buenos aires park and plaza guide

Relaxing in the Parks and Plazas of Buenos Aires

Although famed for European-inspired architecture and parrillas brimming with succulent steaks, if you’re looking to fully capture Buenos Aires like a porteno, or local, it is crucial to abandon one’s plans and wander towards the nearest park. With their late night lifestyle-even the ninos can be spotted out and about in the wee-morning hours-it’s no surprise that portenos employ many a daytime hour in the name of relaxing. So pack up your yerba mate, find a park or plaza and exalt in springtime. Here’s our breakdown of the city’s greatest parks.

Plaza Naciones Unidas

Head to Recoleta, a neighborhood that’s trendy, swank and family-oriented all at once, to lounge in the expansive grass beneath the iconic Floralis Genérica. This six-petaled steel and aluminum blossom was erected by Eduardo Catalano in 2002 and is timed to close and open with the sun. If you’re itching to witness some culture the law school, Facultad de Derecho of Universidad de Buenos Aires, and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes lie footsteps away.

Jardin Botánico Carlos Thays
The shady and lush Botanical Garden is nothing short of an oasis. With historic French, Roman and Southeast Asian-inspired gardens and bright, airy greenhouses that date back to 1898, this sanctuary provides the perfect place to spend a lazy afternoon. However, if cats aren’t your thing, be warned that you may see about as many felines as flowers. The majority of these furry creatures’ prior owners let them go and gave them no choice but to seek refuge here. Fortunately, an active volunteer committee works to find them homes and supplies them with food, vaccines and veterinary care in the interim.

Parque Natural y Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur
If you’re a more active type, take a long walk among the array of paths that loop around the 865 acres of the Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve. Watch the skyline through the lowland grass rotate around you as you head towards the Rio de la Plata. Officially deemed a reserve in 1986, the river was once host to a variety of bathers beginning in the early 1900s. These days, the coastline is littered with rocks and bricks and suits picnicking better than swimming but you might find the breeze coming off the river and the abundant landscape to be just as refreshing.