I’m a seiner, a sun of a Spanish Marquis and an Argentine aristocratic mother, a father of two super fresh beautiful little girls, a miscellaneous husband of a beautiful wife (in/outside), a frustrated but talented musician, a photographer and a painter, a vagabond, a tailor made travel agent, I play soccer every Saturday, I’m an agnostic, a degenerated mind in a peaceful body with harmless behaviour, I spent 19 summers on a beautiful farm, I rocked at least 2001 nights of my life, I wear suits, I’m a survivor; therefore, if what you expect to read in this and future past columns is just a column of a travel recommender, I may recommend you buy a Conde Nast Traveller mag in avenida Alvear in front of the homonymous hotel, which by the way is by far the most iconic hotel in Argentina, now in hands of beautiful Ms Cecilia Nigro.
Today’s column at this point will be about hotels in Argentina, if by any reason the topic of this column decants into Patagonian pancakes or something else, you may understand reasons in the first and, by the way, long paragraph.
The first hotel I ever slept was in Azul, a city 300km from Buenos Aires, in the mid 70s (…I was a child), in those days, Argentina was a thousand light years from globalised standards, the music was in every single room and ambient, and was played by an organ orchestra, songs like Yesterday by The Beatles and other classics in a very lousy performance. All colours were greys and browns and the starters and desserts were presented in a wheeled silver table, ashtrays all over the place and smoke and smokers too.
The menu of hotels now, in this hip Argentina is huge. The old fashioned still remains, especially in the interior, the youth hostels, the boutique, the fake boutique, the pretentious boutique, the lodge, the Hosterías, the posadas, the estancias, and the 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 star hotels.
Me, as a specialist in Argentine tourism, hadn’t yet been in all of them, but I will mention at least the ones I know, mentioning the ones that appear in my memory during this monotonous and autocratic writing, letter by letter, click to click. Noticing that my space in this column today it’s vanishing I will mention this list in alphabetic order.
Alvear was already mentioned so I choose, the ACAs (Automovil club Argentino), a low budget franchise of hotels all over Argentina, they work and have perfect location, they smell too, but they work, specially in Puerto Piramides where the whales, Bobo in Palermo, Casa Sur, a new development in smart Callao Avenue, Cavas Wine Lodge in Mendoza Correntoso in Villa La Angostura, Colomé in Salta, Design Suites, a pioneer in boutique and minimalistic deco, Esplendor in Calafate, Estancia El Puesto, Four Seasons Carmelo and Buenos Aires, planet Faena and its own universe, Geko in Chapadmalal near Mar del Plata the perfect place for a weekend escape by the ocean, Home in Palermo, House of Jasmines, Hyatt El Colibri, can’t recall I, Los Juncos in Bariloche, K??, La Alondra in Corrientes city (an oasis on your way to tens of paradises), La Paz, La Candelaria del Monte 120km from Buenos Aires, Las Balsas, Llao Llao, Manantial del Silencio in Jujuy, the N and the O blinded me, Patagonia Rebelde Calafate, Posada Paradiso in Punta del Este, Puerto Valle in about-to-be-discovered Corrientes destiny, Pica Zuro in Córdoba shooters paradigm, Quenti in Salta, R?, Solar de La Plaza in Salta City, Tailor Made Hotels in Cañitas neighbourhood, U?, Villa Julia in Tigre and Villa María 50 minutes from Bs As, WXYZ.
The first truth is, my memory sucks and I will have some new troubles with hotel managers, when they don’t find their on the list, the second truth is that they will survive without me including them on this list or they will give a sh.. , the third truth is that marketing guys and branders, can make a better job using the unfilled consonants and vowels and stop with the El something and La other things and Cs everywhere. Fourth truth is, I am going to bed, safe, tired, and assuming that if I don’t make a trip soon and write about it, my time in this paper may end.
Why don’t you travel around, and write to me, and inspire this new dad, who by the moment is at the side of the road? Good night, sleep tight!