Guide to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

I don’t spend a huge amount of time in Buenos Aires, as I’m normally passing through rapidly, hot-footing it back to my home country of the UK, or returning to my adopted city of Salta in north-west Argentina.

You can see the main highlights of Salta in a few hours on your own, or with Salta Free Tour who do excellent introductory walks.

Buenos Aires is a bit more daunting, so the best way of discovering Argentina’s capital city is to get out on the hoof with someone who knows the place.

When my mum came to visit four years ago, rather than blunder around trying to show her a city I didn’t know, I contracted a local English-speaking guide to Buenos Aires recommended to me by an English friend of mine from TV days, who lives in the capital.

Sol of Buenos Aires works in a very similar way to Poncho Tours in that she tailors her BA city tours to your needs.

We did a four hour private walking tour of the main highlights. I say the main highlights but the point is that this was a private, tailor-made tour, so we could decide what to focus on.

Thanks to Sol, I learnt lots of quirky new facts about Buenos Aires.

Soledad is bright, witty and chatty, with excellent English, and was very attentive to make sure that my mum, aged 70+, could keep up. She went out of her way to leave us at a bus stop so we didn’t get lost on the way back to our hotel.

Sol is also a tango dancer so she can also organise trips to shows (and classes) for you: whether to the big tango shows or the more casual milongas.

Tango is something you really must see (or do) in Buenos Aires and Sol recommends the open air tango of La Glorieta in Belgrano as a good place to start (it’s also free!)

Poncho Tours guest Abbie Holloway, a keen tango dancer who lives in London, recommends La Viruta milonga as “a must for someone who wants the proper tango experience”.

And for those who just want to watch, there are good stage shows with sit-down dinners at Café de los Angelitos, La Ventana and Tango Rojo.

I discovered more about tango and other things to do in Buenos Aires during our enforced Covid shutdown…19 months with the borders closed to foreign visitors (yes, it still hurts)!

I was commissioned to write these Buenos Aires blogs, which required extensive and fascinating research (and plenty of picking of the brains of people more qualified than me, like Sol and Abbie).

Football fans should check out Sam Kelly’s excellent Hand of Pod podcast for an introduction to Argentine soccer.

And Landing Pad is an excellent place to go for tickets for football matches, tango and many other activities in Buenos Aires.

If there’s anything else you want to know about BA which isn’t in my blogs, please contact us and we will try to find out for you. 

La Polvorilla
Duration
3 days
Group Size
1 to 4

Salt & Seven Colours

This trip combines the historic UNESCO site of the Quebrada de Humahuaca with the Salinas Grandes salt flats of the Altiplano mountain plateau.

We can often combine this trip with our Classic Wine route by taking the mountain pass of Abra el Acay, the highest road crossing in the world outside the Himalayas, at just under 5,000m altitude.

Click here to view map route.

courtyard-Hornillos
Duration
6 days
Group Size
1 to 3

Footsteps of the Conquistadores

A high altitude 4x4 adventure along the old colonial mining route: bringing you into close contact with the Altiplano wildlife of vicuña, flamingoes, and rhea.

This tour combines the must-see highlights of the UNESCO-protected Quebrada de Humahuaca with little-explored sections of the Argentine mountain plateau, close to the border with Bolivia.

Click here to view map route.

Vineyard La Rioja
Duration
6 days
Group Size
1 to 3

Wine and Mountains

A 4WD safari tour of the heart of Argentina’s Andean mountain plateau, combined with the Valles Calchaquies wine region.

It’s combined with a tour of the Valles Calchaquies wine region, where the white grape of Torrontes finds its best expression, and apart from the classic Argentine Malbec, you can also sample Tannat, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Wine lovers should see our Classic Wine route or Salta to Mendoza trip for more details on the sacred grape: either of those trips can be combined with this one.

Click here to view map route.