Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is less a single city than a string of neighbourhoods, each with its own pace. San Telmo keeps the cobbles, the antiques fair and the old covered market; La Boca, the painted port houses where the city began; Recoleta and Retiro, the French-style palaces and the cemetery; Puerto Madero, the old docks turned into a riverside promenade. Palermo is parks, design hotels and most of the restaurants, and around it Villa Crespo, Chacarita, Colegiales and the Abasto, Gardel's old quarter, are where the galleries, studios and murals have moved. Up the river, San Isidro keeps the quintas of the old families.

Three nights are a good measure. One day for San Telmo and the centre on foot, with a food walk through the markets and a night of tango in a restored conventillo, or at a milonga where the dancers are locals. Another by bike through Recoleta and Palermo, or with an artist through the street art of Colegiales. A third for a cooking class in a private home, a long lunch, or a day of polo at Puesto Viejo, less than an hour away. The city is the first and last stop of almost every itinerary in the country.

There is no wrong season. Winter, from June to August, is cool and the time for theatres, concerts and the milongas; summer is humid, and the evenings are the best part of the day.