Itinerary: Buenos Aires
An Indicative 10 day Itinerary
Hey Mike, day two, back to the grind stone. I’m going to be sharing it with absolutely everyone as is the best way to share this experience. I couldn’t quite express in words today the holiday I’ve just had, the pics will though. The fun, the chats, the laughs, the one more blocks we all shared. Great stuff!
Sharee Bartlett, Auckland, HowdyBA 2008
A vital part of the howdy buenos aires experience is the simple pleasure of discovering the city on foot. Hence, each day there will be suggested walks as well as the provision of various walking route maps for independent use. With the advice to let serendipity do the rest. The secret is to be inquisitive and flexible – for some it’s sitting in a cafe for others it’s the most direct route to the designer clothes and shoe stores…
(Outside of walking travel in the city is by Taxi, numerous and cheap, or by bus or underground)
A note on day-to-day expenses: The NZ$=2.7 pesos. Cost indicators: a two course lunch in respectable restaura
nt is around $10-12, in the evening with wine dining out is uptown, hip restaurant is around $25-35 for several courses and wine. Of course Buenos Aires is vast in what it has to offer from empanada lunch places to dining that wouldn’t be out of place in Park Avenue, New York… on an NZ budget.
Taxis are on average NZ$5-$10 per trip, buses and underground $NZ0.40 (during the day buses and the underground are the quickest way to traverse the city)
High-end women’s leather boots and jackets NZ$150-NZ$300.
(Photos: Beatrice Murch)
The following itinerary gives a flavour of the essential Buenos Aires city experience;
For the enthusiastic Spanish lessons (with native speaker) can be arranged before lift-off as well as tango classes in Buenos Aires – either group classes at noted academy or one-on-one private classes.
Day 1
Day: Depart Auckland 6:00 pm
Met by Mike Howie: Transport to city and allocated apartment. Later in day briefing, introduction and distribution of B.A. information packs including suggested walking route maps, important telephone numbers, addresses and general orientation.
Evening: Cocktails and dinner in either Palermo Hollywood or San Telmo
Day 2
Day: A ‘take it easy-acclimatise’ day – with an easy walk and lunch including general introduction to the city and short walking tour of main historical downtown city area – with lunch stop at a favourite empanada place.
Evening: Dinner at a one of the select ”private restaurants’ that have popped up in Buenos Aires in recent years. It’s been established by a very hip young couple who have returned to Argentina from San Fransisco and specialise in using local produce. (A root vegetable from the Andes anyone?)
Day 3
Day: Breakfast at the Eva Peron Museum followed by a tour of Recoleta Cemetery
Recoleta Cemetery is famous for its veritable avenues of mausoleums that house the wealthy, famous and infamous of Argentina…including Eva’s.
Evening: Dinner – traditional Argentine Parrilla -’heaven is an Argentine steak and a bucket of Malbec’
This is the only country in the world where it’s still cool to be a carnivore.
Day 4
Day: Mid morning a wander around the San Telmo Antiques Market followed by lunch and a walk to the River Plata via an outdoor salsa party. For those interested (depending on fixture) attending a live football match in the late afternoon – at either the Boca or River Stadiums (for others afternoon tea at the Park Hyatt).
Sunday is busy day as this is when the people of Buenos Aires get out en masse to enjoy their city. Sunday can be a day of eating, walking as well as the live dramatic theatre of a football game. This last activity is indescribable and we’re talking about the crowd – flags as big as six storey buildings, chanting, not to mention mothers and sons swearing in unison at the other team.
Evening: Dinner at an infamous Basque restaurant.
No trip to Buenos Aires is complete without being served by suave old men in white aprons who’ve mastered the art of ‘respectful surliness’ as they nochalantly serve up succulent fare that in the Basque eatery always includes a sherry aperitif.
Day 5
Day: A walk up Avenida de Mayo with lunch at Spanish restaurant. If time take the ‘A’ Line (oldest tube line) north for coffee at one of the oldest cafes in Argentina.
Option B: Bicycle tour of La Boca and Puerto Madero taking in several new galleries – one city owned and one private with a swing by the Rio de la Plata.
Evening: (Early) Gig by Argentine-Brazilian percussion group in dis-used oil refinery – up to 2000 attend this open air event each week in an old refinery that is an architectural wonder with its use of concrete and 1950′s neon. If the rhythm doesn’t get ya…well there’s no hope for you really.
Day 6
Day: Day trip to Uruguay via Hovercraft ferry to the colonial Spanish village of Colonia (A World Heritage Site) for lunch and a sightseeing.
Evening: Dinner (a breather evening) with light meal at local Italian restaurant or own arrangements.
Day 7
Day: The MALBA (Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires)- a privately owned (and by far the best) modern art gallery, it has a wonderful collection of 20th Century art to the present. Worth a visit for the uber-modern building alone not to mention a lovely little Diego Rivera …you almost ask yourself, has his wife taken just too much of the limelight lately.
Evening: Tango-Neo Punk 12 piece orchestra – this was definitely the highlight of the last trip – imagine unplugged clash beating up a tango band and you have these guys. 2 hour concert every Wednesday in funky warehouse – these guys are poster people for the vibrant, positive new Argentina.
Free tango lessons are offered for the courageous by young couple who swing themselves around the floor in very non-traditional tango way and without the faux 1940′s gangster attire.
Late Evening: Music Club featuring cumbia mashups – all the rage is mixing and mashing modern beats with traditional cumbia music from the 50′s – with any luck Sonido Martines, who specialises in 60′s and 70′s Latin funk, will be on the decks.
Day 8
Day: Trip to ‘factory shopping’ districts for leather, shoes and high-end Argentina fashion labels at selected outlet and factory stores with lunch at neighbourhood parrilla (if seating allows)
Evening: Dinner at jazz club restaurant – during the day it’s a cafe-CD shop where you can sip a coffee while exploring the entire store’s data base via the numerous PC’s and high-end headphones dotted around.
Day 9
Day: Option: train trip to San Isidro and El Tigre (The Delta) or an Estancia for lunch (Weather dependent)- The Delta involves delta boat ride past summer houses of the upper middle classes – others bypass this outing to …shop some more.
Evening: Drinks and dinner at stately mansion in downtown B.A. that is now where the ‘hep cats’ hang – winding concrete staircase to garden that on Friday nights is full of the beautiful and languorous.
Late Evening: Visit to a milonga and small bar where for 85 years tango singers have warmed their chords before leaving for the private engagements.
Day 10
Day: Shopping in Palermo Viejo and Avenida Santa Fe – where to start on the shopping possibilities in Buenos Aires…phew.
From upmarket shopping precincts to tree-lined avenues lined with quaint designer stores. On our last trip we also investigated the whole subject of the upmarket factory stores that exist in the outer suburbs. The whole topic of shopping in B.A. is exhausting only because it so good – and here’s the kicker – the NZ peso is worth 2.7 times the Argentina peso – enough said.
Evening: Dinner
Depart for Auckland, New Zealand
