Buenos Aires itineraries

A Buenos Aires itinerary is best built around how many days are available and how far outside the city those days allow for. A single day realistically covers only the historic centre: Plaza de Mayo, the Casa Rosada, and a walk through San Telmo or a look at Caminito in La Boca, with an evening tango show if energy allows. Two to three days let a trip settle into the city properly, adding Recoleta and its cemetery, a stretch of Palermo's parks and restaurants, and a stadium visit to La Bombonera or El Monumental, while still leaving room for a half-day excursion to Tigre.

Four to five days is where a first day trip beyond Tigre becomes realistic, whether that's San Antonio de Areco and an estancia for a taste of gaucho culture, or a crossing to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay for a change of country and pace; both need close to a full day given travel time. A full week opens up combining several of these: city days interspersed with one pampas excursion and one Uruguay crossing, or, for travellers willing to add a flight, a two-day extension to Iguazu Falls tacked onto either end of the trip rather than squeezed into the middle.

Longer stays of ten days or more can reasonably include Montevideo as an overnight rather than a rushed day trip, given its two-hour-plus ferry crossing each way. Whatever the length, the sensible approach is to lock in the day trips and any flights first, since they have fixed transport times, and build the flexible city days around them rather than the other way round.