I just came back from a 2 weeks visit in Argentina and Uruguay. I had my husband and my 2 teenage children with me and we arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning and took a taxi and went to the apartment I had booked in the internet in San Martin area about one block from the Florida St.The apartment was not exactly what the pictures showed in their website, however, having the kids with me the location couldn't be possibly better. I felt safe enough to let them explore the area few hours at the time while my husband and I got a taxi and visited all the places we wanted to visit. If We were alone without the kids, I probably would have stayed in Recoleta area which I thought was very lovely. I cann't say enough about how impress we all were about the beautiful people of Argentia. Almost everyone we met went out of their way to be nice and helpful. The first thing we did was to go to SanTelmo, and had a lunch and then took a taxi to the La boca to visit the area and have the kids visit the Boca Junior stadium. Later that night we visited the Palermo area and had dinner. The next morning we went to the retiro station and took the train to Mitre and transfered to the coastal train and went to Tigre. The ride was so pleasant and once there, the kids wanted to stay in the Parque de la Costa which is located right next to the area you exist the train(they had so much fun) while my husband and I enjoyed exploring this area. After returning to the city, we checked few more historical places and for the next 4 days rented a car which I had booked few months ago and drove to Rosario to spend few days with friends we know. My husband managed to drive safely and withou getting lost all the way to Rosario and back. He had experience driving in Italy, Egypt, Moroco, France , Costa Rica , and Mexico, so he handeled the driving in Argentia too, however, next time we visit Argentina, we will only use taxi and the bus for long distances. We visited few resturant Dr.dawggy had recommended in Puerto Madero and Recoleta and Palermo and enjoyed every single one. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with so much charm and history and great friendly people and great food. The exchange rate made everything so inexpensive. On our last day in Buenos Aires, we drove all the way to Mar Del Plata and came back late at night. We had only few hours to spend there but kids enjoed going to the beach and meeting with kids their own age. One thing that I didn't expect was that not too many people spoke english even in the center of Buenos Aires and all the tourist areas. The next day, we took the fast ferry at 11:00 in the morning to go to Colonia. After picking our rental car from Trifty(the office is right next to the ferry), we stayed few lovely hours in Colonia walking around the charming city and had late lunch at a resturant by the water (El Torreun)I am not sure about the spelling but they had the best steak(lomo) I have ever tasted but it wasn't cheap. We drove to Montevideo and checked into our hotel and started walikg around the city. I had originaly booked our hotel in Montevideo because I couldn't find any rooms in PUnta Del Este, so the next choice for us was this city and I though we will stay here and durinng the day wee will drive to Punta Del Este. I booked with Holiday Inn in Montevideo because when I am not sure about any city, I like to stay with names I know, However, the hotel was nice but my suprise was Montevideo. I had the impression from reading this site that this was not the city to stay or visit. We thought Montevideo was very nice and enjoyed it a great deal and never felt unsafe at any time. I think if you are in Uruguay to visit Punta Del Este, you should visit Montevideo for few days. The first time we drove to Punta Del Este, we decided to look to find any hotel to stay overnight to avoid the drive back the next day. We found a hotel right next to the Brava beach so we had 2 hotel rooms at the same time both in Montevideo and in Punta Del Este. Kids loved Punta Del Este, swimming, surfing, and having fun with friends they met. I personally thought Punta Del Este was over rated. Everything cost 3 times more than in Buenos Aires and it was so crowded that made one feel uncomfortable. It is a beautiful city with the same feel as if you are in Hawaii. I don't know may be I was expecting more!!. Again the people made anything unpleasant into lovely. Both In Argentina and Uruguay, I met the nicest people. On our last day we drove back to MOntevideo and spend the afternoon walikg around the city checking places that were suggested to be seen. The next day drove back to Colonia and returned our car and spend the afternoon there and took the ferry back to Buenos Aires and took a taxi to the airport for our late at night fligh back to the U.S. I cann't wait to plan my next visit to Argentia, there is still so much to see.

Great report, seeall!!!

Thank you for your feedback.

I'll probably post your report in another forum, so everybody can see it.

Hi seeall, I also enjoyed your report, and I am very happy that you and your family ejoyed your trip and met nice people. It makes such a difference...
Argentina is a big country and I am sure that if you ever visit other areas like Bariloche, or Mendoza you will love them too.
I agree that Punta is expensive, it is trendy, and the influx of tourists many wealthy Argentinean rises prices, the crowds rise the demand and that is it,
I live in the US but I love visiting Argentina and Uruguay too. I know them well but always find them fascinating and today I enjoy the extra power of the exchange rate. Thank you for your travelogue.

I am planning my next trip . I do miss Argentian already! I am planning to arrive in Buenos Aires, go to Iguaza FAlls for 3 days, take a bus to Salta and spend 3 days there and drive to Mendoza and spend 4 days. I am considering 4 more days in Chile(take a bus from Mendoza to Chile). Any suggestions?

Sorry for the wrong spelling:
I miss the beautiful Argentina

Thanks for your report. I am planning my first visit to Argentina in November. I am getting very excited.

Great trip report, seeall. I’m glad to see that you enjoyed Argentina so much. My husband and I were in Buenos Aires in July 2005 and our impression of Argentina is quite different from yours. To us, Buenos Aires was a disappointment. We had a chance to travel many places of the world, and we often fell in love with the country we visited. But Buenos Aires was one of the few places that we did not feel that way. Well, everyone has a different taste.

People often describe Buenos Aires as Paris of South America. And I have romanticized the city and was so looking forward to visiting the beautiful city we heard so much about. When Argentinean Peso was pegged to US Dollar, the place was so expensive…and that added the mystique, too.

I cannot articulately describe this, but Buenos Aires has a strange vibe. People in BA are trying so hard to be “European” and deny the fact that they are South American. When visiting other Latin American countries, even it is developing country and poor, we felt the national pride of the people. But in BA we did not feel such Argentinean pride; in our opinion, the city was lacking the sense of self.

Everything they value was imported from European countries. Architectures in the city are very incongruent; lots of French styles, but different period buildings are next to each other. Interior of the building is pure European…almost denying or forget the fact that you are in Argentina.

Another issue that bothered us was the air quality in BA. Emission control is not high on their priority list, which is the typical problem in developing country. Black smoke was coming out from buses and cars, and I had hard time breathing. I felt that my lung would turn black from breathing the air.

That being said, we really enjoyed the nightlife in BA. We loved their music and Tango was great.

Btw, we went to Chile, November 2004. Patagonia and Atacama Desert were great.

mochi:
How was your impression of Chile?

I'm glad you had a great time in Argentina. I love it too. Buy I have to disagree with Mochi's reply. Argentinians do not try hard to act like europeans. When you say a thing like that it just shows that you do not know the culture. Argentinians are discendants from europeans (somes so recently as the 20th century). That's the reason why it looks so much like Europe. It's a country that was made BY europeans. It's not that they are trying to look like them, it's just that it's their heritage. Most people in Argentina are descendants from people from Spain, Italy, Armenia, Germany, Croatia, and many more countries. There's even a japanese community (Thus why you have the Japanese Garden). You can say that Argentina is a melting pot and the result you see in the country is exactly that: a mixture of different cultures.
Another thing, when you visited Argentina was in 2005. If you have seen the news, you should know that the country is going through a major economic crash. Argentina is still recovering. And doing a fine job, I might say. I was there in 2004 and just returned this week. In a year and a half I have seen many improvements, not only in the structure of the city, but as well as the people.
I have many friends in Argentina and precisely one of the things they are very proud of is being argentinians. If you had ever participated in any of their holidays, you should have noticed that.
It's just sad when people make judgements on other places from just one visit.

Loved reading your report..We are going to Argentina in mid Feb for 13 days..My husband read about Punte del Este recently and he absolutely wants to go there, so I will plan on our last 2 nights there at the end of our trip. We will be coming from Calafate..Can't wait!

Puri,

Thanks for your comment. Yes, you are right – I do not know Argentinean culture very well. My husband and I are casual travelers. Our travel objective is to enjoy the different culture and have fun in the city - so, what I mentioned above are just our personal opinion/impression of BA; no disrespect to the country. However, I would like to point out that when visiting foreign countries, my husband and I always take time to read and understand visiting country’s history, food, culture, etc. I think having such knowledge will help appreciate and enjoy the country more. Therefore matters you pointed out, such as a composite of population made out by people from European nations, and why particular building was modeled after certain period of European architectural style, we were well aware of that. So, in spite of having such knowledge, we somehow still got that impression.

I do agree with your comments on the Argentina’s economic recovery. I work in the finance field, so I closely monitored Argentinean economy during that period. After going through such devastating devaluation (which was necessary!), I am very impressed that Argentineans worked so hard to pull through this and restore their economy. Argentineans deserve a lot of respect on their effort and achievement.

It’s always very nice to have friends in the country you are visiting. That is a real treat - you can enjoy and appreciate the city/country so much more by spending with your local friends. We are just not as lucky as you are.

Molchi your comments are strange. There are no prouder people than the Argentines. They just like to complain a lot, although there are no warmer people in the world. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of times that they went out of their way for me. They are smart, worldly, passionate, warm, sweet, prone to complaining(which is a way for them to socialize)and they have not been smart in selecting leaders. It's also funny that because of their geographical state you want them to adopt to South American customs, when that is not many of their heritage. Many people in BA can speak Italian, should they neglect that side of them. Also, as the other poster pointed out, it is a melting pot there and in your limited time you could not have possibly been exposed to the full extent.

Of course you are entitled to your opinions , as I am to challenge them. You are right about the fumes though, although as they emerge out of their economic crisis, enforcing those rules have not been on top of their list.

Mochi:

I'm surprised that working in the financial field you say that the devaluation in the economic crisis was necessary. A lot of people don't know what really happened during the crisis. The banks just ran out of the country with peoples savings. We have friends that lost all their life savings because of that. And it was also a time when a lot of suicides went on, because of the crisis. So I really don't see why it was necessary such a thing. And necessary to whom?

Everybody is entitled to an impression when traveling and, of course, are entitled to have negative opinions. I just wanted to point out what might have caused your negative opinion on this city. Like I said, it's a culture that relies in it's heritage, which is mostly european. And it shows in every way. But that mixture of different european cultures is what has become in the argentinian culture.

While I disagree with most of what Mochi said, I DO agree with her that the devaluation of the peso was inevitable. In fact, I forecast it months before it happened.

The one peso=one dollar rule was totally artificial, could not last forever and should never have been enacted in the first place.

Oh, BTW, I also agree about the pollution.

Doledrums,

Yes, I definitely agree with you about people. Argentineans are wonderful people. My husband and I have very limited Spanish understanding, but we can still tell they are kind, warm, passionate, and fun loving people. Even when we had difficulty in communicating, they are always patient with us and tried to be helpful to us in anyway. Well, our language level is so basic that we did not understand when they were complaining : )

As mentioned in my previous post, we truly enjoyed Argentinean music, which we had very little interest until we visited there. I am grateful that I had a chance to learn about Daniel Barenboim, a great Argentinean musician. He is an accomplished classical music pianist and conductor, and is now focusing on Tango music. His music is simply sublime – it’s so crisp. He brought Tango music to much higher level. I am now hooked on his CDs.

While we disliked touristy San Telmo, we absolutely loved the experience at Ferria de Mataderos on Sunday, watching local people dance. That was so lovely.

So, when compartmentalizing (?) individual experiences in Buenos Aires, we can list many positive points. But the BA city experience as a whole, we got a strange vibe. I wish I could articulate the reasons other than the ones listed on my previous post. It’s totally subjective one – again, I do not mean to offend BA, Argentina or its people.