The Buenos Aires Guide: OUR TOP NEIGHBOURHOODS TO EXPLORE
Often (lazily) dubbed the ‘Paris of South America,’ the Argentine capital is far more layered than that.
For Borges, its most famous literary son, Buenos Aires was a shifting mirage of cloisters, labyrinths and myths – a place to be “recognised with a joy on the edge of vertigo.” There are forty-eight neighbourhoods in all, each with its own personality. Palermo Soho is all indie boutiques and café terraces, while San Telmo is home to tango, antiques and old-world grit. Recoleta is grand and traditional, La Boca raw and full of colour. Some feel European; others could only be here.
Our founder, Harry Hastings, launched Plan South America while living in the capital and writing for Time Out. Our concierge team remains based there, along with a trusted network of chefs, artists, journalists, and bon vivants who keep us plugged in.
Here, then, is our insider’s guide to Buenos Aires’ most important neighbourhoods – and where to eat, shop and stay while you’re there.
Recoleta
The city’s grandest neighbourhood, Recoleta is home to tree-lined boulevards, manicured plazas and Belle Époque-style façades. Ironically, it owes its rise to calamity. In 1871, a yellow fever epidemic swept through Buenos Aires, driving the city’s elite from the south to this once-quiet northern district. What followed was a flurry of construction – palaces, museums, parks. Looking to Paris and Rome for inspiration, and sparing no expense, Recoleta was established as the city’s cultural and intellectual heart.
WHAT TO DO IN RECOLETA
Recoleta Cemetery is magnificent, and absolutely worth visiting – a maze of vaults and marble angels, a monument to Argentina’s dynastic families. Eva Perón’s tomb draws the largest crowds, though the lesser-known mausoleums often tell more intriguing stories.
A short stroll away lies Avenida Alvear, the city’s most refined thoroughfare, lined with opulent mansions, many of which now house embassies or designer boutiques; stop at Santesteban for beautifully-crafted leather goods, and Fueguia 1833’s flagship store for Argentine perfumes.
At the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, works by Goya, Van Gogh and Degas share wall space with Argentine greats such as Berni and Xul Solar. Nearby, the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo is set in a former aristocratic residence, filled with European antiques, tapestries and objets d’art. Its garden café, Croque Madame, is a favourite lunch haunt.
Buenos Aires does an excellent line in bookstores, and among the best is El Ateneo Grand Splendid. Housed in a former theatre, it’s often cited as one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world. Its gilded balconies now serve as reading rooms, and the original crimson stage curtain still hangs overhead.
WHERE TO STAY
For old-world grandeur, the Alvear Palace remains the benchmark: mirrored salons, marble bathrooms, liveried doormen. Nearby, Palacio Duhau offers a sharper blend of classic and contemporary, with an underground gallery linking the original mansion with a sleek modern wing.
Housed in a restored neoclassical building, Casa Lucia is more restrained than its neighbours: polished wood, soft leather, Argentine art on the walls. The in-house restaurant Cantina does an excellent line in elevated porteño classics.
WHERE TO EAT & DRINK
Roux is a perennial favourite. No restaurant receives more consistently outstanding reviews from our clients than this diminutive corner bistro – be sure to order the seafood salad.
For drinks, there’s Presidente. Named after president Manuel Quintana, this chic bar is lavishly furnished with chandeliers and inhabited by attractive bar staff who serve visitors their speciality negronis. For a quieter evening, head to the library-inspired private bar at the back.
Palermo
Palermo is one of Buenos Aires’ hippest neighbourhoods, divided into micro-districts like Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood – each with its own character. It was Sarmiento, Argentina’s intellectual president, who first envisioned a district of parks and cultural institutions here in the 19th century. Today it is Buenos Aires’ most eclectic quarter, a haven for those drawn to its creative energy.
WHAT TO DO IN PALERMO
Young and international, Palermo Soho is bursting with hip boutiques, bars and cafes. Gurruchaga, El Salvador and Gorriti are the streets to explore, while come the weekend, Plaza Serrano is abuzz with nightlife.
Across the rail tracks is Palermo Hollywood, funkier and less commercial than Soho. Named for the cluster of film and TV studios located here, it’s peppered with contemporary galleries, colonial style PH houses, and many of the capital’s best bars and restaurants.
For art-lovers, MALBA – the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires – is a must. This sleek, contemporary space houses works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Antonio Berni; it’s worth setting aside a couple of hours to explore both the permanent collection and its sharp, often political temporary exhibitions.
When the city heat sets in, make for the Bosques de Palermo, a sprawl of parks and gardens where you’ll find paddle boats, duck ponds, hidden bridges, and broad lawns made for napping. On weekends, locals picnic beneath the jacarandas and rent bikes from makeshift stalls near the rose garden.
WHERE TO STAY
Hidden behind leafy walls in Palermo Soho, Be Jardín Escondido was once the Buenos Aires hideout of The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, who lived there while writing the script for Tetro. It’s now a small, stylish seven-room hotel, with a colour-drenched garden, luxurious living areas and rich Argentine furnishings.
WHERE TO EAT & DRINK
Dinner at Don Julio is something of a rite of passage; yes, it’s firmly on the tourist trail, but the quality and service remain reliably first-rate. For something less conventional, make for Musgo, where Russian-Ukrainian owners Konstantin Voronin and Ksenia Romantsova, who fled the war to start anew in Buenos Aires, serve what they call ‘Patagandi’: Patagonian flavors with Asian techniques and the minimalist restraint of Northern Europe.
The neighbourhoods bordering Palermo have much to offer too; try Ácido in Chacarita, and Anchoita in Villa Crespo.
Later, head to Hache Almacén, a low-key wine bar, or Verne Cocktail Club – dimly lit and usually packed full of stylish locals, its ‘Around the World in 80 Cocktails’ menu is well worth discovering.
Downtown
Downtown is not a single neighbourhood but a cluster of districts – San Nicolás, Retiro, and Monserrat – that together form the city’s political and cultural heart. This is where the city began, founded in 1580 as a humble colonial outpost around Plaza de Mayo. By the late 18th century, its narrow streets gave way to wider boulevards and grand buildings influenced by European ideals, brimming with immigrants from across the Atlantic.
WHAT TO DO IN DOWNTOWN BUENOS AIRES
Start at Casa Rosada, Argentina’s iconic pink presidential palace, home to the balcony where Eva Peron famously addressed throngs of Peronists who gathered in the Playa de Mayo – immortalised (if not entirely accurately) in the musical Evita.
Just across the square stands the Cabildo. Dwarfed by its neighbours, it’s easy to overlook, but its modesty belies its importance; it once housed the seat of Spanish rule. Today, it serves as a small museum on Argentina’s fight for independence. From here, head west along Avenida de Mayo, a grand, European-style boulevard that leads to the National Congress.
A few blocks north, Teatro Colon presides over the Avenida 9 de Julio like a grande dame, filling an entire city block. One of the world’s great opera houses, it stands as a reminder of a more prosperous era when it hosted everyone from Toscanini to Caruso and the Ballets Russes.
WHERE TO EAT & DRINK
Stop in at Café Tortoni,the city’s oldest café, and order a traditional submarino – hot milk and a melting bar of chocolate.
For lunch, head to Los Jardines de las Barquín, a spruced-up Andalusian garden tucked away in the Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernández Blanco museum.
Later, slip into Florería Atlántico. Hidden beneath a blooming flower shop, it’s entered through a fridge door and down a narrow stairwell, with an inventive cocktail menu that pays homage to Argentina’s immigrant roots.
San Telmo
Named after the patron saint of seafarers, San Telmo sits midway between Downtown and the quiet port area of La Boca. One of Buenos Aires’ oldest neighbourhoods, it was once the enclave of the city’s elite, until yellow fever cleared them out and left their mansions to artists and immigrants. These days, its once-gritty streets are now home to buzzing cafes, restaurants and bars – but its raffish spirit endures, and many of its landmarks are now protected heritage sites.
WHAT TO DO IN SAN TELMO
On Sundays, the sleepy square of Plaza Dorrego becomes a raucous outdoor art and antiques market with impromptu tango performances, and over 250 booths and stands. Arrive early to avoid the throng.
For tango without the gloss, rather than a polished tourist show, drop into a milonga like La Catedral. Housed in a cavernous, graffiti-covered hall, this is tango as it’s danced by Porteños – raw, unrehearsed, and utterly transporting.
Beneath a San Telmo mansion, El Zanjón de Granados – a preserved labyrinth of 16th-century tunnels – sits on the site of the first Buenos Aires settlement dating back to 1536. Discovered in 1985, they make for an eerie walk into the city’s history.
WHERE TO EAT
Caseros is our go-to for a long lunch. A brasserie-style hideaway in a pretty corner, they specialise in light, simple, Mediterranean-style dishes.
Note: Petty theft is common in San Telmo, so exercise caution when walking here and avoid taking valuables.
Puerto Madero
Buenos Aires’ youngest barrio, Puerto Madero is also its sharpest. Originally conceived in the late 19th century by Eduardo Madero, the port infrastructure quickly became obsolete and was left to languish for decades, a wasteland of crumbling docks and dilapidated warehouses. Following a revival project in the 1990s, it now has a very different feel to the rest of the city – home to sleek glass high-rises, manicured parks and no end of swanky restaurants.
WHAT TO DO IN PUERTO MADERO
Santiago Calatrava’s striking bridge, Puente de la Mujer, is the neighbourhood’s most iconic feature, with sweeping lines that evoke a couple mid-tango.
At Fortabat Museum, billionaire and philanthropist Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat’s extensive collection is housed in a glass and steel arc shaped building overlooking the Puerto Madero docks. Including her own personal Andy Warhol portrait, there are pieces by Dalí, Rodin and Chagall.
Love it or hate it, Philip Starck’s audacious creation, El Faena Hotel, is worth a visit. Start with a cocktail at the Library Lounge before exploring the adjacent Faena Art Centre, which puts on some first-rate exhibitions. It’s also home to Rojo Tango, our favourite of the capital’s professional tango shows, with a sultry 1920s cabaret vibe.
La Boca
The birthplace of Argentina’s tango, La Boca was home to vast immigrant populations arriving from Europe in the early twentieth century. Today, it is an artistic quarter of brightly coloured houses and a couple of noteworthy galleries. The legendary ground of the Boca Juniors football team, La Bombonera, is just around the corner.
WHAT TO DO IN LA BOCA
Visit famous Caminito, a colourful street lined with artists’ stalls and dancers performing impromptu tango. The houses, mostly made of corrugated metal, were painted in a patchwork of rainbow colours because immigrants used whatever leftover paint they could find.
For football fans, a Boca Juniors game is a must; the atmosphere is electric. Support for fútbol is comparable to a religion here; the two most popular teams, Boca Juniors and River Plate, share a fierce rivalry, and nearly every porteño will show support for one of the two.
WHERE TO EAT
A much-loved old-school bodegón, Don Carlos is gloriously unpretentious – a family affair. Front of house is run by Carlitos, while food – Italian tapas and exquisite cuts from the grill – is prepared by his wife and daughter. Adjacent to the Bombonera football stadium in La Boca, it is usually packed with locals.
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