Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Argentina's elegant capital, attracts four million visitors each year, all drawn by the allure of the tango, Evita's complex legacy, inky Malbec wines, and world-class dining (especially if you like steak). Yet Buenos Aires's paradox is that, while the city is assuredly attractive, it boasts little in the way of an established tourist trail. Sure, there's Recoleta Cemetery, where Eva Perón lies among the ornate sepulchres and catacombs of Argentina's great and not-so-good. There's the exuberant color and diversity of Latin American art, best displayed at the outstanding Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. And there are the milongas, where visitors can learn, dance, or just watch the famous tango. But it's the Buenos Aires you'll see along the way that will lodge in your memory. It's the aroma of sizzling steak and choripan (spicy sausage sandwiches) that emanates from the city's ubiquitous parrillas, and the leafy neighborhoods of ornate townhouses, lazy cafés, and quirky boutiques.

Although several travel agencies offer tailor-made walking tours of Buenos Aires, it's also fun just to wander. Don't miss the fin de siècle edifices on Avenida de Mayo or the pink facade of the Casa Rosada, where Juan and Eva Perón appeared in triumph before their adoring masses. Sip a cortado coffee amid the faded splendor of Café Tortoni, where worldly waiters have served Buenos Aires's residents since 1858. Schedule time for a raucously passionate superclásico a soccer derby between the city's most fanatically supported sides. If you've got time, retreat to an estancia on the pancake-flat Pampas that laps at the city's limits, or just grab a taste of the countryside at the Feria de Mataderos, a Sunday morning gaucho-fest on the edge of the capital.