BUENOS AIRES · ARGENTINA
Grand boulevards, Malbec, tango till late.
Recoleta marble and Palermo gardens, multi-course asados and Mendoza Malbec, sunset cruises on the Rio de la Plata and the tango halls of San Telmo. The private side of the city, and the best way into each.
Only here
Three things that are pure Buenos Aires.
City tours and river cruises exist everywhere. A milonga in a San Telmo hall, a multi-course asado over the embers, and a night under the gilt of the Colon belong to this city alone.
Born in the port
The Tango
Tango was born in the immigrant tenements and dockside cafes of Buenos Aires in the 1880s, and the city never let it go. A show on a velvet-curtained stage, or a back-street milonga where locals still dance till dawn. The embrace, the bandoneon, the long pause before the turn.
- 1 Buenos Aires: Piazzolla Tango Show with Optional Dinner
- 2 La Ventana Tango Show in Buenos Aires
- 3 Tango Porteño: The Best Tango Night in Buenos Aires
The national fire
The Asado
Argentina runs on beef and the slow ritual of the parrilla. A proper asado is hours long, a procession of cuts over wood embers, paired with a young Malbec and finished only when the last sweetbread is gone. At the best tables in town it is theatre as much as dinner.
- 1 Buenos Aires: 9-Course Argentine Meat Tasting at Fogón Asado
- 2 Buenos Aires: Authentic Argentine Asado BBQ with Live Music
- 3 Buenos Aires: Join a Local Family for an Argentine Barbecue
Seven storeys of gilt
Teatro Colon
The Colon ranks among the finest opera houses in the world, a Belle Epoque palace of red velvet, gold leaf and near-perfect acoustics that opened in 1908. Tour the horseshoe auditorium and the marble Golden Hall by day, or take a box for an evening of opera and ballet.
- 1 Buenos Aires: Teatro Colon Guided Tour
- 2 Teatro Colon Guided Tour Admission Ticket
- 3 Experience Teatro Colon : Secure your Tour today!!!
Where everyone starts
The one to book first.
More travellers open their Buenos Aires with this than anything else. A good place to begin before the city pulls you deeper.
The classics
Buenos Aires' Most Popular Experiences
Tango shows, the Recoleta mausoleums, La Boca's painted streets and a long Argentine asado. The experiences most travellers come south for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Buenos Aires trip is built around.
Tango halls and fine asado, Malbec tastings and the Tigre delta, the falls at Iguazu and a day among the marble of Recoleta. The handful of experiences most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The great escape north
How to see Iguazu Falls.
The falls lie 1,300km north on the Brazilian border, so the how matters as much as the if. Three ways to reach them from Buenos Aires, by the time and the budget you have.
Malbec country
Malbec, by candlelight.
Argentina is the world’s great Malbec country, and though the vineyards lie out west under the Andes, the city pours their finest. Tastings in century-old bodegas, sommelier-led flights, and long lunches matching Mendoza reds to Argentine beef, all within a taxi ride of your hotel.
Read the guide: the best wine tastings in Buenos Aires →November in bloom
When the city turns violet.
For a few weeks each spring the jacarandas open and Buenos Aires goes lavender, the avenues of Recoleta and the parks of Palermo roofed in violet blossom. It is the loveliest time to walk the city, from the rose garden and the Japanese gardens to the grand cafes of Barrio Norte.
Walk the city in bloom →Paris of South America
Built to look like Paris, alive like nowhere else.
After the fortunes of the beef boom, Buenos Aires remade itself in French and Italian stone: mansard roofs, marble lobbies, wrought-iron balconies and boulevards as broad as the Champs-Elysees. Walk Recoleta and Barrio Norte and you walk a belle-epoque dream with a porteno heart.
Recoleta & Palermo tours →Sunday in the old city
San Telmo, the city’s first barrio.
Cobblestones, antique shops and faded grandeur south of the centre. On Sundays the Defensa street fair runs for a mile, street tango turns on every corner, and the old market fills with empanada stalls and crates of vinyl. The bohemian heart of Buenos Aires.
- 1 Buenos Aires: San Telmo and Market Guided Walking Tour
- 2 San Telmo: Historical Guided Tour with Street Food & Drinks
- 3 Buenos Aires Bike Tour: San Telmo and La Boca Districts
After dark
The city only really starts at night.
Portenos dine at ten and dance past two. Open with wine and small plates, settle in for a long asado, and end where the city began: a tango floor that does not close.
Aperitivo hour
Wine and small plates.A glass of Malbec and a tabla of cheese and cured meats as the sky goes gold, the way a porteno evening opens.
The long dinner
An asado that runs for hours.The main event: a procession of cuts over the embers, more wine, and a table no one is in a hurry to leave.
Till the small hours
A tango floor that will not close.A grand show or a neighbourhood milonga, where the dancing only warms up after midnight and runs until it does not.
The pampas
A day on the open pampas.
An hour beyond the city the grass runs flat to the horizon and the gaucho still rides it. A day at a historic estancia means horses and a folklore show, an open-fire asado under the trees, and the deep quiet of the plains, the country that built Argentina’s fortune.
See all 6 estancia days →By barrio
A city of neighbourhoods.
Recoleta for the marble and the mansions. San Telmo for the antiques and the tango. La Boca for the colour. Puerto Madero for the water. The delta at Tigre when the city is too much, and the centre for the grand set pieces.
By experience
Pick how to spend the day.
Tango if you came for the dance. A parrilla if you came hungry. A cellar for the Malbec, a launch for the delta, a stadium for the roar, two wheels for the barrios.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in town? A long weekend that takes in the grand city, the great table and one escape, without a wasted hour.
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