sbagal is here and we are going to Cabana Las Lilas. Happy to be in EZE= more reports later

Has anyone every used Octopus Travel? Looked for rooms for the Sheraton in Iguaza Falls and they seem to be able to make it happen

chris

I have used Octopus Travel several times for hotels in Argentina. They seem to have some of the best prices. You have to prepay and they send you a voucher by email. I have never had any problems.

Has anybody used Octopus Travel for Airline tickets?

ongoing report
 

sbagal, Mr. Silver Springer and myself had a fabulous dinner at Cabana Las Lilas two nights ago, with lots of great travel talk. The three of us are meeting again for dinner tonight at Tomo (sp?) and Mr Silver Springer and I are planning on visiting Gaucho´s wine shop today.
The Obelisk, a BA landmark, was covered with a pink condom yesterday for World AIDS day. Argentine Airline strike is still on, subway strike is off for now, but it is a beautiful day in BA and we plan to have a wonderful time.

Suggestions
 

Hi everyone,
I have planned a trip from Feb 5 - 11th to EZE. (Going for the birthday with a buddy). Any suggestions on things to do while there and if that gives us enough time to go to Iguaza Falls or not? Many thanks! We have rented a condo from a college buddy of mine in Recoletta.

airline strike has ended
 

Local media is announcing that the airline strike has come to an end. This is great news for all these chaotic events that have caused only headaches and problems to all those involved. FWIW, I wish to apologize to all those affected, this is not the kind of image I like to shows visitors to Argentina.

BA tour recommendations
 

I am nearing the end of a wonderful visit to Buenos Aires and thought I would share two successful tours. On our first full day, we took the English language version of the three hour city tour by Friendly Visit for $20 and liked it very much==great overview of city and good tips for exploring on our own.

Today we also took the Friendly Visit tour to the estancias and had a great day==talk on gauchos, visit to a silver artisan and great visit to Cinacina estancia with great food and entertainment. A rain downpour prevented horse rides or carriage rides but we still had a fabulous day. All day 930-530 with everything included for $70. One tour we took on our own was the backstage tour of the Theater Colon and it was fascinating, particularly the tours of the workshops three floors below the theater. There are three English tours a day, 11,1, and 3 for 12 pesos ($4) and we had our concierge reserve a place and we picked up tickets 15 minutes in advance. Tour took an hour.

Tomorrow we go to the San Telmo antiques fair and a final farewell dinner with sbagal and we leave on Monday. Hope you come and visit Buenos Aires and have a great time!

We also took the 3 hour tour of Buenos Aires booked through the concierge at the Hilton. I do not know if this was “friendly tours” but it was $20. We ended up with a guild for the two of us so we had a private tour so to speak. Our guild was excellent and this was a very good way to start our vacation.

silver springer - do you have the contact info for your tour company? I am interested for my upcoming trip.

what kind of tour was this? walking or by car?

Friendly Visit Tours
 

Per the request for info on friendly visit tours:
I booked the tours through the hotel (Hilton in my case) concierge. They use vans and in both cases there were only 5 people and the tours were all in English. I will see if I can get the phone number or email address from the concierge and post it.

Edited to add: I checked with the concierge and these tours are booked through the concierge. ALso if you are in BA on a Sunday, don´t miss going to San Telmo for the day. They have their antiques market at Dorrego Square but the whole area is like a carnival with all the entertainment and all types of vendors. Lots of people doing tango as well. We got a table at the El Balcon restaurant (on corner of Humberto I and Dorrego Square) and watched tango for free, we have decided not to pay $70 for dinner and a tango show, this was a good enough introduction and show.

Car, I am sure it was the same as Silver Springer's.

Argentina Tour Operators
 

I came across this thread a few days ago and just want to say thanks to Gaucho100K for starting this thread! It has provided me endless hours of informational knowledge on everything there is to know about Buenos Aires.

I will be studying in Buenos Aires this coming summer from mid-June until the first of August. I’m really looking forward to my study abroad in EZE, as this will be my first trip to South America. I’m looking to extend my stay in S.A. after I end my studies on August 5. As I will most likely be traveling alone, I was looking into going on a travel tour around Argentina (I might end up traveling with other students on my program, but that isn’t certain at this point.) Are there any tour operators that any of you would recommend? Ideally, I’m looking at spending about 7-10 days in Argentina after my studies are completed. Patagonia is definitely on my places to see. Thanks in advance for any recommendations that you may be able to provide.

Cheers,
Robert

I need some quick help. I am going to BA in March, in conjunction with a trip to Antarctica. The tour operator just cancelled my departure date, so I am trying to change my dates. I worked with a travel agent in BA to get some domestic flights on Aerolineas. Can I just pay a fee to change the dates, or am I going to be up a creek and need to get all new tickets? I can't find any details in my paperwork. Thanks for any help!