Buenos Aires: 5 Alternative City Walks

Boedo & Almagro

With today's itinerary you'll discover two local residential urban neighborhoods - Boedo and Almagro. These are not neighborhoods dominated by tourism. Locals live and work here, it's mostly middle class with apartment blocks and commercial centers.

As always, I include a number of my favorite restaurants and cafes throughout the day. All are historic, dive bar sorts of places, the kind that hasn't changed in decades. They form a part each neighborhood's identity.

At the end of the day we'll hop into Recoleta, just a few blocks away, to tour a writer's home in a beautiful free museum.

Start the day with a lazy breakfast in bar notable Cafe Margot. Across the street is history museum Monte de Piedad.

Plan your morning with these two things in mind:

• Stop #2 - Museo Monte de Piedad opens at 10 am and is closed on weekends, go to breakfast planning to end around 10.

• Stop #3 - The Basilica typically closes punctually at noon for four hours. On Mondays it does not open until 4 pm. Don't worry, you have time. Monte de Piedad does not require much time. Just don't dilly dally, make sure you get to stop 3 by at least 11:30.

I'm including two rest/food stops coming up because both are iconic and are polar opposites.

☕Stop first at Las Violetas to get a coffee or a tea - whatever it takes to get you in there to see the beautiful interior and people watch all the abuelas gossiping together over tea and cake. But don't fill up.

🍕Continue on to Pin Pun for a lunch of pizza and fried empanadas.

Tonight we start early with a local tango bar. If tired, take some time to go back to your hotel for a shower and rest then retrace your steps back to Almagro.

If you'd rather stay in the area, grab a coffee for merienda like a local and rest your feet. If you want to people watch, Plaza Almagro is a beautiful square next door to your next destination...

Take a taxi back to Almagro to El Boliche de Roberto. Go early (7:30-8) to get a seat. Shows start typically around 8-8:30 pm. This authentic tango bar is the perfect nightcap to this authentic Buenos Aires day.