Tango Classes and Lessons

As you can imagine there are numerous schools that offer tango classes, workshops and private lessons in Buenos Aires. You will find the most amazing instructors there. However, because there are so many it makes it somewhat difficult to find the right one especially if you are there for a short period of time.

If your visit is under three weeks I highly recommend the following school: Escuela Argentina de Tango. I am not a huge fan of group classes for women (I think that they are far more useful for men). In my opinion it is better to save your money for private lessons and practice by going to practicas and doing exercises at home. However, this particular school offers classes that even I found extremely useful. Those are: Milonga con transpie, Technica para la mujer--postura corporal y adornos, Tecnica--naturaleza del movimiento and a special Saturday workshop Technica de mujeres para la milonga con traspie. What I recommend is that upon your arrival you visit the school, get the schedule (or get their schedule off of the website ahead of time) and just take classes for the first few days to get a feel for what types of classes you like and which instructors you like best. Classes are 30 pesos each and you can buy a discount card if you take multiple classes. Regular classes are 90 minutes and special workshops are two hour long.

When you know whose teaching style you like best talk to that teacher after class and sign up for private lessons. Private lessons are around 200 pesos for an hour of instruction and if you take more than three the price drops. Sometimes the studio rental fee is not included and will run you an extra 15 pesos--double check with your instructor. I highly recommend for women to take at least some lessons with a female instructor--no matter how good a male instructor is there are certain things you can only learn from a woman.

Escuela Argentino de Tango is located in Centro Cultural Borges which is located on the second level of Galerias Pacifico (a shopping mall). It is easy to find and is easily accessible by public transportation. It is quite convenient because if you are taking several classes in one day you can just take a break from tango by walking around the mall, checking out art installations in Centro Cultural Borges (on the same level as the school) or grab something to eat. There are several restaurants inside the mall and an amazing food court on the lower level. I was quite skeptical about the food at the food court until I tried it--it was absolutely delicious and prices very affordable.

Here are some adornos exercises demonstrated by Fernanda Japas (one of the instructors at the school) during a private lesson. Another instructor I highly recommend (especially for milonga) is Gabriela Elias.

Transportation in Buenos Aires

Domus BA B&B is within 10 minutes walking from Museo Casa Carlos Gardel and from Carlos Gardel subway station. The subway is referred to as "Subte" and while not always convenient--depending on where you are traveling to--it is very cheap--it only costs 1.10 peso (exchange rate in November 2009 was $1 = 3.83 peso). You can buy a metro card for one or multiple trips (viaje). If you decide to take a bus you will need to pay with coins. Taxis are very affordable. For example, to go from Palermo to Microcentro costs about 17 pesos, to travel within Palermo about 10 pesos, to go from Palermo to San Telmo about 25 pesos. At the beginning of my stay I did a lot of walking and using subte, but then I started taking taxis more and more. First of all it was very cheap and second I just wanted to save my energy and most importantly feet for my tango dancing.

If you travel with luggage (for example, going to the airport) or if it's hard to catch a taxi where you live you can just call for one (I will post a phone number later) and they will come at no additional charge. Taxi to the airport costs 85 pesos and it's a flat rate. From the airport you can either take the taxi right outside the airport (they are painted black and yellow with "Radio Taxi" written on the side) or you can rent what is called a "remise" (World Car, WIP Cars, etc.) which is basically a car service. They charge 110 pesos to go to Buenos Aires and accept credit cards. When you come out from baggage claim make a left and their stands are right across from a cafe called Madeleine--you can't miss it. Travel time to the city is about 30-40 minutes depending on traffic.

Accomodations in Buenos Aires

Whenever I traveled in the past I have always stayed in hotels. When I started planning my two week trip to Buenos Aires I decided to try something different. Since I was going to stay in one place for two weeks I figured I would rent an apartment. Besides, that's what everyone else I knew did when going to BsAs. It would save me money too--I could get a nice apartment for as little as $300 a week (a hotel would cost me at least $100 a night). I did some research, but every apartment booking website would require a credit card to hold the reservation, but not to pay for the actual stay. The way all of them operate is that upon arrival you meet with an agent and pay in cash the full amount of your stay plus a security deposit. I didn't feel comfortable traveling with all that cash and didn't want to put up a security deposit (which was supposed to be refunded upon the return of the keys). Also, I was arriving on a Saturday and since my arrival fell outside of the regular business hours I would have to make special arrangements to pick up the keys. This whole ordeal with the apartment was getting more and more complicated. I was going on the trip by myself and was also concerned that if I stay in an apartment all my myself I wouldn't even have anyone to talk to or to even get any basic information like where to buy a calling card, using public transportation, etc. etc.

So I decided to go a different route. I started looking at some Bed & Breakfast inns. There was quite a lot to choose from. Prices ranged from $35/night for a room with shared bath to $200+ for a room in a very nice villa. I settled on a room with a private bathroom in Domus BA in Palermo for $70/night. I emailed the owner and my reservation was confirmed. There was no security deposit and I could just pay for my stay when I got there.

Perfect! I was not disappointed. Leonor (the owner) made me feel right at home. The rooms are loft style and somewhat small with an office area on one level and the bed on another level. If you bring your laptop with you you can take advantage of the free wifi (just don't forget to bring the converter and an adapter or you can purchase one in BsAs). I wasn't planning to be spending much time indoors so the size of the room was not a concern to me. But climbing the stairs all the time to get to my bed did get tedious after a while, especially after doing so many tango lessons and going to milongas. The best part was the breakfast--if the weather was nice (which it was most of the time) I could have my breakfast right outside of my room in a small garden. My breakfast consisted of three media lunas (it's a kind of croissant), cheese, dulce de leche, fresh orange juice and coffee or tea. In addition to the small garden which the rooms face (there are only two guest rooms in the house) there is a bigger Japanese garden with a swimming pool. The pool was not heated so it was too cold for me to swim in it (it probably is great during summer), but it was very nice for relaxing after spending all day running around the city sightseeing and going to tango classes. Since all of the rooms in the house face the garden you don't get any outside noise and get a really good rest. There is also a living room area with a dining table and a small refrigerator and some armchairs. There are some guidebooks and maps that you can browse through.

If this is your first trip to Buenos Aires and you are traveling by yourself I would highly recommend staying in a B&B.