HotelChatter

It’s official: 2008 was the year everyone you knew went to Buenos Aires. Out of nowhere, the Argentine capital--homeland of Evita, tango and juicy steaks--became the destination of choice.

Whether it was your bohemian neighbor or that mousy girl from work who went with her tango meetup group, or maybe it was just a couple of your parents’ friends who came back with a leather version of every single clothing item imaginable. Bottom line: everyone you have ever met has been to Buenos Aires...except you.

Fear no more. This is the guide for when you finally decide to skip south of the equator to the land of gauchos. I can’t tell you about everything you should do while you’re there, but I can tell you where to stay: The Art Hotel.

It’s true, there may be cooler places to stay in BsAs, but the Art Hotel is a great combination of boutique chic, low prices, and central location. The hotel is a little property housed on a quiet street between three of Buenos Aires’ biggest avenues — Santa Fe, Callao and Pueyrredon — running right through the heart of the upscale Recoleta district and the bustling Barrio Norte.

When it was first built over a century ago, the hotel was a private residence, as you can tell from the original architecture, which is still intact. The six floors of the hotel surround a central atrium, and there are only 36 rooms. Some of them rooms do not have windows that open up to the street, but they are well ventilated by individual air conditioning and heating systems. They range from $65-190 a night, and come in categories from a tiny single with a twin bed to a spacious king-sized suite.

The rooms have wrought-iron beds, heavy wooden desks, neutral color schemes, a mini bar and cable TV (thank goodness for CNN!). An added bonus are the large full-size bathrooms. The ground floor also contains a little café that serves daily breakfast, coffee drinks and bar potables. Grab a coffee then use the free internet at the computer terminal in the lobby to send lengthy emails to your friends back home to make them jealous.

The main allure of the Art Hotel is in its walking-distance proximity to some of Buenos Aires’ most visited sites. Just a ten-minute stroll down Calle Azcuenaga brings you right to the gates of Recoleta Cemetery, the final resting place of Evita and several Argentine presidents, not to mention some funky feral cats.

Just around the corner on Vicente Lopez street, which runs along the Cemetery’s northern edge, you can find one of BA’s most well-known leather stores, Uru Cuero. The friendly (and handsy!) staff will tailor-make you a jacket (or pants, belt, shirt, anything really) from their selection of leathers, colors, styles and sizes—all at about a third of the cost of a similar item in the United States.

On the other side of Vicente Lopez, at the start of Avenida Pueyrredon, you will come to Design Buenos Aires, a shopping center with some of the best furniture, housewares, and design stores in South America.

The Art Hotel is also within walking distanace to one of the city’s most interesting museums: the Museo Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), which houses an impressive collection of Latin American art from the 20th century including works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jorge de la Vega, and perhaps Argentina’s most eccentric artist, the late Xul Solar—who lived in his own time zone.

At the end of the day), head back to the plush, overstuffed beds at the Art Hotel for a peaceful night’s sleep before another big day in the big. Buen viaje!