Eats at 10pm, dances at 2am, and changes its currency rate every Tuesday.
Buenos Aires has two exchange rates, the official rate (bad) and the blue dollar (real). Bring crisp US$100 bills to change at a cueva or use Western Union to your phone, you will roughly double your spending power. Cards work everywhere but use the worse official rate; cash dollars exchanged in person are the move. Argentines eat dinner at 10pm and go out at 1am, restaurants seating at 8pm are empty for a reason. Tipping is 10 percent. Tap water is fine. The collectivo bus system needs a SUBE card, buy it at any kiosk.
Not the headlines. The spots Buenos Aires locals reach for after the famous ones are done, and why each one is worth the detour.
Antique fair the locals also browse, eat empanadas at El Hipopotamo, leave before the tourist tango.
Gaucho festival, folk music, no tourists, an hour from the centre by bus, the real countryside in the city.
Locals dancing tango at 2am, the show ones are for cruises, the milongas are where the city dances.
1858 cafe, museum-grade interior, order a coffee, soak it in, eat dinner elsewhere.
Wooden boats through subtropical canals, an hour by train from Retiro, the locals weekend here.
October to early December (spring, jacarandas) and March to May (autumn). January and February are hot, humid, and half the city is on holiday at the coast; July is grey and damp.
The unofficial street exchange rate, currently 50 to 80 percent better than the official one. Bring clean, unfolded US$100 bills, change at a trustworthy cueva (recommended by your hotel) or use Western Union (transfer to yourself, pick up cash, get the blue rate). Never change at the airport, the rate is the official one.
10pm at the earliest. Restaurants open at 8 and serve a few foreigners and tourists; the room fills at 9:30. If a parrilla looks empty at 8:30pm, that is correct, do not panic. Lunch is 1:30 to 3pm. The merienda (afternoon snack with maté and medialunas) at 5pm is sacred.
Yes for ojo de bife (ribeye), bife de chorizo (sirloin), and entraña (skirt). Yes for the value (a €15 steak that would cost €60 in Berlin). The trick is to skip Don Julio (the famous one, two-hour queue) and go to El Pobre Luis, La Cabrera at off-hours, or the parrilla in your nearest mercado.
Everyone votes, nobody argues, the itinerary builds itself. Free for the first trip.
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