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.

SCROLL TO THE END OF THIS PAGE TO BOOK THIS TOUR

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]

Just a quick note to let everyone know that, now we’re officially in Spring, I am once again offering private, guided, walking tours of Buenos Aires City Center. These sightseeing tours cover the main attractions in the historical center of the city, such as Plaza de Mayo, Avenida de Mayo, Plaza Congreso, the Casa Rosada, the Cathedral, Cafe Tortoni, and a whole lot more.

CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND TOUR BOOKING DETAILS.

Hope to see you soon!

La Milonga de los Consagrados – Useful information

Saturday afternoons 4.30pm-10.30pm; Entrance fee of 10 pesos; Reservations: 15-5892-2056.

Reservations are really necessary unless you attend alone, and then they can squeeze you in someplace. Usually this tango salon is full (more than 300 people) by 8.00pm.

La Milonga de los Consagrados is organized by Enrique “Gordo” Rosich, and although it is officially in the barrio of Constitucion, it would probably be referred to as San Telmo by most (official barrio borders are largely ignored in Buenos Aires).

Same venues, different milongas…

As I pointed out in my overview on Tango in Buenos Aires, even if a milonga is in the same salon as another, each milonga will still have its own character depending on the day of the week, the organizer, the crowd, and if it’s in the afternoon or at night.

Los Consagrados is in the same salon as the famous Nino Bien of Thursday nights (in the wonderful Centro Region Leonesa), but it is a totally different experience. And to my mind, the best afternoon milonga of the week. The fact that it’s held on Saturday afternoons, the traditional “difficult” day for singles, makes it even more of a plus…

A perfect tango salon

For one thing, the salon is perfect: large wooden dance floor, high high ceilings with a skylight, a bar, red velvet curtains at each end, a balcony for smokers. It is old and elegant at the same time, with the faded ambiance that foreigners especially love about Buenos Aires.

This is not a tourist milonga by any stretch of the imagination, despite the fact that several tourists do find their way there. The majority of the dancers are locals and regulars – sitting at the same tables week after week.

The atmosphere is friendly and open (although the strict tango codigos do apply). Men sit on one side, women on the other, couples and mixed groups at either end. It is necessary to cabecear to get a dance. There is very little of the snobbishness and elitism that permeates milongas such as El Beso and Maipu 444 (to be reviewed shortly). There are also very few of the “bottom feeder” types, who come to prey on foreigners, such as can be found in La Ideal. The level of dancing is fairly high.

Well, almost perfect…

Because Pato (Patricia), a tall beautiful dark haired waitress, has recently taken over the bar, you must now be more careful with your orders! Every week I have to send back my glass of champagne because either 1) it tastes foul; 2) it’s not champagne, but Sidra; 3) it’s flat, or leftover from the week before. Pato also refuses to bring the traditional potato chips to accompany your cocktail orders, and serves peanuts – for which you must pay 3 pesos, even if your order of a bottle of expensive champagne or a large bottle of beer! [I've learned to bring my own bag of papas fritas these days ]

Unlike many milongas (Chique, for example), tandas of other rhythms are always played during the afternoon: a tanda of tropical (merengue and cumbia), rock ‘n roll (Dixieland to Elvis) and folklore (La Chacarera). The DJ is capable, but tends to be a little unoriginal and repetitive.

Finally, for added excitement, each week there is a sorteo, an entrance ticket prize draw, for a bottle of champagne or a snack plate. Best of luck!

Cherie’s Tango Services

If you are interested in trying out Los Consagrados, or indeed another milonga in Buenos Aires, you will be fine going along by yourself, even as a novice, and you will likely be warmly welcomed. However, we understand that some people are a little apprehensive about their first visit to a milonga, which is why Cherie and her partner Ruben offer to accompany you there and make your tango experience in Buenos Aires a fun and authentic one…

If you are interested in this, or want to find out more about their other tango services and tours, you can contact Ruben & Cherie on the following details:

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

I’ve just seen on Pasa en Buenos Aires [ES] that the Buenos Aires Government Tourism Portal has launched two new blogs about tourism in the city of Buenos Aires, one in English, and one in Spanish.

Buenos Aires and Web 2.0

They say that the aim of the blogs is to form a Web 2.0 community around the subject of tourism in the city, with readers hopefully contributing useful ideas and content in addition to the city government writers themselves. For example, the new blogs want to be open to the following:

• travelers can ask their questions about the city before arriving;
• visitors can ask their questions when they already are in Buenos Aires;
• visitors can tell other travelers and also porteños about the places they found out;
• porteños can go public with their secrets about the city;
• you can comment what you like and what you don’t of Buenos Aires;
• you can meet people traveling, staying or living in the city;
• you can recommend, criticize, discuss and learn what is said about tourism in Buenos Aires.

Sounds interesting, and I’m looking forward to their posts, plus the comments from visitors to the city and of course porteños. So far, they have a couple of posts up: one on Buenos Aires in Winter / Buenos Aires en invierno, and another entitled Where did you go last night / ¿Adónde fuiste anoche? – both excellent starting topics, so go take a look and comment in whichever language you prefer.

But don’t forget me and the other Buenos Aires bloggers…

I have to say, that I still also welcome as much user interaction on my Buenos Aires blog as possible, in the same vein as the new city government blogs wish for – so please don’t be afraid to leave your views or questions in the comments sections at the end of each of my posts, or you can email me if you are interested in contributing a guest post or review from in and around Buenos Aires to this blog – such as the recent excellent guest posts we’ve seen from Diva of Bitchtours and Tango Cherie.

Finally, worth noting is that, after an extended absence, Jude has made a welcome return to the land of Buenos Aires blogging, over at Not for the fainthearted, and another fairly new blog that I’m reading on a regular basis is Soy So Lindo, which covers a load of cool and quirky things going on in Buenos Aires.

Happy reading!

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.

It feels like I’ve been to Colonia del Sacramento (in Uruguay, a short hop across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires) for a day trip more times than I’ve eaten Argentine beef. And believe me, that’s a hell of a lot of times!

Now I know that this is a blog about the city of Buenos Aires, and Colonia is not only a different city entirely, but also in a whole other country… but it is such a popular day trip for people visiting Buenos Aires, that it justifies a few words from me here (well OK, I waffle, so it will probably be a lot of words).

I have always found it funny that in guide books, websites, forums etc, a regular answer to the common question “what can I do in Buenos Aires, Argentina?” is “visit Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay”. This is especially comical for me because it reminds me of a joke I once heard from a stand-up comedian back in Coventry, England. It went a little something like this…

“When I came to Coventry last night I asked at the hotel what there is to do in the city. After a little thought, the only thing they could suggest was ‘go see Warwick castle’. I asked them, ‘but isn’t that in Warwick, not Coventry?’, to which they shrugged and gave a nod.”

“To recap, the quick answer to the question ‘what should I do in Coventry?’ is ‘LEAVE! NOW! GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN’”

So apparently, thinking along these lines, a quick answer to the question ‘what should I do in Buenos Aires, Argentina?’ could be not just “leave the city”, but also “get the hell out of the country“. Just to be on the safe side.

Obviously, given the name of this blog, this is not a sentiment I would fully endorse! However, if you are visiting Buenos Aires for a fairly long period, or are an expat living here (perhaps in need of a 3 monthly tourist visa renewal), then a trip to sleepy old Colonia del Sacramento does indeed make for a nice day trip, to get away from the crazy, busy city of Buenos Aires. Also it’s nice to remind yourself of what the horizon actually looks like.

How to: Buenos Aires to Colonia by Buquebus Ferry

A trip across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento is simple, and there is really only one sensible option: Buquebus. They run quite a few ferries back and forth between Argentina and Uruguay, seven days a week.

You can choose a fast or a slow ferry to get there, and there are usually special offers for both types to be found on their website. At the time of posting, there is a fast ferry (“buque rapido”) return crossing (approx. 50 minutes each way) available for 99 Argentine pesos (around US$30), and a slow ferry return crossing (approx. 3 hours each way) on offer for 78 Argentine pesos (around US$25). Here is a link to the latest offers on their site – you can switch this web page to English, but I recommend you try to keep the site in Spanish, because upon changing language the prices often seem to rise, although only a little. Still, very naughty, Buquebus!

For peace of mind, and an easy life, I recommend booking online with a credit card at least a week before you want to make the trip, especially if going on a weekend, when the ferries can get booked up quickly. Then you just have to turn up at the Buquebus ferry terminal (Darsena Norte, in Puerto Madero) about an hour before your journey to pick up your tickets (at the desk immediately on your right as you enter the terminal), check in, and get in the passport control line.

The small city of Colonia only really warrants a single day of exploration, so try to book an early morning crossing going, and a late afternoon/early evening crossing coming back to Buenos Aires.

I would also say it is best to get a taxi to and from the Darsena Norte ferry terminal in Buenos Aires, because it is not the easiest or safest place to get to for tourists – it is literally “the other side of the (train) tracks”, which are not nice to cross on foot, in addition to some dangerous roads around that area with potentially confusing crossings. [Note: I have to admit that personally I always get a bus to around the start of Av. Cordoba, and then walk this last part... but I'm somewhat 'local', and a cheapskate, and so exempt from such sensible advice ]

About the City of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Colonia del Sacramento was the only Portuguese settlement along the Rio de la Plata when the Spanish were colonizing this area. It was founded in 1680 with the name Nova Colonia do Sacramento by Manuel de Lobo. Colonia’s founding kick-started a struggle between the Spanish and the Portuguese over control of this area.

For years Colonia was a smuggling port, evading the strict trade measures imposed in the Americas by the Spanish. Due to this situation, the city changed hands many times between the Portuguese and the Spanish. Even Brazil controlled it for a short while, until the new country of Uruguay declared independence in 1825.

An interesting thing about Colonia is that its colonial center (Barrío Historico), offers an idea of what buildings in Buenos Aires might have looked like back in colonial times, before the city was successively modernized down the years. Colonia was recently made a UNESCO heritage site, so it should remain a time capsule of the Rio de la Plata’s colonial past for many years.

A couple of my favorite historical sights in Colonia de Sacramento are the Calle de los Suspiros (street of the sighs), a beautiful little cobblestone street lined with colorful houses and Colonia’s trademark yellow lamps – that’s me pictured at the end of this street in the above photo – and the historical city gate and walls, which can be seen in the next photo below, of my fiancee relaxing on a cannon found on Colonia’s old defensive wall.

Five Tips for Enjoying a Day in Colonia

1. Take the chance to relax a little…

Colonia del Sacramento is a world apart from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires city, instead offering you an opportunity to relax in its peaceful, idyllic, old-world environs. Take that chance while you can, because at the end of the day you’ll be back in Argentina’s big smoke, dodging the psycho taxi drivers on the streets once more (in Uruguay most drivers actually stop when you cross the road, rather than speeding up! what a novelty…)

2. Cough up for the fast ferry…

With such a small pesos price difference between the 3 hour buquebus ferry and the 50 minutes one, I would highly recommend that you pay that little extra for the faster boat when taking a day trip to Colonia de Sacramento. Otherwise, over 7 hours of your day will be spent either traveling in the ferry, or getting on and off it, and that sure is a large portion of the day to waste, meaning less time for relaxing in Colonia (as per point 1).

3. Hire some nifty transport…

For me, the thing I look forward to most, by far, about my trips to Colonia, is hiring a scooter and whizzing around the almost deserted coastal and country roads of Uruguay for the best part of a day. Invigorating, fun, and ever so slightly dangerous – what more could you ask for on a holiday? The best place to hire scooters in Colonia, and indeed other forms of transport, from bikes to golf carts to cars, is at Thrifty car rentals, whose office you will find as you walk out of the ferry terminal in Colonia (see photo above). Last time I was there, it cost a very reasonable US$20 to hire a scooter for the day, or US$25 for a whole 24 hours (note: you will need your driving license and a credit card). Hiring transport will also give you easier access to parts of Colonia that you otherwise might not get to see, with one example now to follow…

4. Go to the beach…

Now you have that scooter, you’ll be wondering where to go. Well, one of my favorite places in Colonia is Playa Ferrando, a very scenic beach in a small bay about 15 minutes scooter ride out from the city center. Make sure you get a map from Thrifty Rentals when you go, as the way to Playa Ferrando is marked clearly on there, in addition to other places to visit in and around Colonia. It’s the perfect place to lie down and take in a little sun, if there in summer (and even spring or fall), or go for a nice walk if visiting during winter. And yes, if you fancy a paddle, the water is safe to enter on this side of the Rio de la Plata – that murky tinge to the water is just sediment from the bottom of the riverbed (and if you look at the photos at the end of this post, you’ll see I put my feet where my mouth is on this issue).

5. Eat some cheap and cheerful junk food…

No, seriously! There is this great little hole in the wall place along Colonia’s main avenue (Av. General Flores), a couple of blocks or so away from the old city center, that does simply amazing hamburgers with everything (egg, ham, cheese, pickled vegetables, and all kinds of interesting and/or spicy toppings and sauces). It’s called Los Farolitos (see the last photo below), and I’m sure you won’t be reading about it in any of the guide books. Thing is, I’ve tried many real restaurants in Colonia del Sacramento and none of them have come even close to impressing me, so this small purveyor of unhealthy comfort food remains my number one dining choice there – so pull up one of the eight or so dodgy plastic chairs outside it on the sidewalk and join me!

More Pictures of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

And finally, here are a few more sufficiently random photos from my trips to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.

In clockwise order from the top left, they are: 1. Me and a cow somewhere in the Uruguay countryside near Colonia; 2. My fiancee and I paddling in the shallows at Playa Ferrando; 3. Me doing a silly pose on the scooter that got us to those last two places in style; and 4. Los Farolitos, my ‘dining’ venue of choice in Colonia del Sacramento…

One last thing – if you are interested in seeing some more conventional travel photos of Colonia del Sacramento, I urge you to go see this post about a day in Colonia, by Will, and also this entry on day trips to Colonia, by the Argentina Travel Guide, which also contains some useful information on taking a day trip to this beautiful little Uruguayan city.

Once more, thanks for reading everyone!

Some eagle-eyed readers may have noticed from my About Me and Buenos Aires Tours pages that in the past few days I have begun to offer paid guided tours of Buenos Aires again.

This wasn’t exactly planned, but I’m very happy about it, because tour guiding is probably the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had (for those of you not familiar with my past, I was a tour guide here in Buenos Aires for about a year, up until this time last year).

As I say, it’s all started up again a little by chance. I recently put up a suggested walking tour of Buenos Aires City Center on this blog, which is intended to be used by anyone that wants to as a free self-guided tour of this great city.

Literally the day after I posted, some brothers from the US on holiday in Argentina emailed out of the blue, asking me to give them the tour I posted on a private guided basis. I had some time free, so I thought ‘why not’?

After some lightning quick revision and a practice tour with my friends (it’s amazing how fast the names, dates, anecdotes and jokes came flooding back), I gave the tour, mainly to see how I would feel returning to this line of business. Not only did I enjoy it immensely, but the brothers also loved the tour… so much so that they persuaded me to give them an off-the-cuff tour of San Telmo and La Boca a couple of days later. They were so nice and enthusiastic about my tour guiding, that it gave me a feel good factor and the urge to return to guiding tours around Buenos Aires.

Book a Private Walking Tour of Buenos Aires

And so, here I am, looking for people who would like to take a walking tour in BA. I like to think of myself as both a mainstream blog writer and tour guide – I’m not offering ‘the other side of Buenos Aires’ or concentrating heavily on specialist areas such as history, architecture or tango, but instead trying to give an overview of many of the major sightseeing attractions in an enjoyable, informative manner, while pointing out interesting little details and stories that you may otherwise have missed. So…

If you like the way I write in this blog, and are planning a trip to Buenos Aires, then please consider booking a private walking tour of Buenos Aires City Center with me.

For more details and a booking form, please go here:

BOOK MY BUENOS AIRES WALKING TOURS

At the moment I am only offering the city center tour, which is an excellent introduction to the key sights and history of Buenos Aires, but fairly soon I will be offering other walking tours of barrios such as San Telmo, Recoleta, and La Boca. So keep checking back, and please wish me luck with my return to the exciting world of tour guiding!