We arrived into Buenos Aires and jumped in a taxi to our hostel, Milhouse Avenue. Getting a taxi from the airport is easy, just find the taxi rank and scan the QR code. This will take you to a page where you can put in your address and it will give you the price, you then just show this to your driver when you get to the front of the queue.
The hostel was nice, our private room was massive and the place had a big kitchen, a restaurant/bar and lots of activities in the evening. That being said, we didn’t find it that sociable but maybe we weren’t trying hard enough? Who knows. Either way most people either stay here or at Viajero which is supposed to have great parties and also has a pool!
That evening we were pretty tired so while Nia and Charlie headed to the famous La Bomba de Tiempo (a drum show that turns into a party every Monday night), we got our washing done and had dinner at a lovely Italian called ABRA. I highly recommend this restaurant, the pizzas were probably the best we’d had in South America, the waiter was lovely and the wine was good!
The next day, the 4 of us met up again for a walking tour in La Boca. This is the arts district of Buenos Aires and is filled with colourful buildings, murals, restaurants, bars and market stalls. It’s also home to the famous Boca Juniors football team and the love Argentinians have for football is expressed everywhere here. There are paintings, statues, shops, anything you can think of, dedicated to football, Messi and Maradona. The walking tour wasn’t free ($10) but it was really good, we learnt about how immigration, specifically from the Italians and Spanish, influenced the culture and how it became a melting pot of cuisine and language. We also learned a lot about the Boca Juniors and River Plate rivalry and saw the famous D-shaped Boca Juniors stadium, this is a tour worth going to.
For lunch we found this cute spot called El Gran Paraiso. You can either sit in for a proper meal or you can get a Choripan (basically an elite hot dog) and go up onto the terrace where you can watch the world go by on the street below with a beer in hand.
In the evening we went to the El Querandi tango show! This is quite an expensive activity to do but we felt it was necessary in the birth place of the dance. It’s $80 and includes a return transfer, 3 course meal, unlimited wine and an 1.5 hour show. It was a bit of a shock when we arrived and we were the only people under 65 but that just added to the hilarity. The dancing itself was amazing, what these people can do with their feet is mind blowing. The whole event was really good fun, the food was OK and the wine drinkable but the quantity made up for the quality.
On our second day in Buenos Aires we did the city centre walking tour (this one is free + tips). We felt that this was probably the least interesting out of the 3 walking tours we did but we were still glad we went. We learnt about the political landscape of Argentina and about how the mothers of the children who were ‘disappeared’ by the dictatorship stood up to government, these amazing woman are named the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and are recognisable by the cloth diapers they wore on their heads to symbolise their lost children. Once the tour was done, it was a quick turn around to try and make ourselves look as presentable as possible, despite only having travelling clothes, no hair drier or iron, because we were heading to Don Julio for dinner! Thank you to Nia & Charlie for booking this way in advance, otherwise we’d have to queue up from 4pm instead of just walking in the door at 7pm.
Don Julio is currently ranked the 19th best restaurant in the world and has both a Michelin star and a green Michelin star so we were pretty excited to go there. When we arrived, we were greeted with a glass of champagne and then shown to our table. You are given unlimited empanadas and bread while you wait for your meal which was all lovely, although I always find myself battling between eating all the bread and waiting for the main event!
I got the rib-eye while the other 3 shared a T-bone and entrecôte. All were delicious, although I think the entrecôte stole the show. The portions were huge, with the smallest steak being 500g! We managed to finish all the meat and the 2 heirloom tomato salads (a must try) but the chips were left… Despite not finishing our chips, we did managed to all have a dessert! I went for the classic Argentinian douche de leche crepe while the others had ice creams. All were amazing and I may be biased but I think the crepes were the best.
Now that we were all bursting at the seams, we walked to a speakeasy called Uptown. This was a cool place with an entrance that looked like a metro station. You walk through the station corridors and come out into a steam-punk but classy (?) styled room. We didn’t have a reservation so grabbed a cocktail in the bar area. If we had been more organised we would have booked a table but never mind! After 2 drinks we bid each other good bye before we got into our Ubers, our time as a 4 had finally come to an end and what a way to spend our final night!
The next day we walked down to the San Telmo area of the city and had lunch at San Telmo market. This market was pretty cool, you can buy groceries there but the main attraction if all the restaurants within the building. We ended up getting a Milanese sandwich from Milangueria, we were desperate to find anything that wasn’t red meat! To that point, in the evening we just made a simple chicken and salad dinner at the hostel kitchen and had an early night.
We woke up feeling refreshed and that was a good thing as we had a 3 hour walking tour in Retiro & Recoleta. This is the ‘upmarket’ area of town with huge palatial buildings, beautiful parks and the famous Recoleta cemetery. The tour although long (anything more than 2 hours I normally lose interest) was very good, even allowing a 15 min ice cream/coffee stop at the Rapa Nui chocolate shop.
You can do a guided tour of the cemetery but we had now done 3 walking tours in Buenos Aires and I’d reached my limit. Instead we just googled ‘10 most interesting graves’ and had a look for them, with the most famous being the former First Lady Eva Peron. Entry to the cemetery is £5 but it’s well worth a visit, the graves are in a variety of styles but all opulent.
For diner we went to a classic Argentinian steakhouse called Parrilla Pena. I would highly recommend this place! We arrived just after it opened at 7pm and got a table straight away but by the time we were leaving at quarter to 9 the queue out the door was huge. They give you bread and empanadas and then of course the meat is juicy, tender with a great BBQ flavour. Delicious all round.
We had wanted to go to Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo after dinner. In this plaza you can sit out with drinks and watch free tango shows in the centre, but it was pouring down with rain! We did got to a bar in San Telmo which had a live singer on and good vibes but didn’t stay out too late.
On our final day in Buenos Aires we watched the Scotland-Italy rugby in the hostel and then jumped on a bus to Palermo. Palermo is the ‘trendy’ area of town with loads of lovely restaurants and bars, as well as great street art. You can do a tour but we decided to just walk around and see it ourselves.
We got lunch at Sheikob’s bagels and then visited the Japanese Gardens which is a park created for when the Japanese Emperor visited Buenos Aires in the 1960s. Tickets are only £1 and you only need 30 mins/1 hour there as its quite small, but it’s worth a visit if you struggling for things to do. For dinner we ended up going back to Parrilla Pena. We had planned to go to La Cabrera, a highly recommended steak place in Palermo, but we didn’t have a reservation and loved the authenticity of Parrilla Pena. I felt that the meat was even better than the first time we were there!
Buenos Aires Summary
- Length of stay: 4-6 nights
- Where to stay: Milhouse and Viajero are the 2 main hostels and both are centrally located. I think Viajero is slightly more expensive but it does have a pool. If I was to come back, instead of staying at either of these two hostels, I would stay in Palermo as this is where you want to spend most of your time anyways
- Itinerary: Day 1 – City centre walking tour, Day 2 – Explore Palermo & go to a tango show, Day 3 – Recoleta walking tour & cemetery, Day 4 – Explore San Telmo, Day 4 – La Bocca walking tour
- Top Tip: If you want to go to Don Julio, La Cabrera or a football match try and book in advance. You can book most of the restaurants online but your hostel can help with football games. A full list of recommendations from our walking tour guide can be found below
Buenos Aires Recommendations
All these reccomendations were provided by our walking tour guide, but we tested a few of them out and they have all been good shouts!
Tango Shows
- La Ventana
- El Querandi
- Piazzola tango
- El viejo almacén.
- Tango porteño.
- Café Tortoni (cheapest)
- Tango Rojo (expensive but the best)
In most cases, these tango shows come with dinner and are often quite expensive, here are some alternative options:
- Street milonga on Sundays (check online if they are back on, and if it doesn’t rain): La Glorieta de Belgrano.
- There is a very bohemian milonga called La Catedral del Tango on sarmiento street and Medrano Avenue – www.lacatedralclub.com. They have tango lessons in the afternoon and then by night people come to dance.
- There is a band with their own club called Fernández Fierro, they play every Wednesday. However, they are more about the music than dancing.
- Milongas every night: there is an app/website called Hoy-milonga that lists every milonga open every night.
Speakeasy’s
- Frank´s Bar -Arévalo 1443 the password is published every day on their facebook page. They give you clues, you have to figure it out.
- Up Town – Arevalo 2030
- La Ferona Social Club – Humboldt 1445
- Puerta Uno – Juramento 1667
- J W Bradley Ltd – Godoy Cruz 1875
- La Calle – Niceto Vega 4942
- Nikki Harrison – Malabia 1742. You have to eat at the sushi place that is its cover called Nicky New York Sushi, then ask to be taken to the bar.
- Thames 878 – Thames 878. There is a metal door in the bathroom!
- La Florería – Arroyo 872
- Trade Skybar – rooftop av Corrientes 222
- Esquina Libertad on the córner of Gorriti and Uriarte street – this is a cheaper option than the bars above, it has a nice roof top and reasonable prices
Pizza
Traditionally there are 3 kinds of pizza in Buenos Aires, a la piedra, media masa and de molde. They go from thin to (very) thick crust.
- A la piedra is thin crust, similar to the Neapolitan original. For this kind of pizza try Albamonte (Corrientes av 6735); Ferreiro (angel gallardo av 1001) you order the “napolitana” flavour that comes with provolone; Los Inmortales if you are downtown.
- Media masa: Angelin ( Córdoba av 5270) the creators of the “canchera” a sauce only pizza, and they also have a great fainá (a chickpea dough pizza that you can only find in Genova Italy and Buenos Aires); El Cuartito (Talcahuano 935); Guerrin is very famous, that tradition there is to have a slice standing with a slice of fainá and a beer.
- De molde is a much heavier pizza. Try Banchero o la mezzetta (Álvarez Thomas 1321) famous for their onion and cheese pizza stuffed with more cheese, it almost obscene.
Restaurants
Restaurants open at 8pm, some the recommendations below are very popular so getting there early is a good idea. Tips are not included in the bill and 10% is customary.
- Parrilla Peña, a total classic on Rodriguez Peña street between Viamonte and Tucuman streets
- El patio, Aguirre 1018, for the travelers that don’t care about aesthetics. Highly recommended. ($)
- Rio Alba, Cerviño 4499 Palermo.
- Don Julio, in Palermo
- For Argentinean typical food, El Sanjuanino (two addresses: Posadas 1515 or Sanchez de Bustamante 1788)
- For wine tasting go to La Cava Jufré, on Jufré 201. Open from Wednesday to Saturday.
- Bodegones for milanesas, La esquina del antigourmet: Soler 5901 (Palermo) and El antojo, Tinogasta 3174 (Far away but allegedly the Best Milanesa)
Going Out Out
Besides the obvious Palermo area, there are two new places that have been growing in popularity:
- Guardia vieja street in Almagro is more bohemian. Check online for places like El Banderín, Guarda la Vieja or Le troquet de Henry, Imaginario Cultural
- Dorrego Avenue and Jorge Newberry Avenue in Chacarita have a more modern feel. Check online for Sifón or Condarco. There are many more places but this is a good starting point.
- Try the Konex Cultural Center for an underground vibe. Also Matienzo Cultural Center has music shows, exhibitions, a terrace bar and a lot to explore.
- Underground electronic music (for a younger crowd) – Centro cultural La Otra Historia.
Backpack Bradie 