“The Paris of South America”
Every time people go on international vacations—it seems its usually England, France, Italy, Spain or Portugal. Nice—but a bit predictable.
My wife, Erin, and I have done all those trips and decided it was time to break out of the “European Knee-Jerk Reflex” and try something else. I’ve never been south of the equator, heard great things about Buenos Aires, did a little research—and decided the capital of Argentina would be our next big trip.
Pro tip: We flew directly from Miami but learned last time not to deal with expensive airport parking. There are dozens of adjacent hotels within a mile of the tarmac offering $8 daily parking with free shuttle service to the airport. I even found one with covered parking. Worked out perfectly.
I thought if we arrived with no sleep on our overnight flight, it would wipe out the first day– especially if we couldn’t check in at 8am to get a nap, which was likely. So we spent a few extra bucks to fly first class. The good news is—we had access to the VIP airport lounge where we loaded up on food and drink. The bad news is—by the time we boarded and they promptly served us a gourmet meal, we weren’t hungry. I know, “first-world issues.”
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Once on the ground nearly 9 hours later , we got through customs quickly. In fact we were encouraged by the friendliness of the Argentinian immigration official—and happy to report it wasn’t the last time we’d experience such kindness.
The airport is an hour from downtown Buenos Aires, and we arrived in time to get caught in the morning rush hour. Our hotel, The Recoleta Grand Marriott, was in an ideal location for our daily excursions and the staff could not have been nicer and more accommodating. Not only did they allow us to check in early, they also bumped us up into a junior suite when our room had air conditioning issues.
We got a 24-hour pass on the yellow Buenos Aires double-decker bus to help us get a lay of the land. They provided headphones to allow us to hear the English narration of the passing scenery. Most people spoke Spanish, and about half—pending where we were–also spoke English. (Pro tip: There’s a Translate app that we regularly relied on. We write in our message in English, push “translate” and the other person can read in Spanish what we’re trying to communicate.) www.BuenosAiresBus.com
We saw Casa Rosada—Argentina’s version of the White House. The National Congress—equivalent to our Capitol Hill. As well as the obelisk, which is a shorter version of our Washington Monument. We also saw a high-rise government building with former first lady, Eva “Evita” Person memorialized on two sides in sprawling steel portraits.
We explored each day, averaging 20,000 steps, and checked out neighborhoods in each direction. Funky Palermo, new Puerto Madera and historic San Telmo. (San Telmo has a mile-long flea market on Sundays that draws tens of thousands of people each weekend. I bought a leather belt for $18.)
Prices are overall good for visiting Americans. A nice dinner one night cost us $123,000 Argentinian pesos—which meant about $75. That same dinner would have cost $150 back in the states.
We got adventuresome and tried to find the pretty colored buildings in La Boca but got lost and wound up in a shady area. A gentleman who was walking in front of us suddenly doubled over and loudly purged his lunch and dessert, while three adjacent ladies of the night were nonplused. Except it wasn’t nighttime, it was mid-afternoon and upon closer inspection they weren’t ladies. We saw some police officers on foot and asked if we were in a safe area. They immediately flagged down a taxi and told the driver in Spanish to get us out of there. Whoops.
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Everyone told us to check out the Argentine steak and catch a tango show—so we followed our concierge’s lead and booked a ride to a Saturday night dinner show in Puerto Madero. Though we may have been able to find something for less than the $700 we paid, we did have good service, a good meal and an entertaining show. As for the Argentinian steak? It’s curiously tasty, looks like an oversized hockey puck and I’d rather just have a nice filet at Bonefish Grill. The tango show was well-done—entertaining and sexy.
Something else everyone told us to do was go to Iguazu Falls. It’s one of the top seven “natural wonders of the world,” but it’s also a 23-hour day in the cold and mist. We went, enjoyed it—but I got sick a couple days later and am still coughing. I think my defenses were down and a passenger coughing in my head on the flight back did me in. (Credit goes to the travel group, Turistango, which found us a relatively low price of $1060 for the flight. www.Turistango.com.)
The next morning we headed out early for another side trip: An hour-plus ferry ride to neighboring Uruguay! Colonia Del Sacramento is a charming laid back little town—and we enjoyed a lazy lunch and roamed around afterwards until it was time to get back on the boat back to Buenos Aires.
Bottom line: Buenos Aires is a beautiful place with incredible architecture. The people are friendly and the city is easy to tackle on foot. It was a wonderful visit and we’re glad we went south—rather than east—for this year’s big trip.
Ray Collins is a Sarasota-based travel writer who is happy to have expanded his horizons south of the border. He is a high-end Realtor, media consultant and former TV news anchor. You can see his other 150+ published stories at www.RayCollinsMedia.com/articles
