Buenos Aires
We arrived from Buquebus and took a taxi from there to our hostel in Recoleta. It cost U$S8. I have a sneaky suspicion the meter was going up faster than it should have been, but I can’t be sure. It seemed like it was flying, but it was our first taxi in BA, so I didn’t have a good comparison level. But, I never saw a meter go that fast before or since in BA or elsewhere.
Who knows…?
Hotels: It wasn’t hard to find a place to stay for 1 or sometimes 2 nights, but it was challenging to find a place to stay for more than 2 nights in a row. If you have your heart set on somewhere specific, then I might suggest making a reservation before you come.
Southern House BA Hostel (Recoleta)
http://www.southernhouseba.com/index2eng.php
Price - $35 for a double with a private bath and descent breakfast ($9 for a dorm room)
Cleanliness – clean
Comfort – Nice firm bed, good small shower, There were no curtains in the room and the shade thing was broken, so we had to hang a blanket over the window. A little traffic noise, but no hostel noise.
Character – It had a modernish feel to it. Especially in the lobby area.
Amenities – breakfast, wireless internet, but no computers for those without, travel agent (we found a better deal online than they quoted for a flight), discounts and passes to clubs, restaurants etc. a board with announcements about the going ons around the city. Large screen TV and DVD in the dining room.
Recommended? Yes, I liked the place, but we decided to leave because we thought $35 was too much money and they don’t have any shared baths outside of the dorms. The employees were nice. It had a lot of amenities and things going on for visitors to participate in. Good location (4 blocks from a subway).
We didn’t want to waste money on a taxi, so we took our luggage on the subway. It was a little bit of a pain getting up and down the stairs, but doable. The subway costs 70 centavos (22 cents American) much cheaper than taking a taxi all the way from Recoleta to San Telmo. I would just caution not to try this at rush hour.
Our next step was not totally logical, but there is a hotel recommended in LP for a splurge. We looked at their website and it sounded amazing and barely any more expensive than what we had just paid the night before. So, we thought, what the heck…unfortunately, it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.
Boquitas Pintadas (In LP) now Youkali Hotel (The vicinity of San Telmo)
http://www.youkali.com.ar/
Price - $40-80 for a double with a private bath (1 room has its bath outside the room) and delicious breakfast
Cleanliness – clean, but it was in an old building and so there was some wear with age that was obvious.
Comfort – The bed was okay, but I had a neck ache when I woke up. The water went off around 9pm and didn’t come back on until around noon the next day, so I didn’t get a shower. I asked for a discount to compensate for the fact and they gave us 10% off.
Character – It reminded me of San Francisco/Berkeley area. Lots of old Victorian stuff mixed with more modern styles. Each room is decorated differently according to the description (part of what we thought was cool), but it turns out that really means everything is pretty much the same except for 1 item hanging on the wall and ours happened to be a giant blue bow. I wasn’t really impressed with that. I did kind of like the disco ball in the stair well though.
Amenities – breakfast, wireless internet, TV with cable in the room.
Recommended? - It was a funky place, but not nearly as cool as it was made out to be in both LP and the website. So, we looked for somewhere a little more affordable to stay.
Our next hostel wasn’t our first choice, but it was the 1st place that had room for more than 1 night at a time.
El Firulete Downtown (We stayed in the Center, but there is a Palermo location too)
www.el-firulete.com.ar
Price - $28 for a double room and shared bath
Cleanliness – clean
Comfort – Nice firm bed. The baths were shared, but there were plenty of them, so I never had to wait in line. The showers were in private cubicles, so you could have some privacy. There were soap dispensers in the showers and soap and paper towels by the sinks.
We stayed in 2 different rooms. The wireless connection didn’t reach to the 3rd floor, so we switched to the second. The 3rd floor was really quiet from all hostel noise, but there is pretty heavy traffic there and the noise carries. The room in the second floor was windowless, so no traffic noise, but all the music, people, activity from the common room could be heard easily and I felt very claustrophobic being in a room without windows.
Also, the list of amenities includes air conditioning. The common room has air, but none of the other rooms do. I would hate to be there in January.
Character – It was pleasantly decorated.
Amenities – breakfast until noon was great after the late BA nights, wireless and 2 other computers, TV in lounge, laundry, if you get the right person, they can help you to make travel arrangements, but it took them a day to get back to us with the answer.
Recommended?-Yes, it was reasonably priced compared to some of the other places. It seemed like they had thought about some things like the soap and breakfast that other places don’t. It was also in a perfect location to catch almost any of the subway lines.
I wouldn’t stay here in the summer though. The traffic makes it too loud to open a window and without air or even a fan, it would be miserable.
We left to go to Iguazu Falls and we returned to a different hostel.
Posta del Barto Hostel (Downtown near the congress building)
http://www.postadelbarto.com/indexpopbarto_ing.html
Price - $15 for … well we reserved a double room, but they double booked so we ended up in a dorm room that had 6 beds, but only us in it. Shared bath
Cleanliness – ok, but not super clean. For example, there was a table in the room that still had something sticky like dried orange juice left on it. The drainage in the showers isn’t good, so the whole shower area is covered in water.
Comfort – Not much comfort here. The dorms had bunk beds with really thin mattresses on them. I took the mattress off the other bed and put it on mine to have 2 and I could still feel the wooden slats digging into my back. There weren’t any comfy couches or chairs in the common areas. The bathroom was down a narrow winding staircase. Not the most convenient for a midnight bathroom run. Especially, if you are still a bit tipsy from a night out.
Character – Just eclectic furniture. It looked like they just assembled what they could find at a garage sale.
Amenities – small breakfast, 2 computers and a cord for lap tops to plug into. They provided sheets, but you had to pay extra for towels $1 and pay a key deposit. TV and broken CD player. There are no lockers in the dorms. I’m not sure what they expect their guests to do with their belongings when they go out, but that seemed ridiculous to me to expect people to share a room without a way to keep their things safe.
Recommended?Not unless you are on a really tight budget. It did cost a lot less than everywhere else, but we left the next day because it was not my idea of a place I wanted to be.
Thanks for Jorge from the TT for providing a list of hotels. That is where I found this place.
Hotel Marbella (Downtown)
Price - $33 for a double with a private bath and breakfast
Cleanliness – very clean
Comfort – Nice beds, good, but slightly strange shower with a spout that shot water up too. The window opened to a courtyard, so there was no hotel or street noise! Even though it was on a very busy street.
Character – The room and hotel was simple, but pleasant.
Amenities – breakfast, air conditioning/heater, 1 slow computer in the lobby, TV with cable in the room, helpful front desk, wake up call. Airport transfers
Recommended? Yes, I wish we had stayed here the whole time. It was the best nights sleep I had the whole time we were in BA. The only disadvantage is that it is not set up to meet up with other travelers really. I felt like we got the most for our money here.
I wanted to buy some clothes while I was there. We went to Palermo on Saturday and found an amazing market there full of fun, funky, cheap clothes. The only problem is that they are all made for really tiny body sizes. I had to forgo a lot of things because they didn’t fit.
Other than that, I think we were pretty typical in where we went and what we visited. So, I’ll leave you to form your own opinions. I will say though, that I loved BA. We spent 8 days there and could have spent another week at least. There is so much to see, do, eat, everywhere. It is all still fairly affordable. I went to Paris for one day when I was in college, and had to leave because I couldn’t even afford to eat lunch there or ride the subway. This was like getting to luxuriate in the lifestyle of Paris, but I could actually afford to stay and enjoy myself.