Pages

June 25, 2010

My trip to: Buenos Aires

                   

                  

I have just travelled to Buenos Aires (Argentina) a little while ago and I decided to write the best tour guide with artful tips about this amazing city. If you want to visit Buenos Aires or know a little bit more about it, please, join me in these special posts.

I will devide the suggestions in the argentinian neighborhoods such as: La Boca, Palermo, Puerto Madero, Recoleta, Centro and San Telmo, as well as in topics such as galleries, museums, grafitti artists, fun and funny things about Argentina, for example.


BUENOS AIRES BASICS

Climate: The average annual temperature is 18 Celsius and the most pleasant seasons are spring and fall. The coldest month is July with temperatures between 0 and 8 Celsius. The summer is very humid. In the winter, arround Sao Joao Batista Holiday (06-24), there is the veranito San Juan in which the temperature hits high levels for a week. Seven days of summer (24 Celsius) in the middle of the winter and then the temperature drops really low.

Security: Watch out for your purse, wallet, watch and camera. Do not hang your purse on restaurant chairs or leave it opened. Always keep an allert eye on your goodies, principally in crowded street such as Calle Florida. When visiting La Boca, don´t walk away from the tourist area and go during the day light. If you have any problem, contact the Tourist Assistence at 0800-9993828, 9am-8pm). Buenos Aires has a Tourist Delegacy (comisaria del turista) in Avenida Corrientes 436, telephone 0800-9995000, opened 24hs. Also, in case of emergency, you can count with the police (101) or the ambulance (107).

Another good allert is not to give high notes (50 or 100 pesos) to taxi drivers, for example. There are more fake notes than you imagine. Always check its veracity.

Money: Argentina´s currency is pesos. In 2010, the equivalence is 1 dollar = 3,85 pessos and 1 real = 2,20 pesos. Do not exchange your money in the airport, the best options are money exchange offices or banks. The Banco de la Nacion usually has the best taxes and Calle Florida has lots of options. In case you loose your credit or debit card, call in Buenos Aires to Mastercard (4340-7000), Visa (4379-3333) and American Express (0810-5558000).

Cheap tip: Some stores have the Global Refund (globalrefund.com, 5238-1970). They are identified with a tax refund sticker in the store. You should always look for it, request to fill up the form in the store and keep the receipts and tax refund forms organized and separated to present in the Aduana booth in the airport in your way back.


Transportation: Taxis (yellow and black) are the best way of transportation as they are really cheap and safer. Prefer the registered ones. They have the signed marked in the pictures. The original price is US$1,20 and US$0,12 for each 200 meters. If you call a cab, the minimum price is $12 pesos. The subway (subte) is the fastest way arround the city. The price is US$0,30, Monday to Saturday (5am to 10:30pm) and Sunday (8am to 10pm).

My sister told me that I was crazy doing this special post series in the middle of the World Cup. It is known that Brazilians (Pelé) and Argentinians (Maradona) HATE each other tremendously what concerns soccer, but I believe we would have a love story if it was not for the soccer. So,...

It starts today the special post series entitled My trip to: Buenos Aires. I hope you enjoy!


1 comment:

  1. The taxi is safer and cheaper but you always have to be careful. Something that seems perfectly safe can turn out to be dangerous if you are in a city that you don´t know. The same thing happens with hotels, so I believe that renting a buenos aires apartment can be safer than a room in a hotel you don´t know. Always take precautions when travelling, and you will have the best trip!
    Tracy

    ReplyDelete