What it is

The grandest grande dame in the tony Recoleta neighborhood.

What it isn't

Hip. This place is timeless for a reason.

What we think

If Eloise ever left her gilded perch at the Plaza, she’d stay here. Opened in 1932 as the home away from lavish home for Argentina’s well-heeled European visitors, the Belle Époque Alvear Palace still feels like a Parisian hotel on a glamorous Argentine vacation, thanks to its Art Deco Champagne Bar and formal French restaurant, La Bourgogne. There are 87 rooms and 110 suites, all fitted with gold-leafed, Imperial-style and Louis XVI furniture and Hermès toiletries, plus (hallelujah!) butler service. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself squandering hours of your trip in the hotel’s light-filled, 8,600-square-foot spa, with its vitality pool and La Prairie treatments—you wouldn’t be the first.

You're here because

You want an Evita experience (yes, she was reportedly a regular).

The Moment

At afternoon tea in the glass-walled, orchid-filled L'Orangerie restaurant, you take a bite of a fresh-from-the-oven scone as your Mediterranean citrus-and-rose-petal tea steeps in its gold-rimmed pot. They don’t call this a palace for nothing.

Restaurants & Bars

L´Orangerie Restaurant - International cuisine

La Bourgogne - French cuisine

Lobby Bar

Champagne Bar

Location

Tucked amid the wide avenues of Recoleta, within a few blocks of some of B.A.’s most Instagrammable sights: the 1919 Libreria El Ateneo Grand Splendid, one of the most eye-popping bookstores in the world, the aluminum Floralis Genérica sculpture, which moves with the sun, and the mausoleum-filled Recoleta Cemetery.