Travel tips gleaned from an embarrassingly short stay in Buenos Aires, highlighting what to expect when transferring between the EZE and AEP airports, visiting the Japanese Garden, and seeking out the best steak and choripán in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos, Aires, Argentina.
I’m not a big city person. So, you won’t be surprised to learn that my visits to large cities are usually short and sweet. Enough time to experience a few highlights and then I get out of Dodge.
My recent visit to Buenos Aires was no exception. My brother and I were in Buenos Aires for less than 36 hours, but we made the most of it and learned a few things along the way. Here are some helpful tips to consider if you’re passing through Buenos Aires.
Table of Contents
Transferring between Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EZE) and Jorge Newbery Airport (AEP)
I’ll start with the boring stuff, recognizing that the boring stuff is often the most useful information for fellow travelers. Let’s talk airport transfers.
If you’re arriving in Buenos Aires on an international flight and then catching a domestic flight, or arriving in Buenos Aires on a domestic flight and then catching an international flight, you might be wondering about the logistics of traveling between Ministro Pistraini International Airport, also known as the Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), and the regional airport called the Jorge Newbery Airport, also known as Aeroparque (AEP). My brother and I recently encountered both of those scenarios (international to domestic and then domestic to international), and here’s what we learned.
After a 2-hour flight from Albuquerque to Houston, followed by a 10-hour flight from Houston to Buenos Aires, our plane touched down at the Ezeiza International Airport (EZE) at 7:20am on a Thursday morning. But, our travels weren’t over yet. We still had another 3-hour flight ahead of us to get to our final destination of El Calafate, Argentina, one of the gateways to the Patagonia region. Our next flight was departing at 12:15pm. The only catch was that our plane was taking off from the Aeroparque (AEP) regional airport.
In researching travel times between EZE and AEP, we saw estimates ranging from 40 minutes to 1.5 hours to make the 25-mile journey, depending on traffic and the method of transport. A common rule of thumb is to allow 3 – 4 hours between flights from the two airports. Thankfully, the EZE airport wasn’t very busy that morning and we were able to get through customs relatively quickly. By the time we made it through customs, we had about 4 hours remaining before takeoff.
Our three transport options were a taxi / private transfer, an airport shuttle, or public transport (buses and/or trains). Given the 3-4 hour rule of thumb, we decided on the most expensive and quickest option – a pre-paid taxi. Well, I suppose a non pre-paid taxi has the potential to be the most expensive option, depending on the ethics of your driver.
We spotted an information desk inside the EZE airport that had information about pre-paying for a taxi to the AEP domestic airport. We paid a total of ~$40 (US) for a taxi and we were given the option of cash or credit card. A few minutes later, we stepped outside, located the taxi queue, and handed a driver our pre-paid receipt.
Buenos Aires has a population of about 3 million and there are around 10 million people in the metropolitan area. With those kind of numbers, anything can happen when it comes to traffic. We were lucky. Traffic seemed to be moving at a decent clip and we made it from EZE to AEP in just over 30 minutes, which was much faster than we expected given that we were in “rush hour”. Perhaps rush hour in Buenos Aires is a bit later than the many of the large cities in the United States.
During the drive, our driver shared some interesting stories about his life. He’s from Venezuela and has been working in Buenos Aires for a few years, with the goal of eventually moving his family out of Venezuela some day. Our route took us through the city center and we spotted some famous landmarks. We also caught our first of many glimpses of tributes to Leonel Messi and Diego Maradona. As you can see from the photo below, some of the tributes are hard to miss. Granted, this was less than two years since Argentina won the World Cup final against France in Qatar, so that accomplishment is still fresh in the mind of Argentina residents.
After pulling up to the curb at the AEP airport, we thanked our driver and walked in. AEP is a much smaller airport compared to EZE, and the food options were similarly more limited. We ended up getting a not-so-healthy breakfast at Starbucks. For me, that included a chocolate muffin, blueberry muffin, and sparkling water. But it seemed much more appealing than another option that was staring us in the face.
After downing our breakfast, we were eager to stretch our legs before hopping on another plane. We still had some time to kill, so we went back outside to go for walk. We still had our luggage with us but, fortunately, we travel light.
Shortly after stepping into the bright sunlight, my heart sank. I couldn’t find my sunglasses in my backpack. They were a new pair of Oakley sunglasses that I’d purchased a few months before the trip. They must have fallen out of my backpack during the overnight flight from Houston. Sigh. Oh well, time for a walk.
As is typical for me when I first walk outside in a new place, one of the first things I noticed were … the birds. Hey, I can’t help it. It’s a sickness. So, I ended up opening two bird apps on my phone that I’d purchased before departing the US and found myself scrolling through them in an effort to figure out what bird species I was seeing, much to the dismay of my brother. But he’s used to it. He just keeps walking, leaving me in the dust.
In case you care, here’s the list of birds that I saw during that walk: Picui Ground Dove, white-tipped dove, eared dove, crested caracara, monk parakeet, and european starlings.
I eventually caught up with my brother at a large statue near the water. Still focused on birds, it wasn’t until after the trip that I did some research to learn that we were looking at a monument to Christopher Columbus. The statue has an interesting backstory.
The statue was made in Italy and then dismantled and transported to Buenos Aires in 1921. That’s no small task given that the statue is 85 feet tall and weighs 623 tons. The statue was a gift from the Italian community of Argentina to celebrate the Centennial of the May Revolution. The May Revolution began on May 25, 1810, marking the beginning of Argentina’s struggle for independence from Spanish colonial rule. Argentina’s independence from Spain occurred on July 9, 1816. Today, May 25th is celebrated as Argentina’s National Day, known as Día de la Patria or Día de la Revolución de Mayo.
Of course, I didn’t know any of that at that time. I was too busy trying to figure out what birds were hanging out near the statue.
Feeling better after our walk, we re-entered the airport and got in line for security. Once through security, we came across a duty free shop that was selling sunglasses, including Oakley’s that were similar to the pair I left on the plane. Sadly, they didn’t fit very well.
We were planning to do a lot of hiking on this trip, and I wasn’t sure about the options for sunglasses in the smaller towns we’d be visiting. So, I sucked it up and splurged on a pair of sunglasses that did fit well, but were totally out of character for me. A special “Ferrari edition” of Ray Ban sunglasses for $225. Ouch! There goes my souvenir budget and I haven’t even arrived at my first destination. But the sunglasses worked out well for the trip, and they served as fodder for some good laughs during and after the trip.
After my impromptu shopping spree, we ate lunch at the airport’s Hard Rock café. My brother and I found this to be humorous, since we both pride ourselves for not eating at American restaurant chains when traveling. But our first two meals in Argentina were at Starbucks and Hard Rock café. However, we did order an Argentine specialty at the Hard Rock café – meat empanadas. Meat empanadas can have a wide variety of fillings inside a warm, crescent-shaped pastry. The ones we had that day were filled with beef, and I enjoyed it with some lemonade (real lemons and mint leaves). Total cost, $7.50. I could foresee many more empanadas in my future on this trip.
And on the Hard Rock café menu was the smiling face of Leonel Messi. Fortunately, he’s my favorite player, so I’m ok with that.
Fast forward 10 days, and we were landing at the AEP regional airport. This time, we were spending the day and night in Buenos Aires before catching a flight home the following evening. Here’s what we ended up doing during our 24-hour whirlwind tour of Buenos Aires.
Exploring Palermo
After checking into our AirBnb, we were eager to get some food and stretch our legs. We glanced at a map and decided to walk through the Palermo neighborhood, find some choripán (more on that shortly), and cut through the jardín botánico on our way to visit the Japanese Garden.
Walking the streets of Palermo
It’s well worth walking the streets of Palermo and exploring the various cafes, shops, and restaurants. Palermo felt like a very safe place to walk, despite some signs that might indicate otherwise.
As you may know, drinking maté is a big cultural and social tradition in Argentina. Despite our efforts, we were hard pressed to find a place that would serve maté to us in Palermo. When we asked the salesperson in an-all-things-maté store where we could try it, she looked at us like we were idiots, which is usually pretty accurate. Apparently, you can easily purchase the tools of the trade for maté, but the preparation of maté is typically done at home.
The easy search for choripán
After getting shot down on our attempt to try maté, the next thing my brother and I wanted to try was choripán. Choripán is a sandwich made with grilled chorizo sausage and crusty bread. It’s popular in many countries in South America. Fortunately, choripán was easy to find. We went to a highly rated place called La Choripaneria, located in the back of a food court in Palermo. The name certainly sounded promising.
We were greeted at the counter by a photo of the other “God” of Argentina, Diego Maradona. Now I wouldn’t say this out loud in Argentina, for fear of losing my life, but I was never a big fan of Diego Maradona after his “hand of God” move that helped eliminate England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup. The “hand of God” refers to a goal that he scored with his hand, which is clearly not allowed in soccer. Having said that, Maradona’s second goal in that match, where he dribbled past five players over the course of 60 yards before weaving around the goalkeeper to score, was amazing. I suppose that goal helps offset his “hand of God” goal.
Our visit to La Choripaneria started slowly. We approached the counter, looking at the two employees who were preparing food in front of us. They didn’t look up to say hello, or anything. They ignored us for literally about five minutes. It was as if we didn’t exist. Perhaps they could sense my anti-Maradona vibes.
Finally, one of them came up to take our order. We ordered a Churipan Solapa, which is just bread, chorizo sasuage and chimichurri sauce for 4,800 pesos each (just over US $5). While the service was slow, the food was very tasty and worth the wait.
The Botanical Garden and Japanese Garden of Buenos Aires
Happy with our lunch, we decided to make our way to the Japanese Garden via the Botanical Garden. The 17.3 acre Buenos Aires Botanical Garden (aka Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays) has over 6,000 species of plants, trees, and shrubs from different parts of Argentina.
In case you’re wondering, Carlos Thays (1849 – 1934) was a French-Argentine landscape architect who was instrumental in getting the city government to designate land for the botanical gardens, which opened in 1989. Carlos Thays and his family lived in a mansion within the gardens between 1892 – 1898 while he served as Director of Parks and Walks for Buenos Aires. Not a bad place to live! The grounds are worth checking out, particularly since there’s no charge for admission to the garden.
The Japanese Garden (aka El Jardín Japonés de Buenos Aires) was opened much later, in 1967, which aligned with a visit from the emperor of Japan, Akihito, and his wife Michiko. The price of admission for the Japanese Garden was 1,500 Argentine Pesos (~US $1.60) for residents and 4,500 Argentine Pesos (~US $4.80) for non-residents when I visited in 2024.
In the Buenos Aires Japanese Garden, you’ll find many of the typical plants, rocks, ponds (with koi), walkways, and sculptures that are designed in a way that aligns with Japanese culture. There’s also a Japanese restaurant, gift shop, cultural center, and a nursery when you can buy bonsai trees and other plants.
We ended up staying at the Japanese Garden for about forty-five minutes, but it was worth the visit.
Don Julio Steakhouse
My brother and I were eager to see what it’s like to eat at one of the top steakhouses in Argentina. My brother did some homework before the trip and we settled on the Don Julio Steakhouse. Not only is it considered a top restaurant in Buenos Aires, Don Julio is ranked by some as the top steakhouse in the world. It’s frequently featured on top 50 and top 100 restaurant lists around the world, and it’s been awarded a Michelin star.
While, Don Julio does accept walk-ins, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be seated. Since we didn’t want to miss out on a chance to eat there, we decided to make reservations well in advance. Our initial research suggested that if you’re booking 30 days in advance, then you’ll probably be out of luck. 90-days in advance seemed to be the preferred window, so that’s what we did, and it worked. On December 19th, we received confirmation that we had a reservation for a table of two at 7pm on Friday March 1st, on the “sidewalk”. We weren’t sure what “sidewalk” meant, but we were happy to have a reservation.
Several months later, March 1st arrived, and we found ourselves walking to Don Julio for our 7pm reservation, which was the earliest option for dinner. Don Julio is open for lunch from 11:30 AM–4 PM, and dinner from 7 PM–1 AM, seven days a week.
As soon as we approached the restaurant, we could see what “sidewalk” seating referred to. We were fine with that.
As we waited in line to confirm our reservation with the hostess, a waiter came around with “free” glasses of champagne. Given the high prices at Don Julio, the cost of the champagne is clearly included. I don’t drink alcohol, but I grabbed a glass anyway so that my brother could enjoy two glasses of champagne.
Finally, it was a few minutes past 7pm and we were now standing in front of the hostess. To our surprise, she ushered my brother and I inside the restaurant, rather than “sidewalk seating”. We weren’t complaining.
On the way to the room, we walked past a glass case that was filled with tomatoes. I did a double-take, as I wasn’t expecting to see tomatoes in a glass case at a steakhouse.
As soon as we sat down, we had so many people serving our table, that it made us laugh. We’re not used to being pampered like that. They definitely go all out on service at Don Julio.
One of the first menus we saw on our table was a Tomato menu. Another first for me. I can’t remember ever being handed a tomato menu. Funny enough, the wait staff never asked us for our order from the tomato menu, they just brought out a tomato for us anyway.
Around the same time, some warm bread was delivered to the table.
And shortly after that, they served us an empanada, even though we still hadn’t opened our mouths to order anything yet. But we were happy to try it.
After those three items were brought to our table, we started figuring out what we wanted to order. Here’s a glance at the menu.
As you can see from the eye-watering prices, this wasn’t going to be a cheap meal. But of course that’s not why you eat at Don Julio. We were hoping to have one of the best steaks that we’ve ever had. As a result, we went big and opted for the tenderloin steak (bife de lomo), medium.
About 20 minutes later, it was delivered to our table. It looked amazing and, thankfully, looks weren’t deceiving. It tasted fantastic. The steaks are free-range, grass-fed, and 21-day-aged Argentine beef. I particularly liked that the steaks didn’t have too much seasoning. The steaks are prepared with salt and petter and heated over a wood fire, and that’s it.
My brother is a grilling fiend, and he couldn’t get over how perfect it was cooked. The pink color of the meat is distributed evenly throughout the steak. He was amazed.
We both agreed that it really was the best steak that we’ve ever had. And we’ve had lots of amazing steaks in our lifetime.
Next up, dessert.
I went big (again) and chose the crepes with dulce de leche, and a scoop of dulce de leche ice cream to go with the crepes.
It tasted great, although I have to say that I had a better version of this dessert at a restaurant in El Calafate. Just sayin’. But it was still great.
On the way out, I snapped two quick photos of the Don Julio restaurant crew that was cooking those amazing steaks.
Feeling old during a night out in Palermo
After an amazing meal, we wanted to check out the local nightlife scene. Plus, I was interested in seeing if there was any tango dancing options.
We did find a place for tango called La Viruta Tango Club, which included a dance lesson. We poked our head inside to see the lesson, but decided to move on. I would’ve given it a shot, but I could tell my brother wasn’t eager about that idea. Plus, the dance didn’t start until after an 11pm show, so perhaps we could come back later for that.
During our walk, we came across one happening bar / cafe and asked the hostess if we could get a table. The hostess looked at us and said it’s full. It didn’t look completely full. But that’s when we took a closer look at the other customers. It was a happening spot for a young crowd in their 20s and 30s, not for two guys in their 50s. We probably looked like sleezy predators. The more we walked around Palermo, the more we noticed how much older we were compared to most of the people in the busy bars and cafes.
So, we kept walking.
We finally came across a place that with very few people in it, and they had a live band. It was called Sullivan’s Irish pub. We figured everyone’s welcome at an Irish pub, so we went in, grabbed a seat at the bar, and enjoyed some live music for about an hour.
We essentially had front row seats for the live band for 90 minutes, although the drawback is that we felt like it would be rude to leave before the set was over. The band surprised us by opening up with a Radiohead song called “High and Dry”. My brother and I enjoy some Radiohead, so we were off to a good start. After that, they played a variety of tunes in English and Spanish. The band was pretty good and we were happy to stay through the end of the set. Since very few people were there, I gave them a $10 tip after their set and thanked them for the good music. They seemed happy about that.
After the band finished, we walked back to La Viruta Tango Club and poked our head in. It was crowded, with plenty of older people, but both of us were feeling tired at this point (it was approaching midnight) so we decided to head back to our AirBnb.
La Carniceria: yet another meat platter before departing
We spent the next morning walking around town. Along the way, we walked past a place called La Carniceria that we’d heard was highly rated. Fortunately, there was an employee who was setting up the tables outside. We walked over to him to see if there was any availability. He said that we could reserve a table for two when they opened at 1pm. Sold! We made the reservation and now had 45 minutes to kill. We walked down the street to a nearby pizza place to get a drink and watch the Liverpool v. Nottingham Forest game until it was time to get our table.
Once seated at La Carniceria, we found the menu to be baffling. We weren’t really sure what we were ordering, but we selected the “Parilla Cut”, whatever that was. It came with pumpkin and chimichurri at $39,000 pesos each, and we also split an empanada appetizer. That’s when we noticed a sign on the wall indicating that this restaurant also had a Michelin Star. Two Michelin Star restaurants in two days. We certainly weren’t slumming it on this trip. But this was our last meal of our trip, so it made sense to go big.
The first thing that they served us was a bread roll with what looked like two bones. We weren’t really sure what it was. They even provided a special knife to each of us to scoop out whatever was in there and spread it on the bread.
After my brother tried a few big bites, I realized that it must be bone marrow. My brother was grossed out once I told him more about what bone marrow is. I had a tiny taste, just to be able to say I tried it. That was enough for me. But I appreciated the novelty of being able to sample bone marrow at a fancy restaurant.
Soon after that, we enjoyed our empanada appetizer with shredded meat inside, and pico de gallo on the side. It tasted good, and was a welcome change to the taste of bone marrow.
Then came our meal. A huge slab of bone-in meat with bowls of pumpkin sauce. The server offered to have a carver cut it up for us, and we eagerly agreed.
The server also handed us a business card which provided details about the cow we were eating. That was another first for us.
I’m just glad it didn’t include a photo of the actual cow.
It was a bit too much meat, but ate a lot of it. A fun experience for our last meal in Buenos Aires.
Patagonia Brewery, Round 3
After lunch, we had another hour before we needed to catch a ride to the airport. We walked down the street a bit and came across Patagonia Brewing at an outdoor mall, This was our third Patagonia Brewing location of the trip. The first one we visited was in El Calafate, the second in Bariloche, and now, Buenos Aires. It was a very small place, with just a few outdoor seats. The entertainment consisted of some very aggressive pigeons that perched on lights above the restaurant, looking for an opportunity to plunge down on a table to eat food and nuts.
On the way back to our AirBnb, I stopped off at a gelato place and asked for a “medio” portion, which turned out to be huge. They told me to pick three flavors. There was a long line of people behind me so I quickly settled on dulce de leche with menringue, stratiatella, and oreo cream. I doubted those flavors would mix well, but didn’t really care. It tasted better than expected but it was too much of a good thing, given the large portion. But duty calls, so I ate all of it.
Be prepared for very long lines at the EZE Airport
After that, it was back to the room to get a quick shower to rinse off the sweat from walking several miles in the hot and humid weather. We packed our stuff and caught our 6pm Uber to the airport. We’d paid for an extra night at an inexpensive Airbnb so that we could store our luggage during the day and get cleaned up before going to the airport. That proved to be a good decision.
We arrived at the EZE airport around 6:55pm for a 10:00pm departure, and we needed all of that time. There were very long lines to check in, followed by a huge line to get through security, and yet another huge line through customs. It took us over 2 hours to get through all the lines. But we made it in time to board our plane at 9:20pm. There were a lot of stressed out travelers who were trying to cut lines in order to catch their flights. Consider yourself forewarned! You’ll want to get to the EZE airport early for your international flight.
Although it was time to depart, the plane was apparently waiting for another passenger or two who were still navigating through the long lines. I had two empty seat next to me and was starting to envision an amazing flight home where I could lie down on the seats and sleep. You know where this is going.
The last two people who boarded the plane had the seats next to me. Damn. They shut the plane doors behind them, and it was time for a 10-hour flight to Houston.
Our Patagonia trip had been a terrific adventure. Highly recommended, if you have the opportunity to visit.
Thought for the Week
Given Argentina’s fanaticism with soccer, it’s hard not to pick a quote from one of the two Gods of Argentina soccer: Leonel Messi or Diego Maradona. So, for this week, I’ll pick one quote from each of these soccer greats.
“My mother thinks I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells me.”
— Diego Maradona
“I prefer to win titles with the team ahead of individual awards or scoring more goals than anyone else. I’m more worried about being a good person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? When I retire, I hope I am remembered for being a decent guy.”
— Lionel Messi
Thanks for reading and happy travels!
Mark (The New Mexico Travel Guy)
Mark Aspelin, The New Mexico Travel Guy (www.newmexicotravelguy.com), is a travel writer and author of two books who has enjoyed a wide variety of adventures in his travels to over 100 countries and all 50 U.S. States. His current project involves visiting EVERY town in his home state of New Mexico (there are 582 towns on his list) and writing a story about each one. He’s on track to finish the project by his early-mid 100s. When not traveling, Mark lives as a recluse in the mountains outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
