Back from Buenos Aires
 

We just returned from BA and received many good suggestions from this forum. Here is a brief summary of some of our activities/thoughts:

We stayed at the Art Suites in Recoleta. We are a family of 4, and the apartment worked out really well for us. Lots of good advice from the staff and doormen about things to do--and very nice people. The neighborhood was great; we mostly ate there in restaurants that weren't in the guidebooks.

We spent 6 nights in BA--with two day trips: One to Tigre and one to Colonia. In Tigre we went on a small boat with Safari Delta, which we liked a lot.

We watched Evita before we went to BA and found that the movie helped us appreciate her importance to the country. We went to the Evita museum and to the Recoleta cemetery.

Based on a suggestion in this forum, we went to the milonga at La Confiteria Ideal at around 5:30 pm on a Monday. It was fascinating to watch.

We took the free BA walking tours--both the morning historical tour at 11 and the cultural/Recoleta tour at 5 pm. They were really worthwhile.

One touristy restaurant that we went to was El Sanjuanino for empanadas, which we liked both for the food and the service. We also tried both Freddo and Volta for ice cream...hard to decide which we liked better.

We did hail taxis in the street--but only radio taxis. In the restaurants the waiters warned us to be careful with our purses and keep them on our laps. One of the women that we met on our walking tour had a gold chain pulled off her neck on a busy street corner. We didn't wear jewelry, and we didn't have a problem--though we always were on guard.

All in all we had a great trip and felt that we spent the right amount of time in BA. We like cities and did a lot of walking in different neighborhoods. Even though we had read a lot about BA, it exceeded our expectations.

Hola !
We had lunch with friends today at the Evita Museum Cafe. I love the museum and the cafe !
Did you see her monument in the park in front of the Biblioteca Nacional? on Libertador .. very nice.
I am so glad you liked the Art Suites. Did you eat at the restaurant down the street on the corner ? I always forget the name .. when we were in BA for our holiday visit, we stayed at the Art Suites and ate in that restaurant at least 3-4 times !
Volta. lol
I am so happy to hear that your visit went well, and that it was even better than you expected !
Be careful, it seems people tend to come back again and again, some even more here ! :)

Thank you for your great report, jag1jag1!

Do you think you could elaborate a little on:

1) "restaurants that weren't in the guidebooks"

2) Your day trip to Tigre

3) The afternoon free BA tour. The reason I ask is that one of my daughters sometimes leads it. Her name is Cecilia.

When should we expect you and your family back in Argentina, maybe to tour other places besides BA?

Thanks for your report. Is there a url for the free tours?

Here's the URL for the free tours, which I also recommend highly:

www.bafreetour.com

Yes, that's the URL, and yes, Cecilia was our guide. We went on the afternoon tour with her. The next day, about half the people on the morning tour with Gaston had been on our tour with Cecilia the previous afternoon. That's a pretty good indication of how much people enjoyed being on her tour, since there was certainly no obligation to take the other tour!

I'm trying to recall the names of the restaurants to pass on. I think Sante was the one on the corner close to the Art Suites (maybe someone else can confirm)? We also went to Sette Bacco and Celetto in Recoleta. In addition, we went to one of the "secret restaurants," although it's been written up a lot, so it isn't really secret anymore. He chef, Diego, worked in San Francisco. www.colectivofelix.com.

On our last day we had lunch at La Brigada in San Telmo. We don't really eat beef much, but the steak there was delicious. (We went to Miranda in Palermo, which had a very lively atmosphere, but we thought the food was somewhat disappointing.) In Colonia we ate on the square, and I tried a chivito, the national sandwich. I have to say it was really good (steak, egg, cheese, mayo etc.!!!!)

We had a driver to Tigre and took the regular train back. We went on a small zodiac with a driver, on parts of the delta where the other boats can't go. It was lots of fun. We stopped for lunch at El Gato Blanco and sat outside, which was very pretty. The other restaurant options only served beef and probably were less touristy than what we chose, but we needed a broader menu that had more than just beef. The email is [email protected], and we booked our boat ahead of time.

Let me know if you have other questions.

If I am NOT mistaken, Cecilia was my guide on the morning tour when I was in Buenos Aires in May of 2010 (my third visit). She was knowledgeable, quite personable as well as delightful. That cloudy morning then sun latter in the early afternoon had about eleven individuals from various parts of the world. I felt comfortable as well as at ease with all of them, but your daughter made this tour what it turned out to be: great!!

I'd wanted to go on the Recoleta tour in the afternoon but was too tired to budge from my lovely apartment on that particular day.

<Thanks for your report jag1jag1; I remember your initial queries, and I am truly elated that you enjoyed your stay amongst the Portenos & Portenas! I have always done so!!!>

Thank you, jag1jag1!

Eddwarm: My daughter has only recently started leading the afternoon tour, so she cannot have been your guide at that time.

Hi AV -- maybe we'll get your daughter if we do a tour in March when we visit BA.

That is quite likely, yestravel. She leads only the afternoon tour, most days. She is on holiday, away from BA, at this time, however.

Have a great time in our town, next March.

Yes, Santé is on the corner on the same side as the hotel.. on Pena .
Across the street from the hotel on the corner of French .. that is the one I can't remember.
Love Sette Bacco and Celetto. What did you have in Celetto? I am hooked on their grilled salmon. or the salad with brie .
Diego Felix does a very nice job .. as does Saltshaker.. they are very different set-ups.
I hear such mixed reviews regarding Gato Blanco..

On one corner across the street from the Art Suites was Dos Pinos. It is a steak place, and we didn't eat there. The other corner was Quentino.

At Celetto we did have the salmon--delicious. Our daughters had salad, but with chicken--not brie--that they really liked. We had risotto at Sette Bacco that was excellent, and our daughter had a very interesting salmon salad that she really liked. At both places, we had very nice service.

Yes, in retrospect, we might not have chosen the best option with Gato Blanco....

I do want to point out one other thing. We went to the bus stop near Recoleta to take the yellow on/off bus. Although the Web site says that you can buy the tickets on the bus, they wouldn't let us, and told us that we had to go to another stop (which was the only place) to buy the tickets!!! Anyway, we were pretty annoyed after having waited for the bus, so we didn't do that. However, I think that some of the other people who had been waiting with us, and had read the same information, did take a taxi to the other location to buy the tickets. The next day on the walking tour in the center of the city we saw a huge line of people waiting to either buy tickets for the bus or to get on it (I'm not quite sure).

Aha ! dos Pinos ! Quentinos is nice .. we have only stopped for coffee there ..
I celebrated a birthday at Sette Bacco and had so many things,I can't remember anything but the chocolate dessert with a candle that the chef/owner brought out :- )
Yes, I have heard that story about the bus tickets. I think you always have to buy them wherever the buses start out.
The other day the bus pulled up, there was a crowd of people waiting and the bus looked full. They are doing well , especially in this heat .. better to ride around the city in an open bus than try to walk far.
If you were right across from the Belle Artes Museum, that is where we go with Pup and I see the buses every day ~
Yes, I have not heard great things about the Gato Blano ..

This is concise and very helpful.Thankyou! We have booked BA for 3 weeks March/April.The more reports I read the more confused I become ~ lol! I am hoping we haven't made the wrong decision staying that long.(We do have a side trip booked to Iguazu for 3 days and a day trip to Colonia...or should that be an overnighter?)I will definitely look into the free tours in BA that you mention.Can that wait until we arrive or should I book it from home? I feel we need an overview of the City ASAP in order to get our bearings.

You don't book the free walking tours in advance. You just show up at the locations described on the website. The 11 am tour will give you more of an overview of the well-known sites of the city. The Recoleta tour is also very interesting, more of a neighborhood/cultural emphasis, and in a completely different area.

We only did a day trip to Colonia, which seemed enough, but someone else who spent more time there might have a different opinion. You always can take another day trip to Tigre.