Not legal or tax advice — real expat experiences

Guide to Argentina

Updated: 2026-08-16 (revised from the 2024 original with current information)

Argentina Overview

Argentina is a beautiful country with many great, walkable cities. Safety is like Italy. Lots of pickpocketing and phone snatches but not much violent crime. Buenos Aires city recorded 78 homicides in 2025, a rate of 2.5 per 100,000 — the lowest in 31 years and the second-lowest of any capital in the Americas after Ottawa.

There is a ton of variety in its natural landscapes. It has its own versions of Alaska, Arizona/Utah, the Rockies, Florida, and Texas. The population is young. Most people are an Italian/Spanish mix although there are also substantial Jewish, English, French, Russian, German groups. In most of the country the climate is fairly temperate with winters above 50 and summers below 90.

The economy is no longer bizarre in the way it was — it's just normal-expensive now. Inflation ran 2.1% in July 2026 and 33.8% over the prior twelve months (INDEC), down from 211% at the end of 2023. GDP grew 4.4% in 2025 with roughly 3-4% forecast for 2026, poverty fell to about 28% (a six-year low, from 41.7% in early 2024), and country risk dropped from roughly 2,000 basis points to around 570 by 2026. Milei's party won the October 2025 midterms with ~41% of the vote, a labor reform passed Congress in February 2026, and a tax reform is queued behind it.

The big change for foreigners: Argentina is not cheap anymore. The peso in real terms is roughly three times stronger than in mid-2023, when the blue-dollar arbitrage made this the bargain of the hemisphere. That era is over. Buenos Aires is still meaningfully cheaper than New York, London, or Sydney — a mid-range dinner for two runs about $70 and a cappuccino $3.94 (Numbeo, August 2026) — but it is now roughly on par with Medellín and cheaper than Montevideo, not a fraction of them. Budget $1,500-2,500/month for a comfortable single lifestyle in 2026. Argentines themselves now fly to Chile and Brazil to buy clothes and electronics, and outbound tourism hit a record ~$13bn outflow in 2025. Imported goods are still expensive but less so than they were: tariffs on phones, TVs and air conditioners were cut to 8% in 2025 and eliminated on 15 January 2026, and excise taxes on them halved from 19% to 9.5% (Decree 333/2025). Bringing your own electronics is still worth it, but it's no longer a 2-3x saving.

Getting to Buenos Aires

Flying here used to be punishingly expensive. It's better now, and the old "100% tax on international flights" line was never quite right anyway. The real culprit was the 30% Impuesto PAÍS on foreign-currency purchases, and it expired on 23 December 2024; only a 7% tourism levy on international tickets survives, extended to 2027. Deregulation did the rest: DNU 338/2025 rewrote the 55-year-old aviation code and ended Aerolíneas Argentinas' route exclusivity, the government has signed 27 open-skies agreements, and new entrants (Plus Ultra on Ezeiza-Madrid from May 2026, World2Fly on Madrid-Rosario from October 2026, Arajet from Punta Cana) keep arriving. Flybondi and JetSMART fares are routinely under $50 one way and international traffic was up 16% year on year through May 2026. Domestic flying is the exception — Aerolíneas killed its cheapest "Promo" fare in May 2026 and now charges for carry-on, and domestic passenger numbers fell 12% in May. https://www.despegar.com.ar/ still sells domestic flights in pesos.

Prices still vary a lot by origin. From the US, NYC/Miami are cheapest. Sometimes you can save by flying to Santiago or Montevideo and connecting. From Europe, routing through Rio or São Paulo can be cheaper; London, Amsterdam, and Lisbon have reasonable flights to Brazil.

The main international airport is Ezeiza (EZE). Aeroparque (AEP), in Palermo on the river, is mostly domestic but now handles a lot of regional international flying to Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru — check which airport your ticket uses. Two 2026 disruptions to plan around: AEP shuts entirely for 55 hours from 25-27 August, and an Ezeiza runway closes 25 October to 11 November.

EZE is 45-60 minutes from the city. Cheapest option is Uber, DiDi, or Cabify — around ARS 30,000 (~$20) to Palermo, though it surges hard when several flights land at once. An official counter taxi runs about ARS 50,000 (~$34), a fixed-price remis ARS 45,000-70,000 ($30-47). The old $10-20 figure is long gone. Book at the official counters inside arrivals and ignore anyone soliciting in the hall.

The Essentials

Water: the tap water is drinkable and AySA treats and monitors it to national standards. Most porteños drink it straight. It comes from the Rio de la Plata though, which has a lot of agriculture upstream, and older buildings have older pipes — a filter or bottled water is a reasonable precaution.

Crime: Buenos Aires is now safer than most large US cities on paper. Robberies in the city fell 27% in 2025 to 50,069, the lowest in 25 years, and armed muggings fell 34% to 5,566, the lowest since records began. Nationally the homicide rate closed 2025 at 3.6 per 100,000 (down 7.3% year on year, the lowest ever recorded) with robberies down 20.8%. The US State Department has Argentina at Level 1, "exercise normal precautions" (reissued May 2026), with only the city of Rosario carved out at Level 2. Violent crime is rare. Petty crime against careless people is still the real risk though, and improving statistics have not made phone snatching go away — CABA still has the country's highest robbery rate (1,877 per 100,000 in 2025) even as violence falls. Be extremely cautious with your phone and valuables. Watch Calle Florida, Plaza de Mayo, the Retiro station area, the San Telmo market, and Subte lines A and B at rush hour. Here are some of the examples of crime I've heard:

Basic steps: keep valuables secure, don't stare at phone on street, don't be flashy with wealth. The classic scams are still running too: the mustard-or-coffee spray-and-help routine, ATM distraction theft, and taxi bill-swapping (another reason to use apps). Rosario is the one place with a genuinely worse reputation, though its homicide count collapsed from 262 in 2023 to 90 in 2024 and 112 in 2025, and the first half of 2026 was the quietest in 25 years.

Currency: The currency games are over. Milei's government lifted the cepo cambiario for individuals in April 2025 and moved to a floating band regime, and all the rates have converged. On 16 August 2026: official ~1,510 ARS/USD, blue ~1,545, MEP ~1,522, CCL ~1,573 — a blue gap of about 2%, versus nearly 2x in 2023. There is no longer a meaningful arbitrage, and no reason to arrive with a brick of $100 bills.

Practical advice for 2026:

Transport: Uber, DiDi, and Cabify all work in Buenos Aires now; inDriver is usually cheapest on longer trips. A porteño appeals court ruled in May 2026 that the apps are transport operators rather than tech intermediaries and that their drivers need professional licenses and commercial insurance — the apps aren't banned, but supply and prices could move once that's enforced. Street taxis are metered and fine: flagfall ARS 1,920 (~$1.30) plus about ARS 960/km (~$0.64), with a 20% surcharge from 10 pm to 6 am, so a 5 km Palermo-Recoleta run is around $4.50 (February 2026 tariff, revised often).

Public transport works well (but be extremely careful of pickpockets). Subsidies have been cut hard — the AMBA utilities-and-transport basket is up 594% since December 2023 against 194% general inflation — so fares are no longer trivial. In August 2026 the subte costs ARS 1,684 (~$1.13) with a registered SUBE card and ARS 2,541 (~$1.70) without; the minimum CABA bus fare is ARS 853 (~$0.57) versus ARS 1,356. Fares now rise automatically every month.

Register your SUBE card. Since Resolution 1/2025 the subsidy attaches to a named holder, and unregistered cards pay 50-100% more on bus, subte and train. Registration requires a DNI or CUIT/CUIL, so newly arrived foreigners pay the tarifa plena by default — this is the most common avoidable overpay in the city.

It's also a fairly easy city to bike in. Ecobici is still free on weekdays for anyone with Argentine residency (4 trips/day, 30 min each), but foreigners without residency now pay ARS 2,100 (~$1.40) per 45-minute trip or ARS 15,000 (~$10) for a 24-hour pass. Pages saying it's free for tourists are out of date.

Sims: An eSIM is the right call for week one — Airalo Argentina plans start around $5, about $6 for 1 GB over 7 days or $26 for 6 GB over 30 days (August 2026). After that switch to a local prepaid, which is 2-5x cheaper per GB: Tuenti (a Movistar MVNO) sells 6 GB for ARS 11,500 or 12 GB for ARS 14,700 per 30 days with no contract. For a local SIM, go to a Claro, Movistar, or Personal store (there's one in the Alto Palermo Mall) with your passport. Prepaid beats postpaid badly here.

You can buy a non-KYC sim at Galería Rustique. Enter on right and go about halfway. You'll see a store there selling non-KYC sims.

Internet: Genuinely good and cheap, and one of the real arguments for basing here. The national median fixed download is about 100 Mbps. A 100 Mbps plan in greater Buenos Aires averages ARS 18,200/month (~$12, May 2026); Telecentro promo fiber starts at ARS 13,999 and gigabit runs ARS 27,999 (~$19, July 2026). Starlink is licensed and had over 700,000 Argentine accounts by April 2026 (Residencial ARS 65,000/month, ~$44, plus a ~ARS 500,000 kit), but it only makes sense outside fiber footprints. Coworking hot desks run $15-28/day or from about $200/month, with 20-50% discounts for 3-month commitments.

Electricity and blackouts: Where the subsidy cuts bite hardest. An unsubsidized AMBA household paid about ARS 133,000/month for electricity and gas combined in July 2026 (~$89) — still cheap in dollars, but the services basket is up 594% since December 2023. Summer blackouts are real and unresolved: a substation failure on 15 January 2026 cut power to roughly 800,000 AMBA customers during a heat wave. If you work remotely, budget for a UPS and prefer a building with a generator between December and March.

Housing:

Rents are no longer a rounding error. The old Ley de Alquileres was gutted by DNU 70/2023 in December 2023, which flooded the market with supply — CABA listings are now about 3.4x the February 2023 trough — and made leases far easier to sign. But measured in dollars, CABA rents are up more than 220% since the late-2023 devaluation. The $200-600 local apartment is gone.

Zonaprop CABA averages, July/August 2026: a monoambiente (studio) ARS 761,000/month (~$511), a dos ambientes (1BR) ARS 874,000 (~$586), a tres ambientes (2BR) ARS 1,178,000 (~$790). Palermo runs above that, around ARS 974,000 for a dos ambientes. Add expensas (building fees) and utilities on top — Numbeo puts basic utilities at about $207/month. Furnished expat-facing units cost more: roughly $500-1,300/month in Palermo, and the median Palermo 1BR on Airbnb is about $1,453/month all-in versus about $1,180 for a comparable direct rental. The one bit of good news is that rents are finally rising below inflation — up 17.5% against 19.2% inflation over 2026 to date.

The repeal changed how leases work in ways that mostly favor a foreigner. Terms are freely negotiable (12-18 months is now normal where 36 was mandatory), the adjustment index is whatever the parties agree, and dollar-denominated contracts are common and enforceable. Many landlords will now rent in USD without a garantía propietaria. If you're staying a year or more, https://www.argenprop.com/ and Zonaprop are the standard listing sites. Some landlords still want a local property guarantor or several months upfront; offering 4-6 months in advance usually solves it.

If you're just staying for a month or two the easiest approach is still to rent for a few days on Airbnb, get the owner's whatsapp, and then make a monthly deal — that often provides a 20-40% discount. https://mylovelyapart.com/ has furnished apartments in nice areas without a long-term lease or local guarantor. There are also whatsapp and Facebook groups that advertise furnished apartments.

Groceries: Carrefour, Disco, Jumbo, Coto are the main grocery brands. They deliver. Lots of little grocery shops as well, including butchers and organic stores. https://www.instagram.com/almacenata/ delivers organic food. La Agroecológica in Nunez sells raw milk. Coto and Disco sell beef tallow in the Dairy section. Beef is still cheap by international standards but noticeably less so than in 2023.

Online Purchases:: mercadolibre.com is great. It's the amazon of Latin America. You'll need a DNI number to register an account. There are several options to pay in cash (eg Pago Facil, Rapi Pago). Importing directly also got much easier: the puerta a puerta / courier regime now allows shipments up to US$3,000 and 50kg, with the first US$400 per shipment free of import duty (21% VAT still applies to everything). Amazon, AliExpress, eBay all ship under this regime.

Healthcare: Private prepaga plans were deregulated in 2024 and prices rose a lot in real terms. As of March 2026, OSDE 210 runs about USD 110/month, OSDE 310 about USD 150, and OSDE 410 about USD 220; a mid-tier plan for a couple in their 30s is roughly USD 95-150/month. Since Resolution 645/2025 (July 2025) prepagas must publish current prices by plan and age band on the Superintendencia de Servicios de Salud site — check there before signing. Note that several provinces and the city have started charging non-resident foreigners for public hospital care.

Weather: It's a pretty good climate. Winters are extremely mild. Usually highs in 50s/60s. Summers are a bit too hot. Some days get above 100.

English levels aren't that high. I recommend google translate. Google lens is a great way to translate a menu in real-time.

Where to Stay

Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood are the main expat neighbourhoods. Safe. Lots of restaurants, cafes, and bars. Very active nightlife and best selection of cuisine. Residents are mostly young adults. Also the most expensive part of the city to rent in outside Puerto Madero.

Recoleta is an upscale neighbourhood. Beautiful French style apartments. Lots of cafes and restaurants. Very active during the day but quiet at night. Residents are mostly rich young families and old people.

The rest of Palermo is quite nice as are some areas near Palermo like Belgrano and Villa Crespo. Chacarita and Colegiales have become genuinely good in the last couple of years and cost less. San Telmo is fun during the day and has a ton of tourists but feels a bit dead and sketchy at night. My recommendation is stay in one of the areas I mentioned above and then explore the other options later. There are a surprisingly high number of good areas.

Where to Eat

Buenos Aires has good restaurants. Steak houses and Italian food are the default. The average restaurant quality is pretty meh though, and prices have converged toward international levels — a full parrilla dinner for two with wine runs about $75, a premium cut $25-45, and coffee with medialunas $3-6 (2026). Tourist-zone parrillas charge roughly double what neighborhood ones do, so it pays to walk a few blocks. I recommend using this instagram account to find where to go: https://www.instagram.com/turistafoodie/?hl=en or this list of dinner places https://goo.gl/maps/CmFMASpDfFCE85H4A

Where to Work

Here's a list of cafes with good wifi and decent seating: https://maps.app.goo.gl/FrtpQNgH3p45HN4Q9?g_st=i

Stuff to Do in Buenos Aires

It's a huge city. There's a ton of stuff to do. Bars, restaurants, dance clubs, biking, book stores, theaters, horse racing, polo, museums, sailing, parks. This Instagram has some ideas to inspire you https://www.instagram.com/turismobuenosairesok/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

Buenos Aires is pretty flat. It has nice parks but it's difficult to get to real nature. Best option is honestly sailing. Tons of sailing clubs and Rio Plata has good wind.

Social Groups

One of the best parts of Buenos Aires is how many activities there are to do. Saturday writers workshops, daily running groups, soccer leagues, sporting clubs.

Compadres is a great event hosted by my friends every other Saturday in the park: https://www.meetup.com/buenos-aires-compadres-club/

I also love the AI whispers event hosted every Wednesday at 6 pm: https://www.meetup.com/the-ai-whisperers-club/

The Mundo Lingo events are still going and well attended — several nights a week, roughly 8 pm onward, a couple hundred people, lots of foreigners and locals. Days and venues rotate, so check before you go: https://www.meetup.com/mundo-lingo-buenos-aires/events/

Spanglish is also fun. Saturday nights at 7 pm. Practice some Spanish. Everyone goes singing afterwards. Usually 20-40 people.

Digital nomad meetup is Thursday evenings at 8 pm. Usually 50-100 people. https://www.meetup.com/es/digitalnomadba/

Whatsapp links:

Facebook links:

Meetup links:

Good list of other activities

Emergencies

Police: 9-1-1.

Residency Visas and Citizenship

This section changed the most. Argentina was famously indifferent to overstayers; Decree 366/2025, in force since 14 May 2025, tightened things considerably. Assume the old folklore is out of date and get current advice before relying on it.

Tourists get 90 days on entry (visa-free for US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia and most of Latin America), extendable once for another 90 at Migraciones — file in the 10 days before expiry; once expired you can't extend at all. Overstaying is handled with a flat exit permit rather than a per-day fine — about ARS 40,000 (~USD 27) for non-Mercosur nationals, payable at Ezeiza and Aeroparque but not at land border crossings, so don't exit by bus or ferry with an expired stamp. But the decree strengthened Migraciones' powers to deny entry and expel people with irregular status, so living here for years on tourist stamps is now a real risk rather than a quirk. Visa runs remain a bad idea; you may be denied re-entry.

What Decree 366/2025 changed: permanent residency now lapses after 12 months of continuous absence (down from 24); temporary residents must be physically present at least 6 months in any 12-month period or risk cancellation; and the 2-year path to citizenship now requires continuous, uninterrupted legal residence, so leaving resets the clock. Separately, residency applications now require a sworn declaration of health insurance valid in Argentina (specific coverage minimums circulate online but aren't fixed in the published rules — get a policy regardless).

The main routes, as of 2026:

Government fees are modest: roughly ARS 100,000 for temporary or permanent residency for non-Mercosur nationals, half that for Mercosur, plus about ARS 20,000 for a renewal. Lawyers are where the money goes — budget $1,000-3,000 for a straightforward case. Applications run through the RADEX online system: upload documents, pay fees, get a digital residencia precaria (which lets you live, work, study and open bank accounts while you wait), then do biometrics. Expect roughly 5-8 months from filing to DNI in hand in 2026. All foreign documents need an apostille or Argentine consular legalisation.

A citizenship-by-investment program at around USD 500,000 has been floated for late 2026. It is not law yet — treat anyone selling it today with suspicion.

CAUTION: being a resident can trigger tax obligations. Argentina taxes residents on worldwide income, though a broad tax reform has been moving through Congress in 2026, so this is a moving target. See Taxes for Expats.

PASSPORT: The old rule was that anyone who spent 7 months a year in Argentina for 2 straight years could apply for citizenship whether or not they had legal residency, via the courts. Decree 366/2025 pushed toward requiring continuous legal residence, and several of these questions are still being fought over in court. The waiting period is still waived for people with Argentine children, spouses, or parents. Expect 1.5 to 3 years from filing to passport, and get a lawyer.

Churches

Argentina is very catholic. Lots of well attended masses, including in Latin. I personally love Iglesia Origen and Catedral de la Fe. Rey de Reyes is nice as well. All are evangelical with excellent music and welcoming people.

Other Argentine Destinations

Bariloche

Small city. Lots of big mansions with great mountain views. Has skiing, hiking, and lake activities. Very popular tourist destination. Can rent bikes and hiking gear at Raid. Outdoor apparel is about twice as expensive to buy than in US. Downtown is ugly but the western zone closest to the highway to Llao Llao hotel is nice. Note that Patagonia in general is now genuinely expensive — the strong peso hit tourist-facing prices hardest, and many Argentines now holiday in Brazil or Chile instead.

Mendoza

I really really like this city. One of my favorites in the world. Beautiful mountain views, fresh air, vineyards, excellent food. my favorite activities:

Cordoba

Second biggest city. 8 hour drive from Buenos Aires. Has a lot of nature nearby. It's a university heavy city.

Mar Del Plata

Beach city 5 hours from Buenos Aires. The beach is sort of like New Jersey but the city is overall quite nice. San Carlos beach on the way to Miramar is nice. Can reach it by taxi or bus. Has some excellent areas with lots of cafes that feel like Palermo.

Salta

Looks like Arizona. Cool nature nearby. Has nice airbnb options. Tourist economy. Safe and walkable. Dry climate that is a nice contrast to Buenos Aires. Extremely big temperature difference between midday and night. I enjoyed Cafayate 4 hours away. There are also tours to huge salt lakes Grandes Salinas.

Rosario

Had serious safety problems around 2023, driven by narco violence; homicides have fallen sharply since then and the city feels much better, but the south of the city is still the part to avoid. Felt nice downtown. Has a good bar zone. Overall quite enjoyed my time in this city. Only 2.5 hours from Buenos Aires.

Other Resources

Food suggestions

Colon Theater shows

Touristy Stuff to Do

BowTiedMara (Great Argentina alpha)

Buenos Aires Herald (English-language news)

Stuff to do in Argentina

Best MediaLunes

Learning Spanish

Written Spanish: easy to learn with any of the major chat assistants — ask one to hold the whole conversation in rioplatense Spanish and correct you as you go.

Spoken Spanish: best to get a teacher. Superprof offers very cheap remote or in person teachers. https://www.superprof.com.ar/

For vocabulary, reading or audio books is great.

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