Entering Argentina was very easy and fast. We had cleared immigration less than 20 minutes after our flight landed (being able to get off first was a plus). Our bags were already waiting for us at the baggage claim, and customs was a breeze. 

We had booked a private city tour with Sailing BA Tours which included pickup at the airport and drop off at our hotel. Our guide, Niko, was waiting in the main terminal and our driver, Johnny, had the van outside. We set off to see many areas of Buenos Aires, from the July 9 Avenue to Plaza de Mayo (with the Casa Rosada and Catedral Metropolitana) to La Boca to the gardens in Palermo.

We stopped for lunch in La Boca; the choripan + chimichuri changed my life. 😊

We arrived at our hotel just after 4pm. Niko was incredibly kind; he came inside and made sure we could check in without a language barrier before leaving us. Throughout the day, he’d given multiple recommendations for places to eat, places to visit the next day, wines to try… This was one of the best tours we’d ever been on.

One of the ways Argentina was described during our tour was ‘a bunch of Italians living like the French but speaking Spanish’. That, of course, is an overgeneralization, but I could see parts of it were true. Dinner on the hotel’s terrace took an hour and a half for just one course of food; it was very slow and casual, not designed for rushing in and rushing out. The food wasn’t the best, unfortunately, but the atmosphere was lovely.