Tours in Buenos Aires

• Places to Explore
• Sights
• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Travel Tips
• Features

Tours

Consider having an Argentine travel agent book your tours and flights within the country. It's not uncommon for domestic airlines to have two ticket prices, one for residents and one for foreigners. Although this may seem unfair, try to see it from the point of view of someone whose currency is as weak as the Argentine peso and who's paying for flights priced in the same dollar amounts as before devaluation.

Argentinago (11/4372-7268. www.argentinago.com) organizes hotels and tours in Buenos Aires and tours elsewhere, including all-inclusive two- and three-week packages to Argentina's top destinations. A dynamic way to see the city's sights is on two wheels through La Bicicleta Naranja (11/4362-1104. www.labicicletanaranja.com.ar). You can either rent a bicycle (with helmet, lock, and water bottle) and follow one of the routes on their excellent maps or go with a fun young guide who'll talk you through it all -- in Spanish or English -- on general or themed trips.

Eternautas (11/4384-7874. www.eternautas.com) offers cultural and historical tours (in Spanish or English) led by highly informed guides who are historians from the University of Buenos Aires. The company can organize basic city orientation tours as well as themed ones (e.g., Evita, the literary city, Jewish Buenos Aires). Eternautas can also organize side trips to San Antonio de Areco and Tigre. The small Web-based company, Tour Experience (11/4383-0717 Ext. 36. www.tourexperience.com.ar) is taking tourism to new extremes with its alternative city tours. During its explorations of Villa 20, a shantytown in the Lugano neighborhood, a resident shows you around precarious corrugated-iron housing and a cooperative that residents have started. Tour proceeds go to the villa inhabitants.

For tailor-made tours contact Wow! Argentina (11/5239-3019. www.wowargentina.com.ar). Cintia Stella and her team design packages and arrange for flights, lodging, transfers, and organized excursions/activities all over Argentina.