Since the devaluation of 2002, South America’s highest-profile capital has become a bargain destination that’s reason enough to visit the country—many visitors spend weeks or even months enjoying its first-rate accommodations, innovative cuisine, all-night entertainment, non-stop shopping, and matchless cultural resources. Despite its international sophistication, it’s also a city of intimate neighborhoods where no one is truly anonymous. The nearby suburbs offer rewarding excursions, most notably the myriad channels of the Paraná Delta.
Plaza de Mayo: Buenos Aires’s historic center is ground zero for public life in Argentina.
Café Tortoni: For nearly a century and a half, the Avenida de Mayo’s traditional gathering place has been an island of stability in a tumultuous ocean of political, social, and economic upheaval. It often plays host to artists, writers, singers, dancers, and visiting royalty and diplomats.
Galerías Pacífico: Even non-shoppers will appreciate the vision with which 1990s developers adapted this historic Microcentro building, on the Florida pedestrian mall, to contemporary commerce. The stunning murals in the cupola can be enjoyed on your own or with a guide.
Teatro Colón: The continent’s most important performing arts venue retains its style and dignity. Simply enjoy the beautiful Italian Renaissance design or take in a world-class performance.
Plaza Dorrego: Antique vendors and spirited performers clog San Telmo’s principal plaza and surrounding streets every Sunday.
Cementerio de la Recoleta: For both the living and the dead, the barrio of Recoleta is the capital’s prestige address. In the cemetery, you can visit the graves of Eva Perón and the Argentine elite. Those that failed to qualify for Recoleta, like Evita’s husband, Juan Perón, repose at the more egalitarian Cementerio de la Chacarita, across town.
MALBA: For decades, even during dictatorships, Argentina has had a thriving modern art scene, but the striking Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Buenos Aires in Palermo has given it a new focal point.
Museo Eva Perón: Promoted by Evita’s partisans, Argentina’s first museum dedicated to a woman is as notable for what it omits as for what it includes.
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales: In the decidedly untouristed barrio of Caballito, this improving museum houses exhibits that shed light on the impressive Argentine dinosaur discoveries of recent decades.
Isla Martín García: Just off the Uruguayan coast, its bedrock rising out of the River Plate’s muddy waters, this historic island is an absorbing and tranquil getaway from Buenos Aires’s bustle. Get there from Tigre, only half an hour north of Buenos Aires.
