As two couples—one from Pittsburgh, Pa, other from Jupiter, Fl, we booked our trip through Escapes Unlimited, Tustin, Ca. This package was noted in Budget Traveller magazine as a great buy at $699- per person.
The package included RT air from Miami on LAN Argentina, 5 nights at the Hotel Regis-Orho, breakfasts, airport transfers, and a half day tour of BsAs.
The LAN flight left Miami about 20 minutes late and arrived on time. The plane was a B767 300 series. We had seats on the two side going down and back. The planes on both segments were essentially full. Food to BsAs was typical airline food. Wine was good…Mendoza red. Crew was efficient but not particularly friendly. Plane was clean and well serviced on both legs of the trip.
Arrival in BsAs was easy, immigration/customs as snap. Took advice of Dr. Dwaggy to change money at the bank directly to the right of the baggage carrousels…quick, painless, and a 3.05 rate.
Met Eduardo from SurExpress who arranged our transfer to the hotel. He provided a great running commentary during our ride to the hotel which took about 25 mins. He also arrange to switch our half day tour which was scheduled for Wed. to the arrival day in the afternoon. This is a good idea because you can’t get into your hotel room since you arrive so early (830 am). It was a great way to see the city that first afternoon, getting a good overview from a comfortable position.
We checked into the Regis, on Av. Lavalle…one of the pedestrian streets downtown. The check-in was very friendly, and efficient. They stored our bags, and we went out to explore and have lunch while waiting for our 130pm city tour. We scoped out the entire pedestrian walking streets of Lavalle, and Florida, poking into shops, and headed to Café Tortoni for a mid-morning coffee.
Despite the comments about Café Tortoni about the service being smug, not too friendly, etc, we found the opposite. Had a nice Bs.As. breakfast of medialunas, little ham/cheese sandwiches, coffee, juice, etc.
On the corner of Lavalle and Esmeralda is Il Valerio, a very clean Italian/Argentianian modern restaurant with inexpensive sandwiches, wood fired pizzas, and nice desserts. They also have very good breakfasts…ranging from Continental to full American style breakfasts…We had substantial breakfasts with excellent café au lait, and espressos for about $40 pesos including tip for two.
If you’re looking for another type of breakfast/sandwich/lunch spot…further down Lavallee one block beyond Florida is La Brioche which serves authentic French croissants, brioche, baguette sandwiches, soups, salads, etc. 10 pesos gets you a breakfast of coffee, breads, and juice. Very good quality in the French tradition.
Despite the good reviews on the Acapulco restaurant also on Lavalle, between Esmeralda and Florida, this place is a meal factory serving cheap, mediocre at best, food.
On our second day, we walked a lot of the city seeing the downtown area, the presidential palace, and the ladies started buying shoes!! Tango shoes, and regular shoes…excellent quality/value tango shoes were found at the two shoe stores on Suipacha almost across from the Confeteria Ideal. Don’t remember their names as we visited way too many shoe stores. More on the “Ideal” later.
It can be said that the value of the US $$$ goes a long way in Bs.As. We found that all stores did two things: gave a 10-15% discount for paying in cash—pesos and if you paid in US cash not only did you still get the cash discount, but all of the stores we patronized gave a 3.10 peso/dollar exchange…better than the bank. Based on this, we paid cash for everything and maximized our spending power.
We did not come across many American tourists during our stay, most were from Brazil, Europe, and Columbia. The few American tourists did stand out because of their dress. Bs.As. is a very European cosmopolitan city (we didn’t expect anything less) were people tend to be a bit dressier even though it was summer however, the Americans (not us) stood out in their shorts, t-shirts, ball caps, and sneakers. Having traveled extensively, and read a lot about Bs.As. we were already in the know concerning dress. That may have minimized the effect concerning the panhandlers, and any potential security problems as we did blend in to the local scenery.
Speaking of panhandlers, we were surprised by the large numbers of panhandlers in the downtown area, as well as the dumpster divers that particularly invade the city around 5 pm to scour the dumpster, trash bins, etc for every speck of cardboard, plastic, or anything recyclable. We learned that this phenomena came about after the economic collapse in 2001, and the government is trying to rein this in. This wasn’t a particularly pleasant image of Bs.As, but it is the reality.
The third day saw us again touring around the city, going to the Modern Art Museum, and walking from there back to Recoleta, having lunch in a corner café, poking around shops, and enjoying the Bs. As. Scene. We dined that evening at La Cabrera Norte located just a few doors away from the original La Cabrera at 5127 Cabrera.
We couldn’t get into the original La Cabrera so we were sent to the sister restaurant, waited about 40 minutes and had an excellent meal. We went all out lomito, duck, pork, chicken, appetizers, dessert, and wine. All that and we paid about $40 per couple with fine, friendly service.
On our fourth day, we took a tour from the hotel concierge going to San Ysidro, Tigre, and the Delta of the Rio Plata. The tour cost about $15-person, and encompassed a bus ride to the Tren del Plata train station where we took the train to San Ysidro, re-boarded the bus for a tour of San Ysidro, and headed to Tigre where we boarded a boat for a trip through the Delta of the Rio Plata area. This delta island area is the weekend retreat of Portenos.
Upon returning we had dinner at the Almacen Y Restaurant Suipacha, almost on the corner of Suipacha (#425)and Corrientes. The quality/price ratio found here was the best, we felt. Dinner with wine was about $20 per couple. We feasted on roast lamb, roast veggie, and a bottle of Trapiche Malbec wine. For the same amount our friends had lomito, chicken, veggies, and Argentine Champagne from Mendoza.
The following day, we had a tango lesson at the Confiteria Ideal at Suipacha 384. The lesson cost $10 per person for a good 2.5 hours. The teachers were Romina Veron and Carlos Sosto. These excellent professionals give lessons at the Ideal every Wednesday.
Check out their website: www.nuestromundotango.com.ar. For lesson times, locations, and shows they produce and dance in each week. We also attended their tango show that evening at the Ideal. The show was about $15- per person and lasted two hours.
The Confiteria Ideal is a centrally located milonga with dancing just about every night of the week from 10 pm-4 am. Pick up a copy of the Tango Map/Guide. Free at Confiterias, and some newsstands.
After the dance lesson we returned to the Restaurant Suipacha for a late lunch. “Businessmen’s” Specials at lunch are from 8-11 pesos, depending on what you choose. It includes a first course, main course, dessert, and dirnk (beer/wine/soft drink). The wine selection at this restaurant is extensive and covers the gamut of Argentine wines. Excellent Malbecs can be had for about $8-10/bottle. Champagnes from Mendoza run about $10-14/bottle—The French producers, Mumm, and Chandon have vineyards in Mendoza, as does another called Norton. Not to be missed here is a dessert of Dulce de Leche as a mousse. Think chocolate mousse, but dulce de leche…truly delectable. One portion is good enough for two…at 9 pesos it’s a real bargain.
We spent the late afternoon visiting the Recoleta cemetery, the Church of Pilar next to the cemetery, and the surrounding Recoleta park. The heat that day was fairly hot, so we had to stop at the Café Biela for some refreshments and people watching.
That evening we went to La Bolsa restaurant next to Restaurant Suipacha for dinner and the free tango show offered there. Grilled meats are the house speciality, and between the two couples we had roast goat, pork, and lomo, all in the Argentine style accompanied by more Malbec! Excellent service, very fine grilled meats, and an enjoyable tango show…not the best, but enjoyable nonetheless, and it was free. Dinner cost about$25 per couple.
On our next to last morning we did some serious shopping, managing to acquire three pairs of shoes for my wife at the Carla shoe store 835 Lavalle, Local 3, just steps away from the Regis Hotel. Dianne was the sales person, very pleasant, knowlgeable, and patient. You know how ladies try on shoes. We ended up buying three pairs of shoes, and received the standard 15% discount for cash.
After the shoes it was belts, wallets, and purses. After looking in numerous shops we settled on Guns Leather 658 Florida where Fernand helped us select the items. Again the price/quality ratio, along with the discount, and a 3.10peso/dollar rate enabled us to buy some very nice items.
Just down the street we sampled Malbec wines at Vinos Argentinos at 565 Tucuman, just off Av. Florida. We bought 6 bottles of award winning Malbecs to take home. The store individually bubble-wrapped each bottle, boxed them up, wrapped the box in bubble wrap with carrying handle, ready for airport check-in, and delivered it to the hotel in one hour! We checked the wine as baggage at the airport, and the superb packaging arrived with not so much as a scratch in Miami.—whizzed right through US customs…
Later Saturday evening we ended up at the Billares 36 café after the original restaurant we where we wanted to go was closed. They also had a tango show that evening for an additional $10 per person. The show was fair, the food very mediocre, and the service was the worst we experienced in Bs.As. Wouldn’t recommend Billares 36.
On Sunday, our last full day before our 10 pm return flight, we visited the San Telmo flea market. As we’re not into antiques, it was an interesting visit. Visited lots of little art galleries, and shops including a hole-in-the-wall handmade shoe store with very nice quality shoes. The area as jam packed with tourists, and this is where we encountered more of our countrymen than at any other time during our stay. Everyone recommends eating at La Brigada in San Telmo, however the lines were out the door for lunch, and we were starving…so we wandered down the street and stumbled on a little corner café called Territorio on the corner of Eustado Unidos (USA street), and Bolivar. Everything in this café is home grown, and home made including the beers! We had salads, sandwiches, and desserts for about $4 per person. Excellent food, very friendly service.
To sum up, we’re ready to go back to Buenos Aires to see even more and enjoy the Porteno life. We really enjoyed this cosmopolitan city, the shops, restaurants, cafes, and the great folks of this beautiful city.