Don't be a tourist, be a traveler, world in motion
EnglishUSDNewsletterWimup Videos ↗
Plan a trip
Buenos Aires, Argentina, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
▶ Video · Buenos Aires on Foot
Video guide · 43:36
▶ Watch the guide
Top 10South AmericaArgentina

Top 10 Things To Do in Buenos Aires

Country
Argentina
Best months
Mar · Apr · Oct
Population
3.1M
Language
Spanish
Budget / day
$60–120
Quick answer

The best things to do are a guided tour of the Teatro Colón, the Recoleta cemetery, Plaza de Mayo with the free museum under the Casa Rosada, the Latin American collection at MALBA, San Telmo on a Sunday and a milonga that runs past midnight. Four to five days is right. The city is flat, the grid is legible, and the Subte plus a SUBE card covers most of it.

Buenos Aires on Foot

▶ Video guide Open the film page (43:36) →

Buenos Aires was founded twice, abandoned once, and built by people who arrived by boat. Juan de Garay refounded it in 1580 and the grid he drew still runs under the centre. What grew on top has a Beaux-Arts opera house, a French-quarter cemetery and a Spanish colonial core within six kilometres of each other.

The 10 best things to do in Buenos Aires

Tour the Teatro Colón, then come back for a performance, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1

Tour the Teatro Colón, then come back for a performance

Landmark· Cerrito 628, San Nicolás, C1010 Buenos Aires

The Colón opened in 1908 after twenty years and three architects. The horseshoe hall is seven levels of gilt and red velvet under a painted dome, and its acoustics are routinely placed among the finest anywhere. The tour is worth an hour; a ticket in the upper galleries is worth more, and costs less than people expect.

Time1 hr
CostPaid tour
Best atA weekday morning
TipCheck the season calendar before you book the tour
Map↗ Website
Cementerio de la Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Wimup)
2

Walk the Recoleta cemetery early

Landmark· Junín 1760, Recoleta, C1113 Buenos Aires

Argentina buried its powerful here from 1822 onward, and the result is a walled city of marble streets, with Eva Perón in the Duarte vault under fresh flowers most days. Ninety tombs are national monuments. The pleasure is architectural rather than morbid: block after block of families competing at close range.

Time1 to 2 hr
CostPaid entry for non-residents
Best atAt opening
TipTake the free Spanish-language tour from the main gate if the timing works
Map↗ Website
Cross Plaza de Mayo and go under the Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires, Argentina
3

Cross Plaza de Mayo and go under the Casa Rosada

Landmark· Paseo Colón 100, Monserrat, C1063 Buenos Aires

Every political event in Argentine history has ended up on this square, and since 1977 the Madres have circled the pyramid every Thursday afternoon. The museum behind the palace occupies the excavated customs house and is free: old fort walls, presidential sashes. The famous balcony is not part of the visit.

Time2 hr
CostFree
Best atWednesday to Sunday
TipEnter the museum from Paseo Colón, not from the square
Map↗ Website
MALBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Wimup)
4

Give an afternoon to MALBA

Museum· Av. Figueroa Alcorta 3415, Palermo, C1425 Buenos Aires

Eduardo Costantini built this in 2001 to hold his own collection, and it is the best single argument for Latin America as a twentieth-century force: Berni, Xul Solar, Rivera, Kahlo, and Tarsila do Amaral's Abaporu. Two hours without hurry, and it is closed on Tuesdays.

Time2 hr
CostPaid entry
Best atWednesday, at 11
TipClosed Tuesdays
Map↗ Website
Do San Telmo on a Sunday, Buenos Aires, Argentina
5

Do San Telmo on a Sunday

Market· Plaza Dorrego, Defensa and Humberto 1º, San Telmo, Buenos Aires

The antiques fair on Plaza Dorrego has run since 1970, and on Sundays it swallows the neighbourhood: dealers with silver and soda siphons, then three hundred stalls running north up Defensa. Come earlier and San Telmo is still the oldest barrio in the city, cobbled and low.

Time3 hr
CostFree to walk
Best atSunday, from 11
TipWalk south from Plaza de Mayo down Defensa and finish on the plaza with a drink
Map↗ Website
See La Boca properly: Caminito and Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina
6

See La Boca properly: Caminito and Fundación Proa

Neighborhood· Av. Pedro de Mendoza 1929, La Boca, C1169 Buenos Aires

La Boca was built by Genoese dockworkers out of ships' materials, which is why the houses are corrugated iron painted in whatever was left over. Caminito is two blocks of theatre. The reason to keep walking is Fundación Proa, with a terrace over the Riachuelo and the rusted transporter bridge.

Time2 to 3 hr
CostPaid entry at Proa
Best atDaylight
TipStay on Caminito, Pedro de Mendoza and Brandsen, and take a taxi in and out
Map↗ Website
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Wimup)
7

Take the national collection at the Bellas Artes

Museum· Av. del Libertador 1473, Recoleta, C1425 Buenos Aires

The largest public collection in Argentina, arranged so you can do it in ninety minutes without missing the point: European work from the Renaissance forward on the ground floor, Argentine painting above it. Ten minutes from the Recoleta cemetery, which makes the pairing obvious.

Time1 to 2 hr
CostCheck the museum site before you go
Best atTuesday to Friday from 11
TipClosed Mondays
Map↗ Website
8

Take a class, then stay for the milonga

Nightlife· Armenia 1366, Palermo, C1414 Buenos Aires

A tango show is a performance you watch. A milonga is a social dance you join, and it is the version that tells you something about the city. La Viruta runs a class early, then the floor opens until the small hours. Nobody will make you dance, and the codes are real.

Time3 hr
CostPaid entry
Best atLate
TipCheck the current schedule before you go
Map
Read something in El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires, Argentina
9

Read something in El Ateneo Grand Splendid

Shop· Av. Santa Fe 1860, Recoleta, C1123 Buenos Aires

A theatre of 1919 that became a cinema and then a bookshop, with almost nothing stripped out on the way: the frescoed dome, the boxes and the crimson stage curtain are intact, and the café sits on the stage. Busy, and still a working shop rather than a museum. You can sit in a box and read.

Time45 min
CostFree
Best atLate afternoon on a weekday
TipSit in one of the side boxes with a book; nobody will move you on
Map↗ Website
Walk the Reserva Ecológica out to the river, Buenos Aires, Argentina
10

Walk the Reserva Ecológica out to the river

Park· Av. Tristán Achával Rodríguez 1550, Puerto Madero, C1107 Buenos Aires

Motorway rubble was dumped on the riverbank in the 1970s, the river silted up behind it, and nature took the site back: 350 hectares of lagoons and pampas grass with the skyline over the far end. The loop out and back is a solid two hours, and it is the one place in the centre with no traffic noise.

Time2 hr
CostFree
Best atEarly morning
TipClosed Mondays, and closes in rain or strong wind; there is no shade on the main loop
Map↗ Website

All 10, mapped

Buenos Aires · 10 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Buenos Aires travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Buenos Aires?+
Four to five. One day covers the historic centre, Plaza de Mayo, the Casa Rosada museum and the Colón. One takes Recoleta, the cemetery and the Bellas Artes. One is Palermo, its parks and MALBA. One is San Telmo and La Boca, ideally with the San Telmo fair on a Sunday. A fifth buys Tigre or the ferry to Colonia without rushing either.
What is the best time of year to visit Buenos Aires?+
March to April and October to November. Spring and autumn sit in the low twenties Celsius, the jacarandas flower in November, and the cultural season is running. January and February are hot, humid and half-empty as porteños leave for the coast, and July is grey and cold without ever snowing.
Is Buenos Aires safe for visitors?+
Broadly yes, with ordinary big-city caution. Phone snatching and bag theft are the real risks, not violence: keep your phone off the table on a terrace, use an app at night rather than walking unfamiliar blocks, and treat La Boca as a daylight visit on the marked streets.
How do you pay for things in Buenos Aires?+
The currency is the peso. Cards are accepted in restaurants, hotels and most shops, and you will want cash for fairs, taxis and small bars. Argentina has changed its currency rules repeatedly in recent years, so check the current exchange and card situation shortly before you travel rather than relying on advice written a year ago.
What is the difference between a tango show and a milonga?+
A show is a staged production, usually with dinner and choreography built for an audience. A milonga is the social dance itself, where couples move in a counterclockwise line and partners are invited across the room with a look. See a show for the spectacle. Go to a milonga, even to watch, for the city.
Parrillas

Best parrillas and steakhouses in Buenos Aires

Six grills, from the most booked dining room in the city to a century-old bodegón in La Boca.
Don JulioPalermo

Don Julio

Parrilla, dry-aged beef

The corner parrilla every list starts with, and the walls of signed empty bottles show how long that has been true. Dry-aged beef, a deep wine list, and a fed queue.

Map↗ Website
El Preferido de PalermoPalermo

El Preferido de Palermo

Bodegón, Spanish-Argentine

A 1952 corner grocery reopened by the Don Julio team without losing the tiles. The Spanish-Argentine bodegón canon done properly.

Map
Palermo

La Cabrera

Parrilla, large cuts

Enormous cuts arrive on a board ringed by a dozen small dishes. The most generous parrilla in Palermo and the most touristed, which are related facts.

Map
San Telmo

La Brigada

Parrilla, offal

Football shirts on every wall and a waiter who cuts the sweetbreads with a spoon to prove they need no knife. The place to eat the offal end of the asado.

Map
Balvanera

Parrilla Peña

Neighbourhood grill

A plain room with paper tablecloths and no interest in anyone's opinion of it. This is what a porteño means by a normal parrilla.

Map
La Boca

El Obrero

Bodegón, since 1954

A dockworkers' canteen from 1954 near the Boca stadium, with pennants and handwritten specials. A better lunch than anything on Caminito.

Map
Bares notables

Best cafes and historic bars in Buenos Aires

Five rooms from the city's protected register of historic cafés and bars.
Café TortoniMonserrat

Café Tortoni

Since 1858, daily 8am to 9pm

The oldest café in the country, on Avenida de Mayo since 1880. Borges and Gardel sat here, the marble and stained glass are original, and tango plays in the basement.

Map↗ Website
Almagro

Las Violetas

Confitería, stained glass

A corner confitería from 1884 with French stained glass and Italian marble. The best afternoon tea in the city, far enough out that the room is mostly local.

Map
Recoleta

La Biela

Café, terrace

The terrace sits under a vast gomero tree beside the Recoleta cemetery, which makes it the natural coffee before or after the tombs. Sit outside and let the afternoon go.

Map
San Nicolás

El Gato Negro

Café and spice house, since 1927

A spice and coffee importer on Corrientes since 1927, and it still smells like one from the pavement. A quiet stop in the middle of the theatre district.

Map
San Telmo

Bar El Federal

Bar notable, since 1864

The carved bar back and the cash register are original, the ceiling fans turn slowly, and the kitchen does sandwiches de miga rather than anything ambitious.

Map
Tango

Best tango and milongas in Buenos Aires

Five floors, from a 1912 ballroom to a warehouse with a bar at the back.
Palermo

Salón Canning

Traditional milonga

One of the great wooden floors in the city, and home of the long-running Parakultural nights. The dancing is serious and the codes are observed.

Map
Almagro

La Catedral Club

Bohemian milonga, classes

A converted grain warehouse with mismatched furniture and a ceiling high enough to lose a chandelier in. The least intimidating room in the city for a first class.

Map
Confitería IdealSan Nicolás

Confitería Ideal

1912 ballroom, milongas and classes

Marble columns, a mezzanine and a first-floor ballroom used in more tango films than any other room in Buenos Aires. Classes and milongas again.

Map
El BesoBalvanera

El Beso

Small, traditional

A small first-floor room with a reputation for good dancers and strict codes. Come as a spectator first, then come back.

Map
Abasto

Esquina Carlos Gardel

Dinner show

The polished end of the staged version, with an orchestra and dinner, in the Abasto block where Gardel lived. A theatre production, priced accordingly.

Map
Museums

Best museums in Buenos Aires

Eight collections beyond the two in the top ten, from Eva Perón to Boca Juniors.
Museo ModernoSan Telmo

Museo Moderno

Modern and contemporary Argentine art

The city's modern art museum in a former tobacco factory, rebuilt in 2018. Strongest on Argentine art from the 1940s on, in raw brick halls.

Map↗ Website
Palermo

Museo Evita

Tuesday to Sunday, 11 to 7

A townhouse Eva Perón's foundation ran as a shelter, now the museum of her life and her politics. Small, well made, and more argued-over than any other here.

Map↗ Website
Colección Amalita (Fortabat)Puerto Madero

Colección Amalita (Fortabat)

Private collection, dockside

Viñoly's glass shed on the Puerto Madero dock holds Argentine painting alongside Turner, Brueghel and Dalí. The roof louvres move with the sun.

Map↗ Website
La Boca

Museo de la Pasión Boquense

At La Bombonera, stadium tours

The Boca Juniors museum sits inside La Bombonera, and the combined ticket takes you into the steepest, loudest stadium in South America.

Map↗ Website
Museo Histórico NacionalSan Telmo

Museo Histórico Nacional

National history, in Parque Lezama

The national history museum in a villa at the top of Parque Lezama, where the first, failed founding of the city is traditionally placed. San Martín's sabre is here.

Map
San Nicolás

Palacio Libertad

Cultural centre, free entry

The 1928 central post office, now the largest cultural centre in Latin America. Free galleries, and a concert hall suspended inside the building like a hull.

Map
Museo LarretaBelgrano

Museo Larreta

Spanish art, Andalusian garden

The writer's house in Belgrano, kept as he left it: Spanish medieval art, dark carved wood, and an Andalusian garden. The quietest half hour up here.

Map
Museo Nacional de Arte DecorativoRecoleta

Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo

In the Errázuriz Alvear palace

A Beaux-Arts palace on Libertador kept intact with its furniture and panelling. The house is the exhibit, and the clearest picture of the grain aristocracy.

Map
Green space

Best parks and plazas in Buenos Aires

Five parks and gardens, four of them within a walk of each other in Palermo.
Palermo

Parque Tres de Febrero and El Rosedal

Rose garden, lake, free

The city's central park, planted by Carlos Thays. The Rosedal holds thousands of rose bushes, a white pergola and a lake. Sunday morning belongs to runners and families.

Map
Palermo

Jardín Japonés

Opened 1967, paid entry

Opened in 1967 and among the largest Japanese gardens outside Japan: koi ponds, red bridges, a bonsai nursery and a tea house off Figueroa Alcorta.

Map↗ Website
Palermo

Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays

Botanical garden, free

Seven hectares laid out by Thays in 1898 around his own house, with glasshouses and about five thousand species. Also, famously, full of cats.

Map
Barrancas de BelgranoBelgrano

Barrancas de Belgrano

Thays park, Sunday open-air milonga

A sloping park on the old river bank, another Thays design, with a bandstand where an open-air milonga runs on Sunday evenings.

Map
Parque LezamaSan Telmo

Parque Lezama

Historic park, free

Steps, statuary, a Russian Orthodox church with blue onion domes across the road, and chess tables under the trees. Mendoza's 1536 landing is placed here.

Map
Neighbourhoods

Best neighborhoods in Buenos Aires

Six barrios and what each one is actually for.
PalermoNorth

Palermo

Restaurants, bars, parks

Enormous, and split into halves that matter: Soho for boutiques and restaurant density, Hollywood across the railway for bars, and the parks and museums to the east.

Map
North

Recoleta

Museums, cemetery, grand avenues

French-inspired apartment blocks, embassies and the highest concentration of museums in the city. Expensive, formal and walkable.

Map
San TelmoSouth

San Telmo

Oldest barrio, antiques, tango

Cobbles, colonial houses turned into conventillos, antique dealers and bars undecorated since the 1950s. Best on a weekday evening.

Map
La BocaSouth

La Boca

Port history, football, daylight only

The Genoese port neighbourhood, the painted houses of Caminito, Proa and the Bombonera. A short, specific visit in daylight rather than a base.

Map
Centre-north

Villa Crespo

Outlet shopping, bodegones

Palermo's cheaper neighbour, with the Murillo street leather outlets and a run of bodegones along Corrientes. Where people go when Palermo stops making sense.

Map
North-west

Chacarita and Colegiales

Wine bars, design, the other cemetery

The current end of the restaurant migration: natural wine bars and vintage shops around Federico Lacroze, with the vast cemetery alongside.

Map
Day trips

Best day trips in Buenos Aires

Five trips out, from a delta suburb to another country.
Tigre and the Paraná Delta30 km north

Tigre and the Paraná Delta

Mitre line from Retiro, about an hour

The river unloads into a maze of wooded islands where people commute by boat and live without roads. Take the Mitre train from Retiro, then a launch through the channels.

Map↗ Website
Colonia del Sacramento, UruguayAcross the river

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Ferry from Puerto Madero, about 1 hr

A Portuguese smuggling town of 1680, now a UNESCO barrio histórico of cobbled lanes and shaded ramparts. An hour by fast ferry. Bring your passport.

Map
San Antonio de Areco115 km north-west

San Antonio de Areco

Gaucho town, estancias

The pampas town that stands for gaucho culture: silversmiths and leather workshops around the plaza, and estancias that serve an asado within a few kilometres.

Map
La Plata60 km south-east

La Plata

Planned city, neo-Gothic cathedral

A capital designed from nothing in 1882 on a square grid with diagonals cut across it. The natural sciences museum is worth the trip by itself.

Map
San Isidro25 km north

San Isidro

Tren de la Costa, colonial centre

A colonial centre on a bluff above the river, a neo-Gothic cathedral, rowing clubs and a Sunday crafts market. Easy to fold into a Tigre trip.

Map
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Buenos Aires (2026)

Time your trip around the city's biggest dates.
Feb

Carnaval porteño

The murgas take over street corsos across the city on February weekends, in feathered tailcoats, with satirical songs.

Mar

Lollapalooza Argentina

Three days at the Hipódromo de San Isidro in March, pulling the big international touring acts into the southern hemisphere.

Apr–May

Feria Internacional del Libro

The largest book fair in the Spanish-speaking world takes over La Rural for three weeks from late April.

Aug

Tango BA Festival y Mundial

Two weeks of free concerts, classes and milongas across some fifty venues in August, ending in the world tango championship.

Sep

Maratón Internacional de Buenos Aires

The city marathon runs in September on a flat course through Puerto Madero, the southern barrios and Palermo.

Nov

arteBA

The contemporary art fair that anchors the Argentine art market, with seventy-odd galleries, at La Rural.

Nov

La Noche de los Museos

For one Saturday night in November more than three hundred museums open free until two, and the Subte with them.

Nov

Fiesta de la Tradición, San Antonio de Areco

The gaucho festival in the pampas town two hours away: riding displays, folk music, asado and a mounted parade.

Getting around

Buenos Aires transport & airports

How to arrive and move around the city.
EZE

Ministro Pistarini International Airport

Ezeiza handles almost all long-haul traffic, 22 kilometres south-west and 40 to 60 minutes by road. Use the authorised desks inside the terminal, or a booked transfer. There is no rail link.

Map↗ Website
AEP

Aeroparque Jorge Newbery

The city airport sits on the river seven kilometres from downtown, handling domestic and regional flights. Check which of the two airports your connection uses: crossing between them takes an hour.

Map↗ Website
Metro

Subte and colectivos

Six lines fan out from the centre, and Line A, opened in 1913, was the first underground railway in the southern hemisphere. The bus network is dense and runs all night. Both need a SUBE card.

Map↗ Website
Rail

Trains, ferries and taxis

Suburban trains leave Retiro, Constitución and Once for the northern suburbs and Tigre, on the same SUBE card. Ferries to Colonia and Montevideo leave from Puerto Madero.

Map
Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Buenos Aires, Argentina

The classics to order before you leave.
Asado, Buenos Aires (Wimup travel guide)

Asado

Not a dish so much as the afternoon: beef cooked slowly over wood embers, from chorizo to tira de asado.

Empanadas, Buenos Aires (Wimup travel guide)

Empanadas

Baked or fried half-moons whose filling changes with the province.

Milanesa napolitana, Buenos Aires (Wimup travel guide)

Milanesa napolitana

A breaded cutlet under tomato, ham and melted cheese, invented here rather than in Naples.

Choripán, Buenos Aires (Wimup travel guide)

Choripán

Grilled chorizo split in a crusty roll with chimichurri, sold from carts along the Costanera.

Provoleta, Buenos Aires (Wimup travel guide)

Provoleta

A disc of provolone grilled until the outside sets and the middle runs, eaten straight off the fire.

Alfajores and dulce de leche, Buenos Aires (Wimup travel guide)

Alfajores and dulce de leche

Two soft biscuits around dulce de leche, rolled in coconut or dipped in chocolate. Sold everywhere.

Bife de chorizo

The porteño default steak, a thick sirloin with a fat cap. Ask for it jugoso or it arrives cooked through.

Fugazzeta

The emblem of Buenos Aires pizza: mozzarella stuffed between two layers of dough under sweet onions.

Buenos Aires fact sheet

Buenos Aires at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Argentina
Region
On the Río de la Plata, eastern Argentina
Population
3,120,612 in the autonomous city (2022 census), and the largest metropolitan area in the country
Founded
Settled in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza and abandoned, refounded in 1580 by Juan de Garay
Nickname
La Reina del Plata, and its residents are porteños
Language
Spanish, in the Rioplatense form that uses vos rather than tú
Currency
Argentine peso (ARS)
Time zone
ART, UTC-3, with no daylight saving
Calling code
+54 11
Airports
Ezeiza (EZE) for international, Aeroparque (AEP) for domestic and regional
Power
220V, 50Hz, plug types C and I
Emergency
911
Ideal length
4 to 5 days
Getting around
Subte, colectivos and taxis, all on a SUBE card
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • Subte Line A opened in 1913, the first underground railway in the southern hemisphere.
  • Avenida 9 de Julio runs up to sixteen lanes across. The Obelisco at its crossing with Corrientes was built in four weeks in 1936.
  • Tango was inscribed by UNESCO in 2009, jointly by Argentina and Uruguay, which settled an argument neither city has dropped.
  • The city keeps a legal register of bares notables, and the protection covers the fittings as well as the facade.
  • The 1928 central post office is now the largest cultural centre in Latin America, and its concert hall hangs inside like a hull.

Headed to Buenos Aires?

Get our one-page Buenos Aires cheat sheet plus a fresh destination every Thursday.

Photo credits (19)