Buenos Aires
Palacio del Congreso de la Nación Argentina
Time spent: 28 days; 9 Aug 2025 - 6 Sept 2025
Elevation: 82 ft (25m)
Currency: Argentine Peso
Lodging Cost: $18.88 per night; Airbnb
Author's note: I try to list all costs on this site in both local currency and US dollars. Because Argentina has experienced hyperinflation over the last few years, these numbers may not accurately reflect current costs at the time of reading.
Arriving in Buenos Aires
I made it to Buenos Aires, the birthplace of the hero of the Arachnid War, Johnny Rico. Would you like to know more?
Buenos Aires was the first true megacity I visited on my travels. Because I wanted to see three cities while I was in Argentina, I had to shorten my visit here from my usual 42 days down to 28 days to fit them all into my 90-day visa.
Argentina is much more developed than most other South American nations. I don't really have any hidden tricks for what to do on arrival: get off the plane and get an Uber to your lodging.
Once you drop off your luggage, I recommend using the subway (known as the Subte) to get around. It is very easy to navigate since there are maps at every station, and even better, the color-coded lines show up on Google Maps.
The card itself costs 1,500 ARS ($1), which is also roughly the cost of each ride. The card and whatever balance you load onto it must be paid in cash. It also works on the buses, though I never took one of those.
A pro tip for penny-pinching travelers: the card allows a small negative balance for situations when you get stuck and need to get home. If you are on your last day or two, you don't really need to top it back up (no one cares, you aren't getting sent a bill, and you won't topple their fragile economy).
While I haven't really experienced any racism along my travels through South America, I still always felt a little self-conscious because, as a white guy, I stand out wherever I go. Argentina was pretty sparsely populated by indigenous people when it was first settled and had a large wave of people immigrating from Europe, hence the reason so many of the buildings have such a heavily European feel to them. Haha, I quickly realized fitting in was a double-edged sword when people don't automatically realize you are a tourist. Nothing major of course, they just don't always offer assistance as quickly when you look lost and aren't really prepared when you don't speak Spanish.
The Spanish was another lesson I learned. Now my Spanish is nowhere near fluent, but after being in the region a year, I was getting a good handle on it. In Argentina I had to relearn a lot of stuff because the accent on certain syllables is quite a bit different.
I haven't spent much time in Europe but the architecture in Buenos Aires is how I picture it is in Europe
They love their monuments. What amazed me was that the pedestals for these statues were often bigger and more ornate than the statues themselves. This one is the Monument to Bartolome Mitre, the sixth president of Argentina.
They've captured our monument!! Why aren't we sending troops in to recover it?!?
This mother fucker could run for president on the platform that he is instituting the practice of Prima Nocta and still win in a landslide.
Things to do in Buenos Aires
While I do take a lot of day trips and try to do one or two in each city I visit, you may find it surprising that I didn't take any while here.
If I were working on this website when I was actually there, I probably would have just to report on them here. But honestly, the tours just didn't seem worth the cost, and there is loads to do in the city.
The two that sounded kind of interesting were a trip to Colonia del Sacramento across the bay in Uruguay and a tour to a ranch where you can ride horses and eat steak. For the latter, it is just a personal preference to try not to do tours where animal labor is a central attraction. I'm not saying this tour mistreats them, I don't know, I'm just saying as a blanket policy I generally avoid them.
Each was well over 300,000 ARS ($200). I strongly considered taking the ferry on my own to Colonia del Sacramento since it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. I think it would be quite easy to do without a guide, and this is a good opportunity for those of you who like collecting passport stamps. Be aware though, just the ferry there is around 150,000 ARS ($100).
The two things that I have seen on most postcards from Argentina are the Puente de la Mujer (Woman's Bridge) and the Floralis Generica.
The Puente de la Mujer is probably a short walk from where you are staying. Along the river there are some upscale restaurants, including a bar on a barge. The bridge is a really cool piece of architecture, a functional art piece. Since this is a working channel that boats actually have to cross, instead of raising to let them pass, it rotates 90 degrees.
The Floralis Generica is another art piece that moves, albeit without a true purpose. It is a 75 ft (23 m) flower that opens at 8 AM every morning and slowly closes throughout the day, finishing at sunset. Its speed even changes throughout the year as the days get shorter. At least that is what it is supposed to do. It was damaged in 2023 by a storm which knocked off a couple of petals, and when I was there the mechanism was broken. Not sure if it is up and running yet, but it is impressive nonetheless.
There is a path that circles the entire sculpture so you can see it at every angle. There isn't a SUPER easy way to get to this, but it isn't hard: taking the red subway line to the yellow line and following it to the end of the line is probably the best way. You'll figure it out. I think the best option is to go see this and then walk northwest. There are tons of gorgeous parks in this area including Jardin Japones, a really nice Japanese garden that only costs a few bucks to get into.
Puente de la Mujer
Floralis Generica, with only 4 petals instead of six
Jardin de los Poetas, Poets' Garden. It is lined with bust of famous literary figures like William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri
Jardin Japones Buenos Aires
Duck mafia collecting their dues from a local food vendor in the park
Museo Nacional Ferroviario Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz, National Railway Musuem
Museo del Bicentenario
When I was a teen working at Papa Johns my boss would have looked at this and said "well you're fired...obviously...but what the fuck is with the olives"?
I got this after visiting the nature reserve. I would have eaten one every day if it was closer to my apartment
Yerba is actually the leaves. Mate is the cup and the ritual itself
This place had some great food too. It was cute that they went with the NES theme, but some things were lost in translation.
There are also an absolute metric fuck ton of museums in town.
If you liked the movie Evita, there is one dedicated to the life and legacy of Eva Peron, who is like the Princess Diana of Argentina. I didn't see the movie or really know much about her, so I skipped it.
The National Railway Museum was neat. They seem to have one of these in a lot of Latin American cities, and while I've been to a few, this was the best.
The Bicentennial Museum is cool for the layout alone: it was built halfway underground directly into the foundations of a fort built in the late 1500s. It is worth visiting just for its unique layout.
There is also a Holocaust museum. I was interested to see this, but it has limited hours and I just never got around to it.
There is a really cool military museum that shows the evolution of Argentina's military and has tons of guns and firepower on display. It also has an interesting room dedicated to when Argentina went to war with Britain by attempting to invade and conquer the nearby Falkland Islands for their own.
I also saw the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. It mostly just had paintings and I found it kind of boring, but a real art lover might like it.
A lot of these were free to enter, and none had more than a $5 entry charge.
Museo de Armas de la Nacion
The Food
Now this may raise some eyebrows because I heard sooo much about the Buenos Aires food scene, but I really didn't find the food to be anything special.
I had pizza from a few different places and none of it was very good. It was always really light on the sauce, and the crust was always pretty disappointing almost like thick toasted white bread. It also always came with one green olive WITH the pit still in it per slice. Like what the fuck am I supposed to do with that? Don't let it roll under the bed or else it's seven years bad luck!
Another thing they are famous for is their steak, or asado. Someone told me that the climate where Argentina is located makes for really lush green grass that the cows eat, which is what contributes to their beef being so good. I call bullshit on PR made up to sell more beef. Ireland has the most lush grass in the world—why aren't they selling beef instead of potato soup? I mean, don't get me wrong, I had a couple of steaks here and they tasted fine. But steak is like sex: even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. Nothing about it really set it apart from a normal $15 steak you can buy at any grocery store and toss on the grill back home.
Another really weak point was their empanadas. I guess maybe I was spoiled from eating them all over South America, but I had empanadas from at least 10 different food stands and none were better than the ones I got from a convenience store in Asuncion.
Now I'm not saying it was all bad. I had some amazing sandwiches from a few different food trucks, but the three foods I heard the most about were the three that left me the most disappointed.
Ok, I'll stop bitching about the food and move on to the drinks. The beer there was pretty good, which really surprised me since Argentina is more known for its wine (more on this when we get to Mendoza). It was a challenge to find a decent IPA in South America; I mean they are around, but they just aren't usually on grocery store shelves. You gotta go to a brewery or beer store. Argentina has a great beer selection, and they are everywhere. My favorite was Andes Origen. The cans had a real minimalist design, each type used the same layout, just in a different color. It is simple and delicious.
Another drink that caught me completely by surprise was mate. I had never heard of this, but when I got to Argentina I saw this shit is a way of life. Everyone is carrying around a thermos of hot water and a cup of this stuff. Seriously, you know how you walk out the door and make sure you have your keys, wallet, and phone? They make sure to grab their mate kit.
After I learned what it was, I really wanted to try it. The catch is that with it being so popular, it isn't really sold in restaurants. The reason comes down to how and why it's drunk. It is considered more of a social drink you sip with friends, and it isn't really something you drink to wash down a meal. I'd say it is more like a cigarette you just have in small doses throughout the day. Even just looking at it, I was confused about how it was drunk. The cup is almost entirely filled with the tea leaves, and there is a straw in it. If you don't know what you are looking at, it is really odd. The catch is the straw has a strainer on the end, and you pour just a little hot water at a time into the cup, so with each pour you're only getting a few sips at a time.
I actually took a class on it while I was there, and the instructor was great. He spoke excellent English, explained all of the history behind it, and let us taste several kinds we even left with our own straw and bag. I drank it my whole time in Argentina. If you go to Argentina, I'd really recommend the Mate Bar Experience. Worth every penny.
Color me embarrassed when I found out this was just a coffee shop
The ferry to Uruguay
Final Thoughts On Buenos Aires
This is a fantastic city to visit even if you take zero tours. You could easily spend a week just seeing the sights around town.
This place was a literal crossroads for me because I want to see a lot more of South America and considered taking the ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay and spending six weeks there and then coming back to Buenos Aires and getting a bus to Cordoba but since I had already gotten my visa for Argentina squared away I didn't want to risk complicating it. Though in all likelihood I'm pretty sure I would have been fine. But when I do get back to that corner of the world I could see myself spending another month down here.
From here I got a bus ticket online for around 65,000 ARS ($45) and headed to Cordoba. When you buy a ticket sometimes you will see an option for Cama or Cama Suite, It is $10-$12 more. I would splurge, but even if you don't, all of the seats are nice on these long haul buses. I'd say the worst seat still has more space and reclines further than a first class airplane seat.