Palermo is one of my favorite Buenos Aires neighborhoods, and the perfect place for a longer stay if you are slow traveling in the city. On this trip, I stayed for ten days to fully enjoy it. I walked as many streets as I could, looking for street art and that coffee shop away from the main drag. I mixed tourist stops at museums with shopping at local grocery stores. In this blog, I share all of that with you and compare the different sub-neighborhoods, from the suburban feel of Palermo Soho to the nightlife of Palermo Hollywood, to help you decide where to stay.
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Table of Contents
A Map to Find Which Palermo Neighborhood Is Right for You.
Palermo is the largest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Over the years, shop owners and real estate agents have come up with unofficial names for different parts of the neighborhood that share some distinctive features.
Hover or tap over each section of the map below for a quick take on what sets it apart, so you can figure out where to base yourself.
- Palermo Soho
- Palermo Hollywood
- Palermo Botánico
- Palermo Chico
- Bosques de Palermo
- Villa Freud
- Alto Palermo
Is Palermo Worth Visiting?
If you’re staying in Buenos Aires four full days or more, spend one day in Palermo. You are going to be walking through lived-in streets, visiting some of the best museums in the city and some of its most photogenic spots. There’s plenty of cafés and restaurants to choose from, and night spots to have a good time.
Also, if you are planning a long stay, Palermo would be my number one pick for a base. Plenty of Airbnb apartments to choose from, access to mass transit, Buenos Aires’ largest park for jogging or biking, and a neighborhood feel that’s going to feel like home.
One Day in Palermo Buenos Aires
With one day, you won’t cover everything in this guide, but similar points of interest cluster well enough to build a route around whatever interests you most.
The neighborhood and street art tour: Focus on Palermo Soho and Hollywood. Walk the pasajes and small squares, stop by Mercado de Pulgas, and grab coffee along the way.
The museum and mansions tour: Start at MALBA, walk through Palermo Chico, and finish at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo. With extra time, walk or Uber over to Palermo Soho.
The nature and landscaping tour: Start at Jardín Botánico, walk through Ecoparque into Bosques de Palermo, and visit El Rosedal and the sights nearby. With extra time, add Jardín Japonés.
Mix and match from there — these three cover the ground, but nothing says you have to stick to one.
Is Palermo Safe?
Palermo is considered one of the safest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. I never felt unsafe in Palermo, and there is a visible police presence. Still, normal precautions are warranted; do not venture at night on empty streets, and wear your bag cross-shoulder on the building side.
The Bosques de Palermo area turns into a de facto red light district after dark and is better avoided at night.
For information purposes only, not professional advice. Read our disclaimer.
Where to Stay in Palermo
This section contains affiliate links. If you book a stay, we make a small commission that helps us keep the blog running at no extra cost to you, and your Genius discount still applies.
There is no shortage of good hotels in Palermo, and some of the best boutique hotel offerings in Buenos Aires.
Jardín Escondido, a Francis Coppola property. Palermo Soho. Luxury (above USD400).
Hideaway with only seven rooms. The kind of place where the hotel stay is an integral part of the experience. Seven rooms in a renovated private home, with a central garden, parrilla, and heated pool. It has stellar reviews across all traveler sites.
Pleno Palermo Soho. Premium (above USD200). A modern building, a few meters from Don Julio restaurant and an easy walk to Botánico and Bosques de Palermo. It has great online reviews and a location that’s hard to beat.
Apartments. (From USD50). In this long stay, I decided on an apartment. There are plenty to choose from, and most buildings in the area are modern with great amenities.
How to get to Palermo
Palermo is large, so how easily you can reach public transit depends on exactly where you’re staying.
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, the domestic and short-haul international airport, sits inside Palermo itself — expect a short drive to wherever you’re staying in the neighborhood.
The Buenos Aires subte’s D line runs from Catedral to Congreso de Tucumán, cutting through Palermo along Avenida Santa Fe with several stops, including Plaza Italia, where several city bus (colectivo) lines converge.
Two train stations serve Palermo: Lisandro de la Torre, on the Tigre line (direct route to Tigre), and Carranza, also Mitre line, where you can pick up the Tren de la Costa for the scenic route to Tigre — check our Tren de la Costa blog.
Uber and its local competitor Cabify are cheap for short trips, rush-hour traffic aside. Skip street-hailed taxis: most drivers are honest, but there’s a real risk of getting overcharged or worse as a tourist, especially if you don’t speak Spanish
Palermo Soho: Boutiques, Murals, and Plaza Life
Palermo Soho is my favorite area to make my base. As you walk west from Botánico, the high-rise apartment buildings start to transform into lower-density units and classic single-family homes on cobblestone streets. You have plenty of restaurants and coffee shops to choose from, you’re close enough to the Bosques for your morning jog, and there’s plenty of green space of its own. But it is more than a base, a place that rewards those who like to walk and look around.
Few things Argentineans enjoy more than having an asado with friends. Meats, sausages, cheeses on the grill, good wine, stories, and laughs. And the usual “¡Viva el asador!” to celebrate the master griller who organized the event. Betty and Marcelo offer the experience in Palermo Soho, and it’s the highest-rated activity on Viator. Reserve through the link below – it doesn’t cost you more, and it helps us keep the blog going.
Plaza Serrano and Plaza Armenia
Palermo Soho has two plazas where you will see all the elements of a neighborhood: benches, playgrounds, weekend craft-markets, people walking dogs and drinking mate. Plaza Inmigrantes de Armenia is the larger one, with a lovely fountain and plenty of places to sit. Plaza Serrano is smaller and has the Palermo sign. Its official name is Plazoleta Julio Cortázar, after the acclaimed Argentine writer. At night both areas are bordered by restaurants and bars. Armenia is more oriented to gastronomy and Serrano more of a bar scene.
The small squares of Palermo Soho
Walk through Palermo Soho and you’ll cross plazoletas — small public squares, most around 500 square meters. Two are worth stopping for.
Plazoleta Luna de Enfrente
At Soler and Gurruchaga, this one runs a working vegetable garden next to wall-sized murals — hummingbirds, a girl with flowers in her hair, a pixel-art portrait covering the building behind it.
Patio de Marruecos
At Nicaragua and Gurruchaga, a square built through a collaboration between the city government and the Moroccan Embassy. Geometric paths cut through gardens of palm trees, fruit trees, and aromatic plants, leading to a Moroccan-style fountain the embassy funded, plus two more water features and ornamental details reflecting Moroccan design.
Street Art in the Palermo Soho Pasajes
Palermo Soho is known for its alleyways, or pasajes: narrow cobblestone streets running one or two blocks. The houses along them are covered in murals by talented working artists — actual works of art, not the spray-painted graffiti you’ll also spot around the neighborhood. These aren’t done in secret either: the property owner has to approve the work first, since a good mural raises the house’s value rather than defacing it. The best examples are on Pasaje Russel and Pasaje Cabrer.
If you want to go deeper on the neighborhood’s street art, a guided street art tour will tell you the story behind the art and make sure you don’t miss a thing.
Upscale Shopping in Palermo Soho
Palermo Soho is also a shopping destination for independent Argentine designers — clothing boutiques, leather goods, high-end Argentine brands. Bargains aren’t the point here; originality and quality are.
Divina Bolivia (Nicaragua 4908) is an eclectic boutique built around Andean motifs, floral prints, and a retro look — good for an unexpected gift, not the standard souvenir.
Sabater Fábrica de Jabones (Gurruchaga 1821) is exactly that: a soap factory, with every kind of soap you can think of and packaging worth a second look. Perfect for a thoughtful gift to bring back home.
Cardón (Gurruchaga 1649) is my favorite Argentine clothing brand — gaucho themes, luxury fabrics, a classic cut. Argentina’s answer to Polo.
Palermo Hollywood
From Palermo Soho you walk west under the railroad lines, cross Juan B. Justo Avenue, and move into Palermo Hollywood. The area was traditionally home to open-air TV studios and is still a hub for studios and media companies today – Disney Argentina’s corporate offices are here, – hence the name. At night, the area fills with trendy bars and destination restaurants; more on that in the Where to Play section below.
The area is more residential than Palermo Soho: fewer restaurants, coffee shops, and shopping options, more medium-density buildings, and fewer old, classic houses. Still a good option for a long stay, but if you’re after restaurants, coffee culture, and a more dynamic stay overall, I’d rather stay in Palermo Soho.
In Palermo Hollywood, Tango Secreto offers a unique traditional tango show that has stellar reviews. Live music, talented dancers, and a cozy atmosphere. Reserve through our GetYourGuide affiliate link below — it doesn’t cost you more, and it helps us keep the blog going.
Plaza Mafalda
Unlike Palermo Soho, Hollywood has no green spaces of its own. On its northern boundary, technically in Colegiales, you’ll find Plazas Clemente and Mafalda, named after two beloved Argentine comic characters. Plaza Mafalda has sections named after characters from the strip, with murals reproducing each of them. Quino, Mafalda’s creator, attended the plaza’s inauguration in 1995. For the most photographed Mafalda in Buenos Aires, check our San Telmo blog.
Mercado de las Pulgas
Av. Dorrego 1650 · Tuesday to Sunday, 11 to 19, closed Mondays
Mercado de las Pulgas (flea market) is a large enclosed market with antiques, curios, crafts, and small wooden furniture. The place is extensive. If you’re after shopping for these items, you’ll find better prices and selection here than at open-air fairs like the one in San Telmo. Even if you’re only window-shopping, it’s photogenic enough to be worth a stop if you’re in the area.
Palermo Botánico
Palermo Botánico is the area around the botanical gardens. It’s a good base if you want easy jogging or biking access, you’re right at the doorstep of Bosques de Palermo. You’re also on or close to Santa Fe on the D line of the metro (subte), with access to the rest of the city. Avenida Santa Fe has also plenty of restaurants and stores. The hotel and apartment offering here is thinner than in Soho and Hollywood, but you’ll find options like CasaSur Bellini Hotel with solid online reviews.
Buenos Aires Botanical Garden
Admission free
Tuesday to Friday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays: 9:30 AM – 6:00 PM
Monday: Closed
Hours extend by an hour outside the winter months — check before you go
Bring some type of photo document to present at the door
Founded in 1898, the Buenos Aires botanical garden carries the European elegance of the city’s turn-of-the-20th-century architecture. It covers 7.7 hectares and holds more than 1,500 plant species. There’s also a butterfly garden, though it’s not always open — I got lucky the day I visited. Sundays are a good bet. Add statues, fountains, and greenhouses scattered through the grounds, and it’s worth a visit if you’re in the area.
Ecoparque – Buenos Aires Zoo
Admission: Free
Tuesday to Sunday: 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Monday: Closed
Bring some type of photo document to present at the door
I don’t like zoos and haven’t visited one in years. The Ecoparque’s pitch — conservation, education, reintegrating animals into the wild — got me through the gate, and the grounds back it up: well-maintained, historic buildings, an easy afternoon walking Palermo’s green corridor. But the place is genuinely in transition. Hundreds of animals have been relocated since 2016, and some of what remains makes sense — capybaras roam semi-freely near the lakes, close enough to their natural behavior to be defensible. The giraffes are harder: the transport crate can’t clear Buenos Aires’ bridges, a real constraint, yet they’re still on the standard visitor path, which makes the “we’re not a zoo” framing hard to sustain.
For other species the reasoning is less clear. Primate reintroduction programs exist across Latin America with solid track records — Argentina has one underway for the red howler monkey in Misiones — and why the Ecoparque’s own primates have no visible pathway toward something similar is a question the park doesn’t answer, not at the enclosures, not anywhere. That absence of explanation is the core problem: every animal on display warrants a specific, honest account of why it’s there and what the plan is. Without it, the conservation narrative is branding. What you make of that is your call. Personally, I left disappointed.
Museo Evita – Palacio Carabassa
Lafinur 2988
Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 AM–7:00 PM; closed Mondays
General admission: Residents USD 3 – Non Residents USD 7, audioguide included
Free guided tour in Spanish, Tuesday to Sunday at 4:00 PM, ~60 minutes, first-come-first-served, no reservation.
The museum is housed in Palacio Carabassa, a French-style mansion built in 1923 and remodeled a few years later by architect Estanislao Pirovano with a neo-Renaissance, Italian-Spanish touch. In 1948, Eva Perón’s foundation acquired it and turned it into a transit home, temporary housing for women arriving in Buenos Aires. You get to walk through the mansion itself: a marble staircase, wrought iron details, ornate finishes throughout. The museum also displays some of Eva Perón’s actual outfits, personal memorabilia, and audiovisual pieces covering her life.
I did the guided tour and found it excruciatingly long and a rather romanticized view of Eva Perón‘s life, one that does a disservice to the real person behind the icon. The museum is worth knowing about overall, but if you’re short on time in Palermo, I’d give this one a pass unless you have a specific interest in her life.
Bosques de Palermo (Palermo Woods)
The parks collectively known as Bosques de Palermo, officially Parque Tres de Febrero, make up Buenos Aires’ largest green space: a roughly 400-hectare urban park. Large chunks of it aren’t open to the public, or come with a fee — the public golf course, an exclusive tennis club and the hipódromo (racetrack). Porteños treat it as their own regardless: mornings bring hundreds of joggers to the paths.
The Buenos Aires marathon and half marathon both start and finish here, at Avenida Figueroa Alcorta and Dorrego, near the Planetario. The half marathon alone draws more than 31,000 runners and ranks among the five biggest in the world. It runs every August — I’ve done it once, and I’d recommend it without hesitation.
Monumento de los Españoles (Monument to the Spaniards)
The Monumento de los Españoles marks the western edge of Parque Tres de Febrero, at the corner of Sarmiento and Del Libertador. At 25 meters of marble and bronze, it earns the word ‘monumental.’ Buenos Aires’ Spanish community donated it for the 1910 centenary of the Revolución de Mayo – the 1810 revolution that ended rule from Spain – though it wasn’t finished until 1927. The inscription at its base reads ‘A la Nación Argentina en su primer centenario, por España sus hijos’ (‘To the Argentine Nation on its centenary, from Spain’s children’)
El Rosedal (the Rose Garden)
One of the most popular features of Bosques de Palermo, the rose garden holds a collection of 18,000 roses, designed by Carlos Thays, the same landscape architect behind the Jardín Botánico. The roses, the lake, and its Greek bridge make it a favorite scene for photography. October is peak rose season, and every year on September 21, high school students flood the park to celebrate the first day of spring and “Students’ Day.”
Jardín de los Poetas (Poets Garden)
Right next to El Rosedal is the Jardín de los Poetas, home to 26 busts of literary greats. Among them: Tagore, Shakespeare, Dante, Gibran and of course Argentina’s own Jorge Luis Borges, the peerless master of short fiction. I can hear Borges saying, in his characteristic humility, “I am merely a reader, who had the idea of putting me next to Shakespeare”.
Patio Andaluz
South of El Rosedal, just past the Jardín de los Poetas, sits the Patio Andaluz. The space centers on a fountain framed by pergolas, with Sevillian tiles depicting scenes from Cervantes’ Quixote. Seville donated the patio, inaugurated in 1929
Planetario Galileo Galilei
The Planetario Galileo Galilei is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Buenos Aires. The dome-shaped structure, often likened to a landed UFO, was built in the 1960s. It’s since been renovated twice, most recently in 2017, adding 8K digital projection and an interactive robot named Galibot. Along with regular sky shows, the small museum inside displays a lunar rock from Apollo 11. Check the planetarium’s website for the current schedule.
Jardín Japonés (Japanese Garden)
Open daily, 10:00 AM–6:45 PM. Admission: USD 5 for residents and USD 16 for no residents at time of writing.
The Jardín Japonés was built in 1967 by Buenos Aires’ Japanese community, timed to the first-ever visit to Argentina by a member of Japan’s Imperial Family: then-Crown Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko. It’s said to be the largest Japanese-style garden outside Japan.
It has everything you’d expect from a Japanese garden: bridges, azaleas, koi, pagodas, and the star of the show, cherry blossoms (sakura). Peak bloom usually runs mid-July to early August, and the blossoms are gone within a couple of weeks. The walk is worth it in any season, with plenty of photo opportunities regardless of timing.
Admission isn’t cheap for a family, so if Japanese-style landscaping isn’t your thing and you’re visiting outside sakura season, skip it and spend the time at the free rose garden, El Rosedal, instead. You can wander as long as you like, though 45 minutes covers it comfortably with time for photos. There’s also a restaurant on-site, where you can get sushi on a terrace overlooking the garden.
Palermo Chico
Palermo Chico, also known as Barrio Parque, is one of Palermo’s smaller sub-neighborhoods — the name literally means “Little Palermo.” Landscape architect Carlos Thays designed its layout in 1912, breaking from the city’s grid entirely: curving, radial streets instead of straight avenues, with Ombú the strangest of them, a street that forms a full circle. The area was once part of an estancia owned by wealthy Argentine landowning families, later subdivided into mansion lots, most of which still stand from the early 1900s.
There’s nowhere to book a room here: no hotels, no rental apartments, just private homes. Ownership has shifted since — some mansions now belong to Argentine media stars, and in 2026 tech billionaire Peter Thiel bought one at Dardo Rocha 2928, designed by renowned architect Alejandro Bustillo, for USD 12 million.
Just across the railroad tracks, a few minutes from all that wealth, sits Villa 31, officially renamed Barrio Padre Carlos Mugica, an informal settlement undergoing a decade-long, still-incomplete urbanization effort, where many residents have no reliable access to water. This is not a place to wander alone as a tourist. Nowhere in the city is inequality more evident.
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano – MALBA
Open Thursday to Monday, 12:00 PM–8:00 PM / Wednesday, 11:00 AM–8:00 PM / Closed Tuesdays /
General admission about USD 8
If you have to pick one art museum for your Buenos Aires visit, this is it. The Museum of Latin American Art, MALBA was founded in 2001 by Argentine art collector Eduardo Costantini, and it houses his collection of modern Latin American art. The permanent collection includes works by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Antonio Berni, among many others. The building itself was purpose-built through an international design competition, and the open galleries make the perfect setting for the paintings.
It also runs temporary exhibits, but the permanent collection is the real draw. This is a museum built around quality, not quantity, and it can be visited comfortably in under two hours. There’s also a solid restaurant on-site, Coronado, with a bright room overlooking the park outside. Reservations are worth making ahead.
The mansions of Palermo Chico
Palermo Chico is compact enough to walk end to end, stopping along the way for architectural details that swing from classic French to Belle Époque and everything in between. A few standouts:
Casa Redonda
Casa Redonda, on the corner of Eduardo Costa and Ortiz de Ocampo, is a 1922 eclectic build by architect Mario Palanti, the same architect behind Palacio Barolo, featured in our Buenos Aires One Day Walking Tour. Look for the oriental-influenced details worked into the columns, a technique Palanti also used on the Barolo.
Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano
At Mariscal Ramón Castilla 2752, is a scaled-up reproduction of the house in Grand Bourg, France, where Argentina’s foremost hero José de San Martín lived out his exile — about a third larger than the original. Built between 1941 and 1946, it now houses the country’s leading San Martín research archive.
Belgian Embassy / Mansión Tornquist
The Belgian ambassador’s residence, at Rufino de Elizalde 2830, is a Parisian-style mansion designed in 1930 by architect Alejandro Bustillo for banker Carlos Tornquist. The Tornquist family lived there only two years before selling it to the Belgian government in 1932.
Casa Victoria Ocampo
Directly across the street, at Rufino de Elizalde 2831, sits Casa Victoria Ocampo, designed by the same architect, Alejandro Bustillo, for the avant-garde writer and editor in 1928. It could not look more different: a white, flat-roofed, unornamented rationalist building, a direct rejection of everything the embassy represents. Bustillo, a committed classicist, was reportedly uneasy enough with the result that he declined to put his name on the facade. The design caused a real stir among neighbors and city authorities at the time, clashing hard with the French-style architecture all around it.
Museo de Arte Decorativo – Palacio Errázuriz Alvear (Museum of Decorative Arts)
Open Wednesday to Sunday, 1:00 PM–7:00 PM (last entry 6:30 PM)
Free admission
Walking into the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo gives you an idea of just how wealthy Argentina’s landowning families were in the early 20th century. Housed in the Palacio Errázuriz Alvear, the building doesn’t just match the Gilded Age mansions of the US East Coast, it beats most of them outright.
Built in 1911 for diplomat Matías Errázuriz and his wife Josefina de Alvear, the palace is French neoclassical on the outside. The collection, drawn from the Errázuriz Alvear family’s own holdings, includes an autograph El Greco, a Rodin sculpture, and rooms full of period French furniture. The collection is genuinely impressive, but the building steals the show: the grand hall runs two stories tall, with a wraparound balcony on the second floor and a coffered wood ceiling set with stained glass.
There’s also an elegant café in the palace gardens, a good spot for lunch if you want to feel briefly like you’re in France. This is another Palermo stop I recommend without hesitation.
Alto Palermo
Alto Palermo takes its name from the shopping mall that opened at the corner of Avenida Santa Fe and Avenida Coronel Díaz in 1990. Like every other Palermo sub-neighborhood, its boundaries were never officially drawn. The loose consensus runs from Parque Las Heras over to Avenida Santa Fe, right around the mall itself.
What you’ll find here is luxury high-rises and a genuine concentration of apartments for rent, but none of the character that defines its Palermo neighbors. Good access to shopping and mass transit, and not much else. A handful of small hotels round out the options if you end up staying here.
Villa Freud
Starting in the 1960s, psychoanalysts began setting up private practices west of Avenida Santa Fe, and the neighborhood took its nickname, Villa Freud, from two cafés near Plaza Güemes, Sigi and Freud, that became informal gathering spots for the profession. Argentina has the highest number of psychologists per capita in the world, more than triple Finland’s second-place rate. It’s a strange enough fact that it made it into an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, who got his own on-camera therapy session while filming in the city.
The area feels closer to Barrio Norte than to Palermo: back-to-back standard high-rise apartments are the norm, and the streets lack the character of Palermo Soho just to the north. The heart of the neighborhood is the lovely Plaza Güemes, where seven streets meet in an unusual layout, anchored by the Basílica del Espíritu Santo, a blend of neo-Romanesque and neo-Gothic elements inaugurated in 1907.
You’ll find a good supply of apartments and solid mass transit if this area suits you. There are also plenty of boutique hotels, including the excellently rated Magnolia Hotel Boutique — 4.9 stars over nearly a thousand reviews in TripAdvisor — with sharply decorated rooms, wood floors, and a terrace.
Where to eat in Palermo
Palermo has one of the most active gastronomy offers of the city. Here are some recommended spots:
Palermo Coffeeshops
Kaldi Specialty Coffee – Palermo Soho – Nicaragua 4604
Located by Plaza Armenia with outside sitting serves excellent lates, homemade pastries and light brunch items.
Casa Dingo – Palermo Soho – Armenia 1908. Just opposite to Kaldi. Also great coffee with the addition of inside seating and more lunch food options (their signature dish is Turkish Eggs)
Palermo Restaurants
I love parrilla in all its forms, and during my stay I visited three in Palermo Soho, reviewed below. But first, let’s talk about the obvious one: Don Julio, the most talked-about restaurant in the area and Michelin-starred. My apartment was half a block away, and I walked past it daily, always busy, people lined up on the sidewalk sipping sparkling wine. The crowd is almost entirely tourists, which I tend to avoid. Reservations run months in advance. A steak here runs about USD 80, reasonable by international standards but three times what I’d pay at a comparable parrilla in the city, well past my budget for this trip.
I ate at three parrillas in Palermo Soho this trip, and I’d happily return to any of them. Average prices per person when I visited, including wine, are noted for each. I’ll walk through them here, saving the one I enjoyed the most for last.
Minga, Costa Rica 4528 Palermo Soho (USD 40 per person including wine)
Sits right on Plaza Armenia with both outdoor and indoor seating. The decor and music feel more like an upscale lounge than a classic parrilla, but the beef delivers. I ordered two of my favorite Argentine cuts, tira de asado and entraña, and neither disappointed.
La Escondida, Costa Rica 4464 Palermo Soho (USD 40 per person).
A large restaurant with a rustic Argentine interior and an airy, well-spaced estancia-barn feel. I had one of the best ojo de bife (ribeye) cuts of the trip here, perfectly cooked with extraordinary flavor. Crispy fries and a fresh rúcula salad with parmesan rounded it out. A memorable dinner.
Buenos Aires’ culinary staples go well beyond the beloved parrilla, and my favorite is the bodegón. The name comes from bodega (cellar), and the format traces back to Spanish immigrants who came to Buenos Aires and opened businesses, some starting as a grocery store with a few tables added. The dishes lean Spanish: tortilla de papas, calamares, and paella, alongside local additions like milanesa. I prefer the traditional bodegones in Montserrat or San Cristóbal, in the south of the city, but in Palermo I tried:
La Torca, Costa Rica 4001, sits just south of Palermo Soho by Plaza Unidad Latinoamericana. (USD 30 per person)
The building started as a neighborhood bakery in 1890, and a Spanish family converted it into a restaurant within the last decade, keeping the original ovens. Portions are immense, meant to be shared. Rabas (fried calamari), tortilla de papas, and paella are all good bets. If you want to try a bodegón without traveling far, this is a solid option in Palermo.
Where to Play in Palermo
Palermo, like the rest of Buenos Aires, has no shortage of places to go out. Here’s what I’d recommend.
Casa del Habano: Gorriti 4325. South of Palermo Soho.
It sits south of Palermo Soho, in a stretch of the neighborhood that hasn’t picked up a name yet, though it probably will soon. The space is large: comfortable sofas, good air circulation, a solid spirits list, and a humidor stocked with a wide selection of cigars, staff who know what they’re talking about. I’ve been to plenty of Casa del Habano locations around the world, and the Buenos Aires branch holds its own against the best of them.
Uptown Arévalo 2030 Palermo Hollywood
Palermo has plenty of speakeasies, and my pick is Uptown, one of the more Instagrammable night spots in Buenos Aires. The whole place is set up like a New York subway station, and you enter through a prop subway car that opens to let you through. It sounds gimmicky, but the effect works: you head downstairs, cross through the car, and land in a luxurious space with a long bar stacked with rows of bottles beneath a soaring arched ceiling. Get there before midnight on weekends, or you’ll be waiting in line.
Plaza Serrano after dark, Palermo Soho
By day it’s a sleepy neighborhood square, but at night it transforms into a lively strip of restaurants and bars with outdoor tables. It’s the kind of place you can grab a couple of beers with friends without worrying about a dress code. Skip the research: just walk around, find an open table, and settle in.
One Day in Palermo Buenos Aires
With one day, you won’t cover everything in this guide, but similar points of interest cluster well enough to build a route around whatever interests you most.
The neighborhood and street art tour: Focus on Palermo Soho and Hollywood. Walk the pasajes and small squares, stop by Mercado de Pulgas, and grab coffee along the way.
The museum and mansions tour: Start at MALBA, walk through Palermo Chico, and finish at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo. With extra time, walk or Uber over to Palermo Soho.
The nature and landscaping tour: Start at Jardín Botánico, walk through Ecoparque into Bosques de Palermo, and visit El Rosedal and the sights nearby. With extra time, add Jardín Japonés.
Mix and match from there — these three cover the ground, but nothing says you have to stick to one.
How to Organize 4 Days in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires rewards travelers willing to go beyond the standard landmarks. In our Buenos Aires guides, One day in Buenos Aires: Local’s Essential Walking Tourwe try to bring some porteño flavor so you can immerse yourself in the city properly. If you have five nights in Buenos Aires, here’s an itinerary that will give you a great panoramic view of the city and its surroundings.
Day 1: Walking Tour of Buenos Aires Essentials
Day 2: Caminito and San Telmo
Day 3: Palermo
Day 4: Day trip to either Tigre or Colonia.
If you have any questions, or think there’s a place I should have added, use the comments below. And as always, happy travels.
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