Transportation To/From Buenos Aires Airport

I've been to BA a couple of times on business in the past year. My colleague who goes there regularly, and the BA/US dual resident who was sitting beside me on my first trip there, both recommended that I use the car service that you can book on arrival at the airport, rather than take a regular taxi. You don't need to book in advance. When you clear customs and come out into the main arrivals area, you will be able to see easily a row of booths - I can't remember if all of them are for car services or just one, but it is easy to find the car service booth. You tell them where you're going, you can pay by credit card, and then you're given a voucher and a staff member escorts you around to the other side of the booth where you wait with a staff member for either your driver or a person who escorts you to the driver. (I must confess I can't remember 100% of the details of this process because a couple of different South American airports are blurring in my mind at the moment. But I do remember that it was easy to do and I was well taken care of.) It wasn't exorbitant, although I can't remember the exact amount.

On the way back to the airport, I had the hotel book the taxi because I was leaving early in the morning and knew I'd be a bit fuzzy-headed.

frogoutofwater is right. Get one of those cars with a chofer for a set price.
you can go to their web site www.manueltiendaleon.com.ar

I think there is another company but both are similar. This is the larger one.

http://www.tiendaleon.com.ar/home/home.asp

this is the correct www, they also have bus services. You can see everything in the web.

Whatever you do, do NOT board a car which cannot be prepaid in a formal-looking booth.

That said, there are several firms which provide transportation into town. Tienda León has already been mentioned. There is also VIP and World Car as well as http://www.taxiezeiza.com.ar/ which costs 98 pesos going into town and 78 pesos when you leave. They have a new office at Ezeiza, shown in their website.

You can certainly pay Tienda León with your credit card. I'm not sure about the others. If you pay in cash, it is better to pay in pesos, but they should also take dollars.

Another word of caution: avoid like the plague a conveniently located currency exchange booth called "Global Exchange". They are crooks. At this writing, you should get about 3,80 pesos for each dollar you exchange.

Have a great time in our country.

As I read the helpful warning from Avrooster of the bad guys that give you a bad money exchange in BS AS Airport it comes to my mind the similarly but funny situation I encountered in the airport at MExico City, coming back from the plane it was a long walk, the first kiosk for money exchanging came into sight offering XX rate, then a few steps down the road came up the second kiosk offering a better rate, then a third offering even a better rate....I do not recall if there were a fourth...etc because we changed in No. 3 but I believe that indeed there were a few after no. 3.
In Buenos Aires it is more or less the same the first one you see is the one to be avoided :Global Exchange , hidden but not far are the good guys Banco de la Nacion Argentina which happens to be the offcial bank.
There is an Spanish saying En todos lados se cuecen habas, meaning everywhere they prepare or cook the same stew

To add to avrooster:

Yes, you can pay with credit card at World Car and VIP, both of which are very good and a bit less pricey than LeonTienda.

Be sure to get the coupon they offer for 20% off your return trip to the airport. It is easy to telephone them from your hotel etc. early in the day of your departure.

They all have English speakers.

Have a good trip, ~MarnieWDC

We used Taxi Ezeiza and the process was very easy. The problem that we encountered was that the driver did not know exactly where our hotel was. At the airport I showed him the address and hotel name. He repeated the name of the hotel and it sounded like he knew the hotel and off we went. It turned out that we crossed the hotel's (one way) street several times before we got to the hotel. Had I known he was uncertain I could have shown him the location on my map but by the time I realized what was going on it was too late. Adding 15 minutes to an already long trip was little a bit frustrating but at least the fair was a flat rate.

Dr Dawggy recommends not booking in advance to avoid long waits for a driver, esp. in event your plane is delayed, etc. I've read on here that walking directly to a Taxi Ezeiza booth (or World Car or VIP) after leaving Customs is the best way to go. Taxi Ezeiza at $98 pesos (around $25 USD?) sounds like best deal out of 3 options...

Usually people say get your cash from an ATM machine for best rates -- but this doesn't apply in Argentina? I've never gone to an exchange for cash but I've never been to S. America either...

thanks everyone for replying to these familiar questions!

The first time we arrived we did not book a car and took a regular taxi 80 pesos. I speak some Spanish and we did arrive in Palermo. The second time in October we booked through our B&B and had a driver assistant hold the sign with my name, called the driver, took us where we were going and it was 100 pesos. I vote to book in advance. The ATM is bank Nacional, walk out the arrival terminal, walk to your left. The people waiting in line are not waiting for the ATM, they are waiting for the bank to open.