Buenos Aires, Dirtry, Racist, Expensive
 

I am just leaving Buenos Aires and could not be happier; I have a few more hours. You know, I have read all these forums before venturing to BA, my partner and I, are attorneys from NYC and I most certainly now believe most of what is posted is paid for work! Compare BA with other destinations and see the difference in style, the simplicity and honest exchanges - i will not trust expert recommendations in future from the prolific posters. Although, the best advice I received was to use Buenos Aires Stay apartments -my view of BA:
1. It is the dirtiest and noisiest city I have ever visited
2. It is not cheap, I would say that food and alcohol prices are equal to the US
3. The locals smile, but their contempt is obvious, they just want your Dollars and do everything possible for ‘A few Dollars more.’ What happened to these once proud people?
4. They dislike Americans and their obvious racism towards my black boyfriend meant that we did not feel like going to clubs at night – shame on you Portenos! Maybe you are not ready to enter a modern world?
5. Recoleta is awash with girly bars and street children begging, the restaurants are very expensive and very poor in the main – the beef???! – Texas beef knocks the socks off the horrible beef I ate in most restaurants apart from one Felix Olla, Juncal y Rod Pena, highly recommended
6. The streets of Palermo Soho and Belgrano are the two places that seem to have been upgraded recently, although I would not recommend Soho as I witnessed two thefts (or crying women with police) on my two visits. The rest of the city I grisly.
7. I loved the areas around Belgrano, Las Canitas and the North East of Palermo and would highly recommend these barrios or Recoleta – stay away from Centro and San Telmo
8. Centro is a disgusting mess unless you are at Congreso or Plaza Mayo and the surrounding streets are not safe after dark.
9. San Telmo is very dangerous and I was approached on Derego Square with menace twice, once at 5pm one day and again at 2am when getting into my apartment
10. I rented an apartment in SanTelmo and the agency was great, but when I complained and wanted to move from San Telmo, I was stuck with a contract and without the agencies help we might of lost both our deposit and residual rent, they put a new tenant in our apartment with the landlord’s agreement and moved us next door to them on Junin and Pena, great studio and the area is much better for tourists, it is called north barrio.
11. The agency we used is called Buenos Aires Stay and they were very good, but remember that once you rent an apartment, you are stuck in that apartment subject to a tenancy agreement, if you do not like the area or have a problem tough. We were told we were lucky to get to move.
12. Use an agency that hold your security deposit, the owners cannot be trusted
13. Although Buenos Aires Stay were wonderful I cannot recommend entering into a legal agreement whilst on holiday or renting an apartment –too much can go wrong

Wow! You clearly did not visit the same Buenos Aires where we spent a month in December!!!

I really do fail to see what relevance the fact that the poster is an attorney from NYC has on the matter, but each to their own opinion..

"horrible beef"!

As the French say, "A chacun son goût"!

1- you obviously haven't traveled much.
2- It is called Inflation, madam attorney and if you really had done your homework, you would have known this. It is still less expensive than the US.. peso/dollar is almost $3.50
3-ridiculous comment
4-Umm.. they are Americans here too... it is called South America. There is a huge community of North American Expats here plus visitors plus people from all around the world, everyone seems to be treated with kindness and respect. But I have heard that you are generally treated according to your own behavior.. maybe you should look into that.
Not really racist, there just are not a large amount of black people living in BA. They are polite to everyone, probably depends on the behavior of the visitor too.
5-Awash = one block on an interesection with about 4 bars.
Highly recommended by whom? never heard of it.
6-" I grisly ", did you speak this way when visiting ? Maybe you just confused everyone with your garbled speech?
7-You loved them but you hate BA? Those are neighborhoods in BA... did you ever look at a map?
8-yes, much like areas in my old home town NYC after dark.
9-Was it one of those old women that live there or was it a child playing in the street? They can be very menacing, I am sure.
10-no- it is called Bario Norte. Residential, families, etc.
11-All agencies have rules and this is one of them. While it doesn't cater to the rules people like you try to make, it works here. Believe it or not, there are visitors, even lawyers from other countries who come here and try to cheat people on rent etc..
12-"the owners cannot be trusted" .. I cannot believe how rude you are.
13-I can only say that it is a blessing to the sweet and friendly people of Buenos Aires that a couple of losers err, lawyers from NYC don't want to come back here.
As an ex-resident of NYC, I am truly embarrassed for you..
Next year just go to the Hamptons, if you can afford it... sounds more your style.

OK prolific posters – are Argentine’s racist?
How can I recommend signing a tenancy agreement designed only to make vacationers give up possession of their apartment at the termination date, which offers the tenant no protection whatsoever. Are you disputing our views OR just blowing smoke? My views are honest; I am not selling Buenos Aires. This forum needs balance and prejudice is not acceptable. Tell me what have posted that is not factual? I expected these responses! Keep selling people.

The OP says "They dislike Americans" Really? after reading a post like this I can't see why!!!

What would be truly surprising is if everyone who visited BAires came back in love with the City. Obviously, that doesn't happen, and certainly didn't happen here. The same is true for every major city I can think of: people love/hate Paris, Rio, NYC.

Often there is little you can do to convince them otherwise, and attempting to do so is likely not fruitful.

Now, having said that - we've visited a lot of cities and absolutely love BAires. Objectively, many of your points are simply wrong. As for noise --- "noisier than NYC?" Are you kidding? Likewise, why anyone would think it might be easy to get out of a lease for a rental apartment is also surprising.

Hope you choose your next destination more carefully and enjoy your next trip a bit more.

sarah
if you had only done some homework, you would know that <b>all</b> rental agreements are the same.. they are wary of being ripped off by tourists who decide they don't like the neighborhood or whatever and leave, not paying or wanting money back.. it is The Way Things Are Done Here, not racist.
We are white, we had the same deal, twice. We knew before hand and accepted it and didn't whine.
You could have stayed in a hotel. No one forced you to stay in that apartment.

We read this forum daily. We never respond to posts about Buenos Aires Stay. However, the attacks here by various ‘members’ are a little too personal and we might add that our two very young new law graduates did have a few hard knocks and they are not experienced travellers – in fact, (poor things) this was their first vacation outside the world’s most ‘geo-aware’ populous, just joking! We call it ‘sods law.’ once you have one problem with a client, keep a watchful eye, and expect three! We are often convinced that companies post and recommend themselves and some of the posting and counter-posting is misleading. We always post, when we find a minute, as Buenos Aires Stay. Sarah was our client, she is entitled to her opinion, and most certainly, there is racism in Buenos Aires. May we ask how many of you putting forward your views are black? This couple had some tough times, we can tell you. Anyway, we think Sarah's views are a combination of shock (threatened at her door), anger, and disappointment. We would welcome a more balanced review when Sarah has time to consider all the facts, as we spoke to her for an hour or two and she had a number of positive things to say about this wonderful city and its wonderful people. However, she does make some valid points. Points we must consider; especially those of us who might work in the Buenos Aires travel industry, there must be some balance in these forums. We hope that you all agree. If not, email us, as we prefer to deal with real people privately - [email protected]
Best
Andrew Rae McCance
http://www.buenosairesstay.com

As avrooster said &quot; a chacun son gout ', I am sorry they had such a bad, bad, bad experience vis- a -vis so many of us having good experiences. I only can say from my own experience that in life one tends to get back what one gives.... it is very difficult unless you have a LOT of bad luck that if you are ready to give politeness, kindness, a smile ....you consistently get a bad experience. I have tried this all over the world and the response has been usually very positive and that is why I have enjoyed tremendously my trips all over the world. Again I am sorry about the bad experience.
As a rule it is true I prefer hotels than apartments not only in Buenos Aires but at any destination. It might be because I always wish to be free to leave without penalties for whatever reason. For same reason I hate to pre pay stays in hotels, I rather pay a little more and be free.

Buenos Aires,

Dirtry, Racist, Expensive

my partner and I, are attorneys from NYC and I most certainly now believe most of what is posted is paid for work!

the height of tact

insulting helpful posters

and a great city in the same post.

Compared to NYC

BA is a pristine paradise...

You need to man up...

travel more

maybe go to Paris

step in some dog poop...

I would've thought NYC lawyers would've felt right at home in a hostile environment! :-)
Unfortunate that they came away with this experience. Portenos are usually not as warm as Brazilians, but then again, nobody is. Didn't see overt racism but did notice that Portenos are more reserved and are Europhiles than other South Americans.
Disagree about the food - there's certainly great beef in Argentina &amp; the prices are much, much lower than in comparable NYC restaurants.

SarahNYC:

So sorry you had such a bad time in Buenos Aires. Our experience was quite different - an excellent visit and a very positive experience of Porte&ntilde;os with their helpfulness and friendliness.

There is some strong bias against blacks in Buenos Aires - it is even noted by SALTSHAKER regarding one restaurant in San Telmo - and that would be hard to take.

The response of Mr. McCance for BA Stay was balanced and thoughtful - a positive reflection on his company and on TA readers.

I hope, Sarah, that you will not be put off traveling - or Argentina - but that you will take time to settle in after your trip and think through the positives and the negatives as you consider how to avoid some of the problems and have a better vacation next time.

Those of us who appreciate Buenos Aires do get a bit protective and defensive of criticism - and your criticism was harsh.

Better travels in the future - to wherever, ~MarnieWDC

Most of the time, the only &quot;selling&quot; that goes on in this forum is enthusiastic travelers giving recommendations about destinations they know and love. Every so often, someone shows up to promote their business (not allowed), but other than those rare occasions, no one here has anything to gain by telling you how terrific Argentina or Costa Rica are. (Those seem to be the two main camps.)

I think there is racism at play in Latin America. Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes it's overt. African-American friends and acquaintances have told me that, overall, they've had good times in their travels in this part of the world, but they sometimes run into awkward situations when they go to clubs and bars at night. There's no excuse for that happening, but I think it does go on.

I do not get why you think you're supposed to be let out of a rental agreement you signed. You, as attorneys, should know better than anyone the meaning of a binding legal agreement. If you don't want those restrictions, you should stay in a hotel.

BuenosAiresStay:

I don't know about MAC, but on my computer ALT 164 will give you n with the squiggle - however, although it showed up in my original post on this thread, it is not showing up as I type this??? Oh well. Try it.

~MarnieWDC

Porte&ntilde;o - on the Mac, press Option and n together then release and press n again.

I didn't care for the Argentine beef either. Much prefer USDA rib-eyes.

MY

Reisender, I know it would not be allowed on other forums but Fodors seems to allow things these days that were not ok a while back. . Maybe this is one of them.

Interesting that the hotel just happened to pop in on this one too.

I don't eat steak but have heard from fellow expats as well as the Well-Traveled Porte&ntilde;os here, that the steak/beef here is much more flavorful ( than the US) and probably elsewhere, except Japan... because they are grass fed. It seems to result in meat that actually tastes like meat.
But they must do something right, they are the third largest beef exporter in the world ..
Brazil and Australia being first and second.