We spent most of one day walking Caminito and the streets of La Boca, Buenos Aires’ colorful, distinctive immigrant enclave. We wanted to know if we could shake the tourist-trap reputation if we walked past the corner everyone photographs. We talked with artists working steps from where Benito Quinquela Martín once painted these same houses, bought two of their paintings, ate lunch with a tango show, and toured La Bombonera, the stadium Boca, one of Buenos Aires’ most popular football teams, calls home.
El Riachuelo, the river whose docks supplied the leftover boat paint on every wall here, once carried its stench for miles. It’s noticeably cleaner now, the water back to its characteristic brown instead of black and oil-slicked, and the smell that used to define the neighborhood is mostly gone. We had a great time and think you will too.
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Is La Boca Safe? What We Experienced
We walked the area around Caminito and La Bombonera, the Boca football stadium. We didn’t feel any different than any other area of Buenos Aires. During the day the area is clean, with visible police presence particularly on Caminito street. Normal precautions apply in crowded areas where pickpockets are present, and if you want pictures with the costumed characters, confirm the price before you take the photo.
We ventured beyond the Caminito and Bombonera area. We didn’t encounter any problems, but the streets there are quieter, particularly on weekends, and we didn’t see police presence. Government travel advisories confirm our impression: violent thefts occur more often on these less-visited streets. For a tourist without much local knowledge, the area outside the main tourist drag is better avoided.
An important note. Do not take the taxis waiting in the Caminito area, or hail taxis on the street. Use Uber or Cabify, the Argentine competitor. My own habit is to always use one of those. But this time Uber had a long wait, so I hailed a cab. I asked the driver to turn on the meter and he refused, claiming that wasn’t the norm in Caminito, then quoted me 20 dollars for a 5 dollar trip. Without making a fuss, I told him I wouldn’t take the service and left.
I speak Spanish with a porteño accent. For a tourist who doesn’t speak Spanish, this could have been an unpleasant experience, or a genuinely dangerous one. Not all taxi drivers are crooks, but it only takes one bad encounter to ruin a trip, and it could get worse than overpaying. Avoid taxis in Buenos Aires, and even more so in tourist areas.
For information purposes and not professional safety advice. Read our disclaimer.
Is Caminito a Tourist Trap?
For us, not everything built for tourists is a tourist trap. The conditions for one are an inauthentic or exaggerated version of the local culture, paired with low value for the price of what is offered. By that definition, Caminito is not a tourist trap.
Is it authentic? If somebody was expecting a slum, clothes hanging between houses, and a guy in a fedora whistling Mi Buenos Aires Querido, they will be disappointed. It is as colorful as the photos, real artists sell their paintings, the food is genuinely porteño and good, and the place is appealing to a tourist. Yes, there are plenty of souvenir shops selling magnets and t-shirts, and hawkers offering pictures, but this is not the Epcot version of Buenos Aires.
Caminito Buenos Aires is worth visiting. You get street art, lunch with a tango show, an art museum, and a visit to one of the most legendary football stadiums in the Americas.
How to Get to Caminito
La Boca doesn’t have a metro station, so the public transport option is the bus. Buses in Buenos Aires are known as colectivos, and riding one is the ultimate porteño way to get around. You need a SUBE card, which you can get at kiosks and grocery stores. The 29 line gets you to Caminito (Pedro de Mendoza and Rocha stop), and you can board it at Plaza de Mayo.
If the hop-on-hop-off tourist bus is your kind of thing, it has a stop at Caminito, about USD 30 per person. If you plan to spend half a day in Caminito, or anything more than a quick photo at the corner, this isn’t a cost-effective option.
Uber or Cabify is the most efficient way to get to Caminito and La Boca.
How to Get Around La Boca
Most of the tourist landmarks are within walking distance, in a five-block radius. La Boca follows the same grid layout as the rest of the city, which makes it easy to get oriented.
The google map below marks every stop in this guide, from Caminito to La Bombonera.
Where to Stay in La Boca
There is one Howard Johnson hotel right next to the stadium. A great location if you want to see a match, but apart from that, the area is not safe at night and has mixed reviews. There are some hostels and bed and breakfasts, but not much else on offer.
If you want to stay close by, we have stayed at both the Anselmo Hilton’s Curio Collection, in San Telmo, and the excellent InterContinental in Montserrat. The Anselmo has small rooms but is very well located right in the heart of San Telmo. Both are a short ride to La Boca.
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What is La Boca?
La Boca is one of the 48 official Buenos Aires barrios, part of Comuna 4. It sits south of Parque Lezama, between Puerto Madero and Barracas, with Avenida Regimiento de Patricios marking its western edge. The name comes from its location at the boca, or mouth, of the Riachuelo, where the river empties into the Río de la Plata.
A traditional immigrant neighborhood, home mostly to Genoese dockworkers, the diverse, striking colors of its houses come from a practical origin: leftover paint from the ships docked at the port.
What to Do on Caminito Street
Caminito can be best described as a diagonal alley, historically home to conventillos, tenement houses where immigrant families each shared a single room around a communal patio. It takes its name from the 1926 tango song Caminito, written by Juan de Dios Filiberto.
El Riachuelo, the Caminito Sign and the Postcard Bridge
The Matanza River, which separates the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) from Buenos Aires Province, is widely known as the Riachuelo. The Caminito sign marks the start of the tour of the area.
To the east, you see the Puente Transbordador Nicolás Avellaneda, one of only eight transporter bridges of this kind still standing in the world, and the only one in the Americas. Built in 1914 to carry pedestrians, carts, cars, and trams for the roughly 17,000 dockworkers who crossed the Riachuelo daily, it fell out of use in 1960 when a new road bridge took over. After a long restoration tied to the river cleanup, it reopened to visitors in 2023.
Caminito’s Iconic Corner
This corner is where everyone stops for a photo, and there is no shortage of characters to pose with. People dressed as Gardel, Maradona, or a tango femme fatale work the crowd. There is even a Messi mannequin on a balcony overlooking it all, holding the World Cup trophy. For a fee, you can climb up and take a celebratory photo with the GOAT and his cup.
Caminito and the Artist Stalls
Past the corner, Caminito itself opens up to the right, lined with artists selling paintings. They are all chatty and open to explain their art without being pushy. Prices are reasonable, and the kind of art that will brighten any room. We bought a couple, including one from Adriana, an artist you can find on Instagram at @adriana_lasso_berdier. We spent some time with her talking about Buenos Aires, yoga, and mindfulness. This aspect of Caminito was one of our favorite parts of the visit.
A Conventillo Turned Into a Gallery
Walk down Magallanes, the other street leading out of the Caminito corner, and after a few steps on the right side you’ll find Centro Cultural de los Artistas. It’s a conventillo turned into a gallery for artists of different disciplines and souvenir shops. You get a chance to picture a conventillo from the inside: the main alleyway, the rooms, and the balcony.
Where to Eat in Caminito
There are plenty of good choices in the Caminito area and La Boca. You just have to know where to look.
Banchero – Av. Almte. Brown 1220
Fugazzeta is the staple Argentine pizza. Genovese immigrants brought focaccia to La Boca, and Juan Banchero, son of one of them, is credited with splitting the dough in two, stuffing it with mozzarella, and topping it with grilled sweet onions. Banchero has been in La Boca since 1932, opened by Juan himself, and it’s still the restaurant associated with the dish’s invention. It’s a proper sit-down spot, though Avenida Almirante Brown falls outside the busier blocks with visible police presence covered in the safety section above, so plan accordingly.
La Gran Pocha – Olavarría 707
For a version right on the Caminito circuit itself, no detour required, La Gran Pocha, Olavarría 707, is a literal hole in the wall. Don’t get discouraged by the place — the owner behind the counter means business, and he serves one of the best fugazzetas around.
Caminito Tango Show – Dr. del Valle Iberlucea 1151
I have to admit I was hesitant at first. The name, Caminito Tango Show, had all the tells of a tourist trap. I was wrong, and I’m glad we went. The show was excellent, with talented dancers and live music from an equally talented guitarist. The empanadas and the provoletta — provolone-style cheese grilled with oregano and spices — were excellent, and went great with a glass of Malbec. If you want to add a tango lunch to your Caminito visit, this is a great option.
La Bombonera: Touring Boca Juniors’ Stadium
Just three blocks from Caminito, on Dr. del Valle Iberlucea, you reach not just a stadium, but a football temple, a place where sport and passion become one. Inaugurated in 1940, the Bombonera’s classic D shape matches a box of chocolates, or bombones in Spanish, painted in the blue and yellow colors of Boca Juniors, one of the most popular clubs in Argentina and renowned around the world. Locals and tourists alike come from all over to watch El Superclásico, the derby between Boca and their fiercest rival, River Plate.
Museo de la Pasión Boquense – A Museum Dedicated to Boca Juniors
Is the Boca Museum Worth it?
The entrance does not come cheap, not by Buenos Aires standards. The ticket including the museum and the tour of the stadium, the option that makes more sense, is about USD 35 for foreigners and USD 23 for Argentine residents. So is it worth it? Let me break it down.
If you are anything close to a fan of Boca Juniors, most likely you will give them the wallet and tell them to take as much as they want, so this question is not for you. If you are a football fan, it is still definitely worth it. You get to stand on the Bombonera pitch, sit in the stands, and see plenty of memorabilia in the museum.
For the rest, my wife has some knowledge of football, enough to know who Maradona is, and she found the museum and the tour interesting. Worth the 35 dollars? Marginally, but still a yes, in her opinion.
The Boca Museum and tour is a very popular attraction, and tours of the stadium have a maximum attendance. If you want to visit the stadium and pitch, I recommend making advance reservations to avoid disappointment. You can reserve through the GetYourGuide link below. We make a small commission at no extra cost to you, which helps keep this site running. Thanks!
Diego Armando Maradona – El Pibe Memorabilia in the Boca Museum
The figure of Diego Armando Maradona, El Pibe de Oro, El Diez, or simply El Diego, is adored in Argentina and revered in La Boca. His first club was Argentinos Juniors, but he later played for Boca, his club at heart. The museum has a whole area dedicated to him: boots, shirts, and personal items sit alongside his farewell jersey.
“La Doce” Boca’s Passionate Followers
The tour was guided by an enthusiastic bostera (we’ll explain). You go through the stadium, get to scream goal at the stands, step into the locker rooms, and get firsthand knowledge of Boca, its history, and the reasons behind the passion.
Boca’s followers are known as La 12, because they consider themselves the 12th player — if you ever witness a game at La Bombonera, you’ll understand it better. As for bosteros, it comes from bosta, literally dung. Rivals started using it as an insult, referencing the horse manure once found in the area where the stadium was built. Boquenses now embrace the nickname with pride.
Watching a football match in Buenos Aires
Going to a football match is not as easy as opening Ticketmaster and choosing a seat. Tickets are officially available only to members of whichever club is hosting the match. This policy was introduced to avoid violent clashes between rival fans.
For any football fan, watching a game in Buenos Aires is a unique experience that I wholeheartedly recommend. I usually scout tickets among my friends and find a way. For a visitor, this is somewhat more complex. One option is to check with your hotel concierge, but even if you get a ticket, the logistics of getting to the stadium can be complex. There are services available to tourists, like GetYourGuide below, that can arrange it for you.
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Museo Benito Quinquela Martín
Tuesday to Friday 10am to 6pm; Saturday and Sunday, 11:45am to 6pm.
Before leaving Caminito, a good stop if you have extra time is the excellent Museo Benito Quinquela Martín (we saw his statue by the Caminito sign earlier). It has a collection of Quinquela Martín’s paintings that depicted the lives of dock workers and the streets of La Boca. It was also his actual former residence and studio, and houses articles, furniture, and memorabilia from his life.
It’s actually a fascinating story: an orphan adopted at seven by a couple, a Genovese immigrant and an indigenous Argentine woman from Entre Ríos. The museum also has exhibits from other artists, a room of carved wooden ship figureheads (mascarones de proa) that Quinquela personally rescued from scrapped ships in the 1930s, and a window with a view of El Riachuelo and Isla Maciel on the other side.
Caminito and San Telmo in One Day
If you have limited time in Buenos Aires, a good combination is to do Caminito in the morning and San Telmo in the afternoon. Check our San Telmo guide here. You might need to skip some stops, but both neighborhoods are next to each other, and it can be done.
Once again, a word of caution: while they are within walking distance, walking between them means venturing outside the Caminito area and into streets we flagged as unsafe for tourists earlier. Better to take an Uber or Cabify instead.
As always, happy travels.
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