Argentina Travel Tips

As you know, my parents and I were able to fly to Argentina last month for a ridiculously cheap fare ($400 round trip per person on TAM Airlines).

While it was a long flight from New York's JFK Airport, it apparently wasn't far enough to scare away the countless Americans we encountered while we were there.

So if any of you readers are looking to check out Buenos Aires or Argentina in general, I wanted to make sure I gave you some of the lessons learned.

1.  Pay the Reciprocity Fee Before You Arrive. Argentina's new law requires that Americans (and certain other nationals) need to pay the $160 USD entry fee before getting on the plane to Argentina. You go online and pay with a credit card. Then you need to print out the page and bring it with you. The airline will even make sure you have it when you check-in for your outbound flight. You can do everything online by going to this link https://virtual.provinciapagos.com.ar/ArgentineTaxes. Glad to see they make it so easy to take your money. Speaking of money...

2.  Bring US Dollars. Argentina's government is imposing an artificial exchange rate for US Dollars that's being circumvented by the actual locals who are trying to flee to a "safe currency" as their local Argentine pesos are being devalued by rampant inflation.  The "Blue Dollar" phenomenon allows Americans with US currency to spend it in Argentina at an 8:1 exchange rate (you get 8 Argentine pesos for 1 US dollar) while the banks/credit cards are exchanging at 5 ARS to 1 USD.

For example, as my father found out when he went shopping, a 3,600 ARS jacket would cost $720 USD if he paid with his beloved credit cards because the bank would exchange at 5:1. But had he brought American cash with him, he could have paid $480 because the store would have given him a more favorable 8:1 rate. In case you were curious, my father decided not to buy the jacket. Way too expensive.

Additionally, with so many American tourists (or Europeans using dollars), some services quote prices in USD. However, if you didn't have USD, then you'd have to pay in ARS or with a credit card and those same stores would use the 8:1 rate to convert.  Meaning, a $100 USD car rental would be converted to 800 ARS. And you could only get 800 ARS from an ATM that would withdraw USD from your bank account at a 5:1 rate, meaning $160 USD would be deducted.

Now, I wouldn't bring $1,000,000, but some amount that you could reasonably expect to spend (that also falls below the legal limit for Argentine customs/immigration). But you'll probably have to get some Argentine pesos for small transactions, so that leads me to...

2. Beware of fake currency.  We didn't see any of it, but they say you should always check our bills. The real bills have an image of a man in the blank white area when held up to the light. They are also printed properly as seen in this photo. But in our 2 week experience, we never came across the counterfeit currency (or at least never knew we did).

If you have to use pesos, get your bills at banks and avoid the unofficial currency exchange places, even if they're offering the Blue Dollar exchange rates. So when you go to get the money from the banks...

3. Get Small Denomination Currency ASAP.  Many countries operate with cash more than credit cards, including Argentina. In these countries, having a large bill is almost worthless because no one will take them. Think about trying to pay for a pack of gum at a New York city news stand with a $100 bill.

• When using the ATM, ask for 490 ARS instead of 500, so you'll at least get 90 ARS in 10s and 20s.
• The first money used should be the 100 ARS bills so you'll get change.
• Taxis oftentimes don't have change, so save your 10s, 5s and 2s for them.
• Buses only take coins.

4. Remember to ask for the Tax Free Receipt. To encourage tourists to buy local Argentine products, many retail stores will be sanctioned to provide Tax Free receipts that you can take to the airport and get a 13-17% refund of the VAT tax that Argentine locals have to pay. You'll get a tax free receipt as long as the purchase is over 80 ARS ($16 USD) which should be easy if you're shopping. And on the note about spending your money...

5. Use Up All Your Argentine Pesos.  As I mentioned, the locals in Argentina are doing whatever they can to get a hold of US dollars. The government is keenly aware of this massive demand so they've put severe restrictions on getting US dollars from banks or official currency exchange places.

Meaning, if you're finishing your trip and still have a few hundred pesos left, you're SOL because they won't convert them back to US dollars, even at the official currency exchanges at the international airport.

Now many of you are not as anal calculating as my father, so perhaps you won't be able to exactly accurately estimate how much cash you'll need on your trip. Instead of buying random overpriced souvenirs at EZE Airport gift shops, use all your leftover pesos to pay down your hotel bill and use your credit card for the remaining balance. But don't forget that you still need to pay the taxi (~200 ARS or $40 USD from Recoleta/Palermo) to get back to the airport. Which leads me to the next point.

6. Use Official Radio Taxis. There are official taxis in Buenos Aires (registered with the government) and then the fake ones that look almost the same (black and yellow). You'll know it's a real radio taxi because there will be a sign on the top of the roof and there will be a phone number printed on the side. See the photos here (1 real and 1 fake). Locals take fake taxis all the time, but they probably know where they're going and know how much a fare should cost.

Further, many people also suggest not taking a taxi off the street (even if it's official) but rather to have the restaurant or hotel call you one. The price will be the same, but at least there will be a record of which taxi driver picked you up.

Some common taxi scams include:

• Taking you the long way
• Giving you change in fake currency
• Telling you that you gave them a 20 peso bill instead of a 100 peso bill
• Combination: taking your real currency, switching it, telling you it's fake and returning the counterfeit
• Taking you somewhere where you can get robbed

In all cases, you should be paying careful attention and be focused at all times. Not the time to be checking your Twitter or updating your Facebook status... unless you see that I've put up a new post on Lap Child Diaries.

Going Home & More Hyatt Benefits

Flight #46 – TAM 8078

Rio De Janiero (GIG) – New York (JFK)

Thursday, Apr 4, 2013

Depart: 10:53PM / Arrive: 7:55AM (+1 Day)

Duration: 10hr 2min

Aircraft: Airbus 330

Seat: 26D-26G (Economy)

Earned: 4,787 miles

Lifetime Miles: 96,375 miles

By the time everyone's reading this, I will probably have already landed at JFK and hopefully getting into our clean apartment.

As I mentioned in another post, we offset some of our travel expenses by finding people who want to use our 1 bedroom apartment to travelers visiting New York City. We were gone for 17 nights on this recent trip and found "my mother's cousins" (a Russian family of 3)* who need a place to stay from March 25-April 2. 

So for renting 8 nights, we received $1,455 (net payout after $45 fees). There's always a bit of risk/hesitation letting strangers live in your apartment, but with the $1 million insurance coverage for any damages/theft, my parents can easily replace our Ikea furniture. Plus, getting paid to do nothing gets us more than enough to cover my father's new empanada addiction.

But the other ways we were able to save some money was through one of my favorite benefits of being a Hyatt elite member - free breakfasts! 

Hyatt Diamond Breakfast

If you have Diamond status (either by earning it through 50 nights/year in a Hyatt hotel or by applying for a Status Match Challenge), you and the registered guests get complimentary breakfast each morning. Some budget hotels offer a hot breakfast sandwich or cereal/pastries. But the higher end properties (like the Park Hyatt) offer a more robust breakfast buffet (or give you a high fixed $ amount to order off the menu) served in one of their main restaurants. A few even let you have breakfast served via room service.

At the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires, we preferred sitting in the restaurant and enjoying the amazing views of the central garden overlooking the "traditional" side of the hotel.

We arrived a bit late, around 10AM so all the good seats by the windows were taken. But it was still empty enough where we found decent seats by the buffet tables (my father likes to be close to the food).

The spread was beautifully laid out and had all the usual suspects - fresh fruit, pastries, smoked salmon, cheeses, etc. Also included were coffee, tea and fruit/vegetable juices. But in addition, you could also order 1 hot item off the menu. My mother chose the scrambled eggs w/ bacon & sausage while my father went with the eggs benedict. The other options included waffles, pancakes and french toast as well as other egg based items like omelettes. 

 

The actual prices if you were paying were pretty high ($15-50 depending on what you ordered) so we were happy to be able to enjoy a delicious breakfast without even seeing the bill. However, I suggest you consider leaving a respectable tip (depending on the customs of the country). Just because you didn't pay doesn't mean the waitstaff didn't work.

Hyatt Honeymoon Couple
When you book a reservation on Hyatt.com, you'll notice a few options you can select under SPECIAL REQUESTS. You can click a few of them if you want.

• Quiet Room
• Honeymoon Couple
• Connecting Room
• Rollaway Bed
• Crib
• Early Check-In
• Late Check-Out

My parents are still crazy in love so they consider themselves perpetually in the Honeymoon phase, so they also click off "Honeymoon Couple" in addition to crib. Now, it's debatable whether you're crossing the ethical line here, but most of the time, the hotel doesn't really do anything for a honeymoon couple (no harm, no foul). But sometimes, they do.

The Park Hyatt BA hotel staff actually tried calling to help us make dinner reservations on our last night (a sneaky attempt to find out when we'd be leaving our room so they could have this surprise waiting for us when we came back), but we ended up going to get take out (more empanadas at El Sanjuanino down the street) and ate in our room again.

So around 9PM, they just called and confessed they had a nice honeymoon gift for us - a chilled bottle of champagne and some dark chocolate covered strawberries with a nice handwritten note from the Butler Team.

Unfortunately, we were only staying at the Park Hyatt for 2 nights. Overall, it was one of the best hotel service experiences I've ever had (in my 17 months of life), but my father agreed and he's been around. While it's unlikely that we'd ever pay the cash rates to stay here ($550+ USD/night), we are very happy that we can come back and use Hyatt points to stay for free...especially because I just found out that I love chocolate covered strawberries.

* Technically, a sublet of less than 1 month isn't kosher in New York City, so that's why we were just letting my mother's extended family house-sit while we were away.

Day By Day in BA - Part 2

As I starting writing about 12 days ago, here's the continuation of our daily activities in Buenos Aires.

Saturday March 23
On our final full day in Buenos Aires before heading to Santiago, Chile on Sunday, my father decided that we should try to get to La Boca, the colorful neighborhood on the southern end of the city to see the famous El Caminito, a short walking street filled with restaurants and shops.

The two main things they tell you about La Boca are (1) it's VERY touristy and (2) it's not the safest area if you venture beyond the tourist zone. #1 suggests you should try to go during non-peak hours where the crowds will be less. But #2 suggests you definitely shouldn't go when there's no one else around. So we picked Saturday mid-afternoon hoping the big crowds will have finished by lunchtime but still early enough where there was plenty of daylight and other people around.

We had a few options to get from Palermo Hollywood (northwest part of BA) down to La Boca (southeast part of BA). Taxis were easiest but also most expensive. The metro only got you so far before you had to walk. Or the bus which took you all the way for about 3 pesos ($0.50 USD) per person, but took forever.


View Larger Map
Being cheap mindful of our travel spending, my father suggested we do a combination of all three options. Walk from our hotel (A) to the metro at Palermo Station (B) and take it to Catedral (C) where we'd find a taxi to La Boca (D).

La Boca is a working class part of the city - which I found was a politically correct way of saying "watch your purse." Years ago, an artist decided to re-decorate a part of the neighborhood and splashed vibrant color everywhere, creating an open air museum in the street. Soon, the tourists came and local businesses (restaurants and tourist shops) popped up trying to take their money legally (and illegally if you're not careful).

Nothing happened to us for the 90 minutes we were there, but there wasn't too much to see after you walked around the main block. We just had lunch at ChoriPoint in Palermo before coming down, so we decided to head back via Bus 152 that would take us all the way back to Palermo for only 3 pesos / person ($0.50 USD).

Fortunately, we knew beforehand that the buses only take a bus card (like a MTA Metrocard) or coins. No paper currency accepted. So during the way from our hotel to the metro station, my father would buy water and other things from the small stores asking for his change in coins. When that didn't work, my mother used her charm and just got storekeepers to change her 2 peso bills.

The stop for Bus 152 was a few blocks down the street away from the main Caminito, but on the wide open main street so you didn't feel like you were wandering where you didn't belong.

The reason we took the bus wasn't entirely because my father was being cheap. Reading some posts on TripAdvisor, my father read about one person who wrote how he took a taxi, but there weren't any official radio-taxis available. According to the post, the unofficial taxi (which looks the same except no sign on the roof or phone number on the side) took him and his wife to some random street where 6 men with guns showed up and robbed them all. After losing their valuables, the taxi eventually took them to their hotel pretending like he had no idea that would happen. Who knows what really happened, but it seemed like a bus was a safer option for my parents and I.

The bus started its route at La Boca so the three of us all got seats but eventually the bus filled up with locals making their way to different parts of the city. My parents took turns holding me as I was having a rough time sitting still for 45 minutes, but it was actually a nice tour of the city going north from La Boca to Microcentro/Recoleta and then west to Palermo along Avenida Santa Fe - pretty much the same way we came, but above ground. For $1 USD total, not a bad deal.

Skip 10 days ahead...

Tuesday April 2
We landed at Jorge Newbery Airport and took a taxi to our hotel for the final 2 nights, the Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt. Skeptical of taxi drivers (see above), my father tracked his route with his smartphone. Fortunately, the ride was uneventful and we arrived at the hotel in about 15 minutes and for 50 Argentine pesos ($10 USD).

After getting settled into our upgraded room (A), we made our way around the neighborhood to find some food. Luckily there was a large grocery store called Disco (B) only 2 blocks away on Avenida Presidente Manuel Quintana.

After picking up some milk for me and snacks for later, my father stumbled upon a nice empanadas restaurant with take out called El Sanjuanino (C) on Calle Posadas. They had the best empanadas we've had on our trip and cost only $8 ARS ($1.60 USD) for each one. The restaurant offered about 7 different kinds, so my parents had 3 each and that was enough for lunch. Quite filling for a $10 USD lunch for 2.


Having spent 5 days in Buenos Aires the week prior, we weren't in any rush to push more things on our schedule so we spent the evening in our room and ordered room service while watching TV and letting me run around before bedtime. My parents are so boring!

Wednesday April 3

After enjoying a nice free breakfast buffet at our hotel (another great benefit of Hyatt Diamond status), we decided to spend our last full day walking around Recoleta, heading vaguely towards the Buenos Aires Zoo near Palermo.

Someone told us the Recoleta neighborhood reminded them of the Upper East Side in Manhattan and we'd have to agree completely. They even have the same angry looking old grandmothers dressed in Burberry to go grocery shopping.

After meandering around various streets and parks, we started to get hungry again. Fortunately, my father found a great Choripan place called Nico Fast Food on Calle Bulnes 2500 off Calle Cabello. For those of you who don't know what choripan is, you're really missing out. For 16 Argentine pesos ($3.20 USD), you got a delicious filleted chorizo sausage sandwich. Douse it with chimichurri sauce and you're ready to eat the tastiest food in Argentina.

We finally made it to the zoo around 3:30PM, with enough time and daylight to see the animals before they closed at 6PM. It was a standard zoo with the usual animals (lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, etc), but main attraction was the albino white tigers. They had 4 of them! And did I mention, they were all babies?

 

 

So that was our time in Buenos Aires. After spending a full 7 days here, we came across a lot of Americans. I had no idea it was so popular a destination, especially among people from the middle of the country who I assumed didn't even have passports.

So since I underestimated American appetite for Argentina, for those of you readers who are thinking about making the 11 hour flight down here in the future, I'll have another post next week when I'm back in NYC with some of my Argentina travel tips.

Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt BA

Hotel Stay Details
Hotel: Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt BA
Dates: April 2-4, 2013
Rate Paid: 18,000 Hyatt Points/night 
Suite Upgrade: Complimentary
Room Rate: $641/night (incl. tax)
Suite Rate: $943/night (incl. tax)
Total $ Benefit: $1,888
Point Redemption: 5.2 cents/pt

Even though we got ridiculously spoiled with the upgrade at the Park Hyatt Mendoza (a Category 2 hotel) we managed our expectations for our upcoming 2 night stay at their even more luxurious sister property in Buenos Aires - the Palacio Duhau (a Category 5 hotel).

Unlike last time, my father booked a regular room (Park King) using only Hyatt Gold Passport points (18,000 per night) because the cash rate at the time was $530 + $111 tax per night for a regular room! Spending that much money for a place to sleep at night was WAY out of my father's comfort zone. So instead, he used some of his many Hyatt Hotel points that he "earned" from normal course spending on his Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card.

While we could have confirmed another upgrade to a suite using more points, we chose to keep our points and play the riskier "complimentary upgrade at check in" lottery. This was highly dependent upon your hotel status and how generous the manager/front desk feels at the time.

Hyatt Suite Upgrades
For a refresher on the Hyatt program, the rules for an upgrade are as follows:

1. If you book a room for cash, you can upgrade to an entry level suite (if available) using either:

• 6,000 Hyatt points total for your stay (good for up to 4 nights/stay); or 
• 1 suite upgrade award certificate (good for up to 7 nights/stay)

2. If you book a room using only points, then you can upgrade to an entry level suite (if available) using 50% additional points per night. In this case, the regular room was 18,000 points/night so a suite would have been 27,000 points/night or 54,000 total for our 2 night stay.

3. If you have Diamond status, then you may get upgraded for free at check-in, but definitely not guaranteed even if suites are readily available.

Park Hyatt One Bedroom Suite

And for those of you who didn't read the intro header on the weblog post, yes, we did get a complimentary upgrade to their basic Park One Bedroom Suite (656 sq feet, marble bathroom with dual sinks, tub and rain shower, and a living room with a desk). No more Presidential suites for us. But like I said, we were more street food / backpack types by nature, so we'd be happy with anything - especially when it was free.

We had entered the hotel through their "traditional" entrance on Avenida Alvear. However, our room 1208 was on the other side closer to their more "modern" entrance on Calle Posadas. The Park Hyatt uses both as their "main entrances" but to get a stroller from the Alvear side to the Posadas side is quite complicated involving 4 different elevators if you don't want to carry it down the stairs. So for those Lapchild travelers who can't yet walk, tell your parents to enter from the Posadas side entrance.

When we finally reached our room, it was quite different from the Mendoza hotel in terms of size (obviously), layout and design. The Mendoza room was intentionally vast and spacious in feel. 

The BA room was more efficient in its use of 650 sq feet with the 3 rooms (living, bath, and bedroom) all connecting to one another like a square doughnut (yes, I use the traditional spelling of doughnut). 

When you first enter, there's a long hallway that leads you into the living room. The doors and walls are so sleek, that you pass by the bathroom door on your right without even noticing it.

The living room area is about 15'x15' and overlooks Calle Posada from its massive windows. You can see the large wooden desk, the flatscreen tv and dvd player, the stocked minibar with 2 free bottles of water and the two comfortable chairs that I'd be climbing into later. No couch, but who's complaining?

Then from the second door (on the left in the living room photo), you walk into a central closet area that has doors to all 3 rooms. Turning right, you'll find the closet hangers, drawers and security safe (that has electrical outlets inside so you can charge your valuable electronics while protecting them).

Turning left from the central area, you enter the bedroom. The room is in the corner so you get 2 views from the large windows that partially open. Additionally, there is another TV and DVD player along the wall that didn't show up in the photo. The Park Hyatt style is very modern and minimalist which I very much prefer over the gaudy over the top decorations of more traditional hotels while my mother prefers the gilded decor of European hotels, so to each their own.

Then you go back and turn into the bathroom which is really 3 separate areas. One for the dual sinks, one for the toilet/bidet (aka water fountain) and one for the bathtub/shower (my favorite one). I chose not to photograph the toilet as my father was christening it at the time, so you can just use your imagination there.

And what hotel report would be complete without a view of the Recoleta neighborhood from the bedroom?

I don't know how people could/would pay for these rooms with cash (unless they're on some business expense account) but I'm glad we can stay at such nice places for free using points!