Buenos Aires

Argentina's seasons are reversed from the Northern Hemisphere — autumn (March-May) and spring (September-November) are the best windows, with mild temperatures and jacaranda trees in bloom across the city in November. December-February is summer: hot, humid, and the month when many porteños themselves leave for the coast, meaning some restaurants close for holidays. July is winter — cold enough for a coat but rarely freezing, and a legitimate low-season option if you don't mind shorter days. Avoid the week around Christmas and New Year if you want the city operating at full capacity.

The Subte (subway) is fast, cheap, and covers most of the areas visitors care about, though it stops around 11pm. Uber and Cabify both operate reliably and are the practical option late at night or between neighbourhoods the Subte doesn't reach well, like Palermo Hollywood. Walking is the best way to experience Palermo, Recoleta, and San Telmo, all of which reward wandering. Buy a SUBE card (available at kiosks) for the Subte and buses rather than trying to pay cash, which isn't accepted on transport.

Argentina's beef culture is not a stereotype — it's a genuine daily institution, and a proper parrilla (steakhouse) meal, ordered with a bottle of Malbec, is close to mandatory. Don Julio in Palermo is the most famous and consistently excellent, though it now requires booking weeks ahead; La Cabrera and El Preferido de Palermo are excellent alternatives with shorter waits. Beyond steak, the city's Italian immigrant heritage shows up in outstanding pizza and pasta, and the medialuna (a sweeter, denser croissant) with coffee is the standard breakfast. Dinner starts late — 9pm is early, 10-11pm is normal — and reservations matter far more than the city's laid-back reputation suggests.

The tourist-oriented dinner tango shows (Rojo Tango, El Viejo Almacén) are polished, expensive, and genuinely impressive as spectacle, but they're not what tango actually is in Buenos Aires. The real thing happens at milongas — social dance halls like La Viruta or Salon Canning — where locals of all ages dance until 2 or 3am on a strict code of eye-contact invitations and no beginners awkwardly learning on the floor. Most milongas offer a beginner class earlier in the evening before the social dancing starts, which is the least intimidating way to see it from the inside rather than from a dinner table.