And suddenly we found ourselves back in Buenos Aires! One of my favourite cities in the world and one that Laynni also really likes but is maybe slightly less effusive about – she’s “fond of it”, let’s say – for the first of two week-long stays planned there this trip. Following our couple weeks in Salta and our wild and wacky northern Argentina road trip, we were very much looking forward to returning to the old area of BA to revisit some of nostalgic favourites and a few new highlights on a variety of San Telmo walking tours.
While we had been to Buenos Aires several times spread over two separate visits to Argentina, the last time was around a decade ago so we were very curious to see what had changed, what had remained the same and, as always, how badly flawed our memories of certain places really were.
Our site includes affiliate links to products we recommend. If you use one to make a purchase, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!
First order of business, is Buenos Aires still full of dog shit? We’re happy to report: not really. I mean, you still want to keep an eye out but, for the most part, their intensive campaign to get people to clean up after their animals seems to have been a real success. And do they still call it “dulce de leche” (sweet milk) in reference to its resemblance to a very popular Argentinian dessert? Not sure, and I would have felt too foolish asking.
Buenos Aires is certainly still “the tango capital of the world” but could the tourist fascination with tango lessons be dying down? It kind of seems that way, although maybe I’m not the best judge, since I have never tangoed, never plan to tango and am almost certainly incapable of tangoing well. Plus, I’m just now realizing, I am not even confident in my ability to properly conjugate the word “tango”.
Maté, on the other hand, really seems to be taking off. This flavourful, highly-caffeinated Argentinian tea is considered delicious by many (Laynni called it fine), although I suspect the main driver of its popularity is the fact it is typically drank out of a special mug with its own fancy metal straw. People seem to really like that.
Most of the kids of Buenos Aires travel on vintage orange buses marked “Escolares” and will inevitably be wearing either a white lab coat – their school uniform, apparently – or a Lionel Messi Argentina jersey. Very similar to 10 years ago. And 15 years ago. And, presumably, 20 years ago, as well. As insane as that is. Of course, as a middle-aged foreigner, I am going to accompany this paragraph with a photo of one of the cool school buses, NOT some strange child.
Parrilla – also known as a “meat feast” or “carnivore’s wet dream” – is still very popular in Argentina, mainly on account of just how good the beef is here. And they still seem bound and determined to eat their parrillas late into the night, long after we’ve already gone to bed, let alone waited around for the best restaurants to open.
And that’s about the sum total of my knowledge of Buenos Aires culture. We really just think it’s a beautiful city full of nice plazas, historic buildings and unique spots, perfectly set up for long wanders, especially if you stay in a central neighbourhood like San Telmo. I almost said “aimless wanders” but, no, the whole point is that we went out every morning with a plan. A loose plan, to be sure, but with at least a general direction in mind, a roubgh list of locations to hit and a short list of empanada places along the way.
People who have less time and want to cover most of the city in a single day can opt for one of the popular Buenos Aires hop-on-hop-off bus experiences instead. And those interested in the backstories and details that can only be provided by a knowledgable guide can go with a historical San Telmo tour. Or you can even join a rowdy Buenos Aires pub crawl which, clearly, offers a much different experience.
However, if walking on your own without any schedule to follow is more your thing, here are five San Telmo walking tours to follow if you’re looking to add a bit of structure to your Buenos Aires sightseeing.
1. Old San Telmo
San Telmo is one of the oldest and most historic neighbourhoods in the city and is worth a detailed exploration in itself. So, first off, you want to fit in a stroll up and down all of its gorgeous cobblestoned streets, checking out some of the many shops and restaurants along the way. Starting with La Defensa, the main street in San Telmo, its heart and soul and the best place to watch drunk women with impressive cleavage in low-cut leopard print raucously heading home at 7 am.
And if you’re around on a Sunday, be sure to visit La Defensa for the San Telmo Antique Market, when the street is transformed into a bustling market, lined with stalls selling everything from custom maté mugs to energy gems to llama paraphernalia to local baking to organic sex toys. Ironically, not so many antiques.
San Telmo is also one of the most touristy parts of the city and the place you are most likely to run into northern hemisphereans, especially during the Sunday market. Sometimes even with an accent and figures of speech that hit alarmingly close to home. After several weeks of full Spanish immersion in northern Argentina, it was literally jarring to hear a woman behind us telling her kid “that’s what we call a farmer tan”. I half expected to turn around and see a Rider jersey.
Meanwhile, the official San Telmo Market – not to be confused with the Sunday/antique/hippie market – is a popular indoor food and shopping market that is perfectly happy to take your money any day of the week. There are lots of great restaurant choices and some surprisingly overpriced groceries – $US11 for 6 bananas, 5 tomatoes and a chunk of ginger (which also strikes me as a great redhead Tinder handle).
Plaza Dorrego is a cute, little square toward the southern border of San Telmo, where you can always enjoy the pleasant greenery, usually pick up some affordable street food and occasionally watch old people tango publicly.
If unusual sights are your thing, be sure to check out Casa Minima, supposedly the smallest house in Buenos Aires. So small, in fact, that we never actually found it. I know where it’s supposed to be, though.
There are also a whole bunch of strange, cartoonish statues scattered around San Telmo. Keep track! Compare with your friends! Or maybe just take a photo or two and don’t be weird.
There are several good parrilla restaurants or, for something different, we can recommend the Tacos el Pastor at Che Taco (just expect disgusted looks if you ask for no onions) and Soda Pizza for their terrific, well, pizzas, obviously.
2. Big Plazas
So, you’ve explored all the nooks and crannies of old San Telmo, now it’s time to venture off to see some of the big Buenos Aires highlights on our second San Telmo walking tour. We’ve arbitrarily named it “Big Plazas” because I think that has a nice ring to it but, really, this itinerary involves a pretty good variety of impressive tourist stuff.
Start by heading north on La Defensa until you hit Plaza de Mayo, one of the biggest of the big plazas. Saunter around it for a bit, maybe turning a few awed circles, taking a few carefully framed photos, then head to the northwest corner to see the Mausoleo del General José de San Martín. The final resting place of a famous general. Judging by the name, anyway. It’s not like we actually went inside. Continue past it along Roque Saenz Peña to Calle Florida, the very long, very famous pedestrian street that runs through the centre of the city.
Shopping, eating, more shopping, and dozens and dozens of people wondering every 10 metres if you want to change money. In a dingy booth deep in the bowels of one of the nearby office buildings, if that’s ok with you. In fairness, they are legitimate money changers, it just doesn’t always feel that way when they are propositioning you on the street while brandishing a cheap plastic calculator.
Then, take a break from your financial planning to head up for terrific top floor views from the Mirador Galería Guemes ($US3), then detour a couple blocks off Florida to see the Convento Grande San Ramon Nonato, formerly a convent, now a nice courtyard with a couple restaurants.
Continuing on, eventually you will reach the lush greenery of Plaza San Martin Caba, be treated to a great look at the uniquely weird Edificio Kavanagh and can head a little bit down the hill to see the wonderful Torre Monumental. The historic train station is also just across the street – a good place for a photo or two. Or to catch a train.
We had planned to have lunch at the Saigon Bar but bailed because, it turns out, there are limits to how much we are willing to pay for a bowl of noodles, even Vietnamese ones, and instead ended up having a great lunch at Florida Garden. The biggest brick of chard Laynni had all week.
3. Gritty Street Scenes
Our third San Telmo walking tour changes pace from wide pedestrian streets, impressive historic monuments and unhealthy amounts of chard to narrow lanes, colourful buildings and mild security concerns.
This time, head south along Defensa until you reach Parque Lezama, a big leafy plaza with a famous statue and lots of dog walkers. Then head southwest through some truly non-touristy areas, which some may call, well, “ugly”, for lack of a better term. Just when you’re starting to wonder why you have come this far just to walk under busy freeways and pass furniture warehouses, you’ll find the surprising little Pasaje Lanín with its meticulous walls of murals and vibrant, colourful houses.
Then it’s back towards the water to experience the famous La Boca neighbourhood and gaudy little Caminito street. Actually, “caminito” kind of just means “little street”, so my description is redundant in more ways than one. Much like this explanation.
La Boca is famously colourful, famously rowdy and famously sketchy/dangerous. And just as cool and photogenic as we remembered. At 11 am it wasn’t particularly rowdy and the numerous law enforcement officers wandering meant it didn’t feel sketchy in that moment, while still retaining an air of “things could go badly at another time, under different circumstances”. And, much like both 10 and 15 years ago, there were still a bunch of volunteer firefighters asking for donations. The same ones or new ones? I couldn’t say, all firefighters look the same to me.
Once you’ve had your fill of pastel overloads and expensive drinks, head out along the river to see the highly-functional-but-strange-enough-to-be-interesting “Puente Transbordador”, a rather complicated bridge that, full disclosure, I don’t really understand. Maybe it’s not even a bridge, who knows?
Back into the bowels of La Boca, you can visit one of the most famous soccer/futbol stadiums in the world – La Bombonera. In 2009, I went to a Boca Juniors game in “The Chocolate Box” and it was one of my most memorable sporting experiences. Old, steep and uncomfortable, but packed full of rabid fans who spent the entire match jumping and screaming while, somehow, never stopping eating.
Since then, unfortunately, these games have become one of the most sought-after tourist outings in Buenos Aires and, after some brief inquiries, I chose to pass on paying $US200 for the worst seats in the stadium. You can still get reasonably priced stadium and museum tours, but I settled for a couple photos from the outside and then stopped off at a mural of legend Diego Maradona, wearing a sleeveless Boca Jrs shirt and blowing a puff of smoke, for some reason.
On the way back to San Telmo, stop off at the Maqueta Barrio la Boca because, I don’t know, it’s super-odd, I guess. But somebody obviously put a lot of work into it at some point so, hey, check it out.
4. Puerto Madero
Directly east of San Telmo, Puerto Madero is a posh, upscale coastal neighbourhood that features a weird mix of high rises, hipster bars and swampy lagoons. It is the destination of choice for the city’s eager exercisers, plus an interesting mix of families, tourists and water birds.
First, you’ll cross the Rio Darsena Sur, lined photogenically with a mixture of tall and/or old buildings. If you enter from the centre of San Telmo, you’ll probably hit Fuente Monumental Las Nereidas, which isn’t particularly interesting but, you know, it’s right there, so I wouldn’t want you walk past it unaware.
By now, you will probably have noticed just how nice the area is – wide streets, functioning walk lights and traffic that even stops for crosswalks, mostly. Then, suddenly, you’ll be among the lagoons, of which there are three. Laguna de los Patos, named after its ducks. Laguna de las Gaviotas, named after its seagulls. And Laguna del los Coipos, named after a South American water rat, completely against the advice of the marketing team.
Various tree-lined paths wind around the lagoons and eventually reach the Rio de la Plata (also called the River Plate in a weird semi-translation) – the huge, famous and historic river next to Buenos Aires. It IS huge and famous and historic, but also too wide to even look like a river, and disturbingly brown and, all things considered, pretty underwhelming. But WWII buffs might like it, I’m told lots of shit sank in it.
When we first visited Puerto Madero, in 2009, a local tourist brochure described this secluded bit of forest as “an excellent meeting point for gays”. These days, though, it seemed like the very busy and very festive Pride parade taking place in San Telmo was probably the better choice this time around. Although it’s still easy to see the appeal of a little casual groping in the bushes.
There were lots of birds around, too, although I’m afraid to focus too much on them, considering Laynni has been increasingly mocking me for my interest in birds, plus I had to deal with this unprompted exchange with a friend:
Back along the river, you may have to wait your turn to cross the Puente Cecila Grierson, a rotating bridge that swings aside when yachts come through, something we were quite amazed by. Very understated and not even remotely scenic – seems like a missed opportunity, considering how easily entertained tourists are in general.
Near there is a statue of a giant head (Marinos Mercantes)which isn’t particularly notable, except for it being, you know, way bigger than the average head, and the fact that so many of the Google reviews warn “don’t climb it, it’s covered in urine”. While climbing the huge head had not actually occurred to me before that, that did keep me from feeling like I was missing out on something cool. Of course, it also made me wonder just why there is SO much urine on it.
Further down the canal, you can’t miss the white, futuristic Puente de la Mujer, an elegant bridge that attracts the best and brightest of the amateur photographers. And then, as if Laynni wasn’t already enamoured enough with the area (she’s already “browsed” some apartment rentals), we stopped for smokies and pork sandwiches at a food truck right on the water. Love at first “chori”.
5. Classic Buildings
No visit to Buenos Aires would be complete without seeing the famous Obelisk, or “Obelisco” in Spanish, if you’re trying to sound more local. So our final San Telmo walking tour retraces our steps back through Plaza de Mayo but continues further “up” to the busy and popular Plaza de la Republica, a fascinating mix of unmissable tourist photo spot and crowded intersection. You can stand in line for your turn for a photo in front of the giant “BA” hedges and the obelisk. Or you can cross over to the west side and get a photo from the top of the bleachers that seem to be set up for just that purpose. Purple flowers and all.
From there, we meander past a bewildering combination of beautiful historic buildings, lovely plazas and generally polite homeless encampments. I’m sure there’s a profound metaphor in there somewhere but all I know for sure is that, ultimately, I always prefer the carne empanadas to the chicken. Mix in a little queso, even better.
Meanwhile, do not miss the Teatro Colon, one of the cities preeminent cultural destinations, or Plaza Lavalle, just a pretty space with some trees and interesting architecture. And a public water fountain, believe it or not.
Then, Plaza del Congreso is another huge, mainly concrete plaza with some (presumably) symbolic statues and plenty of atmosphere. Coincidentally, right next to the square you will find the National Congress, another huge, striking building with way more pillars than your average building. And on the far side of the Plaza del Congreso is the Plaza Mariano Moreno, an entirely green plaza which feels designed specifically to offset the excessive concrete of it’s neighbour. The grass is always greener and all that.
Finally, watch for Palacio Barolo on your way back to San Telmo, one of the most picturesque of BA’s many, many classic mansions. Most settle for a slightly awkward photo from the busy street out front, but if you’re one those who get a unique thrill out of seeing 18th century bedding and finding out how they used to make bread, well, there are guided tours on offer.
San Telmo Walking Tours Map
Click the star to save this map to your Google Maps – then find it under Saved/Maps (mobile) or Your Places/Maps (desktop)
Summary
So, there you have it, 5 very manageable San Telmo walking tours you can do on your own. Each one involves around 2-3 hours of actual walking, plus rest stops, food stops and the usual quota of a gawking, framing and photographing. Only you can decide how much to allow for that.
When choosing where to stay in Buenos Aires, there are numerous good neighbourhoods, each with their own pros and cons and empanada shops. If it’s your first time in the city, though, we highly recommend spending at least part of your time in wonderful San Telmo, where you can find some surprisingly good deals on hotels and wake up right in the mix, whatever your main focus might be.
If you like this post, you might also be interested in:
Our Northern Argentina Road Trip
Salta: 33 Things to Know Before Visiting
17 Outstanding San Martin de los Andes Photo Spots
Lest the Streets be Paved with Dulce de Leche
Our Favourite Cities in the World
It Takes Two to Tango in Patagonia
San Pedro de Atacama: Three Tours and a Slippery Bike Ride