Helpful Tips for Travel in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Argentina is a wonderful destination.  But its best to know the ins and outs of travel in Buenos Aires before you go!  Here is a quide to traveling in Buenos Aires.

Title: Travel In Buenos Aires: A Quick Barrio Guide

Author: Scott Ferree

Article:
Cross the street and everything changes. Buenos Aires, more than
most cities of a comparable size, gives you the feeling of a
patchwork quilt city - a city which is defined by its
neighborhoods (barrios).

If you ask a porteño, one of Buenos Aires residents, where he's
from, he won't say Buenos Aires - he'll give you his
neighborhood's name. And if you ask him which barrio is the
best, any self-respecting porteño will tell you that his barrio
is.

It's best to take this advice lightly and sample a handful.

The barrios commonly visited by tourists and travelers include,
in descending order of popularity:

1) Recoleta. Buenos Aires' equivalent of New York's Upper East
Side or London's Knightsbridge. Fancy, ornate and posh. A quick
list of things to see and do include the cemetery, the lobbies
of the five star hotels (of which the Alvear is the most
ostentatious), and Avenida Santa Fe's shopping.

2) Palermo. Known for its parks as well as its restaurants, bars
and colorful little shops. When Palermo is mentioned as the best
place in Buenos Aires to go out, it's probably Palermo Viejo and
Palermo Hollywood (two micro-barrios) that are being referred
to. They're BA's hippest places to be seen at the moment, where
you can take part in the city's crazy nightlife that doesn't
even begin to slow down until the sun's already risen. (A proper
Buenos Aires night out should finish with breakfast.)

3) Downtown (Microcentro). This is where Buenos Aires' suits go
on a business day. It's the center of the nation's economy, a
place of high rise office buildings, narrow crowded streets, and
exhaust fumes. For the tourist without business concerns, it's
almost entirely devoid of interest (though you wouldn't know it
from the large numbers who flock there). Towards San Telmo, in
the older part of the downtown area, there are sites to be seen,
however: the Plaza de Mayo, the Casada Rosada (the "Pink House",
Buenos Aires' equivalent to the White House) and the Manzana de
las Luces are all worth a visit.

4) San Telmo. A barrio of cobblestone streets, antique stores,
and colonial area mansions. In the early days of Buenos Aires,
the Spanish and upper-crust criollos established themselves in
this area and built grandiose buildings with interior patios.
When those moneyed citizens fled San Telmo and took off for
Recoleta to escape cholera epidemics in the late 19th century,
the mansions were abandoned to squatters and San Telmo was
transformed into the center of Buenos Aires bohemia. Recently,
interest from visitors, foreign and Argentine alike, has brought
gentrification to the barrio. This means security, once a sore
spot, has improved, but prices have shot up as well.

5) One place where it is still best to watch your wallet though
is La Boca. As a matter of fact, it's really only recommendable
to visit the tourist area of El Caminito where the Argentine
Federal Police have been stationed to watch your back. This
little street, with its bright colored houses, has very nearly
been touristed to death. Still, no visit to Buenos Aires is
complete without a visit to the fabled street of garish colors.
On game days, the soccer stadium in La Boca is another major
reason to visit the barrio.

When you come to Buenos Aires, though, do yourself a favor and
try to break out of the established tourist routines, if only
for a little while. Just a few recommendations of the lesser
visited barrios, where your fellow-citizens and fellow travelers
are less likely to be tagging along with you, include:

Las Cañitas in Belgrano. Restaurants, restaurants, restaurants
galore (plus, it's a stone throw from Palermo).

Almagro. What San Telmo used to be, Almagro still is: Bohemian.
Check newspaper listings for tango concerts, independent theatre
and other events in the area. Meanwhile, the cafe Las Violetas,
on the corner of Rivadavia Avenue and Medrano street, is amongst
the most beautifully restored historic cafes in the city.

Mataderos, an outlying barrio where the city's butchers still
ply their trade, is also a find, not so much for the barrio
itself but for the Sunday afternoon market which takes place in
the barrio's main square. This market is not to be confused with
the markets in San Telmo or Recoleta. It's bigger, better, with
a greater variety of authentic hand-craft goods - leather and
silver amongst others. In the spring and summer months, gauchos
from the nearby countryside perform rodeo displays at the market
as well.

About the author:
Scott Ferree is a translator and English instructor, as well as
the study abroad coordinator for the Interhispanica Language
School in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Interhispanica Spanish
School is located in the barrio of Recoleta:
http://www.interhispanica.com.ar

Hasta Luego Amigo!  Learning a little Spanish wont hurt either!