Buenos Aires: The Paris of South America

La Recoleta Cemetery is one of the world's most extraordinary cemeteries — 13 acres of marble mausoleums, stone angels, Gothic crypts, and elaborate family vaults that constitute an outdoor museum of Argentine history, architecture, and aristocratic aspiration. The cemetery's most famous resident is Eva Perón (Evita), whose simple marble tomb in the Duarte family vault is perpetually surrounded by fresh flowers and is the most visited site in the entire country. Maps of the cemetery are available at the entrance — the labyrinth of lanes is deliberately navigated with them. Entry is free.

The Teatro Colón is one of the five greatest opera houses in the world — a Beaux-Arts masterpiece opened in 1908 after 18 years of construction, seating approximately 2,500 people in seven tiers with acoustic properties regarded by performers as among the finest available in any opera house. Guided tours of the interior (approximately $20 USD, multiple daily departures) provide access to the stage, rehearsal rooms, costume workshops, and the extraordinary gilt-and-red velvet of the main house. Attending a performance (season runs March through December) is the finest cultural experience Buenos Aires offers.

San Telmo is Buenos Aires's oldest and most atmospheric barrio — a neighborhood of cobblestone streets, Art Nouveau buildings, antiques markets, and the traditional milongas where tango is practiced as a social art. The Sunday Feria de San Telmo (street market along Calle Defensa, 10am to 5pm) is the finest outdoor market in Buenos Aires. The Mercado de San Telmo (a restored 1897 market building) provides excellent casual food and local character during the week. Plaza Dorrego's outdoor tango demonstrations happen daily, but the genuine milongas are the evening experience — La Catedral (a warehouse space) and El Beso are the most authentic.

Palermo is the neighborhood that captures modern Buenos Aires best — a vast district of parks, boutiques, independent restaurants, and craft cocktail bars subdivided into Palermo Soho (fashion and gastronomy), Palermo Hollywood (media and restaurants), and the parques (Bosques de Palermo, the Rosedal, the Japanese Gardens). The neighborhood's tree-lined cobblestone streets provide the most attractive setting for the café culture that is Buenos Aires's defining social ritual — lingering over a cortado at a sidewalk table for hours is not rudeness but good sense.

Buenos Aires is one of the world's great meat cities — the combination of the Pampas (the vast grasslands that feed millions of grass-fed cattle) and the Italian culinary tradition of the immigrant population has produced a beef culture of extraordinary quality and a parrilla (grill) tradition that elevates the Argentine asado to the level of ceremony. The cuts are unfamiliar to Northern Hemisphere visitors — tira de asado (short rib cut across the bone), vacío (flank), entraña (skirt steak), and chorizo criollo (fresh pork sausage) are the asado standards — but the quality of Argentine beef makes all of them revelations.

The restaurant scene has moved well beyond the parrilla in the past decade. Don Julio (Palermo, named World's Best Steakhouse in 2023 and holding a place in Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants) is the finest parrilla — a neighborhood restaurant of extraordinary quality where the Malbec list rivals any wine bar in the country. Tegui (Palermo, tasting menu) and Chila (Puerto Madero, river views) represent the avant-garde Argentine cuisine that has made Buenos Aires a genuine gastronomic capital.

Malbec from Mendoza is Argentina's most internationally recognized wine contribution — the high-altitude Andean vineyards of Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley produce Malbecs of a richness and complexity that have made Argentina a top-five global wine country. Fernet con Coca (Fernet Branca mixed with Coca-Cola — the national 'local' drink, ubiquitous at bars and houses) is the most specifically Argentine social drink. Mate (the caffeinated herbal drink drunk from a gourd through a metal straw, shared communally) is the everyday ritual.