Buenos Aires, Argentina: Dec 2025 – Jan 2026

We arrived in Buenos Aires on December 6th and settled into our Air BnB apartment for a month, including Christmas and the New Year. We were amazed at how much it felt like a European city. Our Air BnB was in the Recoleta neighborhood, which is famous for its “Paris” style architecture and a fascinating cemetery. It was somewhat disorienting, that the sun was north of us, which is of course because we were about 35 degrees south of the equator. This is summer in the southern hemisphere and the daily high temperatures were 80-100 degrees Fahrenheit (27 – 38 Celsius). We enjoyed socializing with a Canadian couple that we had met on the cruise to get here – they were also staying a month in Buenos Aires. Besides walking down many grand avenues and majestic plazas, we visited museums, outdoor monuments, famous marketplaces, local restaurants and a Tango show. We made ample use of the excellent comfortable public transit (buses, subway, train) to cover a lot of ground in the city, including a day trip out to the edge of the city to see the wetlands of the Paraná Delta. Although we were in Buenos Aires for a full month, it felt like we had barely scratched the surface of things to do. English is nowhere near as widely spoken as it was in Europe but we were able to function pretty well with our basic Spanish and with the Google Translate app.

Buenos Aires is located at the blue dot in this picture. It is the capital city of Argentina and has a population of over 15 million people in the greater metropolitan area.
In the background you can see the “Obelisco”, which is a national historic monument and icon of Buenos Aires, smack in the middle of the Plaza de La Republica. It was built in 1936 to commemorate the quadricentennial of the first foundation of the city. Its height is 67.5 metres (221 ft) and the apex is 3.5 by 3.5 meters (11 by 11 ft).
Happy Holidays from Buenos Aires! Here we are in Plaza de la República with the lower half of the Obelisco in the background. This picture was taken from the angle that includes the city’s initials “BA” decorated for Christmas.
“Floralis Generica” is a huge piece of motorized sculpture. Created by a local architect, this steel/aluminum structure opens up in the morning and closes at dusk… like a flower
The Puente peatonal Dr. Alfredo Roque Vítolo is a pedestrian bridge in Recoleta that connects the area around the Bellas Artes (Fine Arts) museum and the cemetery to the Law School and the Floralis Generica scupture. There are many miles of green-space in Buenos Aires, and this was just one piece of that extensive and beautiful network.
In the National Museum of Beautiful Art (“Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes”). This is one of Latin America’s largest public art collections, and it was wonderful. Many collections from different time periods and styles, truly something for everyone.
San Telmo Market was built in 1897 to centralize the fruit and vegetable shops in the area. The neighborhood was then expanding considerably and a large covered market hall was more than welcome to meet the need. Over the years it has kept its function and has since become a hotspot for nice bars, restaurants, and good quality fruit and vegetable shops.
One of our signature moves when we visit someplace is we like to get up to a high vantage point – you may have noticed that in our previous blog posts. Buenos Aires is relatively flat so we decided that a rooftop bar was the optimal plan to get a bird’s eye view. This picture is from the Trade Sky Bar looking west. In the far distance, down the avenue in the background, you can see the Obelisco.
The bus system in Buenos Aires was incredible. They are ridiculously frequent and the main avenues in the city have bus-only lanes – so they move around fast. They are air-conditioned, they take Apple pay and we never paid more than 45 cents for a ride. Because they are so frequent, you can opt to not board a crowded one and instead board the next one right behind it. On the few occasions that we wanted to take an Uber, we ended up taking a bus because it was faster and just so easy. We went all over the place.
Although Argentina has experienced very high inflation (300% in 2024 and now down to about 35% in 2025), we still found the price of eating out to be very reasonable. Two entrees, two beers or glasses of wine, and two bottles of water at dinner was typically about $45 – $55 including tip.
Buenos Aires is often said to be very much like a European City, and the Italians are represented here in this case – gelato anyone?
Cemetaries are not normally on my bucket list but the Recoleta Cemetery is world famous. We did a walking tour with an english speaking guide and the history and stories were incredible. Add to that the beautiful architecture and gorgeous sculpture. Many famous people are buried here, including Eva Peron (if you ever saw the movie “Evita”), numerous presidents, and other dignitaries. This cemetery is such a landmark in Buenos Aires, that it is the starting point of all the hop-on-hop off bus tours of the city and it was a 10 minute walk from our Air BnB apartment.
The European inspired architecture is everywhere. This happens to be the entrance to what is now a modern shopping mall called Galleria Pacifica.
Plaza de Mayo is considered the main city square of Buenos Aires. It is surrounded by major government and cultural buildings, including the iconic Pink Palace (“Casa Rosada”) in the background of this photo. This is the official workplace of the president of the Argentine Republic, although he does not live there.
This is the historic and gorgeous Café Tortoni, which is a coffeehouse located on Avenida Mayo just down the street from the Presidential Palace. It is considered one of the most beautiful cafes in the world and it is stunning. It was named Tortoni after the Parisian café of the same name.
The wetlands of the Paraná Delta are located at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata River northwest of Buenos Aires. We took an hour train ride out to the suburb called “Tigre” and then boarded a boat for a two hour cruise through several channels of the wetlands. There are a remarkable number of people living in the Delta, where their only means of supply is via boat.
We attended a wine tasting, dinner and a Tango show at “La Ventana” (https://laventanaweb.com/en), one of Buenos Aires many historic and lively theaters. The dance style called Tango originated in the late 1800s in the working-class port areas of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay, as a fusion of African rhythms (like Candombe), European immigrant dances (like Habanera), Spanish and native folk dances (Milonga), blending cultures of immigrants, freed slaves, and locals in a melting pot of marginalized communities, often in brothels and poor neighborhoods. Initially scandalous, it gained international fame after wealthy Argentine youth took it to Paris in the early 1900s, leading to global popularity, and eventually becoming a respectable dance embraced by all social classes, with its “Golden Age” in the 1940s. There are a lot of significant leg kicking movements, so you really have to know what you are doing so as to not kick your partner.
There is a bookstore, called El Ateneo Grand Splendid, on Avenida Santa Fe in Recoleta that is consistently voted as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. It is in a building that was formerly the Grand Splendid Theater, built in 1919. It became a bookstore in the year 2000 but retains all of its theater elements including a gorgeous painted dome and multiple mezzanine (balcony) levels that now serve as reading areas.
The very elegant Colón Theater, “Teatro Colón”, which is still actively in use as a theater. It was built in 1908 and we took a very informative and detailed tour. When we sat in the huge 2,000 seat auditorium as part of a tour, the acoustics were so good that you could hear everything that anybody was saying, regardless of where they were in that enormous room.
A nativity scene decoration in a side chapel of the National Cathedral. Is was really nice to spend Christmas in a warm location. In the southern hemisphere this time of year, the daylight hours are really long, so you do not see a lot of Christmas lighting (its not dark out for very long each night).
This is the mosaic floor tile that is located in both the Colón Theater, and in the National Cathedral a few blocks away. Susan’s foot is provided for scale. Susan’s obsession with old world doors is only slightly stronger than her obsession with old world tile floors.
Susan’s obsession with old world doors continues
Our Air BnB was in the neighborhood of Recoleta and we could not have asked for a better location in the city and in the building. The neighborhood was absolutely loaded with great grocery stores, “fruiterias”, restaurants, bars and other regular shopping. Notably, it was NOT loaded with tourist shops so it felt like a real neighborhood where people actually live. The apartment itself was in the back of the building on the 3rd floor (what would be 4th floor in the USA) overlooking greenspace and remarkably quiet despite being in the middle of a large city.
Many of the streets in our neighborhood (Recoleta) are lined with these very tall trees, that we believe are Jacarandas. They accent the beautiful architecture very well and made it very pleasant to walk around.
On a random evening walking back to the apartment after dinner, we came upon a roller blading event that was cruising through our neighborhood. This brought back some memories for Susan, who loved to roller blade for many years back in San Diego.
More beautiful architecture on a random building on a random street – with an apartment for sale in it.
We were able to purchase a new suitcase at a very good price in a store on “Florida” Street, which is a famous, busy pedestrian shopping street. RyanAir damaged the old suitcase. Montevideo, Uruguay is our next stop.

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10 Comments

  1. Your photos are beautiful, and you both look great! We are enjoying traveling vicariously through your colorful descriptions. I’m sure others have told you we also had a warm holiday. Felt like we were back in Southern California. No snow yet. Continue to enjoy your adventure!

    • Thank-you very much and yes, we were amazed by the weather reports coming out of the US over the holidays. I hope you get some moisture soon as the fire hazard there is in the back of my mind. Great to hear from you and we hope your new year is off to a good start.

  2. Wow, Buenos Aires has so many beautiful historic buildings and places. Your pictures are great, they really capture the European influence, plus the local vibe of the city. Yes, doors and floors are very interesting, keep snapping more pictures please!

  4. Susan. Love your photos and your descriptions of Buenos Aires. It brought back so many memories. Mark and I visited in 2016 for several days prior to our cruise around the Horn. Will you visit Ushuaia (at the tip of South America)? It is one of my favorite places. Stunning! Hope you can get there. Look forward to continuing to follow you! Happy new year!

    • Oh that’s cool that you have been to Buenos Aires too! What a beautiful city. We came to Buenos Aires via cruise ship from Portugal. After it dropped us off in Buenos Aires it continued around the tip of South America and we know that Ushuaia was on that itinerary since may cruisers we spoke to were staying on the ship after BA. Alas, we were not part of that. In 1998 I sailed around the tip of South America on a US Navy ship but we did not stop in Ushuaia then either. But I was up on the flight deck for most of the passage around the tip and it was gorgeous. Thanks for following us and I hope your new year is off to a good start!

  5. Buenos Aires looks like a beautiful city. We’ve added it to our growing list of places we’d like to visit! Cant wait to hear about Uruguay! Thanks for letting us travel vicariously!

    • Buenos Aires was surprising in a great way! We would have loved to explore Mendoza, but the weather did not cooperate during this trip. Hopefully the next tour through South America will include some other areas of Argentina. Hope to see you and Lisa on an upcoming adventure.

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