Overview
Buenos Aires is Argentina's passionate, cosmopolitan capital — the “Paris of South America”, a city of grand boulevards and faded elegance where tango fills the streets, steak and Malbec the tables, and each distinctive barrio has a character all its own.
Travel
Buenos Aires is one of the world's great cities — elegant, passionate, faded and intense, often called the “Paris of South America” for its grand belle-époque boulevards, leafy plazas and European architecture, yet utterly Argentine in its tango, its café culture and its devotion to steak and football. The city is best understood through its barrios, each a destination in itself. The Microcentro and Monserrat hold the historic and political heart: the Plaza de Mayo, ringed by the pink presidential palace (the Casa Rosada, from whose balcony Evita addressed the crowds), the cathedral and the colonial Cabildo, and nearby the towering Obelisco rising from Avenida 9 de Julio, said to be the world's widest avenue. Aristocratic Recoleta is the city's most elegant quarter, home to grand mansions, museums and the extraordinary Recoleta Cemetery, a city of ornate marble mausoleums where Eva Perón is buried. Bohemian San Telmo, the oldest barrio, is all cobblestones, antique shops, atmospheric bars and a famous Sunday street market, the cradle of tango. Working-class La Boca splashes the brightly painted houses of the Caminito with colour and is home to Boca Juniors and the cauldron of La Bombonera stadium. And vast, green Palermo — Soho and Hollywood — is the modern heart of dining, nightlife, design, street art and the city's great parks. Buenos Aires is a city to be consumed: the asado and steakhouses (parrillas), the historic cafés like the Tortoni, the Italian-Argentine food, dulce de leche and alfajores, the late-night dinners and even later nightlife, the milongas where locals dance tango, the theatres of Corrientes, the magnificent Teatro Colón opera house, and bookshops like the breathtaking El Ateneo Grand Splendid. Stylish, melancholic, exuberant and endlessly engaging, “BA” rewards a long, unhurried stay. The climate is temperate — warm, humid summers (December to February) and mild winters; spring and autumn are the loveliest seasons.
The civic heart of Buenos Aires is the Plaza de Mayo, the stage of Argentine history, flanked by the rose-coloured Casa Rosada (the presidential palace, famous for Evita's balcony), the Metropolitan Cathedral (where Pope Francis served), and the colonial Cabildo, and still the gathering place of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. From here the pedestrian Florida Street and the grand avenues lead to the Obelisco, the city's landmark, rising from Avenida 9 de Julio amid the theatres and the city's pulse. North-west lies Recoleta, the most aristocratic barrio — French-style mansions, embassies, museums (the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes), grand cafés, and above all the Recoleta Cemetery, an astonishing necropolis of ornate marble mausoleums laid out like city streets, where Eva Perón and generations of Argentine elite are entombed, and one of the city's most extraordinary sights. The nearby Floralis Genérica steel flower and the cultural centre round out an elegant, walkable quarter.
Frequently asked questions
Diplomatic missions in Buenos Aires
8 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.
Treat this Visaja page as your starting point: verify the current rules directly with the official source before you submit an application.