Your Buenos Aires Honeymoon, Planned to Perfection

Ezeiza International Airport is 35km from the city center. Puerto Madero — the converted 19th-century docklands immediately east of the historic center, rebuilt in the 1990s as Buenos Aires' premium dining and residential district — is the most visually striking first impression of the city: the red brick brick dock buildings housing restaurants with river views, the iconic Puente de la Mujer (Woman Bridge, 2001, by Santiago Calatrava) swinging on its pivot over the dock basin, and the Ecological Reserve of Puerto Madero beyond. A first dinner at one of Puerto Madero's parillas — Cabaña Las Lilas or Cabana Mayor — for an introduction to Argentine steak culture: a bife de chorizo, mollejas (sweetbreads), and a bottle of Malbec from Mendoza. Buenos Aires beef is extraordinary and the parilla culture — long, leisurely, wine-soaked — is a specifically Argentine social institution.

• ✦ Puerto Madero docklands and the Calatrava Puente de la Mujer
• ✦ Ecological Reserve at sunset facing the Río de la Plata
• ✦ First Argentine parilla dinner — bife de chorizo and Malbec
• ✦ Puerto Madero evening promenade

Recoleta is Buenos Aires' most aristocratic neighborhood — a labyrinth of French-style palaces, great cafés, and the extraordinary Recoleta Cemetery, where the city's great and powerful have been buried in elaborate above-ground mausolea since 1822. The cemetery contains 4,691 vaults, many of extraordinary architectural quality, in a city-within-the-city of avenues, chapels, and monuments. Eva Perón's grave (Evita, the most iconic figure in Argentine history) is here — always covered in flowers. The National Museum of Fine Arts nearby has the best collection of Argentine art in the country and an excellent collection of European masters. Cafe Tortoni on the Avenida de Mayo — open since 1858, the oldest and most beautiful café in Buenos Aires, with marble columns, stained glass, and the ghosts of Borges and García Marquez in its booths — for afternoon coffee and pastries.

• ✦ Recoleta Cemetery — the city of the dead with marble palaces
• ✦ Evita Perón's grave — always covered in flowers
• ✦ National Museum of Fine Arts — Argentine painting and European masters
• ✦ Café Tortoni — the most beautiful café in South America since 1858

San Telmo is Buenos Aires' oldest neighborhood — a district of 19th-century colonial buildings with cobblestone streets where the city's antique market, tango culture, and bohemian life are concentrated. The San Telmo Market (open daily but most atmospheric on Sunday) is a magnificent 19th-century iron-and-glass market building full of antique dealers, street food stalls, and live tango performers. The Sunday Feria (outdoor market) on the Plaza Dorrego extends the market into the surrounding streets. La Boca, 2km south, is where tango was born in the 1880s: the Caminito street art district and the brightly painted zinc houses on stilts above the Riachuelo canal are the most photographed images in Buenos Aires. Boca Juniors's La Bombonera stadium is here; the club museum traces the history of the world's most passionate football culture.

• ✦ San Telmo Market Sunday feria and tango demonstrations
• ✦ La Boca Caminito — colored zinc houses and street art
• ✦ Boca Juniors La Bombonera stadium and museum
• ✦ Tango milonga booking for the evening

A tango evening is non-negotiable in Buenos Aires. Two options: the milonga — a genuine dance hall where Portenos (Buenos Aires residents) dance tango from midnight to 4am (La Catedral, Club Noctambulo, or Salon Canning for authentic milongas where real skill is required and appreciated) — or the tango show, where professional dancers perform on stage for tourists (El Viejo Almacén in San Telmo and La Viruta in Palermo are the most genuine of these, with live orchestra). Take a tango lesson in the afternoon at one of San Telmo's many dance schools — even beginners learn the embrace and the basic step in 90 minutes, and the context makes the evening performance a completely different experience. Dinner before the show at Don Julio in Palermo — consistently voted Argentina's best restaurant, a parilla with an extraordinary wine list and the finest beef in the city.

• ✦ Tango lesson in the afternoon — basic step and the Argentine embrace
• ✦ Don Julio parilla dinner — Argentina's best restaurant
• ✦ Milonga or show — the world's most passionate dance culture
• ✦ Late night Buenos Aires at its most alive

Palermo is Buenos Aires' most vibrant and diverse neighborhood — a collection of sub-neighborhoods (Palermo SoHo, Palermo Hollywood, Palermo Chico) that house the city's best restaurants, the design and fashion boutiques, and the Palermo Parks — a network of large formal gardens, rose garden, botanical garden, and lakes that gives the city a Parisian quality. The MALBA (Museum of Latin American Art) has the finest collection of Latin American modern art in Argentina. Spend the afternoon in the botanical garden and rose garden, then dinner at Tegui in Palermo for Argentina's most creative tasting menu.

• ✦ MALBA Museum — Latin American modern art collection
• ✦ Palermo Parks — rose garden and botanical garden
• ✦ Palermo SoHo boutique shopping and street art
• ✦ Tegui restaurant — Argentina's finest tasting menu

Take the suburban train 30km north from Retiro Station to Tigre — a river delta town at the mouth of the Paraná Delta where the city ends and an extraordinary network of waterways begins. The Tigre delta has 350 square kilometers of islands and channels navigable by small motorboat — the weekend houses (quintas) of porteños line the river banks, accessible only by boat, with wooden docks and tropical gardens reflecting in the brown water. The daily market at Puerto de Frutos (Puerto de Frutos — the Fruit Port) is the delta's commercial center, now selling crafts, raffia goods, and subtropical fruit. The Victorica Museum in Tigre town is in an extraordinary art nouveau building. Return to Buenos Aires for an evening asado at a friend's home or at a traditional parilla in Palermo or San Telmo.

• ✦ Tigre Delta by suburban train — 30 minutes from the city
• ✦ Motorboat through the Paraná Delta river channels
• ✦ Puerto de Frutos market at the river's edge
• ✦ Traditional Argentine asado at a local parilla

Buenos Aires has two airports: Ezeiza International (EZE, 35km, for international departures) and Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP, 3km from Recoleta, for domestic and regional flights). A final Buenos Aires morning belongs to the café ritual — a cortado and medialunas (the crescent-shaped Argentine croissant, richer and sweeter than the French version) at one of the Recoleta or Palermo neighborhood cafés. Walk the Avenida Alvear — Buenos Aires' most beautiful boulevard of French-style palaces and European luxury boutiques — for a final portrait of the city at its most aristocratic. Buy Malbec wine from a Mendoza wine shop (Aramburu or Aldo's in Palermo), dulce de leche in jars, and yerba mate if you've acquired the taste. Buenos Aires is a city that takes months to properly understand, and most visitors leave feeling they have barely begun.

• ✦ Final cortado and medialunas at a Recoleta neighborhood café
• ✦ Avenida Alvear — BA's most beautiful French-palace boulevard
• ✦ Malbec wine and dulce de leche for the journey home
• ✦ Transfer to Ezeiza International Airport EZE