Hotels near A Tango Show or Milonga

Tango in Buenos Aires splits into two things. A show is staged, choreographed and usually sold with dinner, running roughly EUR 60 to EUR 120 a head at the large houses in San Telmo and Puerto Madero - polished, and worth doing once for the live orchestra. A milonga is a social dance where ordinary people come to dance with each other, entry costs a few euros, and nobody is performing for you. La Catedral Club in Almagro makes the easiest first milonga: a cavernous former grain warehouse, dim, scruffy and genuinely welcoming to beginners.

Most milongas run a class in the early evening followed by open dancing that carries on past 02:00. The dancing follows codes. The cabeceo is an invitation made by eye contact across the room, and tandas of three or four songs are separated by a snippet of non-tango music signalling a change of partner. You can watch all night without dancing and nobody will mind. Salon Canning in Palermo and Nino Bien near Constitucion are the other two names locals give first.

Pro Tip: Check the Hoy Milonga listings the day before, because schedules shift week to week. Turn up for the beginner class around 20:00 even if you have no intention of dancing - it is the fastest way to understand what you are watching later.