1031Brah
Active member
Hello everyone,
Thank you for all your advice. It really helped me out a lot during my time here in Buenos Aires. What I will provide below is what I did during my main vacation here and my thoughts. Before I took my vacation, I primarily just worked remote in my Palermo airbnb and didn't go out much, except on the weekend to the San Telmo market, the surrounding areas, and a few bars or nightclubs in the area. Other than that I stayed inside until I took my vacation.
Summary
I like Buenos Aires a lot. It is a large city and reminds me of a Shanghai, Mexico City, or Tokyo, but with more of a European and Latin American influence. I was surprised because no one (or at most 5%) here speaks english. I speak some spanish but I had read in Argentina they are required to study english for 5 or 6 years in school, so it surprised me that in my two weeks here no one was able to speak english, unless they were a tour guide (or working in a very good job for US/European companies).
The situation here is extremely difficult with the inflation. I talked to several locals and they told me they use their salaries (in pesos) to either buy USD or to buy groceries for the month immediately. Many had plans to leave the country. I felt bad for them but hopefully the new president can make improvements and fix the situation. It's unfortunate that Argentina has a history of the peso losing a lot in value. I just came from Panama which uses the USD, and their economic situation was relatively stable by Latin American standards.
Regarding Argentinian football games, I learned that the league only allows home fans, which surprised me. They also don't sell beer and they have a lot of police inside the stadium and several checkpoints outside. I paid $125 USD for the tour but a lot of locals told me it should have cost $20 or $40 USD for tickets, and more for a big club like Boca Jr. I wouldn't recommend the tour because I learned nothing and they didn't teach us anything about the club or the history. They just transported us with a van or bus to the game then took us to our seats. Once inside the stadium, the tour guide didn't really say anything and we just watched the game. I booked the tour from tripadvisor but next time I might use the Pibe de Barrio company instead. Or I might just go by myself. When the game is 100% home fans I think it is pretty safe. I didn't feel at danger at all in the Argentino Jr v Corinthian game.
I also wrote about this in another thread, but getting pesos effectivo was extremely difficult. The ATMS are not open 24/7 like in the U.S. ( or at least I could not find any open 24/7). I did a Western Union transfer but I had to visit at least 4 different locations until they sent me to the big Western Union on Armenia. If I use my credit card they charge me 10% more in the tiendas and several restaurants. I was also surprised that many vendors accept USD or even cryptocurrency.
Day 1
- Tours in La Boca and Recoleta Cemetary from the morning to the evening then bars at night
I purchased the tours from tripadvisor for $10 USD or $ 10 thousand pesos. Each tour lasted approximately 2 hours each and I learned a lot!! The tours were worth the money and it really set a high bar for subsequent tours during my vacation in BA. As I will describe later, the tours for Colonia, Uruguay and the football game were abysmal compared to these tours in La Boca and Recocleta. Free Walking Tour BA is their website/company, but you can buy tickets for these tours from Tripadvisor/viator.
I went on the bar crawl next which was fun but slightly disorganized and starts very late (by US standards). We went to some bars in Palermo and then to a night club. Everything was pretty cheap in the nightclub and bars for drinks. I was out till about 5 or 6 am. One thing I didn't like were all the smokers. It's fine but they smoke a lot indoors, which is illegal in the U.S.
Day 2
- Rent a bicycle and ride it throughout BA and maybe explore Barrio chino, Belgrano, and the parks in Palermo
- Eat at a famous or well regarded steakhouse or restaurant. Try mate and buy the mate, bombilla, and yerba as gifts for friends.
- Buy a ticket for the double decker tour bus?
Since I went out last night until 6 am, I woke up around 2 PM. I had a friend coming to town tomorrow and needed to wake up early in the morning for my tour to Colonia, Uruguay. So I basically did nothing this day. I just walked around and ate at a few different fast food restaurants in Palermo. I think I ended up going to a Hookah Lounge near Paris Burger in Palermo. They spoke english there.
Day 3
- Travel to Colonia, Uruguay for a tour for the entire day
The experience with Colonia was stressful. In contrast to Buquebus, they didn't email me a ticket. All I had was a reservation number. So I showed up about 90 minutes early for my sunday trip to Colonia from BA with just my passport and the reservation number. I guess this was sufficient and they gave me my boarding pass.
The boat was at most 30 to 40% full. Once I landed we went on a walking tour. It was about 1 hour with a bilingual tour guide. I learned absolutely nothing about Colonia and why it is a UNESCO heritage site, besides it being used by the Portugese to defend Uruguay from Spain. Most of the ruins were destroyed and rebuilt. I felt that going to the museum was a better learning experience or watching YouTube then going on a tour with Natalie from Colonia Express. It was a very short tour and I was completely surprised. I had thought it would be longer.
After the tour I had about 3 or so hours to walk around Colonia. It is a nice city but no one speaks english. The tourist center is pretty expense. I think I bought an umbrella (made in China) for $10 USD and then ice cream near the wall for $6 USD. Only limited to two samples also despite not knowing what 90% of the flavors they had tasted like.
I probably would just go to the museum or go with another company than Colonia, but the tour and round trip costs about $55 USD so maybe it is not too bad, especially if you have a free day. Once I came back to BA I went out for drinks with friends in Palermo near Plaza Serrano.
Day 4
- Go to a bunch of museums (at least 4 or 5 museums including Museo de banco central/ malba/ peron)
- Return to plaza de mayo and casa rosada again. Maybe go on a tour of Teatro Colon
This day me and my friend rode bicycles all throughout Palermo, Jardin Japonesa, and Belgrano. We visited the Riverplate stadium and Barrio Chino. Barrio chino was pretty fun but the Riverplate Stadium (compared to La Bombanero) was empty and not much going on. There was a car dealership and a mechanic store nearby the stadium. They do have a museum though for the club in the Adidas store, but that's it.
The Japanese garden was pretty fun and cheap ($1.50 USD). The best part though was riding bikes through the city. We rode our bikes from Jardin Japonesa to Belgrano in the bike lane on Avenida del conquistador. The way back to Palermo though was hectic due to rush hour and a lack of bike lanes in the street. I was sweating quite a bit on the way back to Palermo. Maybe next time I will download a biking app so I can use better routes to ride my bike. It was super fun.
Day 5
- Soccer tour for the majority of the day.
This day was when the student protests happened on April 23. The tour company was not able to get tickets to the estudiantes games because they weren't selling tickets to non members. So we ended up going to the Argentino Jrs game vs Corinthians. The pick up time was changed from noon to 7 pm. My friend and I ended up going to protest near obelisco to see what it was like, and maybe compare/contrast to protests in the USA. The protests here are pretty peaceful but it caused a sh***te ton of traffic.
The soccer tour was not good. Part of it depends on the tour guide you get. There were several tour guides working for this company that took us to the Argentino Jrs game. Some of them don't speak good english so maybe there were some translation issues. He told me he was picking me up and that it was just me because the others (5 people) were going with the other tour guide. After waiting for two hours due to the traffic, he came and picked me up in a big tour bus, which had 8 other passengers. Compared to the recoleta or Boca tour, I really learned absoultely nothing about Argentino Jrs, copa Sudamerica, or anything about Argentinian football.
We were supposed to get drink and food as part of our price ($125 USD). We only got water and no food. I talked to several locals and they told me tickets should have been 20 or 40k pesos max, not 125k pesos like what we paid. Not only that, the Argentinian league games only have home fans. There are no away fans. I think I should of went with Pibe de Barrio instead based on their videos. This company wasn't worth anything. They didn't talk to us, explain anything, they simply transported us in a bus and took us to the game.
Thank you for all your advice. It really helped me out a lot during my time here in Buenos Aires. What I will provide below is what I did during my main vacation here and my thoughts. Before I took my vacation, I primarily just worked remote in my Palermo airbnb and didn't go out much, except on the weekend to the San Telmo market, the surrounding areas, and a few bars or nightclubs in the area. Other than that I stayed inside until I took my vacation.
Summary
I like Buenos Aires a lot. It is a large city and reminds me of a Shanghai, Mexico City, or Tokyo, but with more of a European and Latin American influence. I was surprised because no one (or at most 5%) here speaks english. I speak some spanish but I had read in Argentina they are required to study english for 5 or 6 years in school, so it surprised me that in my two weeks here no one was able to speak english, unless they were a tour guide (or working in a very good job for US/European companies).
The situation here is extremely difficult with the inflation. I talked to several locals and they told me they use their salaries (in pesos) to either buy USD or to buy groceries for the month immediately. Many had plans to leave the country. I felt bad for them but hopefully the new president can make improvements and fix the situation. It's unfortunate that Argentina has a history of the peso losing a lot in value. I just came from Panama which uses the USD, and their economic situation was relatively stable by Latin American standards.
Regarding Argentinian football games, I learned that the league only allows home fans, which surprised me. They also don't sell beer and they have a lot of police inside the stadium and several checkpoints outside. I paid $125 USD for the tour but a lot of locals told me it should have cost $20 or $40 USD for tickets, and more for a big club like Boca Jr. I wouldn't recommend the tour because I learned nothing and they didn't teach us anything about the club or the history. They just transported us with a van or bus to the game then took us to our seats. Once inside the stadium, the tour guide didn't really say anything and we just watched the game. I booked the tour from tripadvisor but next time I might use the Pibe de Barrio company instead. Or I might just go by myself. When the game is 100% home fans I think it is pretty safe. I didn't feel at danger at all in the Argentino Jr v Corinthian game.
I also wrote about this in another thread, but getting pesos effectivo was extremely difficult. The ATMS are not open 24/7 like in the U.S. ( or at least I could not find any open 24/7). I did a Western Union transfer but I had to visit at least 4 different locations until they sent me to the big Western Union on Armenia. If I use my credit card they charge me 10% more in the tiendas and several restaurants. I was also surprised that many vendors accept USD or even cryptocurrency.
Day 1
- Tours in La Boca and Recoleta Cemetary from the morning to the evening then bars at night
I purchased the tours from tripadvisor for $10 USD or $ 10 thousand pesos. Each tour lasted approximately 2 hours each and I learned a lot!! The tours were worth the money and it really set a high bar for subsequent tours during my vacation in BA. As I will describe later, the tours for Colonia, Uruguay and the football game were abysmal compared to these tours in La Boca and Recocleta. Free Walking Tour BA is their website/company, but you can buy tickets for these tours from Tripadvisor/viator.
I went on the bar crawl next which was fun but slightly disorganized and starts very late (by US standards). We went to some bars in Palermo and then to a night club. Everything was pretty cheap in the nightclub and bars for drinks. I was out till about 5 or 6 am. One thing I didn't like were all the smokers. It's fine but they smoke a lot indoors, which is illegal in the U.S.
Day 2
- Rent a bicycle and ride it throughout BA and maybe explore Barrio chino, Belgrano, and the parks in Palermo
- Eat at a famous or well regarded steakhouse or restaurant. Try mate and buy the mate, bombilla, and yerba as gifts for friends.
- Buy a ticket for the double decker tour bus?
Since I went out last night until 6 am, I woke up around 2 PM. I had a friend coming to town tomorrow and needed to wake up early in the morning for my tour to Colonia, Uruguay. So I basically did nothing this day. I just walked around and ate at a few different fast food restaurants in Palermo. I think I ended up going to a Hookah Lounge near Paris Burger in Palermo. They spoke english there.
Day 3
- Travel to Colonia, Uruguay for a tour for the entire day
The experience with Colonia was stressful. In contrast to Buquebus, they didn't email me a ticket. All I had was a reservation number. So I showed up about 90 minutes early for my sunday trip to Colonia from BA with just my passport and the reservation number. I guess this was sufficient and they gave me my boarding pass.
The boat was at most 30 to 40% full. Once I landed we went on a walking tour. It was about 1 hour with a bilingual tour guide. I learned absolutely nothing about Colonia and why it is a UNESCO heritage site, besides it being used by the Portugese to defend Uruguay from Spain. Most of the ruins were destroyed and rebuilt. I felt that going to the museum was a better learning experience or watching YouTube then going on a tour with Natalie from Colonia Express. It was a very short tour and I was completely surprised. I had thought it would be longer.
After the tour I had about 3 or so hours to walk around Colonia. It is a nice city but no one speaks english. The tourist center is pretty expense. I think I bought an umbrella (made in China) for $10 USD and then ice cream near the wall for $6 USD. Only limited to two samples also despite not knowing what 90% of the flavors they had tasted like.
I probably would just go to the museum or go with another company than Colonia, but the tour and round trip costs about $55 USD so maybe it is not too bad, especially if you have a free day. Once I came back to BA I went out for drinks with friends in Palermo near Plaza Serrano.
Day 4
- Go to a bunch of museums (at least 4 or 5 museums including Museo de banco central/ malba/ peron)
- Return to plaza de mayo and casa rosada again. Maybe go on a tour of Teatro Colon
This day me and my friend rode bicycles all throughout Palermo, Jardin Japonesa, and Belgrano. We visited the Riverplate stadium and Barrio Chino. Barrio chino was pretty fun but the Riverplate Stadium (compared to La Bombanero) was empty and not much going on. There was a car dealership and a mechanic store nearby the stadium. They do have a museum though for the club in the Adidas store, but that's it.
The Japanese garden was pretty fun and cheap ($1.50 USD). The best part though was riding bikes through the city. We rode our bikes from Jardin Japonesa to Belgrano in the bike lane on Avenida del conquistador. The way back to Palermo though was hectic due to rush hour and a lack of bike lanes in the street. I was sweating quite a bit on the way back to Palermo. Maybe next time I will download a biking app so I can use better routes to ride my bike. It was super fun.
Day 5
- Soccer tour for the majority of the day.
This day was when the student protests happened on April 23. The tour company was not able to get tickets to the estudiantes games because they weren't selling tickets to non members. So we ended up going to the Argentino Jrs game vs Corinthians. The pick up time was changed from noon to 7 pm. My friend and I ended up going to protest near obelisco to see what it was like, and maybe compare/contrast to protests in the USA. The protests here are pretty peaceful but it caused a sh***te ton of traffic.
The soccer tour was not good. Part of it depends on the tour guide you get. There were several tour guides working for this company that took us to the Argentino Jrs game. Some of them don't speak good english so maybe there were some translation issues. He told me he was picking me up and that it was just me because the others (5 people) were going with the other tour guide. After waiting for two hours due to the traffic, he came and picked me up in a big tour bus, which had 8 other passengers. Compared to the recoleta or Boca tour, I really learned absoultely nothing about Argentino Jrs, copa Sudamerica, or anything about Argentinian football.
We were supposed to get drink and food as part of our price ($125 USD). We only got water and no food. I talked to several locals and they told me tickets should have been 20 or 40k pesos max, not 125k pesos like what we paid. Not only that, the Argentinian league games only have home fans. There are no away fans. I think I should of went with Pibe de Barrio instead based on their videos. This company wasn't worth anything. They didn't talk to us, explain anything, they simply transported us in a bus and took us to the game.
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