Buenos Aires on $25, $80 or $300 a day

The largest and most fashionable neighborhood in Buenos Aires, subdivided into Palermo Soho (boutiques, cafes, cobblestone streets), Palermo Hollywood (restaurant and bar strip), and Palermo Chico (embassies and the museum belt). The Bosques de Palermo (the city's main park, free - rose garden, Japanese garden, a lake with rowboats) is the lungs of the city. The restaurant scene on Avenida del Libertador and Honduras street is the finest in Argentina. The MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, ARS$3,000) is here - the best collection of Latin American modern art on the continent.

The most European neighborhood in Buenos Aires: wide Haussmann-style boulevards, Belle Epoque apartment buildings, and the Recoleta Cemetery (free - where Eva Peron is buried alongside the Argentine elite; the mausoleums are extraordinary, marble palaces for the dead, the cemetery is larger than many Argentine towns). The Centro Cultural Recoleta (free, excellent contemporary exhibitions) and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (free - the finest art museum in Argentina, Impressionists and Latin American masters) are on the Junin street museum strip.

The oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires: colonial buildings, cobblestone streets, the Feria de San Telmo (the Sunday antique market on Defensa street, free - a kilometre-long street market with milonga (tango dancing) in the Plaza Dorrego, street performers, and genuine antiques among the tourist goods). The Mercado de San Telmo (free entry - a 1897 iron-and-glass market hall with food stalls, tango memorabilia, and the most atmospheric lunch in BA). The neighborhood is the authentic tango heartland.

The port neighborhood at the mouth of the Riachuelo: famous for the Caminito (the pedestrian street of painted corrugated iron houses, free - touristy but genuinely photogenic, 15 minutes from the tourist zone beyond gets authentic and rough), and La Bombonera (the Boca Juniors stadium, the most atmospheric football ground in South America; stadium tours ARS$4,000, match tickets require a local contact or a tour operator). The neighborhood gave birth to the tango. Beyond the tourist strip, it is a genuine working-class port neighborhood.

The converted docklands east of the Centro: Buenos Aires's newest and most expensive neighborhood, built on reclaimed land along the Rio de la Plata. The Puente de la Mujer (the rotating pedestrian bridge by Santiago Calatrava, free) is the neighborhood icon. The restaurant strip along the docks (Cabana Las Lilas, La Bistecca) is the most expensive in Argentina. The Ecological Reserve (free - a 350-hectare nature reserve on reclaimed industrial land, excellent birdwatching) is at the neighborhood's eastern edge.

The neighborhoods west of Palermo that the fashion set moved into as Palermo became expensive: Villa Crespo has the best vintage clothing markets, the Mercado de Villa Crespo (a craft and food market), and the most affordable good restaurants in the city. Chacarita has the second-great cemetery (Cementerio de Chacarita, free - bigger than Recoleta, where Carlos Gardel, the greatest tango singer, is buried; pilgrims leave cigarettes in his tomb's outstretched hand). The best bakeries and coffee shops are here.