7 of the BEST things about living in Buenos Aires

Moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina might be the single best decision that I have made in my life, it might JUST be second to deciding to become an English teacher when I was 18, and although, when I decided to move here I had absolutely no idea what to expect when it came to the city or the country in general I can say that now I absolutely love living here. I’ve traveled to Santiago in Chile a couple of times in the last year, and I always leave with the feeling that I am absolutely spoiled rotten by Buenos Aires, so in this post I am going to share 10 reasons why you would also love living in Buenos Aires, going from the most conventional reasons to the least conventional reasons.

There is also a Youtube video about this, so feel free to check it out for an even more detailed opinion of each of the things mentioned here:

Number 1: You will most likely never need a car

You can absolutely have a life around your neighborhood and nowhere else. And by that, I mean that you will most likely find whatever it is that you need within a 3 to 5-block radius from your house. Butcher shop? Vegetable shop? Supermarket? Kiosk? Pharmacy? You will most likely have 2 of each extremely close to your house. You will see that Buenos Aires is mainly composed of buildings, and the great thing about these buildings is that most of them usually have a space on the ground floor of the building that is specifically purposed to be rented for business, so all around the city you have all of these bricks and mortar shops that have different purposes. Just within a 1 block radius from my house, there is an ophthalmologist, 2 different kiosks, one stationary store, two butcher shops, one gym supply store, one dietary shop, and even a grow shop if you can believe it. And I have a huge supermarket 3 blocks away from my house.

My point is that wherever you live you will most likely have all the necessary things super close to you and you will not have to commute for things you might need on a random moment’s notice.

And for everything else, like going to a restaurant or to the movies, there are many options within the city to choose from, you don’t have to go that far. Just from my house, I have two different shopping malls and two different movie theaters to choose from that I can go to, all within a 15-minute WALK from my house.

Number 2: 24-hour buses - And overall great public transportation services

This is something that might surprise most people, especially Americans, but here in the city, the buses go 24 hours, every day, all day. There might be some reduced services on special holidays like Christmas and New Year's Day, but even then they have a very permissive schedule for the people who need to move around the city. Granted, in some hours of the night the frequency between buses might not be the same or as often as it is in the morning and you might have to wait at the bus stop for a bit longer, but you can absolutely take the bus back home at 4 am in the morning.

And in this, you should also take into account that the public transportation system as a whole is one of the best you can find. You can literally get everywhere in the subway, and if you can’t, you will most likely find a bus combination that will take you where you need to go. And it’s super easy to navigate, you can survive on Google Maps alone to give you directions and if you know how to read THAT map, you will never get lost.

Number 3: Buenos Aires is extremely walkable

It is not only pedestrian friendly but it is a joy to walk around the city, it just feels refreshing because it’s full of green with trees in absolutely every block of the city, but also it is designed with pedestrians in mind. It is so much so designed for people to walk around the city, that actually finding parking space is kind of a nightmare, which I guess is not good if you have a car, but I haven’t had the need to buy a car in the 5 years that I have been living here.

I traveled to Santiago, Chile, a couple of times in the last year to visit some of my friends and one of the feelings that I got from both of my visits there is that… I DIDN’T feel like walking in the city. Not only did I feel that everything was super far away from wherever I wanted to go, but regardless of whether it was the beginning of summer or the middle of winter, the streets just seemed so gray and lifeless. There was hardly any green scenery wherever you went and I just didn’t feel like walking which was super strange for me when I compared it to how I felt in Buenos Aires.

Putting on your headphones and just walking around the city can absolutely be one of your favorite activities here, especially if it’s the middle of Autumn and you’re listening to Folklore by Taylor Swift.

Number 4: There is always something to do in the city

Cultural activities are a very big part of the city, there are theaters, museums, and many different types of festivals. Whatever it is that you are into you will most likely find something to do, whether it is a paid activity or a free activity organized by the city government.

There is a specific cultural center called Centro Cultural Recoleta which hosts a wide range of activities throughout the year. It really doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, I am absolutely certain that you could go there any random weekend and there would be some sort of artist playing their music, reading their poetry, presenting their artwork. It serves as a museum with different expositions that change with seasons, at least artistic seasons. It’s also a coworking space, I once went there for an open karaoke night. You can also simply go there to chill on the terrace and eat some incredible choripanes.

And get this: All of this is FREE. You heard that right, free. Honestly, El Recoleta is one of the best places to go if you generally like artsy type of things.

And like this, you will find many other places and festivals out on the streets organized by the city. There is a webpage that is called “What to do in the city” or something like that, that specifically tells you the activities of each month that are organized by the government that are completely free.

Number 5: You can pay everything with Mercado Pago

Mercado Pago is honestly one of my favorite things about living in Buenos Aires. I haven’t had the need to carry cash around with me in over two years. Like the actual times when I usually have to have cash is when I actually GO OUT to eat somewhere. But for almost absolutely everything else I can use Mercado Pago.

And you might be asking yourself, what exactly is Mercado Pago? And I am not exactly sure what I can equate it to for my possible viewers out there, because I don’t really know how bills are paid in other countries, but you can equate Mercado Pago to Apple Pay in the sense that if you go to either the supermarket, a store at a shopping mall, the butcher shop, the pharmacy, or a RANDOM person on the street approaches you to sell you something, you will be able to pay with Mercado Pago in all of those scenarios. Some supermarkets and stores even have special discounts on special days if you pay WITH Mercado Pago. You can also compare it to CashApp I think or Venmo in the sense that if you have someone’s phone number saved in your contacts and that person has their phone number associated to their Mercado Pago account, you will be able to send them money by just typing their name on the App and selecting their contact.

Mercado Pago is essentially an electronic bank account but also a payment service offered by the Argentinean company Mercado Libre, which is the Latin American equivalent of Amazon in some ways. They offer a few less services in the sense that they don’t have their own streaming service or extra apps like Audible and electronic devices like the Amazon Echo and such, but they are still a huge company that is present in many many different countries.

So as you might imagine you can use Mercado Pago to buy things from Mercado Libre because those two accounts are directly linked. Mercado Pago is so big in Argentina that you can pay your service bills with that. Did you get the electricity bill? Open Mercado Pago, scan the bar code from the app and you pay. Simple as that. There are MANY government services that can be paid from there. You can ALSO charge your transportation card without having to use cash in any of the subway stations, and simply validate the charge in the station, or if your phone has NFC you can validate that charge straight from your phone with the SUBE App on your phone.

It’s honestly simply marvelous.

Number 6: You have great online shopping options (Rappi and Mercadolibre are your best friends)

Remember how I said that Mercado Libre was a huge company in Argentina? Well, I am not exaggerating when I say that I am one of their biggest fans. I am sure that at least 90% of the furniture and tech that is in this house was purchased through Mercado Libre.

• My two monitors? Bought in Mercado Libre.
• My bookshelf? Bought in Mercado Libre.
• My living room set? Bought in Mercado Libre.
• My smart bulbs? Bought in Mercado Libre.
• My microphone? Bought in Mercado Libre.
• My microwave? Bought in Mercado Libre.

Anyways, I think you get the idea. The point is that I almost never have to leave my house to buy anything, I just buy it from Mercado Libre and it arrives either the same day or exactly the day after, I almost never buy anything that doesn’t have 24-hour delivery. The only exceptions are big furniture that is usually stored in other provinces and shipped to the city. And Mercado Pago is also great because of two things: You can rate the seller, so when you are going to buy something from someone you can always look at their rating as a seller to make the decision of buying from them or not. And you also have this thing called Mercado Puntos, so the more things that you buy from the app the more points that you get and you start to unlock different benefits like free shipping and free returns for a number of days and they also give you interesting perks like free streaming services like HBO Max, Disney+ and Star+ and all that for being level 6 which is the highest level.

Like me, hehe.

Returning things is also super easy, they have different drop-off points that you can use to leave the things that you want to return and they give you your money back immediately if you paid with Mercado Pago. Another great perk of using Mercado Pago.

You also have Rappi which is great if you need an easy courier service to send something from one place to another, order food at any time of the day, quickly order something from their turbo service which delivers things in 10min or so, and even delivers cash to your doorstep. There are literally great options for you to shop all from the comfort of your home. The only times when I do go out to buy something is because I genuinely enjoy the experience of shopping for these things, like going to some clothing stores or bookshops.

Number 7: 24-hour McDonald's, kiosks, pharmacies, and restaurants

I am including this on the list because it’s honestly something that I cannot believe that it’s apparently not that common in other places.

I am specifically talking about Santiago. Everything in Santiago closes at around 9 pm, if you are lucky you will find SOME things open past 10 pm, but that is absolutely not the norm. So if you are hanging out with your friends on a weekend, you better buy everything early on before the gathering, because you’re going to be out of luck at night.

Buenos Aires, on the other hand, has a very lively nightlife, not only are restaurants usually open until like 3 am, but you will also find different places that will actually have 24-hour services. I have a McDonald’s just one and a half blocks over my place that is open 24/7, I can literally go there after getting home super hungry from a concert and chill while eating nuggets, which if you ask me, is literally like heaven. You will find pharmacies for emergencies, kiosks for cigarettes or some snacks, and whatever you need, those little things will always be at your disposal in Buenos Aires.