coll. - Buenos Aires

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, plus a handy language guide and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2017 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Art and culture vultures

Admire fine art at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes ().

Buenos Aires City Tourist Board

Foodies

Gooey pizzas and flakey empanadas are found on most corners, hit Palermo () for some international fare, and, of course, dont miss the succulent grilled beef upon which this city built its reputation.

Yadid Levy/Apa Publications

History buffs

The Fragata Sarmiento () are just some of the landmarks that bear testament to the rich history of Buenos Aires.

Yadid Levy/Apa Publications

Music lovers

From rock nacional to folklore, cumbia and everything in between, the pulse of Buenos Aires is found in its music. Enjoy free music in Parque Centenario ().

Yadid Levy/Apa Publications

Nightlife

Whether its enjoying a pub crawl through San Telmos local neighbor-hood watering holes (), Buenos Aires never sleeps.

Yadid Levy/Apa Publications

Parks and gardens

Feed koi fish at the Jardn Japons, admire Thays geometric landscaping masterwork at the Jrdin Botnico, or stroll the rose-lined pathways of the Paseo El Rosedal, one of the most romantic spots in the city (all ).

Buenos Aires City Tourist Board

Sports fans

Regardless of club loyalty, once you set foot in either Boca Juniors La Bombonera stadium in La Boca () on match day the sheer energy of 50,000 die-hard Argentine fans will hit you like a tidal wave.

Yadid Levy/Apa Publications

Tango dancing

Enjoy dinner and a tango performance at one of Microcentros grand theaters () to check out some street tango.

Yadid Levy/Apa Publications

Explore Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is not just the land of tango and Evita but a great metropolis full of complexity and contradictions, depth of character, and once it gets its hooks in you, youre a porteo for life.

With its spacious plazas and wide boulevards, Buenos Aires is often dubbed Paris of the South. Founded in 1516 by navigator and explorer Juan de Sols for the Spanish crown, it has grown to become a major player on the world stage an undeniably modern city which retains much of its colonial heritage, European attitudes, and 19th-century charm.

Buenos Aires is a city that awakens all five senses. Its spirit can be seen in the leafy parks and plazas where couples lost in romance while away entire afternoons and in the great Baroque facades that stare down at you as you stroll Santa Fe Avenue. Its felt in the introductory embrace of a new friend and kisses on each cheek. You smell the fiery charcoal in the air as succulent beef and plump sausages roast on outdoor parillas . You taste it in every life-affirming bite of gooey pizza and perfectly flaky empanada. You hear it in the relentless din of the downtown traffic, the staccato notes of a bandonen street tango, and the deep-bass thrum emanating from discotheques that close long after the sun comes up.

But there is a sixth sense, too, found in the shared experience. It derives from an unquantifiable something thats specific to this corner of the world, and this city in particular. Its what defines a porteo (person of the port). Because Buenos Aires is more than a city its a collective. Porteos collectively share in their joys, disappointments, anxieties, and passions (for food, football, family, and fellowship). Its through this group experience that they rise above easy pigeonholing: they are Latin American but not wholly Latin American; theyre European without being European. The Argentine identity, as well the porteo identity, is, as the master Borges (for more information, ) astutely pointed out, either an inescapable act of fate, or an affectation, a mask. So take Borges route, accept Argentinas heritage as the universe itself, and let Buenos Aires become for you whatever you would like it to be.