Buenos Aires -Part 1 Intro to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Argentina is my favorite city around the world!  It has it all!  It has great food, night life, and beautiful people.  Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina, and has a population of roughly 14 million people (with surrounding areas).  It is located on the River Plata directly across from Uruguay.  It is hard to explain the electric feeling that Buenos Aires has by using words.  It has the culture of South America with a touch of Europe.  Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of South America, but I think of it more as a cross between New York City and Barcelona, Spain.  Even by comparing Buenos Aires to other big cities there are so many differences that make Buenos Aires unique.  Buenos Aires (Bs As) has so much to offer the budget traveler: its very inexpensive to travel through, tourist sites, the food (asado and gelatto ice cream), the world's best tango dancers, and the best futbol (soccer) in South America.

Here is video from CARP (River's home futbol stadium)

Before I left on my world trip I had only met one person who had been to Buenos Aires.  They could not stop saying how great Buenos Aires was!  I knew that I wanted to start my trip by taking Spanish classes  in a country that spoke only Spanish.  So I decided that Buenos Aires was the perfect fit for the start of my trip! I booked a one way ticket from the States to Bs As.  I had only planned on being in Bs  As for the duration of my Spanish classes (4 weeks),  but after traveling other countries around South America I decided that I missed the life in Bs As too much.  I ended up returning for another 3 weeks.

Arriving in Buenos Aires

If you are flying into Bs As then you will be landing at the Ezeiza International Airport (EZE).  The airport is located pretty far from downtown Bs As where all of the tourist stay.  So you will need to get a ride to downtown.  The best way to do this is to take a taxi to get there.  After you have your passport checked they direct you to get your baggage.  Right inside the baggage claim you can exchange some money into pesos so that you will have some money for a taxi.  It is not the best exchange rates, but at least you will have money. Then when you clear the customs door you will see a taxi desk in the middle of the airport.  At this desk you tell them where you would like to go and then you pay them the fair.  I paid 60 pesos or about $20 US Dollars for the ride.  You take you receipt outside to the taxi line, and wait for the next taxi that comes.  The ride is about 20 minutes to get downtown.  It is very simple.

The other option is to take a bus from the airport.  This is very cheap.  It is like 5 pesos or $1.75 US Dollars.  The only problem with this is that it takes about 2 hours to get downtown.  It stops at so many locations that it is worth just paying the taxi to get downtown.

If you are already traveling within Argentina, and are traveling by bus then you will arrive at Retiro bus station.  This bus station is located in the barrio (neighborhood) Recoleta.  This is a very central location.  You will be able to use a taxi, subte (metro), or walk to your desired location from here.  The taxi's are very cheap once you are already downtown.  For a ride to another barrio (neighborhood) it will probably cost about 5-15 pesos ($3-5 US Dollars).  The subte is only one block from the bus station if you only want to spend 1 peso.  It accesses most neighborhoods. 

I will be coming out with more information on Buenos Aires, Argentina in the next 4 blogs.

Before I left on my world trip I had only met one person who had been to Buenos Aires.  They could not stop saying how great Buenos Aires was!  I knew that I wanted to start my trip by taking Spanish classes  in a country that spoke only Spanish.  So I decided that Buenos Aires was the perfect fit for the start of my trip! I booked a one way ticket from the States to Bs As.  I had only planned on being in Bs  As for the duration of my Spanish classes (4 weeks),  but after traveling other countries around South America I decided that I missed the life in Bs As too much.  I ended up returning for another 3 weeks.

Arriving in Buenos Aires

If you are flying into Bs As then you will be landing at the Ezeiza International Airport (EZE).  The airport is located pretty far from downtown Bs As where all of the tourist stay.  So you will need to get a ride to downtown.  The best way to do this is to take a taxi to get there.  After you have your passport checked they direct you to get your baggage.  Right inside the baggage claim you can exchange some money into pesos so that you will have some money for a taxi.  It is not the best exchange rates, but at least you will have money. Then when you clear the customs door you will see a taxi desk in the middle of the airport.  At this desk you tell them where you would like to go and then you pay them the fair.  I paid 60 pesos or about $20 US Dollars for the ride.  You take you receipt outside to the taxi line, and wait for the next taxi that comes.  The ride is about 20 minutes to get downtown.  It is very simple.

The other option is to take a bus from the airport.  This is very cheap.  It is like 5 pesos or $1.75 US Dollars.  The only problem with this is that it takes about 2 hours to get downtown.  It stops at so many locations that it is worth just paying the taxi to get downtown.

If you are already traveling within Argentina, and are traveling by bus then you will arrive at Retiro bus station.  This bus station is located in the barrio (neighborhood) Recoleta.  This is a very central location.  You will be able to use a taxi, subte (metro), or walk to your desired location from here.  The taxi's are very cheap once you are already downtown.  For a ride to another barrio (neighborhood) it will probably cost about 5-15 pesos ($3-5 US Dollars).  The subte is only one block from the bus station if you only want to spend 1 peso.  It accesses most neighborhoods. 

I will be coming out with more information on Buenos Aires, Argentina in the next 4 blogs.