Thursday, May 21, 2009

I need your travel advice!

Jack and I recently bought our (one way!) tickets to Buenos Aires for November 9th. So far, the itinerary is completely open: I just have to be back by August 2010 to start grad school.

I want tips! Tell me your favorite town, hiking trail, WWOOF farm, hostel, cafe, etc. Tell me which hostels or parts of town to avoid. Tell me about language/ etiquette idiosyncrasies. Tell me your favorite local dish or drink. Tell me about the best ways to get from place to place. I'll appreciate any helpful tidbits or random anecdotes you're willing to share!

-Kaitlin

3 comments:

  1. You're going to have alot of fun. The best hostel I ever stayed at is Hostel Estoril. It's located in center city several blocks from the Obelisco. The rooms are air conditioned and clean, the building has several terraces, including a rooftop terrace, and most importantly the people are not obnoxious...at least now that I'm gone!

    I would also recommend checking out all of the safe districts in the city. This includes San Telmo, Palermo, Punta Madero, Calle florida, Boca (don't go at night), among many others. Obviously you should try and see a soccer game as well. make sure you do that in November b/c the season ends in December. Also, you need to eat at Sigue La Vaca (Follow the Cow). It is an all you can eat traditional Argentina steakhouse (I have never seen more dead delicious cow in my life).

    If you want to go to the beach take a bus ride to Mar Del Plata. It's Argentina's best beach city and a nice change of pace from BA. They have decent surfing and good nightlife district...something ridiculous like 40 bars in 8 blocks. We stayed at Hostel Playa Grande and had a good time. It is several blocks from the beach, clean, good staff, and directly behind the nightlife district. It is small though.

    As far as other places in Argentina you must go to Bariloche, Mendoza is supposed to be nice, if you want to hike go to Califate (that is mispelled), and Ushia is supposed to be incredible (and they have penguins!).

    Let me know if you have any questions. You're going to have fun!

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  2. From Christine:

    I don't know if you're base is in BA, but I really liked getting out of the city. You have to see Iguazu - it's by far the most amazing thing I saw in Argentina, and probably the most amazing thing I've seen ever. I really liked the Northwest too - Salta is so different than BA (much less European!) and the salt flats there are really beautiful. The marshlands in Ibera aren't wellknown outside of Argentina, but I spent the best part of my trip there, and my least favorite trip was probably Mendoza. Uruguay is so easy to get to - just take the buquebus, which is a great word and has quick boat trips to Colonia and Montevideo. um, also, people, especially in Argentina, are always talking smack about Chile, but I loved it. I took a 26 hour busride to get to Santiago from BA - we drove through the Andes in a double decker micro, and had a finderbinder on the way, but of course it was great. And my biggest regret is not making it to Bolivia!

    Since you're starting out in BA, just know that the language there is very different - it took me a while to adjust to the accent and slang. (Boludo, a very common word, means asshole; a colectivo is a city bus; a micro is a traveling bus...) Also, keep your monedas!! Keep all your coins because (at least when I was there) there was a monedas shortage and no one will give you freaking coins, which you have to have to ride buses, which you'll ride all day. San Telmo and Palermo were my favorite neighborhoods to explore, but try to get a trip in to the big market in Mataderos, which is a barrio way far out and gives you a truer feel of the city. While I was in BA, I interned for this website, Whats Up Buenos Aires, and their agenda page is really helpful for local events. Vuenos Airez is a similar site...

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