Private Full Day City Tour

This genuine tour-de-force will allow us to achieve a fuller understanding of Buenos Aires’ urban identity, learning the history of the city through its most conspicuous buildings.

We’ll depart from the illustrious Plaza de Mayo, where we’ll visit the Pink House, truly the President’s office (he works but doesn’t live there); the Cabildo, our primitive town hall; and the Metropolitan Cathedral, the city’s principal sanctuary and final home of Argentina’s founding father, José de San Martín.

We’ll then head for San Telmo, the residential district chosen by the primitive Buenos Aires aristocracy. After a century of abandonment and marginalization, as artists and intellectuals started moving to this charming barrio in the 1970s, San Telmo has become one of the most chic and cosmopolitan neighborhoods in town.

We’ll visit San Telmo’s lovely cobbled streets, stopping by Plaza Dorrego, one of the most traditional spots. On weekends, an antique fair takes place in this square, where you can purchase anything from art and antiques to old magazines and records.

Our next stop is at Avenida de Mayo, a Paris-inspired boulevard that opened to the public in 1894. We’ll make a stop at the mythical Café Tortoni, founded in 1858. The place was traditionally frequented by artists, intellectuals, and politicians, and sitting at one of its tables we’ll feel transported back to the 19th century.

After a snack at the Tortoni, we’ll literally take the A-train, South America’s first subway service, built-in 1914. The stations have been preserved exactly as they were back then.

The port district of La Boca is one of the city’s most characteristic spots. It’s a working-class district, where most of the Italian immigrants, mainly from Genoa, settled during the last decades of the 19th century. In La Boca, we’ll stop by the mythical Caminito Street, an outdoor museum dedicated to tango and soccer.

Leaving La Boca behind, we’ll pay a visit to Puerto Madero, a rather contrasting port district. Puerto Madero is nowadays Buenos Aires’ most modern and sophisticated area, and the spearhead of an urban renovation project started in 1991 with the revamping of a series of huge warehouses and silos. Its construction served a double purpose: integrating the city with the river, and placing The Queen of the River Plate, as Buenos Aires is usually called, among the capitals of the globalized world.

Next, we’ll head for the city’s more traditional residential districts of the north. In Retiro, we’ll observe the splendid Plaza San Martin, and once in Recoleta, we’ll visit Avenida Alvear, where one can find the top designer houses in the world. In Plaza Francia, we’ll visit the Colonial Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, the second oldest in town. Next to it, we find the celebrated Recoleta Cemetery, where many of the greatest personalities in Argentine history are buried, Eva Perón included.

Finally, we head for Palermo, one of the city’s most proteic neighborhoods. There we first visit Palermo Chico, similar in its spirit to Recoleta; then we travel to Palermo Hollywood, named after the presence of many TV studios that have gathered around them a number of restaurants and cafés frequented by local celebrities; and finally, we visit Palermo SoHo, the Buenos Aires version of New York City’s namesake district, full of boutiques, designer stores, trendy restaurants, and bars.

We’ll then visit Belgrano, one of the loveliest residential neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. There we see the Barrancas de Belgrano, a beautiful, lush park built on a series of slopes, the exotic Barrio Chino (Chinatown), which is located a few blocks away, and the Parroquia de la Inmaculada Concepción, popularly known as “the round church” because of its Renaissance-style shape.

Ending our visit, we head for the Costanera Norte (Northern Promenade), where we’ll get a different view of the river.

Itinerary:

• Montserrat, San Telmo, La Boca, Puerto Madero, Retiro, Recoleta, Palermo, Belgrano.

Approximate Duration:

• 8 hours.

Included Services:

• Bilingual guide specializing in Buenos Aires’ History, Arts, and Architecture.

• Transportation and transfers in a comfortable, top-of-the-line vehicle. Uniformed driver.

• Snack at Café Tortoni.

• Brochure with extended information on the tour and Buenos Aires postcard.

Note: Visitors will have time for lunch if it’s their wish.