As slow travelers, we have a bit of a routine that we follow to prep for our arrival in any new place. This routine reduces my anxiety and helps me feel ready for our next adventure. Buenos Aires has over 15 million people and there are so many things to do here. Some of the culture reminds me of other South American countries, but other things are quite different, like managing our money with the high inflation rate here. So here are 5 things we do to prepare for our arrival into a new city.

My list assumes I've already looked into things like visa and entry requirements, safety, health insurance, climate etc. In this video I want to focus on what I do to get comfortable in a new place more quickly and reduce my anxiety about unknowns.

The first thing I do before I arrive in a new city is to figure out our accommodations. Sometimes I plan out some options on where we can stay, but don't actually book ahead of time so we can have more flexibility. But for our arrival into Buenos Aires, I definitely wanted to know we had something reserved. Our plan is to be here at least a month, so I wanted to make sure I could take the time before we arrived to find a place I liked. And we also needed to provide an address when we went through immigration at the airport.

Since Buenos Aires is such a big city, I started by figuring out the neighbourhoods that have the kind of lifestyle we want. When we were a bit younger, we liked to stay in places with lots of bars and restaurants that stay open until sunrise. But now I prefer quieter neighbourhoods with tree lined streets and cute cafes that are a bit less touristy.

To figure out where to stay I use blogs and Facebook groups. Once I know what I want, I use all kinds of sites from AirBnB and Booking.com to local rental sites to find us a short term, furnished apartment. After all that, I settled on a one-bedroom apartment in a quieter area of the Palermo neighbourhood.

Next I figure out my transportation to my accommodation. For Buenos Aires, I needed to decide how we're going to get from the airport to our apartment. We usually use Uber if we can, but because Uber only picks you up in the parking lot of the Buenos Aires airport, where we would be out of range of the airport wifi, and wouldn't yet have a local SIM card, we decided to take a taxi. I had already looked up what the official airport taxi was and how much it should cost. So we went to that taxi booth when we landed to get our ride. We used Taxi Ezeiza Oficial and paid $26 USD for our ride from the EZE airport to our apartment. We paid with our credit card at the airport so I didn't need to have the local currency on me.

This brings me to the next thing I do to prepare, which is figure out how the money works. Normally I pay by credit card when I can, and I also make sure I have some local currency on me before we arrive. But Argentina is a bit different from any other country we've been to for that. The inflation rate here is very high, and local currency values change quickly. If you take out too much too soon, it might not be worth nearly what you paid for it. So we landed in Buenos Aires with no local currency on us.

I won't go into details on how to deal with the currency here as there are many videos and blogs that explain it all very well. But a quick summary is that the Argentinian peso is quite volatile and it's value against the US dollar changes often. To add to the drama, there are also several exchange rates. There is the official exchange rate, which you want to avoid, the blue rate, which is the ideal exchange rate, and the MEP rate, which is close to the blue rate, and likely what you'll pay if you use your Visa or Mastercard. Typically we use credit cards and ATMs when we travel. But in Argentina, the ATM exchange rate can get you paying a significantly higher rate. So if you want pesos, you either need to go to a currency exchange or send yourself money via Western Union. We decided to go the Western Union route. I'd never used Western Union before, but it was actually pretty easy to do. I tested it out by sending myself $100 Canadian Dollars. After waiting over an hour in line at the Western Union, I ended up with this stack of 85, 1000 peso bills.

There are lots of videos going into detail on how to do all this. I was a bit intimidated by it at first, but after spending about 20 or 30 minutes looking into it, it became pretty clear. So I was less anxious about that!

Another thing that I'm glad I knew about before heading to the shops in Buenos Aires, that we've seen in other countries too, is that if you want to pay with your credit card, you may need to show your passport. I don't love carrying around my passport, so I do this only when absolutely necessary. We did try using just a photocopy of our passport at the grocery store yesterday. They let us use the copy but asked us to bring our actual passport next time.

The second to last thing I look into is how I will have cell coverage in our new location. E-SIMs are getting popular, but they don't work everywhere yet. For Buenos Aires, we decided to get a physical SIM, or CHIP as they are called here. I looked up the major providers before coming and knew where I could get the chip, along with the data plan I wanted and its cost. I find this is usually a pretty easy process. For Buenos Aires, Chris and I are also using our older phones, so we're not carrying around expensive electronics in case they get swiped.

And the last thing I do to make myself more comfortable in a new city more quickly is looking up public holidays and closures. I want to make sure I'm not landing on a major holiday when transportation or finding food can be difficult. And some countries also have regular closures. Like here in Buenos Aires, many places are closed on Sundays. This means we want to plan our grocery outings around that. When we were in Greece a few years ago, we didn't take the shops closure on Sunday that seriously. Then on our first Sunday there, we found out they were serious about Sunday closures. We ended up finding one tiny corner store that was open and ended up buying over-priced crackers and dip for food that day. So now I always check operating hours and plan accordingly.

And that's how I prep for a new city. We've been in Buenos Aires for a few days now and I'm already feeling more comfortable here and figuring out the streets and different systems. I've even found a gym around the corner and picked out my gym membership. This city seems so beautiful and I can't wait to see more of it.

This month, we've rented an apartment in the beautiful Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. This area has tree-lined streets, botanical gardens, and lots of restaurants. But how much does it all cost? Let's look at the prices of products and services across 6 different categories.

But first, a quick note about the prices in Buenos Aires. Argentina is experiencing huge amounts of inflation, and the prices are constantly changing. As the cost of living goes up, this city is becoming unaffordable for many people. It's a very sad situation as it's such a beautiful city but the salaries earned here aren't keeping up with the skyrocketing prices.

So here are the prices we've been seeing in January 2024. And we'll give all our prices in us dollars, though in Buenos Aires everything is paid for in Argentinian pesos. At the time we're making this video, 1 us dollar is about 1000 pesos. So if a pizza costs $4300 pesos, you divide by 1000 and the pizza is about $4.30. And yes, you can get a medium-sized pizza for about that price here.

Let's start with groceries. There are lots of places to buy food here, from supermarkets like Coto and Carrefour to the smaller specialized shops with pastries and fruits and vegetables. At the grocery store, we bought 6 eggs for $1.15, a loaf of bread for $2.77, a jar of peanut butter for $2.66, a red pepper for $0.85, and 4 rolls of toilet paper for $2.55. Our entire grocery bill for the week cost us $50 and then we also went out to eat about 3 times.

And that brings us to our next category Restaurants: There is so much good food here. And so many different options too from famous Argentinian parillas or grilled meat restaurants to cuisine from other parts of South America and the world. And prices vary a lot too. This is the home of the famous Michelin starred Don Julio restaurant, which can cost more than $100 per person. But you can also buy delicious empanadas from little stand for less than $0.50 each. And there is everything in between. Em and I splurged at this little-known, but highly rated sandwich shop, where we spent $12 on a sandwich with a side of nachos. But we'll do more on the food in Buenos Aires a bit later.

Onto our third category: Rent. There are lots of apartment-style rental options here. If you're only staying here a short amount of time, like we are, you may need to pay a bit more. But if you're a slow traveler or expat able to sign a longer 6-month or year-long lease, then you might be able to find a small apartment for about $400 a month. Even if you're only staying for a month or two, there can be a lot of variance in price depending on if you're using one of the bigger booking platforms or dealing directly with an individual. You might pay 2 to 4 times as much on the larger booking platforms, but then those platforms may also offer you additional convenience and security. So you need to weigh the pros and cons of each.

Now let's talk about transportation. This city is very walkable, so depending on where you're going, this might be the best way to get there. I love all the tree lined streets and well-controlled intersections that make it easier to cross as a pedestrian. And I really loved any walk that took me over this fun, painted bridge.

If you get tired of walking, public transportation, along with taxis and ride sharing apps are the other ways to get around the city. Public transportation requires a SUBE card, which costs about a dollar. Once you have that, you can take the bus or metro for about $0.50. The other option is a taxi or ride share. We used Uber a lot. For example, we paid $4 for the 20 minute ride from Palermo to San Telmo.

Let's move on to personal care. I just got my nails done for $15. I also got a hair cut and colour done here for $25. And I also joined a gym. It's 3 floors, has 2 fitness studios and a cycling studio, and my monthly membership was $20.

And our last category is entertainment. There is so much to do in this city. We're in a few expat groups and there is stuff going on every single day. Some things cost a bit of money, especially if you're going out to a bar or to a show, but there is also lots to do for free. We spent last Sunday walking around the botanical gardens and ecoparque. We also visited this theatre-turned-bookstore that National Geographic named the World's most beautiful bookstore. And inside we found the Spanish version of this Canadian treasure: Anne of Green Gables

Buenos Aires offers a lower cost of living than many other world cities. And it has beautiful architecture and green parks, with a lower crime rate than many other cities in latin America. But if you're thinking about coming here for longer than a few months, you'll likely face some challenges that slow travellers who move around more frequently won't have to deal with as much. The inflation rate makes the basic task of taking out money more challenging, the country is under new leadership of which the impact has not yet been seen, and buying certain goods like electronics can be challenging.

For example, if you're a gamer like Chris, and you want to buy a Sony PS5, the Sony store in Argentina has a list price of $1200 us dollars. But that same PS5 from the Sony store in the US is less than half the price at $500. If you're doing slow travel, then you'll likely be able to avoid having to buy these high priced items, but if you're living here longer term, then this can be an issue.

We're loving it here and we've met lots of great people like our Spanish teacher, who is teaching us about Argentinian culture. But we also know that we're able to see the best of the city, without experiencing many of the challenges. We can definitely see why it's such a popular destination for expats and long-term travellers.

We're currently spending time in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As slow travelers, we get to spend more time in each city we visit and really get to know it. We're able to find places that aren't on the usual tourist routes and have time to revisit our favourite spots. But we also have more daily living needs, like fast internet, to support our regular life. So here are our favourite things about Buenos Aires for slow travelers and digital nomads.

Our first favourite thing about Argentina in general is the no-cost, 90 day tourist visa. As Canadian passport holders, at the time we entered, we were able to visit the country for 3 months without having to pay for any visas or e-visas.

Finding a place to stay in Buenos Aires was pretty easy too. When we were looking for an apartment in the Palermo neighbourhood, there were TONS of options. We saw lots of posts about people renting out their apartments and there were dozens, maybe even hundreds of options, on some of the larger websites. And we only booked our place less than a week before we landed. It was easy for us to find an apartment with most of the things we were looking for. Except for a dishwasher. We rarely seem to find one of those.

Our apartment comes with a reasonably comfortable desk to work at. Though for anyone reading this post looking to furnish an apartment rental, I'd really like to put in a plug for office chairs that are comfortable to work out of all day long. These little chairs are ok for a couple of hours, but they start to hurt my back if I'm sitting in them all day.

Our internet speed here is quite good. I did confirm the speed before we booked the apartment as it can vary in each place. But here, I had no trouble conducting longer video conferences over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Facetime. And our YouTube videos upload in less than a couple of minutes.

Buying a SIM card with good coverage is also easy. We bought a SIM card and 25GB of internet from Claro, which is a major provider here, for less than $10 for a month. I believe e-sims might also be available here, but Chris and I still only buy phones with physical SIM slots as not every country is using e-sims yet.

Once you're ready for a break from being on the internet and working inside your apartment, Buenos Aires is very walkable. It's full of parks and tree-line streets. I really loved the Japanese Gardens, though unlike most other parks in the city which are free, you have to pay about $1.50 to get in to this one. But it's so well maintained and perfectly manicured that it was worth the cost of entry for us to see it once.

The drivers here are reasonably pedestrian friendly. Obviously you have to be careful anywhere you go, but I find the drivers tend to slow down for pedestrians and intersections are well-controlled. I also like that there is no right hand turns on red lights allowed here, so it feels easier to cross the street. The city is also really well connected with public transit and taxis and ubers are readily available too. The only issue with the pubic transit is that you can't take it without a SUBE card. You must have one of these to get onto any city train, subway or bus. There is no option to pay cash. And these SUBE cards are in short supply, so it can take a bit of effort to find one.

If you're directionally challenged like me, Buenos Aires is easier to navigate than some other places we've been. The streets are in a somewhat grid-like pattern, so I can follow a route and figure out where I am without having to constantly look at Google Maps.

As a side note, like in many big cities there are pickpockets and people on motorbikes that might try to grab your phone here, so we try to be aware of our surroundings and use an older phone when we go out.

Everywhere you walk, there are beautiful buildings to look at and and places to eat. If you just want to pop down for a quick lunch while you're working, there are lots of options like empanadas, sandwiches, and casual restaurants. And if you want a more upscale dining experience, there are plenty of those types of restaurants too! We've seen restaurants specializing in food from all over south america, asia, and europe. We find the food here can be a little more hit or miss than other places we've traveled. Like when we were in Peru, we felt like we couldn't get a bad meal there. Here there are some great restaurants, but we've also been to a few places that aren't quite as good as we'd hoped.

By western world standards, Buenos Aires is also very affordable for day to day living. We bought our weekly groceries for $50 Canadian, and can go out to nicer dinners and shows for a fraction of the price we might pay in Canada. We did an entire other post on the prices here, so be sure to check that out. In this blog entry, we'll just say that this city can be quite affordable for slow travelers and digital nomads with "western" incomes.

Another thing I love about Buenos Aires, and if you've ever brushed your teeth using bottled water you'll appreciate this, is that the water here is potable. You can wash your veggies with the tap water, put ice in your drinks, and yes, brush your teeth with water straight from the tap! We're still using bottled water for straight drinking as the tap water here has a lot of minerals in it, but having potable water straight from the tap feels like such a luxury.

As I mentioned, we're staying in the Palermo neighbourhood, and the expat community here is quite active with people from many different countries. Slow travel can get pretty lonely. Here, there are meetups and activities happening seemingly every single day. You can even see posts like, "I'm bored, anyone want to go out for lunch today?", with plenty of responses. We headed to our favourite kind of expat event, Trivia Night. When we arrived we found about 100 English-speaking expats all there on a Tuesday night ready to answer trivia questions from 5 different categories. We ended up meeting lots of friendly people and our team even won 3rd place!

People in Buenos Aires are so friendly. Though outside the Expat groups, there isn't a lot of English here, so knowing some Spanish is useful if you're planning on staying a bit longer. If you're looking to learn Spanish while you're here, there are lots of teachers available to teach you in either private or group settings. Our teacher meets with us twice a week in a coffee shop and our Spanish has definitely improved since we started classes with her. And she's also been a great resource about life in Buenos Aires in general.

When we were looking for a tango show, she recommended this one at Palacio Paz.

Buenos Aires is a great spot for slow travelers and digital nomads. Lots of apartment options, fast internet, large walkable areas, plenty to do, friendly people, and an active expat community have made it a great choice for us to spend some time.

If you're only in Buenos Aires for a few days, you're likely going to focus your time on the most famous and well-known landmarks and restaurants in the city. But if you're a slow traveler or digital nomad like us, and you're here for a little longer, you'll have time to visit some of the other great spots. Today we're sharing some fantastic places to see and eat, that we found just by wandering around, getting to know the neighbourhoods, and talking to locals. These places might not be on a "Top 10" list but they are definitely worth your time if you're here for a bit longer!

And what I love about having these experiences is that we find out more about Argentinian culture and daily living in the process. Like this mysterious drink we kept seeing everyone having. We saw groups of teens sitting on train station benches pulling out thermoses of hot water, families sitting around parks pouring tea-like leaves into these funny looking cups, and couples finding a spot on these really cool benches to share a beverage. And these aren't beverages purchased from a coffee shop. They all planned ahead and had packed a thermos of hot water and a cup with a metal straw to enjoy in any public space they wanted. So we asked around to find out what it was. Turns out they were drinking Yerba Mate. A tea-like beverage we'd never had. So we went out to try it. And you know it's popular because even Stanley has it's own Yerba Mate cups.

Yerba Mate is made from a plant species native to Argentina. The leaves are first poured into a cup, then shaken to make it a bit more powdery. The cup is pretty much filled with Yerba Mate - it surprised me how much of it was used. Then a bit of cold water is poured into the cup. Just enough to get the straw in. The straw has a filter at the end to keep the leaves from going into your mouth. Then hot, but not boiling water, is poured to fill the cup. The result is a bitter tasting, tea-like beverage.

Now let's talk about Mafalda. She is everywhere in the city. You can find her on t-shirts and grocery bags and sitting on benches. There is even a park named after her in Palermo Hollywood. I was seeing her in so many places that I had to learn what it was all about. Mafalda was an argentinian comic strip back in the 1960s. The underlying messages from her were around humanity and making the world a better place. Even 50 years after the comic ended she's still a popular figure here in Buenos Aires. And I've definitely developed a liking for her since I've been here.

Being slow travelers, we also have time to take day trips outside the city, so we headed out to Tigre about 30km north of the city. The cheapest way to get there is by public transit. And for that you must first get a SUBE card. Once you have your card loaded up with money, you can get on the buses and trains. Taking public transit in a new city can be a bit intimidating. But we just followed the public transit instructions provided by Google Maps and it all worked pretty smoothly. First we boarded bus number 15. Then, when we arrived at Belgrano Station C we got off the bus and boarded the Mitre line train to Tigre. After about 30 minutes on the train we arrived at our destination.

After grabbing a quick sandwich, we headed out for a 1-hour boat ride along the river. It was pretty cool to see all the different properties along the water. I wonder what it's like to live along here. There are some fun looking spots where you can rent a chair and hang out on the beach, and restaurants setup too.

And on the way back, we saw something I can't resist: An amusement park! So of course we had to go!

Next, let's talk about empanadas. There are so many places to buy them. And it's kinda hard to go wrong. Empanadas are almost always good. But if you find the right place, they can be excellent. We've sampled A LOT of empanadas since we've been here, and Pret A Porter is our absolute favourite. It has so many delicious kinds of empanadas and they are more flavourful than most places. Plus, the people that run the place are super nice and friendly.

Another spot to checkout is the neighbourhood of Belgrano. This neighbourhood filled with beautiful homes and tree-lined streets is about 10 km north of the city center. It also has a few smaller and free museums to check out. We really liked Casa Yrurtia. This was the home of the famous artist Rogelio Yrurtia who helped shape art in Buenos Aires in the first half of the 20th century and his wife Lia Correa Morales, the first female National Art Director in Argentina.

While we were in Belgrano, we also checked out Barrio Chino, or Chinatown, which is right next to the train station. Even though it was over 30 degrees C or 90 degrees F, there were still tons of people here on a Saturday afternoon, checking out all the shops and places to eat.

Let's talk desserts. For something sweet, we couldn't get enough of all the bakeries with alfajores and anything made with dulce de leche. One thing I love about finding a local bakery, is that you can become a favourite customer pretty quickly. In Buenos Aires, we found an amazing bakery just 2 blocks from our apartment. We've been going in there once every few days, and now the people working there recognize us and chat with us. Slow traveling can be lonely. It's really nice to be able to go somewhere and be recognized and said hi to when you walk in the door.

The last place in today's list is the San Telmo market. I know, I know, the San Telmo Market is very much on the Buenos Aires "Top 10" lists. But if you're only here for a short while, you may not get to choose the day of the week you go. If you're a slow travelers, you can visit it on a quiet day like a Monday when you can explore the area when it's calm though some of the shops will be closed then too, or you can go on a Sunday for a completely different experience. Sunday is the day that the market is in full swing. In addition to the indoor market there are kilometers of outdoor markets around the area. There is a huge market that starts at Casa Rosada and runs down Defensa avenue all the way to Independencia. There are so many vendors that they even spill onto the side streets. It is a lot to take in. The first time I was there on a Sunday, I'd been walking through the market for quite a while and just when I thought I'd walked to the end of the market, I saw more stalls even farther ahead. So I kept walking and found myself in the San Telmo antiques market. This market has a bunch of stalls in Plaza Dorrego too where I was able to see some performers. At this point I thought I was done and ready to catch the bus back home, but then I saw another market! This one was the First Nations market with even more variations on products. I was definitely glad I wore comfortable shoes to check out all these markets, as the streets are cobblestone. I didn't buy too much as we travel with carry-on bags only, but I did pick up two hand-made bracelets.

But don't worry, no matter where you go, Mafalda will be there to say hi!

We've been in Buenos Aires for a full month and the time is coming for us to move to our next location. This city is beautiful and though I'm excited to visit other places, I'm sad to leave. There is just so much to see and do in this city of 15 million people and I feel like I barely scratched the surface. Just the other day I was on the bus going through new neighborhoods filled with beautifully architected buildings built over 100 years ago. The bus continued past street vendors selling interesting merchandise and I just wanted to get off the bus and explore the area. I'm so happy with all that I was able to see and the experiences I had here. The never ending markets, amazing tango shows, beautiful parks, and public art on seemingly every corner all made me love this city! Until next time Buenos Aires!