would be there at 1:00pm. At 1:05pm, he knocked on our hotel door, examined my husband, prescribed some medicine for him that I could pick up at the local pharmacy, and charged us about $45 US for the house call. Part of the expense, that is the $45 bill , he said, was the mileage to the hotel that he had to add to our bill. He spent about 45 minutes with us. Certainly, we could never have been treated so well and so fairly at home, that is, if we could have gotten an appointment on such short notice. And a home visit probably went out in the 50s here in the US.

SharonG

Nice report. Brought back happy memories of my own trip to BA. Also stayed at the Four Seasons and had a terrible sinus condition. There is a pharmacy kind of around the corner from the hotel where the pharmacist was extremely kind to me, gave me some great medicines and even mixed up a little fizzy concoction right there to help my ears clear out! Love that city.

cheryl_b

i just want to give a plug to El Establo restaurant on Paraguay and San Martin. i'm still thinking about the brochette of lomo and jamon. it's a delicious, typical, friendly restaurant that was open both christmas and new year's when we were in a similar holiday restaurant fix...so next time you're in BA over the holidays, you'll know where to go! (and save some dough!)

alan64

Thanks for the report. Just the kind of info that'll help on our trip to BA in April.

drdawggy

Cheryl, I hope you enjoyed your lomo with a nice Malbec. mmmmm I love el establo!

cheryl_b

soft and delicious malbec, yum. and champagne on new year's! (el establo not only has great food but our waiter had the bluest eyes i've ever seen. but i digress) i brought home malbec from the airport and then my local warehouse at home had norton reserve on sale. i bought myself more for my birthday, lol.

you know, my goal in life is to fill a passport before it expires. i've come close. it is always hard to balance the desire to experience a new destination with the need to return to and more fully explore a place you've been before. clearly, i'm not done with argentina...

gardngrl

Owlwoman (or anyone with an opinion), what part of patagonia was "beyond your wildest dreams," and why? We are planning September trip to Buenos Aires and Iguazu. Can do one other area and don't know how to choose. Have read lots of Fodor's reports, but guess I need someone to club me over the head and drag me off by the hair--just can't decide.