A city of façades, migrants, and jacarandás

Buenos Aires rewards those who look up. This guide maps the city through five curated walks and one elegant bike ride, each revealing different layers of a metropolis built on ambitious dreams and beautiful contradictions.

Across 95+ pages: decode Beaux-Arts marble funded by agricultural fortunes, slip into 1920s passages, and read how immigration shaped taste.

Routes include Plaza de Mayo’s political archaeology; a San Telmo that tried to erase its colonial past; Retiro’s Belle Époque stations and hidden Art Deco; Recoleta’s facades and aristocratic ghosts; a waterfront chapter on how wetlands became prime real estate; and a Libertador bike path that ties vanished villages to modernist monuments.

Every route includes maps, explanations on every stop, different timing strategies to adapt to your agenda, and food stops where porteños actually go, not just touristy parrillas. Save hours, avoid clichés, and see the city the way locals do.

Last updated: August 2025