Buenos Aires is the capital of the Argentine Republic and is located on the western bank of the Rio de la Plata. Besides, it is one of the most popular destinations worldwide. According to the Trip Advisor website, Buenos Aires is the eighth preferred destination in the world by tourists. The city is home to more than 2,8 million inhabitants, what turns it into the second most populated city in South America. It hosts around 4 million tourists a year. Discover with The Real Argentina –Bodega Argento’s blog– the places that you must not miss while visiting Buenos Aires. Those are the most exquisite restaurants and the most traditional taverns, the most welcoming cafés and bars, the places where you can eat the best meat Argentine cuts, the most interesting open-air fairs, the trendy conceptual shops or the best hotels to stay the night during your visit. You can also find out about the secrets of Buenos Aires’ gastronomy, with its red meat, fish, empanadas and pastas (there is a plain influence of Italian cuisine). Tour the streets of the cosmopolitan capital to visit its museums, theatres (Buenos Aires has one of the biggest concentrations of theatres in the world, with Colón Theatre as the most important one) and places where you can behold the elegance of tango –the classical Argentine dance that is labelled as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Buenos Aires also has a big number of libraries and is the publishing hub of the country. While visiting Buenos Aires, you must walk around the city centre –where you will find Montserrat and San Telmo neighbourhoods– and the stately area of Recoleta. You must also visit the country’s presidential headquarters located at the Casa Rosada, as well as the Mayo Avenue and the Manzana de las Luces, which hosts several buildings with high historical value. And, please, do not miss the opportunity to go to the modern neighbourhood of Puerto Madero. Buenos Aires is also a centre of attraction for football lovers. Football is the most popular sport in Argentina. Some of the most important and emblematic teams and stadiums –such as the Monumental Stadium where River Plate plays its home games– are found in the city. Our Argento blog collaborators will also reveal simple routes to discover the charming villages nearby the capital, such as Carlos Keen or San Antonio de Areco, as well as the local markets where you will be able to purchase the best Argentine products.
Buenos Aires and its porteño residents have never been a particularly disciplined lot, so the idea of sending visitors on a traditional sightseeing tour complete with an officious flag-bearing guide is wrong on all accounts. However, BA, as creative as it is, offers a whole host of alternative ways to see the city via its street art, boutiques, sacred grape and a photography workshop.
In the booming Argentina of the 1920s, the hip place to look to for ideas if you were an artist or intellectual was mother Europe. Jazz had just become all the rage over there, and hence arrived in Argentina not via the United States, but rather from the likes of Paris, London and Berlin. As the ‘new’ music began to take off in Buenos Aires in the ‘30s, it met with some resistance from certain quarters who viewed it as too foreign, and a threat to traditional types of music such as folklore and tango.
Here’s a sign of the times: type ‘Why is Argentina so…’ into Google and one of the auto-complete options it offers is ‘expensive’. It’s the question on everyone’s lips, and one we can’t really answer in a short blog post, so let’s just stick to the basic facts: soaring inflation has left the prices of 2002 far behind. Here are The Real Argentina’s tips for following in their trend-setting footsteps when shopping in Buenos Aires.
“Help! I’m a vegetarian in Argentina and I may throw myself off La Boca’s Transbordador bridge if I have to eat another ensalada mixta.” If you’re a non-meateater in one of the most carnivorous countries in the world, you know what I am talking about. There are good days (falafel from Sarkis) and bad days (when you ravenously create make-shift chimichurri sandwiches from the parrilla bread basket).
An Englishman, two American women and an Argentine of uncertain gender (their words, not mine) walk into a Buenos Aires bar… and take to the stage for a night of rip-roaring comedy and gags in English. That’s right, folks – the city that is home to the Tower of the English People and British-built railway tracks now hosts a weekly comedy night in the very same English language…
Contrary to popular belief, Argentine food isn’t always about steaks, empanadas and pizzas – some diversity does exist. A huge number of different ethnicities are represented in Buenos Aires’ cultural make-up – and where there’s people, there’s food. A whistle-stop culinary world tour is possible without leaving the capital.
Buenos Aires is known as the city for epicureans – which is another way of saying it has posh nosh in spades (not actual spades, more like ramekins). With its sublime surroundings, wine lists suitable for aristocrats and plates so glam they have their own paparazzi, the capital’s top restaurants are the most cutting-edge in the southern hemisphere. From elegant hotel dining rooms to upmarket rooftop eateries with superb views, it’s got decadence down – especially in Palermo…
Ten years ago, even before I was such a beer snob, when a friend and I were planning parties, we would put “NB” on the invitations: No Brahma. OK, maybe I was a beer snob then, but the Brazilian beer, a whole 20 centavos cheaper than Quilmes, wasn’t just bland. It was offensively bland. Like Kenny G…
It’s easy to get carried away with the stereotypical image of Argentina as the land of red meat, but there is far more to Argentine cuisine than empanadas and steak. Which is obvious when you think of the ingredients that make up this country – Hispanic, pre-colonial and endless waves of immigrants, all mixed together in a rich stew. Scratch a little deeper and you will uncover all kinds of other influences. The country’s modern chefs have drawn on regional dishes beyond the Pampa and its famous grass-fed beef cattle…
Buenos Aires is one of the world’s top photography locations. The combination of open and friendly people, accessible locations and rich culture, makes the city a photographer’s dream. However, its the wonderfully diverse neighbourhoods that Argentina’s capital offers up, all within a tiny area, that make it that extra bit special.