Is BsAs over rated?

[GS_Dirtboy]

The OP's original question was where to find the nightlife that Buenos Aires is famous for. There are a number of comments here that suggest specific boliches and bars. My suggestion is to hang out in Recoleta on a Friday or Saturday night. Check out the area around the cemetary. There are (were) a lot of nightlife areas there when I was a single guy.

I did live in Medoza for a year. There were two streets there that were the place to be at night. We would sit in outdoor restaurants, talk, eat, and drink until 4am. Then hit the dance clubs. If that's what you are looking for then try Recoleta.

 

[El chabon]

Sunday - Family or boredom
Monday - Sleep
Tuesday - Sleep
Wednesday - After office from 9 to 1 more or less(crowd 30/40)
Thursday - Idem
Friday - Provincia or a good party
Saturday - Provincia or a good party

Add as many places as you can to FB or Twitter and try to make 'friends' with the local PR guys, you will flooded with invitations and happy hours in no time

 

[syngirl]

This country should be leading the charge. Yet those poetry reading cab drivers and rock band plumbers keep putting fascists in power over here. Go figure.....

And unfortunately the city and country that used to value beautiful librerias, writers, and well-read citizens is being eroded by governments that prefer that their citizens be much less well-read, they're that much easier to control... I've never lived in a place where books are priced so far beyond the reach of the average person's salary, AND where borrowing from libraries isn't even an option instead of buying everything.

I find this especially sad for children's books, since access to books as a child makes for more voracious adult readers. Here it's 60-80pesos for a single board book! In north america the same books can be bought for 4-8 bucks. And at least in north america if you can't buy you can go to the local public library and borrow (and stay for storytime).

 

[JoeGillis]

Well said, Syngirl. Bookstores may be disappearing in the North America (due to e-readers and online sales of printed books), but libraries are still in full force. At the very least, print books, not to mention e-books, remain very affordable in North America.

 

[syngirl]

The OP's original question was where to find the nightlife that Buenos Aires is famous for. There are a number of comments here that suggest specific boliches and bars. My suggestion is to hang out in Recoleta on a Friday or Saturday night. Check out the area around the cemetary. There are (were) a lot of nightlife areas there when I was a single guy.

There's also always stuff going on you should check the government cultural agenda. It doesn't take long to start finding things to do once you know where to look. There's a lot of alt guides to the city that you can pick up at bars and list what's going on, you just have to keep your eye out for them.

Frankly I'm pretty far removed from the nightlife scene now -- most of my friends are as well because it's pretty expensive. When I came things were pretty cheap for expats and at least accessible for locals, now a lot of stuff is out of people's grasp unless your someone that has lots of money or parents who are footing your tab at Kika and the "plastic" places your refer to.

Also, BA is a big city -- once it's in TimeOut, it's probably already lost it's cool. Please, Puerta Roja was sooo 2006 (haha), 878 was THE place that only the in crowd knew about, now it's just another bar who's original bartenders have moved on to other places. DuiDui I think has kind of lost it's only-in-the-know chic by now, but there are a few hidden bars around. Like any big city a cool place comes and goes, probably to be replaced by a Starbucks (I think El Diamante might have been taken over by that complex on Malabia). Places survive but won't necessarily have the cache they once had (Carnal, Bar6, Congo) or they'll have a new crowd that isn't necessarily same vibe. The original crowd graduates to a new place (Godoy, which has been there for years now and always struck me as a stuck up expensive crowd, but Weds has an afteroffice which may be good, dress up for it though). Every bar has it's night, you have to be there for the right one.

Try What's Up -- used to be pretty good but haven't used it in awhile...

http://www.whatsupbuenosaires.com/agenda

Edit: By the way, Friday has never been the biggest night here -- Weds yes, Sat yes, Friday not so much. Friday night is for being with the girlfriend/wife. Saturday night is for picking up a new girl...

 

[syngirl]

Here's a couple of other agenda sites I used to read:

http://www.vuenosairez.com/

http://www.glamout.com/contenidos/home.html

 

[expatinowncountry]

I think that is one side of the US (the bad one), but it does not represent the whole country. There is also this side (http://youtu.be/L6D3uPLlCu8) which is the very best of what the US and perhaps even humanity has to offer. Where in Argentina can you find something like this?

Yes, he is American but the problem is that guys like Ron Paul gets 5% of the vote while guys like Bush gets 50%... so coming to election day, it is not very different from Argentina. This country has had several people like (or better than) Paul but they have been eaten alive by the system that favors populists like Peron, Menem, CFK, etc.

 

[perpetualholiday]

Well, now you heard it also from a French.

Where do you live in BA? We live in Chacarita, take the kids to a local school, and the only time I see the competition is when we go to Colon Theater. We probably live a very different Buenos Aires than you do. Of course, if your kids are at the Lycee Francaise or in one of the British schools in Belgrano, you are mixing up with the Argentine who would like to be American/European... hardly the average Argentine!


The issue of competition goes way beyond cloth and the last gadget... to get your kids in a very good school in NYC when they are 5 years old you have to go through a long process of tests and interviews. I could not let my children go through that stress level at their age...

We live in Palermo and my child attends an all-Argentine school in the neighborhood. Yes, living in other parts of the same city may be very different experiences. Just as living in other parts of the US (besides NYC) would be different.

That competition is here as well. The moms in sala de 5 are literally frantic about which school their child will enter for first grade. They actually have formal meetings about it. There are English exams and entrance tests required...for a 5 year old. It is ridiculous.
While I will miss certain things about Argentina (it is a beautiful country) I am the complete opposite, and would not stay here to raise my child. The kids here bounce between being sugar-high undisciplined monsters and sleep-deprived zombies. The eating habits are poor and unhealthy and the quality of food and culture doesn't align with the cost.
As far as the original post. Do I think BA is overrated. Absolutely.

 

[expatinowncountry]

Coming back to the title of the thread "Is Buenos Aires overrated"... it really depends on what you came to look for... if as the OP said, he came for bars and clubs... there are much better place than BA to do this. Now, if you are talking about what the city has to offer as a whole, it depends on the tradeoff you are willing to accept.

Once, visiting Shanghai for work a colleague took me to an excellent Chinese restaurant. When I complimented her on the Chinese food she said "A happy man is someone who married a Japanese woman, eats Chinese food, lives in a British house, and earns American salaries" and then she added "You have to be careful when looking for this because you could end up living in a Japanese apartment, eating British food, earning Chinese salaries, and married to an American woman". What I get from this (besides that this Chinese woman did not like American women) is that there is no perfect place and life is multidimensional... If you came to Buenos Aires for the best bards/clubs you should have gone to Ibiza/Vegas/Dubai. If you came for the best cultural events you should have gone to Paris/NYC/London. If you came for the best salaries, you should have gone to Qatar. If you came looking for the cleaness city you should have moved to Zurich. The most spectacular views Rio de Janeiro/Cape Town. The best food maybe France... Buenos Aires does not rank top 5 on any thing, except maybe for good looking woman. On the other hand Buenos Aires does OKish in many aspects and if that is the mix that suits you, this is the place for you.
Having lived (not travelled for two weeks) in 8 countries and two dozen cities, I am still looking for the perfect place...

 

[nicoenarg]

We live in Palermo and my child attends an all-Argentine school in the neighborhood. Yes, living in other parts of the same city may be very different experiences. Just as living in other parts of the US (besides NYC) would be different.

That competition is here as well. The moms in sala de 5 are literally frantic about which school their child will enter for first grade. They actually have formal meetings about it. There are English exams and entrance tests required...for a 5 year old. It is ridiculous.
While I will miss certain things about Argentina (it is a beautiful country) I am the complete opposite, and would not stay here to raise my child. The kids here bounce between being sugar-high undisciplined monsters and sleep-deprived zombies. The eating habits are poor and unhealthy and the quality of food and culture doesn't align with the cost.
As far as the original post. Do I think BA is overrated. Absolutely.

Exactly. I would have said something along those lines too except my font would have not been permanently set to bold!