Hotels in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires looks like a European capital that drifted across the Atlantic — Haussmann-style boulevards, Parisian apartment blocks, Italian coffee culture — but it behaves entirely on its own terms. Dinner starts at ten, the bookshops stay open past midnight, and tango is danced in public squares as well as in theatres.

The barrios each have a distinct character: Recoleta with its ornate cemetery where Eva Perón is buried, Palermo's parks, boutiques and restaurants, San Telmo's Sunday antiques market and cobbled streets, and the painted houses of La Boca. Downtown holds the Casa Rosada on the Plaza de Mayo and the Teatro Colón, one of the great opera houses.

Steak and Malbec are the obvious pairing, but the city's Italian heritage means the pizza and pasta are equally serious. Day trips reach the river delta at Tigre in an hour, and Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay is a ferry ride across the Río de la Plata.