Time Out Buenos Aires (Time Out Guides)

I've traveled to 25+ countries and used countless brands of travel books. So I'll consider myself a "sophisticated traveler" and recommend it to others in the same boat. This was my second experience with TimeOut and it was great. The hotel and restaurant suggestions were right-on, and we owe most of our best dinners in Buenos Aires to this book. We were more interested in experiencing local culture than typical tourist attractions, and this book was helpful in achieving that goal. The prices in the book are a little off, but such is the state of the economy down there with a currency in flux. This is a great book for the city only, so don't expect much advice for Argentina at large. But for a Buenos Aires focused book, this is a winner.

There are better travel guides than TimeOut. Just got back from my trip and hardly used it....Did'nt really need it. Find all your travel resources online for free.

Time Out is a decent guide that provides a rough overview of the sights and attractions. Whereas Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide would provide supplemental maps for major sites and excursions out of town, Time Out does not. Rarely does any attraction get more than a cursory, one paragraph write-up.

The included maps are colorful, and the inclusion of address numbers at each block is extremely handy; however, the fact that the maps overlap and the hotels, restaurants, and sites are shown on only one of the two overlapping maps makes using them somewhat confusing.

Tiny mistakes and omissions abound. For example, the ("2008 edition") guide says that Buenos Aires uses the European round plugs for electricity; in fact, Argentina officially switched to the Australian plug in the early 2000's. As another example, the guide never mentions the airport departure tax.

All in all, this guide feels like a "Cliff's Notes" -- perhaps good enough to get an overall impression, but I certainly wouldn't want to rely on it.

Good read - lots of useful suggestions. Very good on the barrios or neighborhoods.
Somewhat out of date - e.g. the Sydney Opera House style nightclub referenced in the section on the docks has apparently been burned out for several years.

Despite what others said about this book containing lots of ads, it's compact (easy to carry along) and very useful. A good buy.