Hotel
Alvear Palace Hotel
A grand five-star hotel on Avenida Alvear in Recoleta, with 207 French-style rooms and suites, a rooftop bar, heated pool and spa.
A five-star hotel in Puerto Madero with marble bathrooms, a spa and hammam, a pool bar, a cabaret venue and several restaurants.
Good to know
Faena Hotel Buenos Aires is the most theatrical place to stay in the city. It stands in Puerto Madero, which it calls the beating heart of the district, and it describes itself as a five-star luxury hotel. It sits within a wider cultural district that includes the Faena Art Center and Faena Molinos, so a stay here can include exhibitions and events as well as a bed.
The rooms range from standard guestrooms and studio suites to larger suites and signature suites, and the hotel also offers accessible rooms and suites. Rooms are decorated with richly woven textiles, and bathrooms are finished in arabescato marble. It is a hotel where the design is part of the appeal, quite different in spirit from the classic palace hotels of Recoleta.
Eating and drinking are central to the experience. The hotel lists Bistro Sur, El Mercado, The Library Lounge, a Poolbar and El Cabaret, its performance venue, among its spaces. That variety means you can have breakfast, a poolside lunch, cocktails in the lounge and an evening show without leaving the building. Check the programme for El Cabaret when you book if you would like to see a show.
For relaxation there is the Faena Spa, which offers treatments, day-spa packages and classes, and includes a hammam. The hotel also has meeting and event spaces under the Faena Gather name. It says it has been ranked by Condé Nast readers among the top hotels in Argentina.
Faena suits couples, design lovers and travellers who want a lively, glamorous hotel with plenty to do on site. It is at the top end of the city's price range. Book through the hotel's website or by phone on the reservations line, and look out for packages that combine rooms with spa or dining.
The hotel is at Martha Salotti 445, in Puerto Madero. The Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur, on the eastern side of the district, is ideal for a morning walk or run, and Cabaña Las Lilas, also in Puerto Madero, is the obvious choice for a steak dinner. The hotel's own art centre adds a cultural reason to stay in the district.
Yes, the hotel describes itself as a five-star luxury hotel.
At Martha Salotti 445, in Puerto Madero.
Bistro Sur, El Mercado, The Library Lounge, the Poolbar and the El Cabaret performance venue.
Yes, the Faena Spa offers treatments, day-spa packages and classes, and includes a hammam.
Yes, the hotel offers accessible rooms and suites.
Through the website or by phone on +54 11 4010 9070.
The Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur and the restaurants of Puerto Madero, including Cabaña Las Lilas.
Café
The oldest café in Buenos Aires, founded in 1858 and named after its Parisian namesake, with marble tables, a literary past and tango in the basement.
Thing to do
A 100-metre painted alley in La Boca, transformed by the artist Benito Quinquela Martín from a disused railway line into an open-air street museum.
Restaurant
Palermo's celebrated parrilla, holder of a Michelin star and Green Star, serving dry-aged Angus and Hereford beef from a cellar-backed corner house.
Bar
A basement cocktail bar entered through a hidden door in a Retiro flower shop, created in 2013 and a long-standing name on the World's 50 Best…