Apartments in Buenos Aires: For the Affluent and the Modest

If you are going for a visit, a holiday, or to live permanently in Buenos Aires, you are assured of one thing. Whatever your whims or wishes, or your purse constraints, you will find just the apartment to suit you.

Rooms, hotels and apartments range from the simplest of back street accommodations to apartments worthy of princes and film stars.

As far as the most lavish and expensive apartment in Buenos Aires goes, it is generally agreed that one apartment tops them all.

In 1936, the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world was built in Buenos Aires. It was 120 meters tall, just under 400 feet. This is the Kavanagh Building, and is still the tallest apartment block in South America.

Its whole 14th floor is given over to one apartment. This is luxury at its most impressive. The lift stops at its front door and the whole apartment is spread out over just under 2,000 square feet, plus another 800 odd square feet of terrace gardens.

It consists of several reception rooms and five en suite bedrooms.

The bathrooms are finished in imported marble. One of the reception rooms has a reinforced glass floor and another has a floor to ceiling aquarium.

This apartment currently rents out for approximately $5,000 US per week.

It is so beautiful that it has been chosen as the venue for several high profile social receptions.

As far as views go, it has spectacular vistas of its terraced gardens, with Buenos Aires below, overlooking the beautiful Plaza San Martin, and the River Plate spread beyond the city. In the distance, you can catch glimpses of Uruguay across the water.

At the other end of the spectrum, it is far less clear which is the cheapest accommodation available in Buenos Aires. Some estimates go well below $10 per person per night, and these are mostly for hostels.

You seem to get basically two types of hostels. One kind is just a place for a weary backpacker to rest his head for the night and move on after a day or two. Here you are usually offered dormitory accommodation, and the simplest amenities. You are likely to mix with young people who are mostly foreign tourists.

Some are a little more sophisticated and offer more for not very much more money. They offer communal recreational areas where you can watch TV, play pool, get internet access, and enjoy social gatherings with mostly other young people or possibly young families.

Then we come to family run hostels, often in really old historic buildings that have been renovated, but still retain the atmosphere of yesteryears. They advertise a ‘home from home’ type of accommodation. Their greatest draw card is that they offer you the chance to rub shoulders with the citizens of Buenos Aires and show you what the ordinary peoples’ homes and culture are really like.

In between these two extremes, there is an endless variety of guest houses, apartments Buenos Aires and hotels, offering every sort of accommodation at a whole range of prices.