Living a Month in Buenos Aires Argentina

the rose garden

Living a Month in Buenos Aires Argentina

In our usual slowmad fashion as full-time travelers, we lived for a month in the Palermo SoHo neighborhood in Buenos Aires from the middle of December to the end of January. The weather averaged a beautiful 75 degrees the entire month, the city vibed a welcoming beat, and our calendar filled with social activities almost every day. But did we like Buenos Aires and how much did it cost?

active parks in Buenos Aires
The local park system filled with people every day it was open.

Many people describe Buenos Aires as the Paris of South America. True, pockets of the city shine a Parisian beat through architecture and boulevards. And dog poop dots the sidewalks like it does in Paris, too. But I’d describe Buenos Aires more like Mexico City–it’s big–or Madrid for the way parks perimeter the city. It’s not very tall, like Dublin, and tango dancers appear in local parks like tails on flying kites.

You can find what you’re looking for in Buenos Aires because it seems to have the flavors of so many parts of the world; but don’t look for that spice in the food. We did find some brilliant vegan food twice in a city full of meat, and empandas, the local bread-based street food, frequently blended corn mush (humita), tomatoes or spinach with the local tangy white cheese.

As compared to the other jewels of South America including Medellin, Lima, Santiago, Quito, and Montevideo (sadly I can’t add Caracas or La Paz), Buenos Aires is the least South American city of the continent. Medellin wins for food, Lima for color, Santiago for parks, Quito for most colonial, and Montevideo for vibe. Buenos Aires wins for comfort and variety.

No Time to Be Lonely with Nomads!

Our month passed quickly; nomads dripped into the city from repositioning cruises and flights from northern climes. Daily and weekly social events populated our calendar and teary goodbyes a month later added brevity, yet goals, to our social life of nomad friends. Every day that we wanted hugs and smiles from friends, we had them. My birthday party topped the month with bowling, pizza, and even more friends. Where would we see each other again?

Where We Stayed in Buenos Aires

Nice flats abound throughout the city. From the groovy San Telmo neighborhood to the hip vibes in the various Palermo neighborhoods, we even looked at the more ritzy Recoleta area for our month’s stay. We picked a one-bedroom flat on the 8th floor of a 9 floor building in Palermo Soho due to its easy walk to the large park system of Buenos Aires.

Not far from the Botanic Park and EcoPark, we could easily access the subway and bus lines to get around giant Buenos Aires. We paid $1200 for a month’s apartment in Buenos Aires.

Getting Around Buenos Aires

One thing Buenos Aires does well is busses. They come frequently, their numbers blazoned across their sides and illuminated largely across their fronts, and they’re cheap. We took them often. We took the metro only once for three reasons: the local station was under construction, the one time we rode the metro it was stinky, and we wanted to see the city.

To ride the busses, we had to get a Sube card. The process is supposedly under transition, and soon everyone will be able to tap on the bus with their phones. You can tap onto the metro with your phone. In the meantime, you have to get a Sube card and add money to the Sube card.

You can get a Sube card at the metro station and add money to it there, or you can add money at Kioskos (small bodegas on almost every corner of Buenos Aires.) You must pay cash for the card and to recharge it.

Ubers are cheap all around Buenos Aires. It costs about $6 to get around town. Didi is an option in Buenos Aires as well; we did not use Didi as the drivers want cash, which we tried to avoid.

Getting Money in Buenos Aires

Up to our arrival, we had read many articles and watched many youtube channels about the complicated ways to get money in Buenos Aires. We delved deep into the blue note versus bank note transactions and whether using credit cards was easy and viable. We prefer credit cards as it makes our life easier.

western union
Western Union offices are easy to find and everywhere.

Thankfully, by the time we got to Buenos Aires in late 2024, the new government measures to stabilize the peso seemed to be sticking. The blue note rates and the need to convert dollars into blue notes on the street seem to be disappearing because credit cards now mostly get the blue rate or very close to it.

We used credit cards throughout our stay and found we only spent about $50 a week with cash. This cash went to street vendors (not the fruit stands) selling avocados and cherries, or situations where paying cash got us significant discounts.

We kept a supply of cash on us just in case we needed it. Fortunately, we had carried $100 bills with us. We took those into the Western Union and immediately received cash without any problems nor the need to show ID.

One time we withdrew cash from the ATM. The exorbitant $10 fee to only be able to get $40 in cash made us avoid the ATMs. If we would have run out of $100 bills, we would have had to transfer money to ourselves from our US bank through the Western Union app to pick up the cash at the very prevalent Western Union offices throughout our neighborhood. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do these transactions. We had planned ahead and had enough $100 bills.

How Inflation Affected Us in Buenos Aires

You can see in the images, though, that inflation continued to raise while we were in Buenos Aires. Between Dec 20 and Jan 20 when we left, the exchange rate valued a stronger dollar of 20 pesos, or about 2 cents. If you compare, though, Dec 2023 to Dec 2024, it’s about a 30% increase in the exchange. Compared to 5 years ago, it’s dramatic. Take a look at the graphs.

Thus, even though the month’s inflation didn’t affect us significantly, we could certainly see how it would affect people living in Argentina. We’d see evidence of this as we moved about the city buying things. Often prices were posted in ways so that prices could be changed frequently.

Menus often listed the foods but then a price sheet would be offered separately. Clothing prices seemed completely out of reach for everyone including us. A simple cotton top went for $40, which I would expected elsewhere to be less than $20.

Thus, don’t let the inflation frightened you off from Buenos Aires. It’s rising but not rising enough in a month to scare away tourists. The prices are higher, though, than previously. Only a magic ball will be able to determine if those prices will come down again. Whereas Buenos Aires might have been a bargain in the past, it certainly is not now. Housing and transportation seemed reasonable to us, but eating, entertainment, and tourist activities are nearly out of reach.

Eating (as Vegans) in Buenos Aires

With the exception of the street food-based empanadas, which ran about $1 a piece, we found prepared foods in Buenos Aires to be nearly out of reach, especially to be in South America with the prices to high. Therefore, we stayed our eating out to special occasions at particularly selected restaurants.

We shopped at the local Coto and Carrefour for groceries and the fruit/veggie stand at the bottom of our building for our produce. Prices were about 2/3rds of what we’d expect to pay in the USA. Bananas were $.30 a piece, a jar of 100% peanut butter rang in at $4, while a dozen of eggs was about $5. Interestingly, we could find pop-up vendors on the street to buy avocados and bing cherries in season. A kilo of cherries and 6 avocados put us back about $8, a steal.

We went out three times particularly to try well-reviewed vegan food. At Mudra, we adored our vegan sushi. Creating very interesting sushi pieces with flowers, mango, avocado, and ginger, we indulged in a chef’s choice, vegan sushi platter of four rolls for $45. It included a Uramaki dragon, a Truffle roll  and an Amazonia roll.

At Saigon Noodle Bar in Buenos Aires, a magical noodle house with a few locations–we enjoyed the San Telmo shop–tempted us to try the vegetarian option. The house specialty of rice with tofu, sautéed mushrooms, akusai and cucumber in Saigon sauce, topped with tomato, cherry, pineapple, peanuts and coriander made me so happy. It was a rare burst of flavor in a city lacking salt and pepper. Their lemonade menu alone made us stay.

le,monade choices
The lemonade menu at Saigon

Finally, we discovered we had a $50 food credit at Hyatt and delightfully found out that high-dollar Hyatt Palace Duhau had a vegan restaurant on site, Gioia. Previewing the menu, lunch swooned us into the calmly lit, cooling dining room of an old palace turned high-end night for the well-heeled.

Our two-course meal of vegan bread with accompanying vegan pumpkin spread and chimichurri arrived before our two entree choices. Steve enjoyed an asparagus-based paella, I enjoyed a taku taku of beans and rice, and we split a king oyster floating on truffle oil and pesto. Our $85 dropped to $35 with the credit via our Hyatt credit card, making this luxurious lunch a nice treat.

Eating Great Desserts in Buenos Aires

We can’t escape good desserts, and when two places in Buenos Aires show up on Top 10 Global lists, we insisted on going. The first was for South America’s best ice cream. We put together an Ice Cream Social of all of our nomad friends and headed over to Rapa Nui, famous for its chocolates and ice creams.

dark chocolate ice cream
Dark chocolate with almonds from Rapa Nui Ice Cream

I got a double scoop in an edible bowl of their dark chocolate almond and their Rapanui flavor, the house specialty of chocolate, honey, oats and cherry essence. I didn’t much care for the special but the chocolate almond was the best I’ve ever had. That’s my favorite flavor, and now I have a favorite place to eat it.

Speaking of chocolate, we also had to try out Cafe Tortino, which appears on Eater’s List of Top Desserts in the World. Eater recommended their chocolate and churros for a top dessert. We stopped in one afternoon and gave them a try. I’m not sure what all the fuss was, honestly, because the chocolate and churros in Madrid at Chocolatería San Ginés far beats anything Argentina offered up. Sorry Buenos Aires!

As for our last dessert place, we had to stop at another “Best of”, and this time we treated ourselves to the local Buenos Aires treat, alfahores. These short bread style sandwich cookies filled with the caramel-like dulce de leche are serious business all over Argentina. Bakers compete for top spots for traditional style and experimental flavors.

Buenos Aires’ top baker is at Kajoe Cafe, which was right around the corner from our flat. We tested a traditional and a chocolate coated dream. I actually surprised myself and enjoyed the traditional one over the chocolate. There was just too much going on with the chocolate one. The buttery subtleness of the traditional won my taste buds.

Learning Spanish in Buenos Aires

spanish class
I highly recommend our Spanish school called Wanderlust.

Even though we found the Argentine Spanish accent hard to understand with its “xch” sound displacing the “lla” sound we’re familiar with when speaking Mexican Spanish, we decided to take Spanish classes. Wanderlust, the local Spanish immersion class, really delivered.

They correctly placed Steve and me in our appropriate levels, and off we went every morning for two hours for two weeks. The Spanish classes cost us $500 for two of us for two weeks, which we felt was a fair price for 20 hours of Spanish each. (We did not include this $500 in our budget below.)

Almost Free Things to Do in Buenos Aires

With many free things to do in Buenos Aires, we often found ourselves walking in beautiful parks. But be weary, the parks have hours and close often for holidays, Mondays, and it seems, whenever they feel like it.

The Botanic Gardens brings locals for its shade and statues, while the EcoPark which used to be a zoo, brings children for its mechanical sea, turtle and dolphin. Real life bison and giraffes also grace the park–and shouldn’t–their cages are too small. But the rest of the Eco-Park offers an interesting look back to Victorian cages and lush tropical vegetation.

Tango dances its way through Buenos Aires, and many fancy steak dinner restaurants offer shows for tourists. We avoided the meat and the dances, yet we found tango readily available throughout Buenos Aires.

Of course any day at La Boca brings not only brightly colored buildings with tenement histories but tango dancers posing with tourist in sexy poses for a few pesos. Be sure to stop by the Museo Benito Quinquela Martín for only $2 to understand how a local artist made good, bringing back his wealth to the community.

For free tango classes, they are plentiful. We found a local, low pressure location in the Sunday night market at Parque Rivadavia. Although there weren’t many stalls selling food, there were enough. We grabbed tofu bahn mi and sat on the square watching new and old tango dancers alike, each teaching the other. An instructor played music and attendees dropped money in her hat at the end of the evening.

tango lessons
Catch a tango class

Continuing with the tango theme, we found the Sunday market at San Telmo quite engaging. Vendors zig their way through the zag of the market selling very unique hand-made items.

Finally, after so many world markets, we found unique items beyond threaded bracelets and tie-dye t-shirts. Interspersed among the stands, we found pieces of cardboard on the ground and soon learned these were the makeshift platforms of tango dancers and instructors. Impromptu dancing, posing, and instructing happened all morning.

Our favorite day in the free category had us walking through the city with our other nomad friends following the May Avenue GPSMyTour walk. Finally, we found the French vibe of Buenos Aires’ architecture, starting with the Congress Building and ending at Argentina’s white house, La Casa Rosada.

Making a perimeter around the city is a giant park system full of rose gardens, walking paths, disc golf, golf, and any outdoor activity you can think of. We enjoyed a paid bike tour through the park, and recommend it highly.

A stop in the Museo de Belles Artes highlighted great works by Argentines which were sprinkled with the art masters of the world. How joyful to see Rembrandts and VanGoghs for free.

vangogh
VanGogh has entered the building

Speaking of museums, we did spend a few dollars on entertainment as well. Fortunately, museum admissions are still reasonable. The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA) put us back about $8, but it was well worth it to see early drawings from Frida Kahlo and a self-portrait. The entire top floor housed a digital display called “The Future in Not a Dream” by Cao Fei whom I hadn’t been familiar with.

Our most expensive entertainment event involved a train ride, a boat ride, and a lunch. We took the 1-hour train ride to El Tigre, the delta of Buenos Aires. There, we jumped on a local boat ($9) and took a guided tour, viewing historic mansions and classic fishing camps along the delta. It was nice to get out of the city for a day for about $12 a person plus lunch. Not a terribly thrilling day, but it was nice get on the water.

How Much Did Buenos Aires Cost Us for One Month?

An affordable city, but not the cheapest we’ve been in, Buenos Aires was more expensive than we anticipated. Whereas housing and transport were reasonable, food and eating out cost way more than we expected.

We ate in most of our meals, saving our eating out budget for social time with friends at cafes and the aforementioned restaurants above. One big splurge of the month: for my 58th birthday, we went bowling and treated the other nomads out to pizza on us, a $100 extravagance that was well worth it!

Make a Plan for Buenos Aires

Despite its reputation for high inflation and difficult money transactions, we totally recommend a month’s stay in Buenos Aires. From grand parks to delicious foods and plenty of dancing and museums in between, anyone can have a fun time for a month in this charming European influenced city of South America.