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

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 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:

La Boca and San Telmo Tour

2.) A 3 hour walking tour of San Telmo and La Boca, the atmospheric south of the city, famous for it’s antiques market, tango history, and local handicrafts on sale.

You will also be introduced to the history and culture of these fascinating areas with a past steeped in the immigrant culture that formed the city of Buenos Aires just over 100 years ago. Tour includes a coffee/restroom break in a traditional old cafe.

Price: 100 US Dollars for small groups (of 1 to 3 people). These prices are the total for the group, NOT PER PERSON. Note – transport to, during (one taxi journey is also required in the middle of the tour), 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, both travel and refreshments are very cheap in Buenos Aires. Start times for this tour are 10.30am and 3pm (however, as it is a private tour, you can request other start times if they suit you better).

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Recoleta and Retiro Tour

3.) A 3 hour walking tour of Recoleta, it’s world famous cemetery, and Retiro, the rich northern areas of the city, famous for it’s beautiful old mansion houses, lush squares and parks, luxury hotels, restaurants and designer stores, and of course, the last resting place of Eva Peron (Evita).

Approximately half of the tour is spent in the remarkable Recoleta cemetery, where in addition to seeing Evita’s tomb, you will also be regaled with tales of the most famous people in Argentine history, marvel at the intricate architecture of the wonderful mausoleums, and hear an intriguing ghost story or two.

This tour was recently recommended as one of the five best cemetery tours in the world by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, and listed by them in first position!

The tour includes a coffee/restroom break in a traditional old cafe OR ice cream at our favorite ice cream parlor in Buenos Aires.

Price: 100 US Dollars for small groups (of 1 to 3 people), and 150 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, both travel and refreshments are very cheap in Buenos Aires. Start times for this tour are 10.30am and 3pm (however, as it is a private tour, you can request other start times if they suit you better).

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Custom Private Tours of Buenos Aires

4.) Using the suggestions in the above tours, information elsewhere on this website, or any other request that you have, work with us to come up with a tour of any length to the parts of the city that you wish to visit. Consult with us by email and we’ll help create the perfect tour for you to make the most of your time in the city.

Price: 50 US Dollars per hour for small groups (of 1 to 3 people). These prices are the total for the group, NOT PER PERSON. Note – transport to, during, 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, both travel and refreshments are very cheap in Buenos Aires.

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Book a Private Guided Tour in Buenos Aires

If you are not yet decided and want to check some other opinions, then for testimonials from clients who took our tours in the past, please check the end of this page.

Once decided, please use the below form to make booking inquiries for all of the tours mentioned above. Complete it with your name, email address, accommodation in Buenos Aires, which tour/s you want to take, the date/time you would like the tour/s on, the number of people you are booking for, and any other comments/questions you wish to add. We can also organize tango-dinner shows, so please fill out the form to inquire about that too if you are interested. After submitting the form, we will get back to you by email as soon as possible to finalize your booking:

[Note: If you are interested in tours for larger groups than mentioned above, please contact us using the form to ask for further details/prices etc.]

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]

Dancing Tango in the Confiteria Ideal, Buenos Aires [Photo credit: Gerrysan]

Note from Alan – We are lucky enough to welcome a seasoned Buenos Aires tango and milonga expert to the Buenos Aires Argentina Guide, in the form of Cherie Magnus, from the Tango Cherie blog (see the end of this post for more info on Cherie). Her first offering is an excellent guide to the types of tango salon in Buenos Aires, for those interested in the real world of social tango dancing in the city. So, over to you Cherie…

If you want to dance tango in Buenos Aires, where do you go?

Actually it depends on many things: your age, what style you dance, what day or night of the week you want to go out, if you go with or without a partner, and so on…

Dancing social tango in Buenos Aires has nothing to do with the Tango Show Dancing on the streets of San Telmo, La Boca, calle Florida, or Recoleta, or the many Tango Cena-Shows with an orchestra, stage dancers and dinner. The first thing to know about tango is that what you’ll see in those places is a different dance – Tango for Export. And that is another post entirely!

Experience Authentic Social Tango in Buenos Aires

If you want to experience authentic social tango, you really need to know the best places for you to go to watch and dance. You could pick up one of the many free tango publications from shoe salons and hotels which list all of the milongas (places to dance social tango), but unless you have lots of time and money to explore each one, you can’t tell which is right for you. And that’s why Ruben & Cherie (as well as other bilingual local dancers) provide a service to help tango tourists get the most out of their visits to Buenos Aires. They know where you can have the most fun and how to break the codigos, and will even take you there themselves.

If you are interested in their tango services, you can contact Ruben & Cherie using the following details:

• Email: BsAsMilonga@aol.com
• Telephone: 4932-5027 (from within Buenos Aires)
• Blog: Tango Cherie

Click here to view the embedded video.

Types of Tango Salon in Buenos Aires

First, a tip: when checking where to go to mingle with the locals in Buenos Aires on the dance floor, remember that dances in the same salon vary greatly depending on the organizer, day of the week, time of day etc. In other words, every milonga at Region Leonesa or Canning will not be the same.

The following is a general break-down of the different types of places to dance tango in Buenos Aires, with some examples of each…

Salon de Baile

A formal atmosphere especially for dancing, with predominantly elegant attire, tables with tablecloths, uniformed waiters, tango codes are strictly respected, professional DJs play tango, vals and milonga music of the 1930′s-50′s, often with tandas of Latin and Jazz music. The public here is older (50-80) with an intermediate to high level of dancing in the close-embrace milonguero style. Women and men sit on opposite sides of the salon and use the cabaceo. The afternoon milongas tend to be more formal and traditional than the late night dances.

Examples in Buenos Aires: El Arranque, Gricel, Salon Canning, Viejo Correo, Los Consegrados, Maipu 444, Lo de Celia, El Beso, Chique.

Confiteria bailable

This old-fashioned type of salon has many of the same characteristics of the Salons de Baile, but also has a restaurant. The public is more varied, with lots of groups. The only example today is the Confiteria Ideal, which is famous for its long life and its architecture. Nowadays only a few Salons de Baile have restaurants, such as Nino Bien and El Beso, but they are milongas first, and only very few of the clients order food from the kitchen.

Club de Barrio

The dance floors are cement basketball courts or the club restaurant. Meals are usually available. Predominantly attended by the neighborhood families and older married couples; the music includes tango, jazz and tropical.

Examples in Buenos Aires: Sin Rumbo, Los Bohemios, Sunderland, Club Chicago.

Baile Joven

Informal atmosphere, young public (18-30), variety of casual dress, often with live music and dance exhibitions. More relaxed standards, a more diverse level of dancing, and more salon-style than close embrace. You will hear the music of Piazzolla, some rock ‘n’ roll, as well as salsa and cumbia.

Examples in Buenos Aires: La Estrella, La Viruta, Parakultural.

Aire Libre

Outdoor milongas that attract a wide variety of dancers.

Examples in Buenos Aires: La Glorieta and Plaza Dorrego (year round) and La Calesita (in summer).

An Aire Libre milonga in Plaza Dorrego, San Telmo [Photo credit: nyluke]

Practicas

Informal, bare-bones ambiance, no professional DJ.

Examples in Buenos Aires: Cochabamba 444, El Motivo, Tangocool, Soho Tango.

Gay Milongas

Informal, relaxed atmosphere, anybody can dance with anybody, alternative music along with the classics.

Examples in Buenos Aires: La Marshall, TangoQueer.

Coming soon from Cherie – reviews of different tango milongas around Buenos Aires…

About Cherie Magnus

Cherie Magnus is a published travel writer and dance critic from Los Angeles, and an expat tango dancer and teacher in Buenos Aires since 2003. She and her Argentine partner Ruben Aybar also do bilingual Tango Tours. Last year they were finalists in the Campeonato Metropolitano de Tango de Buenos Aires. She’s working on a memoir, The Church of Tango, and one of her pieces is included in a soon-to-be-published anthology on San Miguel de Allende. You can read more on her blog, TangoCherie.

[Phone number: 4825-3050. Also has another location in Recoleta at Ayacucho 1208 - phone number : 4823-3900]

Maybe you’ve heard that sushi is one of the city’s culinary specialties, but in case no one told you: don’t leave Buenos Aires without indulging in an expertly-prepared sushi feast at one of the many great sushi restaurants in town. For a sushi restaurant that won’t put too much of a dent in your wallet, has a cozy atmosphere with incredibly attentive service, and serves up some of the best lobster, shrimp, and avocado rolls, head to Maki Sushi in Barrio Norte or Recoleta. It’s a great place to have a light meal before an evening of drinks and dancing with friends, or you could come here for a fun and casual date.

[Note from Alan: I'm especially glad that we have Rachel on board to do this sushi review, because I never would have been able to review any sushi bars in Buenos Aires, an important part of the dining scene here - I'm allergic to fish! ]

Mouthwatering plates of sushi served in style

Maki Sushi is a relatively small restaurant, and very popular, so you should make a reservation ahead of time if you will be with a party of three or more persons. As you sit down to an attractively arranged table of chopsticks and sushi plates, you will be presented with a small portion of seafood and vegetable salad which should tide you over as you peruse the extensive menu. You may want to start the meal with a small pitcher of sake, which can be served warm or cold.

In addition to the sushi standards, Maki Sushi offers other Japanese culinary delights such as seared pork steak served over risotto with a cilantro and lime chutney, Japanese dumplings, steak served with a miso sauce, and stir-fried vegetables with your choice of chicken, beef, or shellfish. The best option for groups with large appetites is to choose one of their huge sushi platters, which are intended to be for three, four, or five people, and offer a selection of rolls such as California, lobster, spicy shrimp, crab, salmon, and sashimi.

Depending on how many rolls you want per person, it will end up being about $25 pesos per belly. If you want to order individual portions, five rolls will run you an extra $15 pesos.

Experience “Japan-tine” culture in Buenos Aires

When the sushi arrives, dig in happily to the perfectly sticky rice, succulent seaweed rolls, tender salmon and shrimp, and luscious cream cheese and avocado, all complimented by spices and sesame seeds, and served with wasabi, ginger, and soy sauce. If you look around at the modern, Japanese décor and have a hard time remembering that you are in South America, think of it this way: in a multi-cultural city like Buenos Aires, it is a pleasure to be able to enjoy international cuisine within the relaxed, social environment of the city.

The truth is that Buenos Aires has a pretty substantial Japanese immigrant population, so by eating at a sushi restaurant you are actually experiencing modern porteño culture.

Make sure you try the incomparable Rainbow Roll, which boasts salmon, avocado, cream cheese, cucumber and kanikama, all inside a rice ball and topped with a halved shrimp. Muy rico!

Sweet endings, wherever you are

If you enjoy a light sushi meal with a sweet finish, Maki Sushi has one particularly attractive and delicious dessert: the equilibrio de chocolate – a mold of hardened chocolate filled with gooey chocolate sauce. Indulge in this divinity with a little sake wine, and enjoy the quiet and warm atmosphere of the restaurant.

Of course, Maki Sushi also delivers, because as you might have read, in Buenos Aires EVERYONE delivers. Don’t forget to get sake delivered with your sushi, so you can have an authentic Buenos Aires sushi experience right there, wherever you are staying. They also offer Japanese beers as well.

As I said before, unless you are a vegetarian, it is a must that you try sushi in Buenos Aires. Sushi bars are a great way to sample fish and seafood dishes here, since these food items are pretty overpriced in most restaurants and supermarkets in the city.

[Photo credit: urbanlegend]

Maki Sushi: The Verdict

• Service: (5/5) The servers at Maki Sushi are attentive and much quicker than most restaurants in Buenos Aires. They will explain the menu to you (though don’t expect English translations) and help you decide what to order. The sushi didn’t take longer than expected to arrive; it was just about thirty minutes. They even let us pay with a combination of credit cards and cash.
• Food: (4/5) Every sushi roll was expertly prepared and the food presentation was attractive enough to please even a group of French diners. The main dishes are just as delicious and colorful, with meats cooked just past medium rare and barely seared. And the pre-meal seafood salad is a nice touch.
• Atmosphere: (3/5) With bright, contrasting, modern colors like red and black, Maki Sushi has an overall sophisticated look that provides a warm, cozy dining experience in Recoleta or Barrio Norte.
• Value: (4/5) Considering that sushi is usually a more expensive dining choice, you will find that at Maki Sushi you pay about $35 pesos per person for a great meal, including some sake and another drink.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

Take advantage of the thrill of having Maki Sushi, Japanese beers, and sake delivered directly to your apartment, hotel or hostel, so you can have an authentic Buenos Aires sushi experience in the comfort of your own abode. It is also worth noting that renowned Buenos Aires food critic Saltshaker (AKA Dan) is a fan of Maki Sushi’s delivery.

In search of the perfect empanada in Buenos Aires…

It’s a tough job trying to find the ‘best’ empanadas in Buenos Aires (just ask Saltshaker). Primarily because there are so many different places to try them at, and of course many different types of empanada from across the different regions of Argentina, and even the rest of Latin America. Still, I came to Buenos Aires with the idea of finding the perfect empanada, and still have this spurious notion in my head, and so on I trudge on with this difficult, yet enjoyable, eating project of mine.

For the record, I have still to taste those hallowed ‘perfect’ empanadas here. There is always something not quite perfect about each one, and I often wish that I could combine the best features of empanadas at different places to produce a super-empanada of sorts. Yes, it’s this kind of silly stuff that keeps me awake at night.

One thing I can say is that my favorite empanadas so far in Buenos Aires cannot be purchased in any restaurant. They are lovingly made by mi suegra (my mother-in-law to be), and are so good I can literally eat twenty in one sitting (I’m a growing lad – perhaps not in the right direction, but growing all the same). At Cumana in Recoleta, the empanadas are pretty good, and excellent value, but for one reason or another, are not quite up there with my suegra‘s homemade efforts. And still, I continue in search of empanada perfection…

Empanadas… Check! Vino Tinto… Check! Colorful Crayons… errr… Check???

At Cumana, the empanadas are not the only fun to be had. As shown in the photo at the top of this post, colorful crayons are available for children and grown-up kids alike, to be used on the paper tablecloths. This of course inevitably leads to silliness such as chalking down your order on the table in front of you. Still, if your Spanish pronunciation is a little rusty, I suppose it beats plain old pointing at the items on the menu that you want to order.

As well as creating this fun juvenile air with the crayons, the general atmosphere at Cumana is also buzzing, busy and brash. The tables and seats are fairly small and packed in tight, and the place always seems to be full at both lunch and dinner sittings, so it is not a place to go for a quite, relaxed or intimate conversation. Instead, Cumana is there for traditional Argentine food in a traditional energetic, rustic Argentine setting.

OK, so the service is pretty slow, but this is something I’m starting to forgive more these days in Buenos Aires, because it really is the norm here. You just have to adjust to it, and change your expectations accordingly: i.e. let go and relax, there’s no rush. Plus, if you take that attitude back with you into your real life, you’ll probably live longer

But enough about the service and atmosphere, and on to the main reason I’m here. To sample…

Cumana’s Empanadas

As you can see, the empanadas at Cumana look pretty tasty. I always like them to be nicely browned in places on the outside, and even slightly burned here and there. It just adds to the flavor a little. So Cumana delivers on that front.

I had five differently filled Empanadas on this visit, which I will now cover one by one:

• Lomo Picante – Chopped lomo (tenderloin) steak in a mildly spicy, meaty sauce. This is a great one to start with, because it is quite possibly the tastiest empanada filling I have tasted since coming to Buenos Aires. OK, so it’s not as spicy as I would usually like, but that allows the more subtle flavors of a frankly delicious sauce to come to the fore. And the chopped lomo steak easily beats the standard minced beef from your average empanada de carne.

• Humita – Creamed corn. Humita is fast becoming one of my favorite empanada fillings, although it seems it can be done very badly or very well. The bad versions are usually when they skimp on the corn and use way too much creamy white sauce. Cumana uses a lot of corn, and just the right amount of tasty white sauce, and so their Humita gets the thumbs up.

• Jamon y Queso – Ham and cheese. Apart from carne, jamon y queso is the next most common empanada filling you see in Buenos Aires. It is a basic, rarely spectacular empanada filling, and to be honest, quite hard to mess up. Cumana does a respectable version, with a good amount of ham, which sometimes can be a problem with this version.

• Pollo – Chicken. Probably the third most common Argentine empanada filling, and despite always sounding like a good idea, it almost always disappoints. No change at Cumana, because I don’t like their empanadas de pollo either. As per usual, I’m finding gristle in with the chicken, and that’s a real turn off for me. At least there were no bones, which sometimes provide a nasty surprise lurking inside empanadas de pollo in Buenos Aires.

• Choclo, Calabaza y Queso – Corn, squash and cheese. Never would have thought this when I ordered it, but wow! A great combination of fillings that really work wonders together. In fact, I just prefer this to Cumana’s lomo picante empanada. Although to be honest, it may just be me, because these days I am developing a serious calabaza addiction. All the same, I wish more places offered this empanada filling.

So, all in all, above average empanada fillings, discounting the usual pollo disappointment, and with a couple of stand outs. And at AR$1.50 a pop, although fairly small, they offer good value. Cumana’s empanadas are cooked in a traditional large wood-burning oven, as shown in this picture:

Which is always a good sign, and helps with that lovely charred effect on that pastry that I mentioned earlier. However, this is also one area where Cumana pulls up a little short on quality…

Empanada Pastry

Despite having some frankly wonderful fillings, I am left feeling a little let down by what’s holding it all together, the pastry, which is almost as important as the empanada’s filling. It has a hint of tasteless cardboard to it, reminiscent of the type of pastry you find on cheap take-out empanadas at places such as Solo Empanadas (ugh!).

OK, so the pastry at Cumana is still a great deal better than that, but it is certainly also a long way from homemade. Actually, I guess it’s about somewhere in the middle of the two. Not a huge problem, and not detracting from the quality fillings inside, but still enough to stop these good empanadas from becoming great, or perfect empanadas, which is the whole point of this particular quest of mine.

My guess is that, because Cumana is so damn busy, they use some kind of mass produced pastry on their empanadas. Which is fine and I’m sure what many other empanada joints do (and in fact, maybe a decision based on the fact that their fillings are so good… they could just want something to encase them in that will not fight for center stage itself!), but still not something that I would want to see on my hallowed perfect empanada. And so, the search goes on… (perhaps to El Sanjuanino next?)

Other Traditional Argentine Dishes at Cumana

Cumana also offers up many other great regional dishes from around the rest of Argentina and Latin America. Their Locro, Mondongo (although not really a favorite dish of mine) and Tamales are all very tasty. In fact, in addition to enjoying the same empanada fillings at Cumana that I did, Saltshaker also speaks very highly of their Locro.

And what’s more, all of these traditional dishes come in at around AR$6 each, which is an absolute bargain.

All this, AND the best Gnocchi in Buenos Aires?

Also very traditional in the city of Buenos Aires are noquis (gnocchi). As I keep saying in these restaurant reviews, my fiancee has a terrible addiction to these things, and generally orders them whenever she can. Here’s how they turned out on this occasion:

These were noquis con crema de tomate y albahaca (gnocchi in a creamy tomato sauce with basil), and having stolen a taste of some myself, I can say, with a great deal of experience in this area, that they are the best gnocchi I have tasted so far in my two years in Buenos Aires. High praise indeed. I think it was down to them being cooked in a clay pot in the same oven as the empanadas, and with lots of cheese in the creamy tomato sauce, this produced a lovely crunchy top, and a delicious gooey creamy, cheesy mess underneath.

So gnocchi fans, go to Cumana and you really will be in heaven, for the sum total of a mere AR$6.90.

Cumana Empanadas: The Verdict

• Service: (2/5) Slower than average service, though to be honest I don’t really care much about this anymore, and Cumana is always really busy, I suppose. In fact, if you go in the evening, be prepared to wait maybe half an hour for a table. I must say, the staff are quite friendly when they get round to attending to you, so that saves them from a 1/5 mark.
• Food: (4/5) Fantastic empanada fillings, let down by lower quality pastry. I guess you could say these empanadas have an inner beauty waiting to be discovered! I was going to give Cumana 3/5 for their empanadas because of the pastry let down, but their excellent Locro and Gnochhi pulls them up to a solid 4/5.
• Atmosphere: (4/5) A very nice traditional, rustic setting, and a great feeling of energy and authenticity. Some cynics will moan about the tables being too close together or it being too noisy and difficult to have a conversation, but to be honest, I won’t be going to eat dinner with the kind of person that says that, so I don’t care what they think. (Nathan and Diva, are you reading? – that was almost controversial!)
• Value: (4/5) Really good value on all their dishes. Almost a 5/5, but I’m feeling mean today. They’d get full marks for value if they used better pastry on their empanadas

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide Special Tip

Go with a few friends, order a bunch of different empanadas (especially the delicious lomo picante and choclo, calabaza y queso versions), maybe a few other different traditional Argentine dishes such as the Locro, and share the lot. You will eat real good for very few pesos, and maybe not be as mean about the pastry as I am.

Wash it all down with the house vino tinto (red wine). I actually think empanadas taste better with cheap red wine than they do with anything else. Especially cheap red wine in a tumbler. Don’t ask me why, it just seems right.

I guess I’ve always been something of a hostel person. Not out of choice mind you – if my economic situation had been rosier over the years, I’m sure I would have been living it up in the odd luxury, design, or boutique hotel now and again.

These days, my financial situation is little different, and still I wouldn’t be able afford to stay in such hotels. However, my current job as an independent tour guide here in Buenos Aires presents me with a glimpse over the other side of the fence, giving me a taste for the good stuff – so close, and yet so far.

However, as a tour guide, I also have to be quite resourceful on occasion. And so I have been able to come up with a few ways to enjoy the most wonderful, expensive Buenos Aires Hotels, but on a budget. Read on for my top five suggestions.

Top Five Hotels in Buenos Aires

5. Caesar Park Hotel, Recoleta

A solid luxury hotel in Recoleta, with fantastic interior design, service and location (right across from the upmarket Patio Bullrich mall). Costs around US$270 a night, which is approximately US$250 over my usual budget

So, how to experience this hotel without paying a dime? Just walk in the lobby and do your most confident impression of a paying hotel guest. Take the elevator up to the 17th floor, and take in the wonderful view of the Rio de la Plata, seeing right the way over to Uruguay on a good day. Exit soon after, before security come and give you the privilege of a personal escort out of the building

4. Bo Bo Hotel, Palermo Soho

One of the most coveted boutique hotels in Palermo Soho, the sub-barrio where boutique hotels seem to be popping up every week. The design is cool, modern, fun and ever so slightly pretentious, as you would expect from a place where the name stands for bourgeois bohemian. They even have themed rooms, ranging from Pop to Techno to Art Deco. And if that isn’t enough, the staff and restaurant also both get rave reviews. Rates are actually fairly reasonable, at about US$135 per night.

But you don’t want to pay that! Make do with a trip to the restaurant and a quick scan around the stylish hotel interior. To experience their eclectic international cuisine should set you back less than 50 pesos a head, and although the servings are fashionably small, they are still quite delicious, and you’ll get all of the bourgeois bohemian experience for a fraction of the price of a night in their hotel.

3. The Hotel Alvear, Recoleta

If you are a head of state, diplomat or just plain rolling in old money, this is the place to stay in Buenos Aires. Faultless old world style and service, the most desirable location on the most upscale avenue in the city (they even share the same name), and quite frankly, effortlessly the most classically beautiful hotel lobby, bar, cafe and restaurant in town. However, you’ll need to be rolling in old money to stay here – it’s probably going to set you back over US$400 a night!

For the rest of us mere mortals, the Alvear offers an alternative – and something of an institution for in the know visitors to Buenos Aires. Well, at least those that are in to tea and cake. For 55 pesos a head, you can indulge in an afternoon high tea at the Alvear’s beautifully appointed L’Orangerie cafe, and pretend you are rich for a few sweet, sweet moments, accompanied by a few sweet, sweet cakes and pastries. Just make sure you dress the part.

2. The Faena Hotel + Universe, Puerto Madero

The most fantastical hotel in Buenos Aires, fresh from the warped mind of designer Phillipe Starck, and the straining ego of Argentine entrepreneur Alan Faena. A potent combination, heightened by your own personal ‘experience manager’, there to respond to your every whim, as you create your own mini-universe within the swish former docklands of Puerto Madero. But don’t lose yourself quite yet… there’s the small matter of a US$400 per night bill to address at some point in time!

Fret not, for there is another way for the canny budget traveler like yourself to experience this hotel. Cocktails at the Faena’s “Library Lounge” (down the corridor on the right, just after the outdoor pool), complete with film set surroundings and kitsch mounted deer heads on the walls, should set you back about 30 pesos a go. Just make sure you check out the enchanting entrance corridor and toilets while you’re there (yes, even the toilets are out of this world at the Faena).

1. The Four Seasons ‘La Mansion’, Recoleta

This cute little mansion in the grounds of the Four Seasons hotel (see first picture at top of this post) is so expensive that only world famous rock and pop stars like U2, the Rolling Stones and Madonna can afford to stay there. And that must mean it’s great, right? Well, my economic situation means I can’t realistically confirm that, but the building certainly is a cut above most hotels – a wonderful turn of the 20th century French mansion house that looks plucked from the Loire valley. Let’s just hope the latest rock star in residence hasn’t thrown all the wide screen TVs out of the window

Let’s not even mention a nightly price for this place, and go straight to the ‘budget’ option. Sunday brunch downstairs at the Four Season’s La Mansion is a great chance to take in the full mansion house experience, while gorging yourself on the best breakfast in BA. OK, so it’ll set you back 125 pesos per person, but trust me, you’ll feel like a rock star throughout, and for a good while afterwards. Well, more accurately, you’ll feel a rock star does at breakfast, but we all have to start somewhere, I guess

In it for the money?

The reason I’ve come over all ‘top 5′ in this post is so as to enter a spiffing contest set up by problogger, one of my daily reads. And this isn’t any old blog contest – if chosen I could win a prize of US$1001 (!), which I promise, in the unlikely event of me winning, to partly invest in a night at one of the five hotels above, to see how the other side really do live, sin budget. In fact, I’ll take votes in the comments below for which hotel you think I should book and why, if I win, so please do make your suggestions in the comments section below.

And if I don’t win, maybe there is a kind manager at one of the above fine establishments who would like to offer me a free night of hotel accommodation (in return for a blog review here, of course)… pleeeeeaaaaassseeeeee???

Here’s hoping…

[PS - More pictures and hotel details to come to this post in an imminent update, when I get time]

From my point of view, when planning you trip to Buenos Aires and thinking about your accommodation options, it makes a hell of a lot of sense to throw short term apartment rentals into the mix.

Why? Well, when the choices are either to pay US$300 and upwards per night at a luxury or design hotel, versus the same price or less per week for a luxury apartment rental in Buenos Aires, with the same high levels of quality, comfort and design, all of a sudden the apartment option appears to be the most sensible option.

What’s that I hear you cry? Hotels have much higher levels of service and convenience that apartment rentals cannot offer? Well, I recently found out that there is another option to hotels, that matches them in these key areas, and yet beats them every time on value.

When my family came to visit me recently in Buenos Aires, I decided to look into apartment rental companies for them. A friend-of-a-friend knew of the owner of one such company, Enjoying BA, and recommended them highly to me. We ended up using them, and my family found both the quality of the apartment (in Recoleta) and level of service from the company to be of an extremely high standard. And so, here’s a nice review for them…

Enjoying BA is a relatively new player on the Buenos Aires Apartments scene, a small company that puts an emphasis on quality, not quantity, and so offers an extremely personalized service with their rentals – in fact, they even have their own concierge staff, whose mission is to make your stay in Buenos Aires the most comfortable, happy and interesting time possible.

Making the Most of Your Stay in Buenos Aires

It is because of the fact that Enjoying BA is a relatively small apartment rentals company in Buenos Aires that it can offer such a personalized, quality service.

Other larger Buenos Aires accommodation rental outfits have so many apartments in their inventory that it seems likely they accept just about any apartment they can get their hands on into their ranks – there is no assurance that you will be getting a quality place to stay.

Enjoying BA on the other hand has a select number of apartments, instead putting their emphasis on comfort, quality, design and superb location, over sheer quantity. In fact, all of their apartments are located in either Recoleta or around leafy Plaza San Martin – two of the most upmarket and nicest places to stay in Buenos Aires.

But the biggest advantage of using a small company like Enjoying BA is their ability to offer a highly personalized service from your first contact with them right the way through to when you check out. Large apartment rental companies, from my past experiences, do not offer this – you feel like just another client to them. Whereas Enjoying BA will do everything in their power to help make the most of your time in Buenos Aires, including in-the-know local recommendations and advice.

So for example, they won’t send you off to the overpriced, touristy, packaged bus tours and tango shows like others would – instead they will attempt to show you the best of the city from a local perspective, therefore expect recommendations on where to see, hear and dance authentic tango, the best places to try local food such as empanadas and parrillas, and so on. This advice is imparted by their trained, local concierge staff, whose presence really is a major benefit of renting your apartment in Buenos Aires through Enjoying BA.

The Comfort of a Hotel, with the Independence of Home

The Enjoying BA motto is the comfort of a hotel, with the independence of home, which encapsulates their approach to service and quality detailed above. You can also be sure that it is a reliable and well-run company, by people who know the tourist accommodation business in Buenos Aires inside out – as Enjoying BA it is a unit of MIA Global, whose owners are ex-Hyatt, Sheraton and Marriott.

Recoleta and Plaza San Martin Apartments

As I already mentioned, all of Enjoying BA’s properties are located in two of the best areas to stay in Buenos Aires, Recoleta and Plaza San Martin, with the majority found right in the heart of Recoleta. Due to this, not only are the apartments all located in very pleasant areas, but they are also very close to the large majority of tourist attractions, such as Recoleta Cemetery, Plaza San Martin, Florida pedestrian shopping street, the Obelisk, Plaza de Mayo, and Puerto Madero.

Their properties range from studio and 1 bedroom apartments, which can accommodate 2 to 4 people depending on the apartment, to 2 bedroom properties, which can all accommodate up to 4 people. All are of course fully furnished and carefully decorated, and include everything you would expect and more – bedding, crockery, a selection of teas, towels etc – again, all with an emphasis on quality. The different apartment’s prices range from US$170 to US$440 per week, which is about the same range you would expect to pay per night for a luxury hotel in Buenos Aires!

The place that my family stayed in was a studio apartment in Recoleta, for a maximum of three people, located on Vicente Lopez and Callao. They loved this location, because it is right in the heart of Recoleta, a couple of blocks from the famous cemetery, the bars/restaurants strip, and the extremely posh Avenida Alvear with all of its designer label shops and delightful old French architecture. The apartment itself was spacious, decorated nicely in a modern manner, and with a well equipped kitchen and bathroom.

However, what most impressed them was the experience manager from Enjoying BA, who they could contact at any time. This was a godsend for me, because I was working during the day, so my family had another local contact to help them with any questions they had about Buenos Aires. In addition to the included maid service, this helped make their apartment stay a very comfortable one. And all for the very reasonable price of US$235 a week!

I also had the chance to look around a different Enjoying BA property, another studio apartment for two people located in Recoleta, this time on Azcuénaga and Juncal. This one is a little closer to Avenida Santa Fe, an excellent avenue for shopping in Buenos Aires, and also even a little cheaper, at US$195 a week. It was a little smaller than the apartment my family stayed in, and meant for a maximum of two people, but still fairly spacious, warmly decorated, and beautifully furnished.

Enjoying BA Special Studio Apartment Offer

At present, Enjoying BA has an excellent special offer to take advantage of. You can get two nights (three days) in one of their Studio apartments (located in either Recoleta or Plaza San Martin), a round trip transfer from the airport on the day of your arrival and departure, and entrance to a quality, authentic Buenos Aires tango show (dinner included), all for just US$165 per person.

This is a great deal, especially when you consider that many people will be paying that for the airport transfers and tango show alone, but you will also get two nights of luxury accommodation into the bargain!

Book a Buenos Aires Apartment with Enjoying BA

If you want to contact Enjoying BA for further information or to make a booking, here are their full contact details:

email: info@enjoyingba.com
phone: (54-11) 4115-4620
website: www.enjoyingba.com

Click here to make an apartment booking inquiry or online reservation

And whether or not you choose a short term apartment rental with Enjoying BA while visiting Buenos Aires, I hope you have a fantastic time here – in fact, I’m sure you will

Recently I discovered a great new website that has online videos for many different travel destinations around the world, called Geobeats. They have an excellent video section on Buenos Aires, with many videos from around the more famous barrios of Buenos Aires, including spots on hotels, restaurants and museums. All the videos of Buenos Aires are very professionally done and pretty informative, so I recommend checking them out.

There is only so much of an idea you can get about Buenos Aires or Argentina from the text and photos in a blog like mine – so I think online video really is the future for travel websites, which is why I am going to be including some of the Geobeats videos on pages of this blog fairly soon, and maybe even venturing into making some videos of Buenos Aires myself! But for now, I will just post some of my favorite picks from their site here…

My Favorite Videos of Buenos Aires from Geobeats

MALBA, in Palermo – the fantastic Museo de Arte Latinamerico en Buenos Aires:

El Ateneo, in Recoleta – the biggest bookstore in Latin America:

And my favorite place for a cake (or ten), Confiteria Las Violetas, in Almagro:

Enjoy the videos of Buenos Aires (and check out the rest over at Geobeats when you can!)

Sorry for missing a week folks. Without wanting to go into the details, it’s been a crazy and stressful time. Anyway, on with the show we go, with my picks from the Buenos Aires blogosphere from the last two weeks, and I’m going to to try and keep my usually meandering descriptions quite brief this time round…

My favorite Buenos Aires blog posts from the past 2 weeks

• Tango Cherie made an interesting post on the subject of tango ‘taxi dancers’
• Nathan from Trip Trap notices some funny goings on in the Buenos Aires section of Craigslist
• Robert’s map of Recoleta Cemetery is ready, and it looks beautiful
  

Things to see and do in Buenos Aires

• David Schneer goes in search of the Jewish underground in Buenos Aires (a series of posts, see links at top of the page)
• Saltshaker had an enjoyable and cheap day out at the races, at Palermo Hipodromo, a place that I also reviewed a while back on this blog: Palermo Hipodromo, Buenos Aires
• Highlights from Karine’s daily photos over the past couple of weeks includes a picture of the 15 year commemoration of the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack, and on a lighter note, one of the statue of General Alvear in Plaza Francia, Recoleta, and a nice aerial shot of the Retiro train station – I guess taken from the torre de los ingleses?
• Argentina’s Travel Guide covered a couple of popular tourist destinations in Buenos Aires… the Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo, and El Tigre, up on the delta to the north of the city

Buenos Aires news, info & general comments

• Argentina’s Travel Guide has some useful advice on how to get packages that are sent to you in Buenos Aires
• Disco Shawn reports on the recent ATM withdrawal problems for foreigners in Buenos Aires
• Will Bonner discovers that film director Francis Ford Coppola has just bought a petit hotel in Palermo Soho, Buenos Aires, to stay in when he works on an upcoming film in Argentina.. which On the Road Travel says will be called Tetro and filmed in Buenos Aires
• Yanqui Mike marks the 25th anniversary of the unfortunate Malvinas conflict with an overview of the history of the Malvinas islands
• Buenos Aires Spotting posts about some interesting underground street art viral marketing by the SUBA clothes brand in Buenos Aires
• Greek in Argentina notes that Buenos Aires came in at number 13 on a list of the wealthiest cities in the world, followed by some interesting discussion that continues on into a lively comments section

Buenos Aires restaurants, food and drink

• Robert posts up more reviews of wines available in Buenos Aires in Divino Vino #10, this time with more misses than hits
• Miriam makes some interesting comments about Dining Out in Buenos Aires in her blog, ‘South for the Winter’
• Argentina’s Travel Guide reviews an ‘all you can eat’ (tenedor libre) restaurant, Gourmet Porteño, in Puerto Madero, and Katmandu, an Indian restaurant in Almagro
  
• Saltshaker reviews Barbacoa parrilla and Caballito pizzeria, both in Barrio Norte, followed up by a trio of short Buenos Aires restaurant reviews in one blog post
• Ken posts about our beer tasting visit to Antares in Palermo (including pictures of both of us in silly hats), which I swiftly followed with a review of my own: Antares Pub, Buenos Aires – and Ken also posted his thoughts on tipping in Buenos Aires

Funny or Odd Stuff in Buenos Aires

• Diva returns to form with posts suggesting that virginity is a scarce commodity in Buenos Aires and her thoughts on Catholicism in Argentina
• Ken notes that the fairly regular lack of customer service in Buenos Aires can feel quite odd to us extranjeros, and also rounds up some interesting signs he has seen around the city
• Nathan from Trip Trap has some interesting stories from the supermarkets of Buenos Aires

Thanks for reading everyone!

For your information, I’m writing this week’s Buenos Aires blog roundup slowly in between itching the many mosquito bites that have ravaged my poor body. Unfortunately we have a bit of a mosquito invasion here in the city of Buenos Aires at the moment, although at least it looks (correct me if I’m wrong) like there is no risk of Dengue here in the city (unlike in parts of Buenos Aires province, and further north in Misiones). Still, the bites don’t half itch a lot, so apologies if my itching-triggered lack of concentration causes any errors in this roundup…

Buenos Aires Blog Posts of the Week

• This week’s top posts are about three new things that I’m pretty certain I will love. First up, Robert points out that a cafe has just opened up on the ground floor of the Palacio Barolo, a building that fascinates pretty much everyone, including Robert and I. It looks beautiful in Robert’s pictures, and despite the hefty, touristy prices (9 pesos for a cafe con leche with 3 medialunas!!!), I will definitely be checking it out in the near future
• Secondly, Dan from Saltshaker has been privy to a sneak preview of the food at an authentic Indian restaurant that will apparently be opening in Barrio Norte (Laprida and Charcas) later this month. It will be called Tandoor, and hopefully will provide the quality Indian food many of us expats have been missing since arriving in Buenos Aires
• Thirdly, Disco Shawn (still my vote for top blogger pseudonym of the year), introduces us to the Chilean indie musician Javiera Mena, who will be playing in Buenos Aires this Friday, March 16th at Club Niceto in Palermo Hollywood, during their indie music night Compass. From the tracks linked to in that blog post, her stuff sounds pretty good (I like my “cute, keyboard-driven pop goodness”, as Shawn describes it), so I will probably try to make my way to Compass this Friday

Things to See and Do in Buenos Aires

• Karine has yet more lovely pics from around Buenos Aires, this week including two stunning city monuments: El Monumento de los Españoles in Palermo, and the monument to General Jose de San Martin, in Plaza San Martin (where else?!), Retiro – a fitting tribute to Argentina’s main independence hero
• Argentina’s Travel Guide has some interestingly varied things to do in Buenos Aires this week, ranging from the “Thursday night transvestite party” at Club Niceto to attending an Argentine league soccer game (in this case at the River Plate stadium), and finally taking in a trip to a meditation center in Palermo after to reflect on what sounds like a very interesting week!
• For all of you budding Tango dancers on your way to Buenos Aires to strut your stuff, Tango Cherie provides the inside knowledge of what NOT to wear to a milonga in Buenos Aires… please take note!

Buenos Aires Information, News and General Comments

• Great news: everyone’s favorite trilingual blog, Trendy Palermo Viejo, celebrated it’s first anniversary of blogging this week, and long may Dalila continue bringing us the coolest shops, restaurants and more from this most happening of Buenos Aires barrios And what better way to celebrate than with a post recapping the latest shops that have opened in Palermo Viejo?!

Buenos Aires Restaurants, Food and Drink

• Yanqui Mike made his way to the last night of the Buenos Aires beer festival, but as I had suspected, it was more of a glorified rock concert than anything else, and even worse, Mike came away disappointed without even a drop of beer passing his lips. Considering the festival organizers obviously know the rules about not serving alcoholic beverages during musical performances here, you have to wonder why they bother having live music at what is, after all, supposed to be a beer festival. Or change the name to something less misleading. Bad show all round
• Dan from Saltshaker posted a review of Piola Pizzeria in Recoleta this week, giving you another (more qualified!) viewpoint on their pizza in addition to my recent review of Piola Buenos Aires. For the record, I enjoyed the Pizza more than Dan, but he experienced far better service than I did. Now if only they could get both things right at the same time…

Funny or Odd Stuff in Buenos Aires

• In the Argentine Metropolis discusses the English words that have been making their way into Argentine Spanish over the past few years, and also in the same post overhears a really funny conversation between a middle-aged woman and her father in a Palermo fashion cafe… frapuccino indeed!

Not too many posts this week… did I miss anything, or were you all just as lay as me this week?

As for my blog, I promise that very soon there will be some other posts on this blog apart from the weekly blog roundups… I’m sure I can at least manage another bar review or something, you know, for the benefit of my readers… nothing to do with my hankering for a few decent beers now and again of course!