BuenosTours – Private Buenos Aires Tours

Buenos Aires Private Walking Tours

Local Expat Guides of Buenos Aires

All of us guides here at BuenosTours are expats living long-term in Buenos Aires, who are originally from the UK and the US. This means you get the best of both worlds when booking with one of our guides:

1.) A local who knows Buenos Aires inside out and can tell you the best of the city as an insider so that you make the most of your time here

But ALSO:

2.) Someone who is an English-speaking NATIVE, like you, so you can be assured that you will understand everything they say. You have no guarantee that Argentine tour companies will have guides that speak a high level of English, so why take the risk? Also, having a guide who was born into your culture, but who has also lived in Buenos Aires as a local does, means that you have someone who acts as a bridge between two cultures - we will help you to understand the history and culture of Buenos Aires and Argentina, because we have seen things from both sides.

Tour Reservations Policy

• To make things easier for our clients, we now accept payment for tours by credit or debit card. You can either pay the full price of the tour by card up front, to be safe in the knowledge that your tour is set in stone and all you have to do is wait at your accommodation at the agreed time to be met by your expert guide, or pay a small deposit up front, and then the balance of the fee at the time of the tour.
• All credit/debit card payments and deposits to us are processed through Google Checkout or Paypal. By using these market-leading online payment systems, from two of the biggest and most respected internet companies around, you can be sure your payment and details are 100% safe, secure and private at all times. It is also possible if you request for us to take your card details over the phone to process your payment – in this case we will never store your card details after the payment has taken place.
• We offer a 100% satisfaction money-back guarantee for all of our walking tours

New Private Walking Tours on Offer

In addition to our most popular and well-received tour, the 3 hour walking tour of the historical city center of Buenos Aires, we now also have the following offerings to help you make the most of your time in Buenos Aires:

Buenos Aires Day Tour

1.) This is the must see/do tour of Buenos Aires. Our most complete tour. Approximately 7 hours of touring to the most important areas of the city:

- San Telmo, the atmospheric home of tango, immigrant history, antiques, cobblestone streets and colonial architecture
- Monserrat, the oldest barrio in the city, full of beautiful churches
- The City Center, including the most important historical sites in Buenos Aires, like the Casa Rosada/Pink House, Plaza de Mayo, the Cathedral and the oldest subway line in the southern hemisphere
- A coffee/restroom break at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest and most ornate cafe in the city, founded way back in 1858
- Plaza San Martin, the most peaceful and beautiful square in the city, which has historical suprises lurking in every corner
- Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest road in the world, and home to the Buenos Aires Obelisk monument
- Lunch at a traditional Argentine restaurant together with your guide – at the kind of place where the locals eat, with a choice of tasty dishes that will have all tastes covered.
- Recoleta, the most prestigious area of the city, full of mansions and high class establishments, where we will stroll along upscale Avenida Alvear
- Recoleta Cemetery, last resting place of Evita Peron and many other rich and famous Argentines, plus the highest concentration of beautiful architecture and sculpture in the city.

This is a walking tour with some public transport involved, so it will be a pretty exerting (but healthy!) day – please note this before booking. However, exploring through walking and public transport is really the best method to see the city up close and personal, as the locals would, rather than opting for being herded around on an impersonal bus city/day tour of Buenos Aires.

Price: 200 US Dollars for small groups (of 1 to 3 people) and 300 US Dollars for medium groups (of 4 to 7 people). These prices are the total for the group, NOT PER PERSON. Note – transport to and from the tour is not included in the price, nor is any money you spend on refreshments or food for yourselves during the tour. However, travel, food and refreshments are very cheap in Buenos Aires, and the place we have carefully selected for lunch is very reasonable, even by local standards. The scheduled start time for this tour is 9.30am, however, as it is a private tour, you can request an earlier or later start if that suits you better. Please complete the following form to make a booking inquiry for this day tour:

Please use the following link to read about our other tour offerings and services:

Click here to continue reading Private Tours in Buenos Aires

Great Press For BuenosTours!

As you might have guessed from the lack of blog posts around here recently, we’ve been working hard giving lots of walking tours around Buenos Aires. And it’s certainly paying off, with some good press coming in from both traditional and modern publishing formats…

This weekend we were recommend by the Guardian newspaper (one of the UK’s most widely read dailies) in their article on The Five Best Cemetery Tours, in which they listed BuenosTours and our tour of Recoleta Cemetery (plus surrounding areas) first – I guess making us the best cemetery tour in the world! (TM)

if you want to book the “best cemetery tour in the world” with us, click here and scroll down to the “Recoleta & Retiro tour” heading for more information.

And some Podcasting love too…

But the recommendations don’t stop there. BuenosTours also has fans living in the high-tech age. The podcast guys over at For Whatever Reason yesterday posted up their latest episode, including a long feature on the recent walking tour of Buenos Aires city center they took with us and how much they enjoyed it. Thanks guys! Just to quickly quote a few things they said about the tour in the podcast:

“This walking tour was possibly the best thing that we did on the entire trip”

“A great way to get a feel for everything and learn a lot about the area”

“Most people booked a tour of Buenos Aires, most of them booked a bus tour where they got on a bus and somebody with a loudspeaker talked as they drove through different parts of the city. The tour that we booked was actually a private walking tour and so it was just the tour guide, and me, and Tim… It was wonderful, we had a lot of one-on-one time, or two-on-one time, with him, we could ask questions without feeling like we were interrupting someone else’s tour, we didn’t have other people interrupting what we felt like was our tour, and having been on lots of tour type situations that’s always the case where… you just feel like the experience isn’t what you want it to be, where this was what we wanted it to be, and it was so perfect.”

“He was very knowledgable in history – he had funny stories, he had tragic stories, he had everything inbetween.”

“It gave us a great sense of comfort to walk around the streets… in fact I stopped him about 10 minutes into the tour and said thank you… because this is the first time I have done any kind of international travel… and you’ve helped me realize that this isn’t any different than home, it’s just a different city.”

You can listen to the episode here: For Whatever Reason on BuenosTours (the part about Buenos Aires and BuenosTours starts at about 16 minutes in).

(And stick around to listen to some more of their stuff, because it’s pretty cool, plus they have great radio voices! Also, check out their Buenos Aires photo album on Flickr, with photos from their walking tour, including a couple of rather unfortunate ones of yours truly…)

Finally, you can click here to book the private guided city center walking tour they took!

Now were just waiting on that long-promised Oprah endorsement, and we’re all set…

[Second photo credit: Javier Kohen @ Flickr]

Cerrito 618 (between Tucuman and Toscanini), City Center

[Note from Alan: Just wanted to update this post to reflect the change in the expected re-opening date for the Colon Theatre - now due for 25th May 2010 - as I know a lot of people read this post and I don't want to mislead people due to outdated material]

(Original post written October 25th 2006)

Earlier this week I finally took the opportunity to take in a performance at the Teatro Colon (Colon Theater) which many say is the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Buenos Aires, as one of the most famous opera houses in the world.

I was prompted to get along to the Colon by the fact that it is closing for reconstruction work at the end of October 2006, with plans to reopen on May 25, 2010, on the 200th anniversary of the May Revolution, when Argentina split from the Spanish to become an independent nation.

A long wait until the re-opening, and that’s IF the works are actually completed in time. Knowing Argentina, I would be extremely suprised if things go according to plan!

[Further edit: I was right here! The works have indeed been delayed for 2 years, as the original reopening date was supposed to be 25th May 2008. Who knows if they will even make it for 2010! ]

Click here to continue reading Teatro Colon

Avenida Figueroa Alcorta 6442 (near La Pampa), Costanera Norte

[Note from Alan: I'm still here! I promise! I didn't leave the country! I haven't updated the blog for ages because I've been so busy with the walking tours and related work/emails. But please do keep checking back as soon there will be some very exciting changes happening here at the Buenos Aires Argentina Guide. To keep you going for now, here is a post that Kim wrote for me a while back about Rumi Nightclub...]

The trademark red lights of Rumi are anything but a sign to stop. And as long as you don’t, you’re in for a good night. Rumi boasts a welcoming and sizable venue for dancing, food, lounging and drinks, and even doubles as a restaurant in the earlier hours (at around 10pm or so).

Click here to continue reading Rumi Nightclub

Lanin 1 – 200 (between Brandsen and Suarez), Barracas

A more colorful Caminito, without the hordes of tourists

Calle Lanin is beautiful little street in the barrio of Barracas, in the south of Buenos Aires. If you are going to La Boca to see the colorful and historical Caminito street, then you might also consider taking the time to explore some of the neighboring barrio of Barracas, where you will find the quieter, shady, yet extremely colorful Lanin. (Don’t try this at night, it’s not really a safe place for tourists to be after dark). The murals there, created in the year 2000 by local artist Marino Santa Maria (who actually lives on this street), are definitely worth the trip to take a look.

Unfortunately I’m still pretty tight for time at the moment, so probably the most efficient way to give you an idea of what Lanin street is like, and to spare you my boring waffle, is through posting up a few more photos. Click below to see them!

Click here to continue reading Calle Lanin, Barracas