Free Tours of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires - Argentina

If you are in Buenos Aires and want to make your cash stretch a little further, then we recommend taking the Buenos Aires Free Tour.

The premise is that every day (except Sunday) a native porteño (a person from Buenos Aires) tour guide and anyone interested in the tour meet up at a specific place and time to take a walking tour of the city.

There are two tours: one at 11 am of the downtown area, and the other at 5 pm exploring the ritzy Recoleta and Retiro neighborhoods. I did the second one, which was a 1-kilometer tour that lasted about 2 hours.

Since I had already been in Buenos Aires for about 5 days and had seen the majority of the downtown, I figured I'd go on the non-typical tour to see the old mansions in Recoleta. The meeting point was Plaza San Martin, which was easy to get to with a metro station just off the plaza. However, it was one of those situations in which you just have to trust that someone will actually show up and not leave you waiting there. While it was easy to pick out other tourists (I mean there is just something about a blonde or a pale person in South America that screams Tourist!!), I wasn't sure whether they were going on the tour and I didn't feel like approaching them awkwardly to ask.

A few minutes to five, a short girl with a Buenos Aires Free Tour t-shirt arrives in the plaza and just stands there waiting for the tourists to flock to her. In an odd way, it reminded me of insects drawn to a light shining in the dark. The people who had been sitting nonchalantly on a bench got up and made a beeline for the girl in the t-shirt, our guide Sol. As we became a little flock of tourists, more people came up to join the tour. However, the group wasn't very big; there were maybe 14 or 15 people.

The tour got started at around 5:10, which is pretty on time for anything in South America. Sol introduced herself, even making a point to shake hands with us. This took me back a little bit since I've had to get used to kissing (actually, it's more like cheek-touching-cheek) with South Americans, but it was great that she made the effort to make us comfortable. She was super friendly and talkative, and immediately began to tell us about B.A. The tour wasn't boring at all. She told history in a modern, very amusing way. The tour probably would have been shorter, but we sidetracked her into telling us about what the porteños are like and why there's a rivalry between Chileans and Argentines. Among the highlights of the tour were the old palaces-turned-government buildings or hotels, the French architecture, the memorial of the soldiers killed in the battle for the Falklands (or Malvinas as they're known by the Argentines), the mini-Big Ben (no, this isn't its actual name. I just can't remember what it's called!), and the only mansion that is still being lived in.

However, my personal favorite was hunting for lions, a euphemism used by Sol for scouting out old ladies who have had too much plastic surgery, which makes them smile too much and thus appear a bit like lions. Apparently, rich porteños have a nice health care plan that includes plastic surgery every 2 years. This may explain why I saw quite a few women (especially in the wealthier areas of Recoleta and Retiro) that are very thin but have unusually large boobs.

The tour was very refreshing and insightful, making me feel like an Argentine friend was showing me around the city. We ended the tour in front of Recoleta Cemetery around 7pm, which gave us a beautiful view of the church next to the cemetery all lit up.

Now, while the tour is free, it is highly recommended that you tip your guide. Sol didn't mention this, but I had read it in a Trip Advisor article about the tour. The tour is definitely worth it, and at the end you really want to tip the guide for being so great. I think this tour is one of the best I have ever been on and I definitely recommend it to anyone going to Buenos Aires.

For more info, check out their website: www.bafreetour.com.

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