Recoleta
Recoleta exists because of a yellow fever epidemic. In the 1870s, wealthy porteño families fled the south of Buenos Aires to escape the outbreak, and the land around an old Franciscan monastery at the city’s highest ground became the destination. They built French-style mansions, hired European architects, and converted the former monastic cemetery into the most prestigious address in Argentine society, above ground or below it. The neighbourhood’s character today, elegant, slightly aloof, expensive, traces directly back to that 19th-century migration.
The Cemetery: What It Is and How to Visit
Recoleta Cemetery is not primarily a place to find Eva Perón’s grave, though that is what most visitors come for. It is a 55,000 square-metre city of neoclassical and art nouveau mausoleums, designed by French engineer Próspero Catelin in 1822 on the grounds of the former Recollect convent, and it contains roughly 4,691 vaults housing Argentine presidents, military figures, Nobel Prize winners, and the aristocracy of several generations. The BBC listed it as one of the world’s best cemeteries in 2011; CNN’s 2013 list of most beautiful cemeteries included it too. These assessments are reasonably accurate.
Eva Perón is buried in the Duarte family mausoleum in Section 12, about 150 metres from the main entrance along the primary pathways. The vault is modest in scale relative to its neighbours, which is part of the point: it was designed to resist any attempt at theft or desecration after the 1955 coup that exiled her remains for years. There is usually a small cluster of visitors and flowers.
Opening hours are daily 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Foreign visitors pay an entry fee of around $10 USD. Free guided tours in Spanish run at 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM Tuesday through Friday, and at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM on weekends and public holidays. Paid tours in English are available through various operators at $15 to $35 USD and are worth considering for context that the self-guided experience does not easily provide.
Go in the morning, between 9 and 11 AM. The light enters the narrow passages from the east, the crowds are thinner, and the heat is manageable. Mid-afternoon in summer is uncomfortable and busy with tour groups.
The Neighbourhood Beyond the Cemetery
Nuestra Señora del Pilar, the early 18th-century church adjacent to the cemetery entrance, is one of the oldest churches in Buenos Aires and is almost always overlooked by visitors queueing for the cemetery. The interior has a baroque gilt reredos and a silver altar with relief carvings incorporating indigenous South American decorative motifs, which is unusual for a church of this age and location. It is free to enter.
The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes on Avenida del Libertador holds the largest public collection of Argentine art in the country, along with European works including pieces by El Greco, Rembrandt, and Rodin. Admission is free. It is neither small nor poorly curated; a two-hour visit is reasonable without trying to see everything.
On weekends, the Plaza Francia craft market (Feria de Artesanos de Plaza Francia) fills the park beside the museum with leather goods, silver jewellery, and handmade textiles. It is a better shopping option than most of the fixed boutiques in the neighbourhood and prices are negotiable in a way that shop prices generally are not.
Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires’ opera house and one of the finest concert venues in South America by acoustics and scale, is located on the plaza at the neighbourhood’s edge. Guided tours run throughout the week if you are not attending a performance. Booking in advance is recommended as tours fill up.
Where to Eat
Recoleta’s restaurant scene runs toward the formal end, which reflects the neighbourhood. La Bourgogne, the French restaurant inside the Alvear Palace Hotel, is the most decorated in the area and prices accordingly (expect a main course at $30 to $50 USD). For something more casual without compromising quality, the café-restaurants around Plaza Francia serve coffee, sandwiches, and empanadas at normal Buenos Aires prices.
A practical note: Buenos Aires restaurants, particularly in Recoleta, do not open for dinner before 8:30 or 9:00 PM. Attempting to eat at 7:00 PM will result in finding kitchens closed or nearly empty rooms. Locals eat at 9:00 to 10:00 PM, and the restaurants function accordingly.
Where to Stay
The Alvear Palace Hotel is the oldest and most traditionally grand hotel in the neighbourhood, opened in 1932 and still the reference point for luxury accommodation in Buenos Aires. The Recoleta Grand opened recently in a converted heritage building with a separate modern tower, housing a spa, rooftop, and the Mansión Mihura dining space. Both are at the upper end of Buenos Aires hotel pricing.
Buenos Aires as a whole has become significantly more expensive for international visitors since the peso stabilisation of recent years, but relative to Western European or North American equivalent hotels, Recoleta’s luxury properties still represent reasonable value. Mid-range options (around $80 to $150 USD per night) are available in adjacent Barrio Norte, a short walk from the main Recoleta attractions.
Getting There from the Airports
Buenos Aires has two airports. Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), 35 kilometres southwest of the city, handles international flights. Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP), on the riverbank about 5 kilometres from Recoleta, handles domestic and some regional flights. If arriving domestically, Aeroparque to Recoleta is roughly 20 minutes by taxi (around $8 to $12 USD depending on traffic).
From Ezeiza, the journey to Recoleta takes 45 to 90 minutes depending on traffic. A private transfer or taxi costs around $30 to $60 USD; the Manuel Tienda León shuttle bus runs for around $12 USD per person and is reliable, though it takes longer with stops.
A Calendar Note
Buenos Aires’ summer runs December through February, with heat and humidity. March through May and September through November are the most comfortable months for walking the neighbourhood and spending time outdoors. July is the coldest month with temperatures around 8 to 12 degrees Celsius, which many European visitors find perfectly manageable.
The Sunday craft market at Plaza Francia is closed during heavy rain and runs from roughly 10:00 AM until sunset. It is one of the best single hours you can spend in Recoleta for under $20 USD.