A Reader’s Walk Through the Art-Filled Streets of Buenos Aires

Walk around San Telmo, the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and you will find art. Art dances on the street, a slow street tango; it lingers in bookstores, on paperbacks written by Jorge Luis Borges; it simmers in coffee cups of artistically designed café con leches, it sits on street corners in frames, canvases, and bright colored journals and pottery.

Walk with me through Buenos Aires, the City of Books, also known for its art scene, historic architecture, tango, and some of the most delicious empanadas.

I have chosen to celebrate my birthday in Argentina, on my reading around the world journey. Recognized as the World Book Capital by UNESCO in 2011, Buenos Aires is committed to books and independent bookstores.

My personal challenge is to read, recommend and catalog as many books as I can from around the world. When I do choose travel, I choose places that indulge in a way of life that gives credence to the beauty of literature, as I aim to understand the world through books.

How we view and learn about different cultures shape our lives and thoughts. I’m never sure where things will take me as I make my way to destinations I have read about, nonetheless, I make the journey. And often, I’m met with small, beautiful surprises.

Stay near the Plaza Dorrego.

My husband and I choose to stay within Plaza Dorrego, in the heart of San Telmo. It is a historical plaza known for its antique markets, cafes, bars, pubs, and street tangos.

On the weekend, the San Telmo Fair takes place. Vendors set up stalls with antiques, jewelry, journals, artwork, and more. Restaurants bring tables onto the cobblestone streets. People sit, smoke, drink wine and beer, while listening to live music. The mood is festive.

I buy two small journals that fit into my purse comfortably as I walk around and jot notes. One journal has the map of the world, signaling to me that we continue this journey of reading around the world. The other has a photo of San Telmo, with a pathway leading through the very cobble-stones streets I walk daily.

We stay at Hotel Anselmo, a hotel within the Hilton’s Curio Collection. It sits within the Plaza Dorrego, just two blocks away from the Museum of Modern Art and the literary café, ifigenia café. The hotel has a nice restaurant and a splendid wine bar. Although the room reeks of mildew and bad plumbing, it has a balcony that is perfect for sitting out in the evenings.

Experience books in Buenos Aires.

I walk to the literary café, ifigenia, to order a cup of café con leche and browse books. I am in book heaven as I marvel at this tiny café started by a writer and adorned with slender chairs, a café that sits inconspicuously in its little world, set apart, yet right in the middle of this busy shopping street.

My husband is not feeling well, so he orders Earl Grey tea. The tea comes out in the cutest green pot and soon enough, I’m reconsidering switching to tea. The people who work here are calm and polite, eager to serve. There is an air of serenity that lingers and I don’t want to leave. It is my calming space in Buenos Aires.

The shelves of ifigenia café carry books by Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz and Julio Cortázar, and books in Spanish that I cannot translate, and yet I am so entranced by discovering Borges in his homeland, as he is one of my favorite writers, that I browse the books and peruse pages, tracing each word, yearning to understand them but mostly happy that I have found a bookshop that carries physical books and has great works of literature from native writers.

For English-language books, I visit Walrus Books in San Telmo. The bookshop is a brief seven-minute walk from our hotel in Plaza Dorrego. The small bookshop is reminiscent of a home library nicely curated. Lined with used books of fiction and nonfiction titles, the books are randomly sorted and a joy to browse.

At Walrus Books, one can come across anything from Jane Austen, to Richard Wright or Saul Bellow. Because I want a book by a South American writer, I buy the novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, by Mario Vargas Llosa, a novel I’d never heard of and a writer whose work I would be experiencing for the first time.

The next day, I visit El Ateneo Grand Splendid. A former theater, the bookstore has been hoisted as one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores. Built in 1919, the bookstore has preserved the original dome, painted with frescoes that captivate. It is a tourist attraction and can be unnerving, as people are lined up for pictures and Instagram reels, sometimes not clearing the aisles to allow for browsing books.

I find the English section, which really is a small section of a few small bookshelves, in the corner section of the store, which I spot while transfixed by the dome. I browse through familiar books until I see one that stands out: The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares.

An Argentine fiction writer, journalist, and diarist, Casares was a friend of Jorge Luis Borges. In fact, the Prologue to his book is written by Borges. To think, visiting Argentina has helped me discover Casares. I pay for and pack the novella into my purse, eager to start it on the plane as I head back to the United States.

Taste Argentinian wine.

Like books, I think that wine speaks of a culture. I like to taste wine when I go to a new country, to taste the land and experience a place through wine.

When you taste Argentine Malbec, you understand why the wine is known for being spicy and bold. The wine is authentic to the people around it, the vibrant city, the music, the dance, the coffee. It has flavors of black pepper and chocolate and espresso. Needless to say, I drink my share, eventually settling in to enjoy a glass of Jorge Rubio’s Privado Reserva Bonarda.

But Argentina is also known for Torrontés, their signature white wine: sweet, floral, and refreshingly dry—just how I like my white wine. When I taste Torrontés at the Anselmo’s wine bar, I am enamored by it, although somehow, I cannot find a bottle to order from the many wine shops that line the plaza.

Torrontés is a white grape variety native to Argentina, and the grapes thrive in high-altitude wine regions. The wine speaks of the Andes Mountains and Argentina’s diverse topography. It smells of jasmine and orange, making me linger with my glass.

Savor sweets and chocolates.

Anyone with a sweet tooth must taste Argentine sweets. Chocolates and the Argentina-style dulce de leche line the shelves of quaint shops. I buy tiny jars of dulce de leche, the caramel flavor, because it reminds me of milk candy, a sweet made from condensed milk in Liberia. When I stick my finger into the tiny jar and bring the sticky paste to my tongue, I am transported across the Argentine Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

On a whim, I buy the best milk chocolate with almonds that I have ever tasted and my husband and I spend nights enjoying chocolates and Malbec.

Experience tango in Buenos Aires.

One cannot visit Argentina without experiencing tango—both as an art performance and as street art.

On my birthday night, we attend the Rojo Tango Show, and we choose the dinner option, with roundtrip transfer to our hotel. While planning our trip to Argentina, I’d wondered about a romantic and intimate way to experience tango when I came across an article in my November 2025 Condé Nast Travel edition. “Get a front-row seat at the Faena Buenos Aires Tango Show,” it said, and front row seat I got.

If you book through Viator, I suggest going with Azul Latina Travel because they were very professional and communicative. We were picked up from our hotel by the most personable driver, Victor, who gave us a tour of the city on the way and did his best to translate in English.

It is an enamoring experience, to be seated front row, close to the stage and dancers, to experience art with no distractions from the phones or chatter of others, and to be so close that you sense the tension and immersion between dancers.

Enveloped by hues of red from red velvet curtains and red wall linings cushioned by soft lighting, we enjoy a three-course meal, some champagne, and many glasses of Malbec (during the show, the drinks keep coming).

Hosted at the stunningly regal Faena Hotel, one of Argentina’s top five hotels and the #2 hotel in South America according to Condé Nast, the Rojo Tango Show evokes the glamour of the 1920s, along with the passion and sensuality of art and love. It is breathtaking and the dancers are spectacular.

Later, I experience my first street tango in the Plaza Dorrego as we eat, drink, and listen to live music.

When I walk back to my hotel after browsing art, watching tango, and eating empanadas, my heart is full and my stomach is rested as I turn in for the night, with a fruit-flavored tea from Argentina and The Invention of Morel as my reading companion.