If I could pass on one piece of advice – that was given to me – for people going to Buenos Aires, it would be to check out the Mapa Interactivo – the interactive map of Buenos Aires.
Do you need to get from one side of the city to another and are not familiar with every Subte (subway) map and bus in a city of 19 million people? Oh wait, there is no online record of where exactly buses go?! (Keep in mind that if you need to go to a location outside the Capital Federal, this isn’t going to help you much.)
This website makes life a cinch. Seriously, I’m starting to think that all cities are behind the curve now.
Don’t speak Spanish? No worries, I’ll break it down for you.
So this is your starting page and to the right, you have the Capital Federal area. Don’t let it fool you. It is MASSIVE.
Click on “Como Llego” or, “How the hell do I get from point A to point B?”
In the “Desde” (or “From”) field, type in your current address and in the “Hasta” (or “To”) field, type in the address of where you want to go (assuming you know how to use the Googles and/or are using a guide book, you know how to get the addy of where you are heading. It also accepts cross streets.).
In this case, we lived on Tucuman 340 and for shits and giggles, I’m going to show you how to get to La Cabrera – which happens to be on Cabrera 5127. Click on the search icon on the right side.
On the left side of the screen you are going to see something that looks like this:
What it basically is telling us is that we have 10 ways to get there ranging from 31-47 minutes. Click on the pin icon for whatever mode of transportation you would like to check out. Just because I love taking more than one mode of transportation virtually, I’m going to click the second selection that tells me that I have to take the Subte and a bus to get where we need to go.
After you click the icon, the map on the right will pop up with a visual representation on a map of the written directions.
It has every minute detailed, even the amount of time it should take you to get to the bus. Keep in mind that most buses are on their own agenda and come when they damn well please so the time may be off a bit.
And that is it! You now have access to getting around Buenos Aires with ease! AND buses run 24 hours!
Simple right? But now – good luck *snicker* getting change to take the buses. Coins only! And they don’t give change! If you do plan on being there for a while, stop by a post office (just expect to be in line for a while) to get a rechargeable card. It will save you a headache for sure.
Best of luck to all you explorers taking on the city of good air!
It’s handy to have tools like this… similar issue when I lived in Japan – (be thankful Argentina at least uses the same characters for their words as English) but it was good to find a website that could tell you every train time… all you needed was to know which stations.
Oh who am I kidding, even then it was confusing lol.
I wish this was available a few years ago! I got so lost in BA that I just ended up wandering the streets. In the end, it turned out great because I saw so many unique details, but it would’ve soothed my nerves to know where I was going.
@Margyle: I actually got really good at getting us around Japan! A website would have been good though. Good ol’ good translate!
@Mary: I was just happy that my friend told us about it. I can’t imagine doing it alone. Big cities FREAK ME OUT.
Thanks for the info, will sure try this! I’m all set for Buenos Aires teh day after tomorrow! Great to bump into this!
Glad I could help our Charlie! Let me know if you need anything else. 😀