Customer Reviews

Time Out Buenos Aires (Time Out Guides)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've traveled to 25+ countries and used countless brands of travel books. So I'll consider myself a "sophisticated traveler" and recommend it to others in the same boat. This was my second experience with TimeOut and it was great. The hotel and restaurant suggestions were right-on, and we owe most of our best dinners in Buenos Aires to this book. We were more interested in experiencing local culture than typical tourist attractions, and this book was helpful in achieving that goal. The prices in the book are a little off, but such is the state of the economy down there with a currency in flux. This is a great book for the city only, so don't expect much advice for Argentina at large. But for a Buenos Aires focused book, this is a winner.

Time Out is a decent guide that provides a rough overview of the sights and attractions. Whereas Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide would provide supplemental maps for major sites and excursions out of town, Time Out does not. Rarely does any attraction get more than a cursory, one paragraph write-up.

The included maps are colorful, and the inclusion of address numbers at each block is extremely handy; however, the fact that the maps overlap and the hotels, restaurants, and sites are shown on only one of the two overlapping maps makes using them somewhat confusing.

Tiny mistakes and omissions abound. For example, the ("2008 edition") guide says that Buenos Aires uses the European round plugs for electricity; in fact, Argentina officially switched to the Australian plug in the early 2000's. As another example, the guide never mentions the airport departure tax.

All in all, this guide feels like a "Cliff's Notes" -- perhaps good enough to get an overall impression, but I certainly wouldn't want to rely on it.

I used both TimeOut as well as Rough Guide to research my recent trip to Buenos Aires. Put plainly, the Rough Guide is easily the better of the two. Although TimeOut adds a few things here and there, it became clear early on that it would merely be used to augment the The Rough Guide to Buenos Aires 1 (Rough Guide Travel Guides). Rough Guide Buenos Aires simply goes into far better, far more interesting, detail about those sites one really wants to visit.

I really am surprised that for those sections of the city one is most likely to want to visit, San Telmo, Recoleta, Palermo, Boca, and other older neightborhoods, TimeOut's review seems skimpy. A few of the more relevant sites are pointed out, but not with the degree of social and historical context that would allow one to appreciate them as much as possible. TimeOut does provide some detailed social and political history at the beginning of the book. But shortening these sections and incorporating such information into those sections specific to city neighborhoods would make this guide much better.

Further, some information is simply missing. I found no mention in TimeOut of the Argentine monument to those who died in the Falkland's War (called the Islas Malvinas in Argentina), even though the monument is in Plaza San Martin, one of the more important spots in Buenos Aires and about which TimeOut does provide some information.

In fact, for those interested in more obscure information, the following are three little tidbits that I obtained from Rough Guide that are not in TimeOut: 1) the restaurant where Argentine author Ernesto Sabato hung out and wrote some books (Bar Britanico in San Telmo), 2) the address of the house where another, more famous, Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges grew up (Calle J.L. Borges 2135), and 3) the street where Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Holocaust, lived before being snatched by the Israelis (Garibaldi Street in La Boca).

If you think the above points are small and too obscure, fine. But what little things do you want to see in Buenos Aires? What might you pass up if you do not even read about it? On this score, go with Rough Guide Buenos Aires before going for a visit.

I was very disappointed by this book. I usually use Lonely Planet when I travel, but saw that a lot of people recommended this book over the LP Buenos Aires book so I thought I would give it a try. What a mistake! Tons of ads, badly organized and superficial.