ARGENTINA 101 | Everything You Need to Know Before Coming (31 tips)

it is so important to prepare yourself before you travel to a new country from the small stuff to the big stuff so i'm glad you're here because i'm going to give you 31 things that you should know before you come to argentina broken down into seven different categories the basics language buenos aires money food and drink business and shopping and travel i have a lot to say so let's get into it argentina has two types of plugs c and i plug c is the two round pegs like in europe and plug i has the three flat pins and a triangle argentina uses a 220 v supply voltage and 50 hertz some apartments have the c plug some apartments have the eye plug some apartments have both and it's impossible to know so come prepared with both sets of plugs or bring a travel adapter retornable embassy before you go buy a beer or a wine bring the previous bottle that you had before and exchange it you can only exchange for the same size as 1 liter 1 liter it doesn't matter the brand but you can also only trade within the same drink beer for beer wine for wine you'll know if a particular bottle is retornable because it will say on the label when you go to the store look for the retornable or embassy sign they'll give you a ticket then you go buy your drink bring it to the counter pay give them a ticket and you'll get the discount people argentinians tend to be very friendly and they're famous for the gift of gab you can talk to an argentinian person about anything portenos the people from buenos aires tend to have a very bad reputation for being arrogant i haven't exactly found that to be true but it exists nonetheless but in every region i've been in argentina everyone is so friendly so nice and they're very open websites if you don't speak spanish you might be tempted to use the english translation function on google but if you do that it doesn't work some numbers will be spelled out instead of written like a number and you can't always click things i suggest using the translate function in english just to read and get the information refresh go back to the original spanish and then click anything submit documents because generally the sites only work in spanish it's always good to learn at least a few phrases before you go to no country and if you already speak spanish well you might be surprised to find that the spanish in argentina is a little bit different than what you learned in school growing up instead of tu or usted for you they use boss boss has a different conjugation basically you take the infinitive minus the r add an s and an accent and there you have it so tu tienes or usted tiene turns into bostenes du bienes uste viene turns into bos benice it's the same with the imperative the accent changes to the very last vowel so instead of escuchame you have escuchami instead of ven you have veni as far as pronunciation goes they change the double l and the y to in the north it's more so pollo you should definitely come prepared with the translation app i'm usually fine with google translate my friend jenny recommends deep l she says it's the best check the link in the description for my blog i've listed a few phrases for you to get started buenos aires buenos aires is not the paris of south america buenos aires is buenos aires paris is paris there may be some similarities like in one particular area there's some old buildings with green rusted roofs that resemble paris in some way cafe culture even though their cafe cultures are entirely different come to buenos aires with the expectation of seeing buenos aires and not expecting to find paris buenos aires deserves your time i've heard so many people say oh i'm coming to buenos aires to base myself for a couple days and then i'm going to see the rest of the country no don't do that buenos aires is huge and it has so much to offer every neighborhood is different and unique it needs i think at least minimum a week it's a city full of parks cafes theaters nightclubs restaurants everything including a ton of free things to do and don't just stay in the city limits head to the suburbs go to san ysidro tigre go to the plata transportation the city is incredibly walkable so you'll have no problem walking wherever you need to although it is a massive city so walking from one end to the other might take several hours luckily for us the transportation is fantastic you could take the bus the soup day or the train system all with the same subway card just buy a card load money onto it and you're good to go the downside there's no train to the essa airport so you'll need to take a taxi or city bus number eight for that however there are several taxi apps like cabify dd or ba taxi including uber dogs and dog walkers there are dogs all over the city many of them off leash i haven't really seen any stray dogs people just don't always leash their dogs and the best part the dog walkers especially in the neighborhoods like recoleta or belgrano you'll see a ton of dog walkers everywhere as someone who doesn't come from a big city seeing dog walkers with like 20 dogs surrounding them is an amazing sight to see every single time safety people love to talk about how unsafe or dangerous buenos aires is and it's just not true it's a big city just like any other city be smart don't flash around jewelry or your cell phone while you're walking down the street but it's just as safe or dangerous as any other big city in the world money in argentina argentina has two exchange rates the official red and the unofficial blue the red is usually around 1 usd to 120 130 pesos the blue unofficial lately has been around 280 to 90. it even went up to 322 last month to one dollar click on this video here if you want to see more in detail about how money works in argentina western union not in my entire life had i ever used western union until i came to argentina this is the best and safest way to get the blue rate download the app create an account then just transfer yourself money from your home bank account to western union and you can go to any branch in the city to pick it up just bring your passport and the mctn number cash argentina is all about that cash because of the inflation rate don't use your credit card in argentina you'll get charged the red amount don't take money out of atms you'll get charged the red amount transfer yourself money use cash when you use cash you'll be doubling or even now almost tripling your money it can be difficult knowing how much cash to carry with you like what is too much what is too little what if i get robbed or what if i want to buy a shirt or go to lunch and i don't have enough money so finding the right balance of how much cash to carry is a little tricky but you can do it no prices two prices and quotas in argentina so many stores don't have prices listed why it's so annoying but one of the reasons is because there are different prices if you pay with cash or if you pay with card you just have to ask it is very annoying to have to ask how much something costs every single time and sometimes i just don't buy things because i don't feel like asking how much every item costs you'll also see signs for quotas everywhere that's basically an installment program if you're argentinian and you have a local card you can pay in installments sometimes with interest sometimes without exact change in argentina because cash is king they are so particular about cash exact change sometimes you'll even get things for cheaper if you don't have exact change for example if your vegetables cost 350 pesos and you only have 340 or 360 they'll give it to you for 340 you'll get a discount of 10 pesos because they don't want to give you change and sometimes when you do pay the exact change they say thank you and they're appreciative of receiving exact change tipping this is not a tipping culture like it is in the united states at restaurants or places where you're served food tipping 10 is common it is not common to tip your taxi driver your nail stylist your hair cutter any other service restaurants only 10 food and drink in argentina meals and meal times in argentina there are four meals breakfast lunch merienda and dinner for breakfast a lot of argentinians will have cafe con leche and maria lunas or mate usually something simple lunch is generally eaten a bit later than we eat it in north america around two o'clock and generally it's a more full meal something warm like rice and meat or pasta whereas in the states you know a sandwich is fine merienda happens around six to seven pm it's usually something smaller empanadas you'll notice that in a lot of restaurants the merienda and breakfast menu is the same so the foods that they eat at those times are very similar dinner is the hardest one for me it's around 9 30 10 even 10 30. this is the hardest thing for me to adjust to in argentina i hate eating so late my boyfriend makes dinner at the moment i want to be going to bed so what to eat in argentina because argentina is a melting pot of cultures especially with spanish and italian influences this is reflected in their cuisine you can find pizza and pasta anywhere of course one of the most well-known foods is the empanada argentina is also famous for its high quality meat so try to find yourself a parisian restaurant and have a very delicious and very affordable steak don't forget to add chimichurri or salsa criocha on top also try a provoletta and for dessert or an alfajor and when you order nachos in argentina don't expect them to actually come with cheese it's just a bowl of chips if you want nachos like we think of nachos in north america you have to ask for nachos nachos with cheddar restaurants in argentina it's very rare to have a hostess at the front of the restaurant when you come to a restaurant just walk in and sit down argentinian waiters are also not annoying like they are in north america and they won't be asking you every five minutes how everything is and if you need anything else if you need something ask them they're not going to come to you they're also not going to drop the bill when they think you're finished with your meal you have to ask for it they won't kick you out like they will in north america condiments i recently found out that it's actually illegal to put salt on the table i was always wondering like where's the salt because i like to put salt on food but you have to ask for it specifically because it is illegal to put it on the table without asking fernetti coca this is something you'll see everywhere especially in cordoba fernet is a drink that originally comes from italy but in argentina the fernet and coca-cola became super famous and the cordobians say that it originated there water i always get mixed comments about this some people say don't drink the tap water some people say do drink the tap water some people say the tap water is spine it just tastes bad ultimately what i do is buy a seven liter water bottle and just drink out of that all week but when i've run out of that water i do just drink from the tap i've never been sick it's fine but in restaurants don't expect to be offered water it's something you have to pay for businesses and shopping in argentina opening times don't expect to get anything done on a sunday everything is closed the streets are dead also don't expect restaurants or shops to adhere to the hours that are posted on their signs or on google if they want to open 30 minutes late they're gonna they don't actually follow those times and sometimes they do and sometimes they don't close for siesta you honestly never know in argentina shop owners do what they want mercado libre don't come to argentina expecting you're gonna order things on amazon amazon doesn't work here instead there's something called mercado libre which is the south american version of amazon however as a foreigner without a dni we can't use it so if there is something you want to buy in mercado libre ask an argentinian friend they'll buy it and then pay them cash whatsapp whatsapp is used for everything in argentina most businesses will have their whatsapp number posted so you can contact them to make appointments on whatsapp you'll get your pcr results on what's up you'll book your nail appointment on whatsapp you can book accommodations or order sushi it's actually super convenient and this is one of the things i love about argentina travel in argentina i'll be honest traveling in argentina is not always easy there's so many things we can't do online like bus schedules are impossible to find and if you do find them you can't book them online because you don't want to pay a credit card and you don't have a dni so many things require a dni and as foreigners were excluded from that several times i've tried looking online finding bus schedules from city to city and it's really hard finding them on any argentinian websites i've had better luck finding schedules on places like bus bud and you can't buy them online anyway so the best thing to do is go directly to the station go look at the schedules on each company's window see the one you want and buy directly from the company at the window at the physical bus station this is totally inconvenient but it's the best way to go airplane travel the best places to find domestic flights are from fly bondi or jet smart use your credit card if you feel comfortable if not there's also the option on those websites to use rapid pago which is where you'll get the number from your receipt and then you go to a rapid pago physical location in the city and pay them in cash so this is one way to get around using your credit cards to buy flights i don't know why but so many streets in buenos aires and argentina in general don't have street signs you'll be looking around on the corner and you can't find anything if they are there they're listed on the side of the building not on an actual sign but so many times you just can't figure out what street you're on and in traffic cars have the right of way so if you're walking be cautious and on streets that are off the main avenues on four-way stops there's no stop light and a lot of times there's no stop sign which makes things super confusing as a pedestrian this is really confusing because you never know when to go and when you're in a car it's really confusing because there's always pedestrians just popping out in the middle of the street to confuse things even a little bit more google maps sucks in argentina the little indicator is always pointing the opposite direction so you never really know where you are or which direction you're going i really hope these tips have been helpful to you and if they have i would appreciate so much if you give me a like down below subscribe if you want to see more videos about argentina and if you've watched until this point it probably means that you're interested in coming to argentina or at least buenos aires so click on this link up here in this video i'll explain how money in argentina works the two different rates and how you can get the best exchange rate and get the most out of your money sometimes doubling or tripling your money in argentina why not

Channel: Nicki Posts Travel Stuff

Views: 193,881

Keywords: buenos aires, living in argentina, travel vlog, argentina vlog, buenos aires vlog, buenos aires vlog 2022, living in argentina as an american, living in argentina as an expat, living in argentina vs usa, buenos aires travel vlog, living in argentina as a foreigner, buenos aires travel, buenos aires argentina, travel blog, travel blogger, argentina vlog 2022, what you need to know about argentina, argentina expat, things to know about argentina, living abroad as an american

Id: fqUXJBiibAY

Length: 14min 14sec (854 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 06 2022