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Browse the full Discover Buenos Aires archive: expat life, practical city notes, travel details, neighborhood discoveries, and older dispatches from living in Argentina.
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395 posts in the full Discover Buenos Aires archive.
While public health care in Argentina is free, most people who can afford it choose to go with private healthcare plans. Under private insurance, there is a much wider range of doctors and specialists available and less of a wait for services. Private health care costs vary widely based on age, family size, plan options, … Read more
As I’ve often written about on this blog, I do as much as I can to earn miles and points so that our family can travel for as close to free as possible. Most often, this takes the form of earning large signup points bonuses for new credit cards. In fact, I’m now up to about … Read more
UPDATE (4/12/16): Uber has started operating in Buenos Aires today amidst fierce opposition from the taxi drivers. This past summer, we had a chance to use Uber (and Lyft) while traveling around Boston and New York, and it quickly became apparent why everyone loves the service. For less than the price of a taxi (in many … Read more
UPDATE: As of March 24, 2016, the reciprocity fee is no longer required for US passport holders. This fee still applies for Canadians and Australians. I recently had some blog readers who paid their Argentina entrance fee but then lost the copy of their receipt! They asked what they could do about it and luckily … Read more
If you follow my blog at all, you’ll know that I’m a miles and points junkie. I’ve written numerous times about how our family uses points and miles to get expensive flights and hotels for very little money out of pocket. As a points and miles junkie, I’m pretty familiar with how to book awards and … Read more
Google Street View for Argentina is finally here! That’s right, about a year after Google announced that they were going to bring street view to Argentina, they have launched. Now you can get a virtual view of major Buenos Aires landmarks as well much of the rest of the country. Surprisingly, after only driving in Argentina … Read more
I haven’t even been back in Argentina a full day and the dollar blue hits a record high of $15! That’s immediately followed by American Airlines announcing that they are restricting ticket sales in Argentina. Ahh, financial uncertainty how I’ve missed you. American Airlines will no longer sell tickets to or from Argentina for purchase in pesos for more … Read more
We’ve now been in the United States for the last two and a half months and are quickly approaching the time of our return to Buenos Aires, so I thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on some of the things that I miss most about Argentina… Our nanny We had only recently found … Read more
UPDATE (1/9/15): Ria has since added a transfer fee for sending from your bank account. Post updated with new rates and details. We’ve been big fans of using Xoom to transfer money from the United States to Argentina at near the blue rate, but now it looks like competitor Ria Money Transfer may be giving Xoom … Read more
We’re heading back to the US for a 3-month visit and during this time we need to be able to keep in touch with family and friends in Buenos Aires. Rather than the hassle of the old days where we had to use expensive international dialing and calling cards, now we simply get a local Argentine … Read more
We just finished negotiating our renewal lease and I’m very happy with the results – a 23.3% increase for the first year and an additional 24.3% increase for the second year. With inflation running at between twenty-five and thirty percent that’s a pretty good deal! As we pay building expenses separately, we’ll just have to … Read more
Buenos Aires gets in the Pharrel Williams “Happy” craze. Guaranteed to make your Monday better.
World Cup Fever is here and if you needed any other reason to get more excited, check out this awesome commercial from Beats featuring Brazilian star Neymar. It’s already racked up an impressive 7 million views in the 4 days since it’s release! Go Argentina!
Living in Buenos Aires, there is a huge need to have a VPN setup. (VPN stands for virtual private network and protects that data you send to the Internet while also routing your computer traffic through one of their servers to mask your identity and location.) I’ve tried a ton of different services and finally found the one that … Read more
What happens when you cross the most popular expat bar in Buenos Aires with the best closed door barbecue in Buenos Aires? A food coma and a buzz for sure, but also one of those meals that you end up talking about for awhile and making plans to go back again. Soon. Today I had a … Read more
Our family is very lucky in that we get to split our time between Buenos Aires and the United States. This summer, due to work and personal commitments, we’ll be back in the States for almost 3 months, which means skipping most of the gray Buenos Aires winter. While these trips are great, traveling with … Read more
Aerolineas Argentinas is a bit of a running joke in Argentina. They are usually late – if they fly at all. There are often work stoppages. They have been hemorrhaging state money for years. People try and find any other airline to fly if they can. Well, things may be looking up… I had previously … Read more
Amazon has the Slingbox 350 on sale today for only $99. This is the lowest price it has ever been, and a good time to pick one up. We’ve previously written about the Slingbox and if you have someone in the US with a cable subscription you can use, it’s a great way to get … Read more
Seems that Vitamina plans to destroy more than 14,000 acres of forests in Salta, Argentina and Greenpeace is on a mission to stop it. They have posted a viral video stunt that shows how quickly Vitamina can destroy forests. In addition, they are urging people to write to the owners of Vitamina to protest and … Read more
That title might seem like an especially snobby statement, but allow me a minute to explain… I travel from Buenos Aires to the United States at least three times a year. Two of those trips are typically for my own business and one of those trips is a family trip. Each flight is at least … Read more
Today, without advance warning, American Airlines devalued their award ticket chart and reduced many other benefits for travelers. These negative changes included: Elimination of distance based Oneworld Explorer awards Elimination of stopovers at the gateway city on AAdvantage awards Creation of multiple tiers of AAdvantage standard award levels (at higher mileage levels) Reduction of baggage … Read more
I’ve written about my obsession with collecting and using points and miles numerous times on this blog. Our family has been able to earn points from credit card signup bonuses and spend and then turn them into great travel experiences at places that we would never have been able to afford if we had to … Read more
Hotel Tonight, the same-day, discount hotel booking app for iPhone and Android, has just launched in Buenos Aires. I’ve used this app when staying in New York City and it worked out quite well – I saved about 45% on the regular rate for a same-day hotel booking. Looking at their Buenos Aires offerings, they have … Read more
One of the more annoying things about in Argentina has been the high volume of telemarketing calls. Even better, these calls all seem to be timed to come about 8pm or 9pm at night, which is especially great when you have kids that you just put to sleep. Well, no more! Buenos Aires now has … Read more