The Best Places to Drink and Stay in Recoleta & Retiro

Galloping horse sculptures flank the entrance, and the polo theme carries right through to the leather-furnished Pony Line Lounge, which well-heeled Recoleta regulars treat as a personal living room. This Forbes Four Star hotel splits its 165 rooms between a modern tower and a Belle Époque mansion, the two connected through an outdoor pool and terrace. It holds a certain conviction that luxury and local character belong together, and the renovation made that argument in full.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. The 50 2025 · Most Admired Hotel Group Award

A converted 1930s palace in Recoleta, built by a government minister who came back from France with big ideas and a fondness for Louis XVI excess. The silk curtains and crystal chandeliers are original to the spirit, if not always the fixtures. As Buenos Aires luxury hotels go, this one has the bones to back up the grandeur, with 165 rooms spread across the historic building and a modern wing tucked behind the garden.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A refrigerator door in the back of a flower shop swings open after 8pm, and suddenly you're in a large underground cocktail bar. The speakeasy conceit is well-worn by now, but the gin program gives it something real to say: a co-founder helped create Príncipe de los Apóstoles, the Argentine gin built on yerba mate and eucalyptus. It ranked on the World's 50 Best Bars list, which tracks for a room this committed to the bit.

1. The 50 #90 · The World's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Crystal chandeliers, white-gloved bilingual butlers, and Louis XVI furniture so gilded you feel underdressed just reading the menu: the Alvear Palace is Recoleta's grand old palace hotel, and it leans into every bit of that. The lobby bar is a long-running theater for Argentine high society. A Forbes Four Star property, it also has a rooftop pool and bar with city views, a spa, and the Alvear Grill for when you'd like someone to fuss over you at dinner.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The unmarked entrance and exposed brick suggest a place that has been setting the template long enough to stop explaining itself. Gran Bar Danzón is a cocktail bar near the business district, which means the afterwork crowd fills the long, backlit bar early and the well-traveled hotel guests follow. The room tries slightly harder than it needs to, but the ambiance lands anyway, which is probably the truest sign of an old-school institution.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Chandeliers hang over the long bar, and a private room done up like a library handles overflow for anyone who takes their Negroni seriously. Presidente is a cocktail bar operating at the polished end of Buenos Aires nightlife, where the classics share menu space with signature drinks served inside miniature hot-air balloons. The crowd dresses for it, and the room rewards the effort.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide