Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a city that seduces slowly and completely. Known as the Paris of South America for its wide boulevards, ornate Beaux-Arts architecture, and thriving cafe culture, the Argentine capital is a place where passion runs through everything: the tango dancers locked in embrace on the streets of San Telmo, the heated debates over football at every corner bar, the sizzle of a perfectly grilled bife de chorizo at a neighborhood parrilla. With 3 million people in the city proper and 15 million in the metro area, Buenos Aires is South America's most cosmopolitan city.

Each barrio (neighborhood) has its own distinct personality. Palermo is the trendy heart, split between Palermo Soho's boutique shopping and street art and Palermo Hollywood's restaurants and bars. San Telmo is the bohemian antique district, with Sunday flea markets and underground milongas (tango clubs). La Boca's Caminito street explodes with primary colors and the passion of Boca Juniors football. Recoleta drips with old-money elegance, from the Alvear Palace Hotel to the ornate cemetery where Eva Peron is entombed.

The cultural calendar never stops. Buenos Aires has more bookstores per capita than any city in the world, more than 300 theaters (second only to New York and London), and a food scene that has evolved far beyond its legendary steakhouses to embrace innovative closed-door restaurants (puertas cerradas), natural wine bars, and modern Argentine cuisine that draws from Italian, Spanish, and Indigenous influences. All of this at prices that, thanks to favorable exchange rates, make Buenos Aires one of the best-value great cities on Earth.