Hi all, I posted this on TA so to save rewriting it all I have copied and pasted it
My experience of Bs As to help fellow travellers.
After 4 years of planning me and my wife finally made it to Argentina, after all the worry, constant scrolling of safety tips, money online this is our experience.
SAFETY
We stayed on guatamala & arevalo during out stay, we took precautions by not wearing jewellery, wearing a pacsafe waistbelt, and generally dressing down, only taking out money we need and keeping personal items in out waistbag (phones, cash) and leaving some small walking around money in our pockets.
Not once did we ever feel in any danger. We had beggers who came up us offering tissues, socks, when in and around plaza serrano, but a smile and "los siento, no dinero) and they are on their way. On the last day we saw one kid steal a wooden board that the bill comes out on thats about it. NEVER leave anything on the table. Take precautions and you will be FINE!
CURRENCY
We exchanged US$ 100 bills for pesos at Serrano 1563, they was open everyday. We got a rate of 1090 pesos for $100, then by the end of the week it dropped to 1080 for $100. The US bills was clean, didn't have to be crisp. We had to exchange some dollars back to £ once we was back home as we couldnt spend them all. We exchanged $600 for our 12 night trip. We only paid for meals on credit card twice, and Recoleta cemetary which is card only and got a discount thanks to MEP rate.
TAXI/UBER
We used Uber ALOT. We paid in cash and left them a tip it was so cheap, we used uber to EZE and prebooked a few days earlier via the app. It came as a taxi. Uber struggled to find us a driver to san telmo market on sunday morning so instead offered us a taxi at a fixed rate.
Taxis was cheaper than uber, all had a meter apart from one where we was at plaza serrano needing to go to do julio, he only charged us 400 pesos.
LANGUAGE BARRIER
Yes they speak Spanish, yes English is limited, we got by using google translate and memorising the words, by the end of the trip i had the confidence to order food and drink without any problems. I advise getting a data plan to help with the language if you ever need it to read or to speak it.
DATA PLAN FOR MOBILE
I advise getting a data package for your mobile phone, for google maps, translate and QR code access.. luckily my data plan was inclusive of Argentina so everything was free. It made our trip so easier to navigate, order ubers, check the blue rate, translate and use the QR code for the menus at most restaurants.
CAFE/BAR/RESTAURANT PRICES
Steakhouses we ate at La Cabrera, Don Julio, Hierro, Fogon.
Hierro was cheaper than expected it said for a skirt steak on menu it was 24k when on the bill it came out at 18k, LC & DJ was expensive compared to other restaurants by Argentinian standards but we enjoyed it! 55k a steak upwards at Don Julio so bring card or plenty of peso cash. We used our card and the meals worked out similar to back in England for 2 mains for 2, including 2 sides and wine with the MEP rate so we was pleasantly suprised at that. Beer in bars ranged from 3 - 5k with happy hour reducing the cost by ALOT. Bottles of beer cheaper. Wine was cheap depending where you go.
We ate at Cafe Dulche Charlotte alot and ordered the scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, latte and orange juice for 6k peso.
FINALLY
ENJOY IT! It was a fantastic holiday, take precautions like anywhere in the world and you will be FINE! They get alot of bad press and I feel sorry for them for it, we never had any problems, the people was welcoming and happy, weather great, city clean. A fantastic holiday we had.
Any questions feel free to ask.
