Buenos Aires Guide

Your Guide to getting around and enjoying the most of Buenos Aires!

Arriving in Buenos Aires

When you arrive in Buenos Aires, customs can take some time. I waited approximately 45 minutes. Baggage pickup up is quick, as you will have waited much of the time at customs. My baggage was fine. There is a large duty-free store, with liquor, cigarettes, perfumes, chocolate and all the general duty-free items. DO NOT exchange money here. The rates are usually 30% more or less depending on your currency. For example, 100 pesos will cost you around 30 US dollars here, but 25 US dollars elsewhere in the city banks, of which Banco Frances, Citibank are common. Citibank will only exchange US and Euro currencies so do not bother bringing anything else. Reais are a very common currency (Brazilian currency) as Brazil is a neighbour and makes up the majority of the tourists. Common cash that is taken anywhere are the US dollar, EURO, and Reais. There is also a branch of the National Bank of Argentina within the Airport right when you are about to leave from baggage pickup. I did not see what the rates where there for exchange as there was an enormous line-up, but I believe that they were more reasonable. Once you enter the main Airport area, the exit doors will be about 30 metres from you. They are large glass doors and outside you can see many taxi booths.

Taxis

Now about getting a taxi. NEVER TAKE A TAXI THAT IS NOT A RADIO TAXI. In Argentina, due to the poor currency and economy, there are many fake, or more appropriate, household taxis which are not official and not government regulated. Basically, they are some guys car painted like a taxi. These fake taxis lack the official emblem which is the RadioTaxi sign on the back seat door. All taxis have the same colours, black and yellow and a number on the front doors. But only the official taxis have the RadioTaxi emblem on the back doors. Always look for this. For this site, I actually took one of the fake taxis to let you guys know of my experience. It costs with a fake taxi to go into the city around 110 pesos versus 80 pesos with an official taxi. So its around 25% of a loss on your part. So do not take one. In addition, the fake taxis do not have the right equipment or an experienced driver. We had a teenager drive us, with a portable GPS. He did not have an idea where to go, but just followed the portable GPS. In addition, he would get stopped at all the toll booths, of which we were given the bills to pay. If you take an official taxi, they do not stop or have to pay at the toll booths, as they are recognized as official taxis.

Where to stay in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Hotels and Hostels

About where to stay in Buenos Aires, the saying “what you pay for is what you get” applies. You can book online and get fairly good deals on all types of hotels, from $30 US dollars a night at a Days Inn, to $60 US dollars for a 4 star decent hotel, to $100 US dollars for an 5 star well-known hotel such as Sheraton, which is beautiful. The hotel I stayed at was Hotel Impala, well located within the center of the city, in the upscale area of Recoleta, near to almost anything and everything. We paid $57 US dollars a night and the staff was friendly except for one porter who was very rude and would not reply to our questions. Anyways, the hotels breakfast was horrible and consisted of only jam, bread, cereals and some ham and cheese. The hotel seemed hollow and anything could be heard, from the bay crying 3 rooms down, to the endless construction that would wake us up everyday 3 stories down. There were no windows and the carpet had stains similar to ones from an auto shop. But, then again we only paid $57 US dollars. Most of the hotels within the heart of the city seem similar, being small buildings with small rooms and few windows and the buildings are very packed in the downtown.
About picking up taxis on the street, they are plentiful and found everywhere. Just look around for the official ones. Sometimes wanderers on the street will see you waiting for a taxi and go run get one, even though it was coming to you anyways, and ask for some money as a tip for finding you the taxi. What you do when this happens, is up to you. I would give them usually one or two pesos. When this first happened to me, I did not understand what the person was saying, as I was waiting at a Taxi stop anyways. The taxi driver gave the person 0.50 pesos, half a peso.
About taxi drivers personalities, they are almost all helpful with advice and friendly. Some are however, a bit odd, and will have the music playing loud as though you were at a night club and drive the car as though it was on a F1 track. These personas I only ran into twice within a total of taking taxis around 20 times.

Booking Trips and Tours

Day Trips and Tours

I noticed there were large differences in the prices of the tours and day trips, for example city tours. The best city tour is the one offered by the city of Buenos Aires. The tour costs 25 pesos per person, but is much cheaper for families and groups. It is an awesome city tour, translated in 9 different languages, including english, portuguese, spanish, russian, hebrew, arabic, french, italian and more. It is a double decker bus that has 12 stops throughout the major areas of the city. You can get on and off the bus at anytime at these stops and tickets may be purchased on the bus at any stop and time. The top of the bus is open and allows for photos to be easily taken. I enjoyed this tour very much and actually took it twice. Its an extra 10 pesos for an extra day. Its good to do this tour early on in your stay, as you will can an idea of what you will want to do during your trip while on it. We ended up seeing the Japanese gardens late on our trip and were not able to plan it into our vacation.