Mexico, Central & South America > Argentina > Buenos Aires and the Pampas > Buenos Aires > Hotel > Articles > Luxury in Buenos Aires

The Portenos, the natives of Buenos Aires, like to confide to visitors that theirs is the most European of Latin American cities. There’s certainly truth in it. Buenos Aires has, by turns, the chic of the Italians, mansards and cobbles from Belle Epoque Paris and a love of dogs and gentlemens’ clubs that rivals the British. And there is an unlikely reserve for Latin America - the Portenos have their flamboyance, but less of the flounce. Their city is as urbane and complex as a story by Borges.

Of course it is a Latin city too. Streets named after auspicious dates are lined with huge antenna - and billboard-topped high-rises and they swarm with traffic. In all this madness you will find that your feet barely touch the ground, that you are swept along in a spin as heady as the tango that the city is famous for.

Buenos Aires is also relentlessly, breathlessly urban, with little respite from the humdrum in the forested concrete stacks of apartment blocks, so for a long, luxurious weekend you should make sure to treat yourselves to an oasis of calm and comfort as a base. With its sights, serious shopping and a fringe of greenery in its parks, Recoleta is the quarter to choose.

And the Alvear Palace is the most elegant and comfortable hotel there. It glories in its Louis XIV and Empire style, all marble, gilt and elaborate stucco. The suites on the ninth and (when completed) tenth floors have the best views over the Parks and the River Plate. For a simpler and less expensive base, try the Hotel Plaza Francia nearby. Again get a room at the front, the higher the better. At the opposite end of the Avenida Alvear (Buenos Aires’ Bond Street), heading downtown, is the Hotel Park Hyatt - recently built, but with a certain sympathetic style. If price is no object, stay in ‘the Mansion’, a century-old palace with period rooms and suites. Otherwise the eleventh and twelfth floors of the main building view from afar the madness of the Avenida 9 de Julio (Avenue of the 9th July, Buenos Aires’ massive, multi-laned triumphal main street, with obelisk commemorating the city’s 400 years). If you would prefer to be downtown, then the most comfortable hotel is the Marriot Plaza Hotel, set in a turn of the century building at the head of Calle Florida overlooking the Plaza San Martin.

Just stepping outside is enough to give an architectural purist the vapours. The Porteños seem to knock down and rebuild willy nilly and so, unexpectedly, you see architectural gems (most from the city’s high period a century ago) clamouring for attention in the concrete wash. When it all gets too much you can retreat to a cafe, of which there are plenty (another stylish Italian legacy).

You should venture briefly into the business and political heart of Buenos Aires, the grid of downtown, around the perpendicular axes of Avenida 9 de Julio and the Avenida de Mayo. ‘May Avenue’, of the Revolution in May 1810, links the domed National Congress building with the Plaza de Mayo, the city’s original square. Here, opposite the Cabildo, one of the few Spanish colonial structures left in the city, and the classical fronted Cathedral, is the Presidential Palace, the Casa Rosada, where Eva Peron (and Madonna) appeared before adoring crowds. In a darker chapter of Argentine history, the Generals (1976-83) also appeared: now their nemesis, the ‘Mothers and Grandmothers of the Disappeared’ keep vigil in the square every Thursday afternoon.

On Avenida de Mayo, Cafe Tortoni is Buenos Aires’ oldest and most atmospheric. Among the panelled walls, stained glass skylights and beetling, tuxedoed waiters you will see tributes to famous literary and political regulars. If you can make it across the traffic of Avenida 9 de Julio, have a look at the Teatro Colon (National Theatre) and the squares around it, otherwise the pedestrianized Avenida Florida is long-famed as a shopping street and well worth browsing. The Cafe Richmond, in its mock-gilt finery, is an alternative pit-stop.

For serious shopping you need to return to the less frenetic streets of Recoleta, where elegant Argentineans pick their way through the international and local shops on Avenida Alvear. For top leather bags and coats, try Peter Kent and for elegant shoes, try Lonte. A number of young Argentine designers, now showing their collections abroad, have also set up in the area. Valeria Leik keeps a hip, minimalist shoe shop in the arches of Avenida Libertador; just around the corner on Calle Libertad is Jazmin Chebar, thought of by Argentines as their Stella McCartney. Marcelo Senra (in Centro District not far away) includes elements of ethnic Argentina, motifs and materials, in his designs.

Even the smartest Argentines go in for shopping centres, so don’t be scared. Paula Cahen d’Anvers, who produces colourful lines for women and for children, keeps her shop in the Patio Bullrich on Posadas and Marcelo Senra has recently opened up in Paseo Alcorta (aka Carrefour) in the chic suburb of Palermo Chico (itself worth a wander for its houses). The café of choice for senior Recoleta browsers is La Biela, at the foot of Calle Ortiz. La Biela (the ‘Connecting Rod’), explains the racing car-abilia on the walls.

Once you are re-fortified and ready for the cultural chase you can walk straight across to the Spanish colonial church of Nuestra Senora de Pilar, notable for its delightful baroque altar. Behind it, the streets of mausolea in Recoleta Cemetery are as jumbled and crowded as the city itself. Evita is buried here among the city’s patrician families.

Across the parks, dodging dog-walkers leading up to twenty charges, is the National Museum of Fine Arts, a very pleasurable hour’s tour. Typically, much is imported, but there is something of almost everything, from Gobelin tapestries through Goya, Monet and Manet to Klee and Kandinsky. Upstairs there is a smaller but stimulating collection of Argentine art from the past two centuries. Not that you will feel gorged after the visit, but the glass-fronted, chrome-sleek Modena Design Café behind the Museum has newspapers and Ferraris to linger over. If you are looking for Argentinean art to buy, visit Zurbaran on Alvear.

There is a lively international arts scene in Buenos Aires, so as your thoughts turn to evening, check what opera or ballet might be on at the Teatro Colon (about which Pavarotti decided there was just one thing wrong; the fact that it is perfect). And then there’s eating out, though this may send you into a funk. Argentines like beef, lots of it, always well done and they eat late. There are some excellent meals of course, but imagine a whole nation sleeping on that.

The most congenial night out is at Patagonia Sur, the flagship of former tv chef Francis Mallmann. Excellent cuisine in a setting more elegant than an old grocery would suggest—the black and white tiles are now offset with heavy velvet curtains. The ceviche (marinated fish) with coriander is superb. Patagonia Sur is in ‘The Republic of La Boca’, a Bohemian district known for its brightly painted houses in brick and wriggly tin. You should not wander in this area at night. (A general word on security in Buenos Aires - it is perhaps not as mad as other Latin cities, but you are advised to be careful, particularly at night, making sure only to take taxis ordered for you.)

Another celebrity chef and former Mallman acolyte, Massey has two restaurants, where in sleek surroundings teams of goateed chefs proffer Mediterranean fare spiced with Asia. The one to visit is probably the Massey on Calle Arce because of its location in Las Canitas, a buzzing district, very popular with young Argentines, behind the race track.

Typically for Buenos Aires, much is borrowed. Even French visitors are prepared to admit that the cuisine at the recently refurbished La Bourgogne at the Alvear Palace (the only Relais Gourmand in Argentina) is as fine as it is at home. And if the Italians have contributed so much in populating Argentina, many of them swear by their Harry Cipriani, for straight Italian fare with seamless service. But for some truly Argentine fun at lunchtime, try the very simple La Querencia - gaucho treats such as empanadas (like light pasties) and locro, a meat, bean and corn stew.

On Sunday morning the place to go is the market in San Telmo, more for the atmosphere than for bargains among the bric-a-brac - around the stalls artists pose as statues, occasionally stretching or shaking someone’s hand, and tango artists hold streetside displays. These are worth watching, but no substitute for an evening show. For lunch you can walk down, past more wonderful monumental buildings, to Puerto Madero, the city’s revitalised docks.

Don’t be scared of the word ‘show’ when it comes to tango - the Argentineans themselves go for an evening out. These usually include dinner before the music and dancing. Perhaps the nicest is El Querandí, but you might also try Chanta Cuatro or Cafe Tortoni.

Part sung, part orchestral and part danced. Again it is unexpectedly un-Latin. It hasn’t the explosive, exuberant joy. Instead, underpinned by the staccato ‘bandoneon’ accordion, tango is all poise and style. While dancers hold themselves so formally up above, their lower limbs are racing, flicking feverishly in and out of artful tangles. Suddenly they stop, statue-still, their knees crooked around one another, like fingers pulling on a wishbone. Tango is wistful, escapist and erotic, and, they say, melancholic. They talk of it as a window on the Porteño soul.

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