“Modern boutique hotel with spacious rooms”
The boutique hotel is small, but has great service. The rooms are very modern and spacious with a balcony. Concierge is very accommodating and explained every detail in getting around to places. The area is a bit outside of the main city attractions, so its quiet, but the metro is located just 4 blocks away and takes only about 10-15 min. to get into the main city area. The hotel has WiFi and also a free computer to use downstairs.. They also have another Esplendor (soho) hotel in the downtown area, which is more centrally located to all the main sight seeing areas. Overall a great hotel and good value.
Area recommendations
La Boca - Tango City. Such a vibrant, colorful neighborhood with the most scintillating graffiti.
San Telmo - Antiques market. Even if you don't like antiques, you will enjoy San Telmo. This area is captivating, with its salon styled French flair restaurants and the antiques just bring back such nostalgia. They also have stores that are modern and carry a variety of interesting little things. Unfortunatley , I missed the antiques flea market on Sundays, where I heard is a whole street fair with live music.
Retiro - Old money (Vanderbilt like) neighborhood. Here is where they derive the connotation "Paris of South America". You will forget you are in Argentina while walking this area.
Puerto Madero - New money neighborhood revived from an old port industrial area. Here you will think you are in Battery Park or Tribecca in NY. Tall new commercial and residential buildings. Big parks and lots of hip new cafes and restaurants. It sits along side a river that has a bridge connecting to the other side.
Buenos Aires is a great, beautiful city. Extend further into the old Palermo neighborhood and you will see their version of embassy row, which is a beautiful quiet area to walk around, where all the embassies emboss different architecture.
Recoleta - NIce parks to sit and relax. They also have a whole area of vendors, great place to buy all the souvenirs you need.
When to go
November is a good time to go. Not too hot about 75-80 F, occasional rain, but mostly bright sunny days.
Getting there
If you are transferring and have a long lay over, avoid Sao Paolo Brazil's airport. I was stuck at Sao Paolo's airport for 4 hrs, and there is barely anything to shop or eat there. Shops and restaurants are bare minimum. I also had a stopover in Santiago, Chile's airport which to my surprise had Dunkin Donuts, Ruby Tuesday's (with a large flat screen showing ESPN) and a Starbucks, although also a very small international airport.
And no matter what you hear, US citizens do not need a visa if you are TRANSFERRING through Brazil, the key is you are not leaving the transit area. Alot of ticketing agents think even if you are transferring you need a visa. That's why I was rerouted through Chile on my way there, but I thought I'd take the chance going back through Brazil and it was fine.
Getting around
The metro is a good way, but Buenos Aires is a huge city, and the metro is not at every corner. Taxi's are fast, cheap and convenient. The taxi drivers are quite honest, you just need to have an address or point to a map of where you need to go. The bus is quite difficult if you don't understand Spanish or know where the routes or stops are. Though if you do manage to go to the bus website, they have quite a detailed route line spelled out, indicating the which streets they stop on, but not the exact bus stop location.
Must see
Since BA is such a large city, the best way to see the city is the Hop on-Hop off city tour bus. Best to purchase tickets online at their government operated website (its also the best value compared to the other high priced private tour buses), as they have a headcount of how many people can go on the bus at each interval, even if you see the bus is half full. I assume they have to account for other people getting on the bus at different stops. There's always a lot of tourists there. The city bus is a great experience, it is efficiently operated and a very effective method to see the whole city and its different neighborhoods.
