Planning a trip to Buenos Aires | Argentina

Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, used to be one of the richest capitals, but times have changed since. I visited Buenos Aires, as part of my group tour. This was the city where our group met for the first time and we started our tour around Brazil. I will try and suggest a few things to help plan an itinerary if you are planning on going to Buenos Aires.

There is a direct flight that departs from Auckland every day. The flight is at 8 pm each day. The flight to Buenos Aires is roughly 12 hours and is an easy flight to get through. Unlike flights to the United States, where once you’ve dozed off, you feel like you’ve slept for hours, only to wake up and see it’s been 10-minutes. This flight is nothing like that. There’s a good selection of movies and TV shows.

The time difference between New Zealand and Buenos Aires is roughly 15 hours. Be kind to yourself. You will arrive around 5.30 pm the same day, and given the traffic around then is quite busy, it can take you roughly an hour to an hour and a half to get to your hotel. Chances are you are likely to get to your hotel, and you may be ready to just about crash, unless you’re like me and force yourself to stay up and grab some dinner. The jet lag that you’ll face once you arrive is quite strong. I would leave the next day, as a day to relax and acclimatise to the new environment. Buenos Aires in the winter is a lot like Auckland. It’s cold, usually around 8 degrees Celsius and can rain for days.

Most of the attractions in Buenos Aires are quite close to each other except for Caminito in La Boca. Buenos Aires also offers a lot of free walking tours. Whilst, I didn’t do any of the walking tours but rather walked around the attractions myself. The walking tour at La Boca departs at 11 am (please double-check as this may change). You have to be careful in this neighbourhood because almost every restaurant owner is trying to get your attention to drive you into their eatery, and also, it’s quite easy to walk out of the touristy spot and into the suburbs which aren’t so safe. If you end up going here by yourself, it won’t take you too long to walk through. You’re looking at maximum spending about 30-minutes here. The walking tour, however, would take a bit longer and I would perhaps leave an hour or so for this.

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CAMINITO, LA BOCA

From here, I would recommend you head back towards the city centre, where most of the attractions are. I would recommend popping by to the Teatro Colón and booking a tour. I booked the English tour, when we got there and was lucky enough to get a spot on the next tour, and just had an hour to kill in between. You may wish to pre-book the tickets if you are tight for time. This tour takes about 50-minutes, and I highly recommend doing it. You get good insights into this Opera House and how it compares to the other Opera Houses. If you are interested in music, then I highly recommend it. You have the option of grabbing some food at the café here, however, my recommendation would be to head to Puerto Madero.

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TEATRO COLON

The Puerto Madero is roughly a 30-ish minute walk from the Theatre. It’s an easy walk and if the weather is nice, I would recommend walking provided you are better at navigating maps than I am. The bonus is also, that the Obelisco is also right across the road from the Theatre, and the easiest way to navigate your way around is by using it as a landmark point of reference. But again, if you are in a rush, and just want to get there quickly, feel free to take a cab. This is an up and coming waterfront area, with a tourist attraction as well. The Puente de la Mujer on dock 3, is quite a popular Instagram spot. There are a number of restaurants around the waterfront area if you’re wanting to grab lunch or dinner with (somewhat of) a view. Whilst, I didn’t have a meal around here, it is something I would definitely want to do next time.

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PUENTE DE LA MUJER

Buenos Aires is a very walkable city, and there are a number of walking tours around the city. If you do happen to do this, let me know your thoughts on how it went. Now, if your visit to Argentina is limited to Buenos Aires like it was for me, I think it is a good idea to get a taste of Tango. The Tango Porteno, which is located next to the Theatre, is a recommended show. The Tango shows start at 10 pm, and you have the option of buying your tickets either with or without dinner. When I was in Buenos Aires, unfortunately, the Tango Porteno was closed (it was a Tuesday and their Independence Day), however, we went to the El Querandi show, without the dinner. We had the option of ordering dinner whilst we were there though. This was a nice show and a great way to experience Tango.

Apart from this, the other tourist attractions in Buenos Aires include Cathedrals, as well as a cemetery where Argentina’s first lady is buried. I wasn’t able to do these, unfortunately, and can’t provide more insight into it. However, if you’ve done this, please leave your comments below on your suggestions.

As a suggestion, I would recommend perhaps 2 full days in Buenos Aires, one day to recover and one day to see the sights. However, if Buenos Aires is your point of exit back to New Zealand, again the flight out is at midnight, and that gives you a full day to explore any attractions that you didn’t get a chance to see.

What are some of your suggestions on Buenos Aires?

Until next time,

MiliG