I’ve been to many big cities and generally I’m not a lover of big cities. But Buenos Aires captured my heart from the moment I arrived.
We stayed on Avenue Corrientes and because we were just a few blocks from the Centro area you could see the Obelisco just down the street. It was Friday night and since this street is known for all its theatres (with broadway style shows) the place was a buzz with flashing lights, people and restaurants.
They close off one side of Corrientes street every night after 7pm to provide more walking area. There’s also a subway line that runs on Avenue Corrientes and it connects to other metro lines making it really easy to get around from this area.
Fortunately our few days in BA included a Sunday when the San Telmo area has an antique market in Plaza Dorrego along with a street fair that stretches for many blocks down Defensa St. The street vendors sold a large variety of items and there were also entertainers of various kinds, living statues and other activities going on.
If you can spend a Sunday in BA definitely go to San Telmo. We also watched Tango dancing during lunch and saw more dancing in the street so I didn’t feel like I needed to spend money for an evening dinner and Tango show.
Here are a few other travel tips for Buenos Aires and Argentina in general.
- Get a SUBE transportation smart card at a metro station or certain Kiosko stores. You pay for the card and reload it with money as required for transportation on buses and metro. You can use the card in Bariloche and possibly other cities in Argentina.
- I found BA easy to get around with a good map I got at a tourist info centre. Plan to walk lots but crossing the street is easy as most have walk lights and most streets are one-way streets.
- Most if not all ATM (bank machines) will only dispense up to 3000 or 4000 pesos at a time. There is a fairly large fee for foreign bank cards. If you can, bring US$ or other currency that can be converted at a money exchange. Preferably larger bills, $50’s or $100’s to get a better exchange rate.
- In the Buenos Aires airport you use a machine to get a slip for your taxi. It calculates the amount based on where you are going, so there is no price gouging by taxis.
- I spent 5 days in BA and I didn’t find time to get out of the city to go to the Tigre Delta, Uruguay or anything else outside of the city, so allow more time if you want to do other excursions.
- For the budget traveler who wants to cook I found a 24hr Supermercado market, lots of fruit and vegetable stores some with already chopped veggies for a stir fry or salad. There were Wok or buffet style places where you could buy by weight your desired quantity of many different cooked items to eat in or take away.
- Meat to cook is very reasonably priced at the grocery store and any I ate was very tender and tasty.
- The beer and wine at the grocery stores throughout Argentina has been very cheap compared to what I pay in Canada.
- Depending on when you travel, book accommodation with air conditioning. We have needed it in a number of location.
Enjoy this fabulous city and country
Sent from my iPhone
