Buenos AiresTravel Guide
Buenos Aires is Latin America's great café society: a city of Parisian boulevards and porteño swagger, where dinner starts at ten, bookshops occupy old theatres, and tango is danced socially until dawn. Its parrillas serve some of the world's finest beef, poured over with Mendoza Malbec at prices that still feel like a secret.
Is Buenos Aires right for you?
March–May and September–November (southern autumn and spring)
Mid-range. Comfortable without planning around money, expensive if you stop counting.
We have a full day here planned hour by hour. Longer stays are covered by subject rather than by route.
Our editors pick it for a trip with children.
March–May and September–November (southern autumn and spring)
Mid-range
Typical cost profile for visitors
Nothing else we cover is within a comfortable hop — this one is a trip of its own.
Finding Buenos Aires
Reading Buenos Aires
- Hidden GemsThe Quiet Corners of Buenos Aires Locals Love2 min
- ItinerariesOne Perfect Day in Buenos Aires2 min
- FoodThe Sweet Side of Buenos Aires: Desserts, Cafés and Markets2 min
- DestinationsBuenos Aires for less: the savvy budget playbook2 min
- ItinerariesBuenos Aires with kids: a family day that actually works2 min
- StaysBoutique or grand: choosing where to stay in Buenos Aires2 min
Buenos Aires, place by place
Everything below is named in one of our own stories about Buenos Aires. The line under each is the sentence that recommended it, and the link goes to the piece it came from.
Where to stay
The areas and addresses our writers put first
Facu G
Recoleta
If your Buenos Aires is marble staircases and afternoon tea, stay in Recoleta, the city's Parisian quarter.
Gustavo Sánchez
Puerto Madero
The regenerated docklands trade history for drama.
Gustavo Sánchez
San Telmo and the center
Bohemian San Telmo offers atmospheric small hotels in colonial buildings amid antique shops and tango bars — wonderful texture, though choose your block with care at night.
Palermo
Buenos AiresPalermo — especially the Soho and Hollywood pockets — is where the city's boutique scene lives: converted townhouses with rooftop plunge pools, design hotels above cocktail bars, guesthouses wrapped around vine-hung p…
Where to eat
Tables worth crossing the city for
Don Julio
Buenos AiresDon Julio, on the corner of Guatemala and Gurruchaga in Palermo Viejo, has been named among the world's best restaurants, and the queue outside proves the secret is out.
El Preferido de Palermo
Buenos AiresA block from Don Julio and run by the same team, El Preferido de Palermo revives the classic Buenos Aires bodegón: pink walls, house-made charcuterie, milanesas the size of the plate.
Pizzería Güerrín
Buenos AiresPorteño pizza is its own genre — thick, cheese-heavy, unapologetic.
Café Tortoni
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires' cafés notables are protected by law, and Café Tortoni on Avenida de Mayo, pouring coffee since 1858, is the grandest of them.
Mercado de San Telmo
Buenos AiresThe wrought-iron Mercado de San Telmo (built 1897) mixes antique stalls with serious food counters.
Things to do
Walks, tours and days out we would book again
La Viruta
Buenos AiresFor the real thing, go to a milonga: La Viruta, in the basement of the Armenian cultural centre in Palermo, runs classes before the social dancing, so beginners can join; Salón Canning in Palermo is a classic floor wh…
Salón Canning
Buenos Aires
What we'd do in Buenos Aires
See and do
- The Rose Garden and the Palermo parks
The great green lung of Parque Tres de Febrero — the Bosques de Palermo — holds the city's most beloved retreat: El Rosedal, a formal rose garden wrapped around a lake, with bridges, pergolas and thousands of rose bushes.
Read: The Quiet Corners of Buenos Aires Locals Love - Culture at street prices
Sunday delivers the famous San Telmo market, when Calle Defensa becomes a kilometer of antiques, buskers and street tango — free.
Read: Buenos Aires for less: the savvy budget playbook - A cathedral of books
El Ateneo Grand Splendid is hardly unknown — it is regularly named among the world's most beautiful bookshops — yet it remains a genuinely local pleasure.
Read: The Quiet Corners of Buenos Aires Locals Love - Move like a porteño
Load a SUBE card and the city opens up: Subte rides and bus fares are among the cheapest of any major world city.
Read: Buenos Aires for less: the savvy budget playbook - San Telmo on a weekday
Everyone sees San Telmo on Sunday, when the feria floods its streets.
Read: The Quiet Corners of Buenos Aires Locals Love
Eat and drink
- Don Julio — the benchmark parrilla
Don Julio, on the corner of Guatemala and Gurruchaga in Palermo Viejo, has been named among the world's best restaurants, and the queue outside proves the secret is out.
Read: Buenos Aires: Steak, Malbec and Where Tango Still Lives - The grand cafés
The city's historic cafés are living museums with table service.
Read: The Sweet Side of Buenos Aires: Desserts, Cafés and Markets - Pizzería Güerrín — Corrientes institution
Porteño pizza is its own genre — thick, cheese-heavy, unapologetic.
Read: Buenos Aires: Steak, Malbec and Where Tango Still Lives - Market sweets in San Telmo
The historic San Telmo market hall, trading since the late nineteenth century, mixes antiques with coffee roasters and pastry counters — an ideal merienda stop.
Read: The Sweet Side of Buenos Aires: Desserts, Cafés and Markets
Where to stay
- Distances
Neighborhoods are spread out — pick for atmosphere, since taxis and the Subte connect everything cheaply
Read: Boutique or grand: choosing where to stay in Buenos Aires - Booking
Rates swing with the currency; compare the hotel's own site against booking platforms
Read: Boutique or grand: choosing where to stay in Buenos Aires - Choose Recoleta if
you want classic luxury, quiet elegant streets and museum proximity.
Read: Boutique or grand: choosing where to stay in Buenos Aires - Choose Puerto Madero if
you want modern rooms, skyline-and-river views and a show at your doorstep.
Read: Boutique or grand: choosing where to stay in Buenos Aires
Practical essentials for Argentina
Practical essentials for ArgentinaArgentine peso (ARS)
Spanish; English is more widely spoken in Buenos Aires than elsewhere in South America, but do not count on it beyond tourist settings
Type C/I, 220V 50Hz
The Subte and colectivo buses in Buenos Aires run on the rechargeable SUBE card, and since December 2024 you can also tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard at the turnstile.
About 10% in cash in restaurants and cafes; the cubierto on your bill is a cover charge rather than a tip, and taxi drivers are not tipped.
Tap water is safe to drink in Buenos Aires and the main cities, if sometimes heavily chlorinated; use bottled in the rural north.
Right-hand side; carry the 1949 International Driving Permit together with your national licence.
911 (general), 107 (ambulance), 100 (fire)
Country-level guidance, checked against official sources. Currency, fares and entry rules change — confirm anything time-critical before you travel.
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