Recently back from a excellent holiday in Buenos Aires, had a great time and found it to be an interesting city. A couple of firsts for me in that I'd not done South America previously and it was the first time I've crossed the Equator.
We got a excellent (would call it bargain deal) through Expedia for direct flights with British Airways plus 10 nights in a 4 star hotel with breakfast. Total cost was £1,600 (£800 each) for two of us.
Going out our flight was at 10-25pm so we decided to have a day out in Windsor which was nice, I'd been before but Cathy hadn't.
We made our way to the heathrow area at around 6pm and went for a meal at a pub called The Pheasant and must say i can recommend it for value. If you go there make sure you have a good appetite the portions are huge.
After meal it was a matter of parking the car pre booked through Holiday Extras (Purple Parking) and getting to terminal 5 on the provided transfer bus.
Flown back overnight but never out and was pleased we were both able to sleep which was great because we arrived at BA still quite lively considering it was a 14 hour flight. Due to the 4 hour time difference it was around 8-30am
As you cant get Argentinian Pesos in the UK we had been advised to take US dollars and change. Our plan was to change them at the bank at the airport then taxi to the hotel, sods law the bank was on strike.
However a lady on one of the taxi desks said she would take dollars and gave us the correct rate (14 to dollar or approx 20 to the £ in real terms).
We actually got to our hotel at 9-30am expecting not to get in our room but hopeful we could leave our bags and go and explore the area. To our surprise the staff at the Hotel Metropolitano Supera said the room was ready so we had chance to unpack and freshen up before walking into the central district to try change some dollars into pesos.
Its about a 40 minute walk (the hotel staff had given us a map) and when we eventually got there we found out we needed our passports so couldn't change any.
By this time we were ready for some food and fortuately found a nice place that accepted dollars so enjoyed our first Argentinian meal.
Did find a ATM so decided to use my debit card to draw some money, got calculations wrong and only got £50 (1,000pesos) but decided we would manage on that until following day.
Eventually got back to our hotel which was in the Monserrat district which on the surface looked a rough area with lots of graffiti, horrible footpaths with lots of potholes and litter in the streets. To be fair a lot of BA residential areas are like that apart from the few upmarket estates, effect of a weak economy i'm afraid.
Saying that the area would feel scary in the UK but never felt uncomfy in Monserrat, always people about and surprisingly plenty of restaurants and shops within two blocks of the hotel (good convenience store over road).
One thing i didn't like was the amount of dog dirt everywhere in BA, had to watch your step, reminded me of council estates when i was growing up back in the day, one thing we've improved in our country.
That evening we ate at a small restaurant very close to the hotel and we couldn't believe how cheap food and drink was in Argentina. Was consistant everywhere we went, bottle of wine in restaurant between £5 & £8 (more than half that in shops) and food woud estimate 30% cheaper than the UK.
Also will had food quality all 10 days was excellant, definately go to Argentina for the food you wont be dissapointed.
After meal it was to bed as it had been a long day and we wanted to be fresh for the first full day.
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