Explore selected off the beaten path attractions while travelling across five neighborhoods.

Discover the city’s unique attractions,
exclusive gardens, panoramic views,
palaces and architecture jewels,
touring through 5 different districts.

• Walk into a palace once owned by an Argentine aristocract family.
• Enter the biggest bookstore in Latin America.
• Explore a huge two story historic house.
• Discover a unique micro district in two levels, surrounded by french style parks and mansions, with an incredible panoramic view.
• Visit a one-block historic building, completely build as a puzzle.
• Tour across five different districts.

If you have already visited Buenos Aires´ must-sees such as the main square, the main boulevard, La Boca and Recoleta districts (check our City Tours), the city features a great variety of unveiling curious attractions worth discovering.

We’ll explore a wide range of surprising curiosities in a mix of architecture, landscapes, history, and local culture, travelling across five different districts. Let’s begin your excursion off the beaten path!.

Itinerary:

We’ll start with a pick up from your place of stay onboard a comfortable van or minibus. Then we’ll visit:

The biggest bookstore in Latin America, and the most beautiful one, according to the National Geographic.

As you start walking into the store, you will suddenly realize that you are indeed… inside an old and huge theatre!. The building, on the glamorous Santa Fe boulevar, was originally home to the Grand Splendid cinema-theater, which opened in 1919 and featured major artists, including the main Argentine tango singer, Carlos Gardel.

With its five floors, it keeps the grandeur and elegance of the old theater. The historic decoration, including the frescoed dome, was exquisitely preserved when the space was transformed into a bookstore in 2000.

About 120,000 books are available at the store, and there is a café in the former theater stage area where you may have coffee while reading one of the books taken from the shelves. The store is also filled with comfortable chairs that make it a great place to enjoy reading.

Our next stop will be a visit to

A traditional porteño courtyard house, the Ezeiza’s family home. A typical two-story residence featuring three interior courtyards, designed in the Italianate style of the late 19th century, serves as one of the finest examples of this architectural type in the city.

Constructed in 1876 as the home of the Ezeiza family, it later transformed around 1930 into a tenement that accommodated 32 families under overcrowded conditions, so significant structure changes were made. The house exemplifies high construction quality, evident in both the materials used and the skilled labor that went into its building.

Its exterior is obviously Italian. There is a significant wooden entrance door with two leaves, and the bottom level is entirely covered in gray and white marble slabs. In contrast to the first story, the upper floor features stone-like cladding, We’ll be able to walk around the three courtyards that are encircled by galleries on both floors. Currently, the house serves as a commercial gallery featuring cultural spaces.

We move now to another neighborhood, the Congreso district, very close to the National Parliament building, to visit a true architectural gem,

The Water Company Palace: an architecturally important water pumping station established in 1877 to provide the city’s water supply.

Spanning an entire city block, this French Renaissance building showcases mansard roofs and a facade made up of more than 300,000 glazed tiles of different colours, and enameled bricks, all imported from England and Belgium. Due to the city’s swift growth and outbreaks of diseases, it was determined that a modern running water system was necessary, based on plans proposed by a British engineer. The building process was managed by a Swedish engineer and a Norwegian architect.

Inside the building, there are 12 iron water tanks, each with a capacity of 6,000m3, spread across three levels. Currently, the building serves as an administrative hub for the city’s water company and also features a small, unique museum displaying a collection of tiles, faucets, vintage toilets, bidets, and pipes.

Our next stop will be a visit to

An aristocratic palace, in Palermo district. The Errázuriz Alvear Palace, a true palace and one of the most elegant private residences in Buenos Aires.

We will be able to tour the building inside and out, visiting each of its luxurious spaces brimming with art. The mansion, whose exterior exhibits the elegance of the late Louis XV period, was designed by the French architect René Sergent in the early 1910s and housed for 20 years the Chilean diplomat Matías Errázuriz and his wife Josefina de Alvear, the niece of former President Marcelo Alvear. The family was completed by the couple’s children.

In 1937, the palace was acquired by the State and transformed into the National Museum of Decorative Art, maintaining its splendid collection—which includes, among others, works by Sorolla, El Greco, Rodin, Manet, and Bourdelle.

We continue the journey by moving to another district, the Recoleta neighborhood. We will then discover:

A little unique and elegant neighborhood in two levels, surrounded by french style parks and mansions, with an incredible panoramic view

This is one of the best kept secrets in Buenos Aires

Due to its particular layout, with stairs and slopes, this spot is almost free of traffic and noise. All these features make this one of the most exclusive and upscale areas in Buenos Aires. This little neighborhood, up and behind the slope where the monument to Bartolome Mitre is located, occupies 5 square blocks, and is little known even by locals.

Also due to its relative privacy and isolation, it’s a seldom-visited stretch, even by locals who wander through Recoleta, most of whom are unaware of the origins of this unique neighborhood.

Some of its streets end in beautifully decorated staircases, turning the place into a haven away from Paris. A microcosm where the early 20th-century Parisian style and buildings like the Madero Unzué Palace (which now houses the British Embassy) contrast with the modern and extravagant National Library building, which we will access through a maze of stairs and small bridges.

   
Duration: 3 hours.
Availability: daily.

What is included in this tour?

• Pick-up and drop-off from traveler’s hotel.
• Certified Guide in English, Spanish and more languages (or choose the audioguided tour).
• Entrances to the buildings.
• At every attraction, travelers are allowed to get off the vehicle to take photographs.

Price per person

with Audio Guide
and English speaking coordinator

u$d 48
for 2 or 3 people, each.

u$d 85
for 1 person.

Audio Guide works with audios
inside the vehicle describing
every attraction as we visit them.

with certified Guide

u$d 95
for 2 or 3 people, each.

u$d 180
for 1 person.

Discounts for 4 people or more.
We also accept pesos and euros.