Buenos Aires by Night Tour (Local food dinner + Guided stroll + Sightseeing with driver)
Amazing food: Locro, Carbonada, Salads, Empanadas and much more deliciousness...
All year long, there are crowds of all ages going out after dark in Buenos Aires for a bite and a stroll, like you'll see in no other city!
Description: This is a fun, guided night tour (in English) showing how we live here, and includes a truly outstanding Argentinian dinner with all main local foods sampled: Locro, Carbonada, Empanadas, etc. (wine and beef are optional) and a traditional night-cap or tea or ice cream much later at some different 'cool' place�like we always do here. In between, we will walk-the-dinner-off while we visit some of the many fun, safe and charming night districts like Las Ca�itas, Palermo SOHO, Puerto Madero, San Telmo, Reconquista, La Placita, etc. (each night is different as we choose the most suitable circuit for each day). Don't be surprised to see people all ages going out late at night (Argentine families often go out late at night with their young ones). There are very few cities in the world with so many fun things to do at night as ours. Dont miss this experience!! This is one you'll tell your friends about. This tour was specifically designed by our guides for both the novel occasional tourist and also the savvy business traveler: Your guide will tailor this walk to your preferences as you go and along the night you will also learn from your guide about our peculiar culture and habits and about the places you'll visit. Transportation in the form of a private car and driver is included in this tour, as Buenos Aires is huge and many fun-at-night neighbourhoods are quite far apart All transportation, drinks and delicious food are included �except beef & alcohol (which are optional).
When: 7:30 pm daily 365 days/year, rain or shine (this tour is only available by booking ahead through our 'Booking' menu entry above)
Duration: 4 hours (7:30pm to 11:30pm. Soon after we start (and early by local standards) we will stop for dinner 'a la carte' (you choose) at some unforgettable typical-Argentine-food place of our choice (cost is included--we pay). We choose different restaurants each day (you can join every night if you wish!!), and we will advise you on the foods to choose and their history (vegeterian options are always available). Excellent drinks and beer are included but wine and beef are not and are optionally available (on you: we advise, you choose, you pay).
Price: US$187 p/p *** Minimum 2 people (or ask) ***
Discounts: n/a
Meet: Night tours can begin with your guide meeting you 7pm in your downtown hotel lobby, but unless otherwise specified, these tours meet 7:30pm at the downtown corner of Santa Fe Av. and Callao Av., inside Filippo cafe. Look for our guides, wearing 'BA-Walking-Tours' vests, badges, shirts or baseball caps. See map here.
Note: Please note this is not a tour about drinking (though drinks are OK). Booze is not a cultural mainstay here: Going out at night, walking around, cafe & restaurant hopping, people-watching, enjoying outstanding food and ending the night with some treat (much later and somewhere else) are!
Some key sights:
Barrio Norte area genuine local food experience San Telmo, old & bohemian Recoleta quarter traditional elegance by night Corrientes Av. (theatre row) by night Reconquista food-bar row by night
Las Canitas (delights by the Polo field) Palermo Hollywood quarter Palermo Soho walk La Placita downtown (restaurant & theatre area) by night Puerto Madero, new & fancy ...and much, much more!!
Tour Outline (abbreviated): (click on pictures to toggle size) In this walking tour we will show you the main 'clean' night-out districts (yes, everybody goes out at night here) that Buenos Aires can offer: Their fascinating places, habits and history. Once you are familiar with these areas you will be able to access hundreds of interesting and fun places and activities at night here on your own and without any help.
Puerto Madero , the newest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, with its surprising history and luscious landscapes, deserves a special visit from you.
The history of Puerto Madero is fascinating, having originally been the British-built port of Buenos Aires, now Puerto Nuevo, moved for economical reasons and was left abandoned for over a century. In the 90�s a magnificent renovation took place. The old red brick warehouses were refurbished into luxurious offices, residences, 5 stars hotels, banks, movies, restaurants and pubs. The seat of UCA, Argentine Catholic University, is one of the biggest buildings within Puerto Madero today. The sleeping city has been brought back to its greater glory!
Puerto Madero is now considered one of the safest areas in Buenos Aires (Coast-guard patrolled). Not to mention that in terms of Real Estate, it is one of the highest property value among all other Latin American cities.
Once in Puerto Madero you will perceive a quiet, pleasant atmosphere. Open walkways, pretty fountains and ancient trees are some of its enticing attractions. Puerto Madero is highly pedestrian, inviting you to walk along the docks, enjoy a bike ride, take pleasure in a midday stroll through the beautiful sunny streets of Buenos Aires.
The large open boulevards, river views, outdoor cafes and fancy restaurants lure foreign as well as local visitors every day of the year. The social activities of Puerto Madero huge and vastly different, a plurality of restaurants offer extensive choices for any meal of the day. You will be able to choose from the simplest fast food to exotic international cuisine, and needless to say your choice of the legendary Argentinean beefs!
Las Ca�itas was once the favored neighborhood of the military powers during the dictatorship period of 1976 to 1982, and the area remains a safe and secure neighborhood. A military training base, hospital, high school, and various family housing units still remain and encircle the neighborhood, creating a sense of safety on the area's streets. Today, the area is far better known among the hip, trendy, and nouveau riches as the place to dine out, have a drink, party, and be seen in the fashionable establishments built into converted low-rise former houses on B�ez street. The polo field where the International Championships take place is also in the neighborhood and is technically part of the military bases. The polo field's presence makes the neighborhood bars and restaurants great places for enthusiasts to catch polo stars celebrating their victories in season.
Las Ca�itas� rich history begins over 100 years ago when it was only an open, quiet space surrounded by grassy lands. These beautiful acres of land were mostly used to prepare horses for the nearby horsetrack races. The locals had always been fond of equestrian activities. Much of their daily life in Las Ca�itas revolved around horses.
The name of Ca�itas comes from the name given to the road: Camino de Las Ca�itas, which means little reed road.
During the 80�s, modern and tall buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens and yards revamped the look of Las Ca�itas. Las Ca�itas is near both Palermo and Belgrano, important and traditional �barrios� of the city Porte�a.
Since the early 90�s, Las Ca�itas has been considered a fashionable gastronomic zone that is to this day satisfying the increasing number of tourists, as well as local visitors appetites.
At present, Las Ca�itas has more restaurants than any other area in Buenos Aires. These restaurants, bars, lounges, most of them offering open air seating and an infinite variety of choice, each delivering excellent quality!
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Polo field, a military training campus was created in Las Ca�itas. Polo season runs March through May and September through December. Las Ca�itas becomes a meeting point for local celebrities and polo stars from November to December due to the Argentine Open Polo Championship, the most important polo tournament of the world. This beautiful game mirrors the Porte�os love of sports and is a highly enjoyable pastime.
Music, military exhibitions and popular festivals also take place in the Polo Field, especially at night during summer months. All in all Las Ca�itas is a destination for culture, food, sports and adventure.
Palermo Viejo , once a run-down neighborhood of warehouses, factories, and tiny decaying stucco homes in which few people cared to live as recently as 15 years ago, has been transformed into the city's chicest destination. Palermo Viejo is further divided into Palermo Soho to the south and Palermo Hollywood to the north, with railway tracks and Avenida Juan B. Justo as the dividing line. With real estate pressure and the need to always be trendy, many areas that are technically in Palermo Hollywood are now saying they are in Palermo Soho, considered the more upscale of the two areas, blurring this dividing line.
The center of Palermo Soho is Plazoleta Jorge Cortazar, also known as Plaza Serrano, a small oval park at the intersection of Serrano and Honduras Streets. Young people gather here late at night for impromptu singing and guitar sessions, sometimes fueled by drinks from the myriad of bars and restaurants around the plaza. On weekends, there is a crafts fair, but you'll always find someone selling bohemian jewelry and leather goods no matter the day. Palermo Soho is well known for boutiques owned by local designers, with fancy restaurants and hotels mixed in. Palermo Hollywood is considerably quieter and less gentrified than Palermo Soho, which, in some ways, has become overpopulated during the daytime by lost tourists with maps and guidebooks in hand. The neighborhood gained its name because many Argentine film studios were initially attracted to its once-cheap rents and easy parking.
Palermo Soho is part of Palermo: specifically, the chunk of Palermo Viejo (bordered by Santa Fe, C�rdoba, Dorrego and Coronel D�az) is south-west of Juan B. Justo and that contains Plaza Serrano. Packed with caf�s, restaurants and boutiques in low-rise buildings, Palermo Soho is trendy, creative, chic, young, cool.
Palermo Soho does not, of course, have much of a history, because it�s a recently made-up name based on the area�s similarity to the entertainment district SoHo in New York. What about Palermo Viejo? That�s a made up name as well, just one that was made up longer ago! What is now Palermo Viejo used to be called Villa Alvear. Porte�os seem to have a problem with official names for things.
Anyway, the area that is now referred to as Palermo Viejo started to become fashionable in the 1980s, when it�s combination of relative closeness to the city, trees and bohemian vibe was recognized. This was when the area started to transform from a purely residential area into something more cosmopolitan.
Going back further in time, the area that includes Palermo and Palermo Viejo became popular as a place to live way back in the late 1800s. The area was given a boost in the 1870s when then-president Sarmiento ordered the construction of Buenos Aires Zoo, Parque Tres de Febrero, Plaza Italia and the Palermo Hippodrome.
It�s a pleasant place just to stroll, people-watch and window shop. For best results, go on a weekend, when street markets in the area are at their best. The best area for strolling is around and between Plaza Serrano and Plaza Armenia, which is a park bordered by Malabia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Armenia. Stop off Plaza Serrano or Plaza Armenia when you need to refuel.
Recoleta A very elegant neighborhood, La Recoleta has a distinctly European feel, and locals call it a piece of Paris transplanted. Here, tree-lined avenues lead past fashionable restaurants, cafes, boutiques, and galleries. Much of the action takes place along the pedestrian walkway Roberto M. Ortiz and in front of the Cultural Center and Recoleta Cemetery. This is a neighborhood of plazas and parks, a place where tourists and wealthy Argentines spend their leisure time outside. Weekends bring street performances, artisan exhibits, fairs, and sports.
The Recoleta Cemetery pays tribute to some of Argentina's historical figures. Weather permitting, Not something you would consider putting at the top of your sightseeing list but it is extraordinary. It is a bit like a gothic city built in miniature. The styles of each mausoleum built by master sculptors, mostly from Italy. It is a cemetery for the rich and famous who can or could afford it, so the nation's great leaders, along with their foes are placed here. Eva Perons mausoleum is here buried here with other members of the Duarte family deep underground to stop enemies stealing her corpse as happened in 1955.
Part of Barrio Norte with beautiful parks and boulevards, fine restaurants, museums and shopping, the French architecture is what has given rise to the city being known as the 'Paris of the South'. This district began to grow at the end of the last century when rich families fled San Telmo, the south side of the city from the plagues of yellow fever. Here they built their palaces and country houses along Alvear Avenue. These buildings were soon imitated by smaller ones belonging to merchants, doctors and lawyers which sprang up around the mansions of Barrio Norte. For the portenos (city people) who can afford it 'the' place to reside is along an axis parallel to the river with open views looking across to Uruguay.
This part of Buenos Aires offers something for everyone: street performers, the art exhibits, chic boutiques, bookshops, elegant deluxe hotels among them the fabulous Alvear Palace, the Park Hyatt and Caesar Park. There are plenty of restaurants.
San Telmo Buenos Aires's oldest neighborhood, San Telmo originally housed the city's elite. But when yellow fever struck in the 1870s -- aggravated by substandard conditions in the area -- the aristocrats moved north. Poor immigrants soon filled this neighborhood, and the houses were converted to tenements, called conventillos (little convents). In 1970, the city passed regulations to restore some of San Telmo's architectural landmarks. Still, gentrification has been a slow process, and the neighborhood maintains a gently decayed, very authentic atmosphere, reminiscent of Cuba's old Havana. It's a bohemian enclave, attracting tourists, locals, and performers seven days a week on its streets.
A victim of its own success in many ways, the area is home to a large number of foreign expats, and sometimes you'll wonder if you're actually in South America when you sit at a cafe and realize many tables are engaged in conversations you can fully understand. The collapse of the peso has also meant that antiques, sold for ready cash, are available, though most of the best items have been picked by now. The best shops and markets in San Telmo line Calle Defensa. After Plaza de Mayo, Plaza Dorrego is the second-oldest square in the city.
San Telmo is full of tango clubs; one of the most notable is El Viejo Almac�n, at Independencia and Balcarce. An example of colonial architecture, it was built in 1798 and was a general store and hospital before its reincarnation as a tango club (mentioned in one of the earliest Tango lyrics). Make sure to make it here at night for a show. If you get the urge for a beginner or refresher tango course while you're in San Telmo, look for signs advertising lessons in the windows of bars and restaurants.