Letter from Buenos Aires: The Cost of Visiting Argentina Is On The Rise, Sort Of. Plus Where To Eat Now in BA.

Regular readers of But I Digress know that THE LUXURIST loves pretty much everything about Argentina.

It used to be a great bargain, but is it still a good value for budget-conscious visitors?

The answer is yes – and no – according to our friend and correspondent Alexandra Lazar, author of the terrific, informative blog on food and restaurants in Buenos Aires, Pick Up The Fork.

Pick Up The Fork recommends this hot new eatery in the oh-so-hip Palermo Hollywood quarter of BA

Allie writes:

Argentina isn't as great of a deal as it used to be. Inflation is a killer, and prices are constantly rising. 

Those who have already traveled to Argentina within the last few years will notice that it is much more expensive now. That being said, for first time visitors Argentina would be quite the bargain. 

They can find great deals staying in very nice apartments (instead of hotels) and eating out at wonderful restaurants, spending a fraction of the price that they would in the U.S. Shopping (leather and wine, for example) is more affordable. Public transportation and taxis are relatively cheap, too. 

Superclassico: River Plate vs. Boca Juniors. Not to be missed!

The type of things that are more expensive, or the same as the U.S., are small items like a good cup of coffee (which costs around US$ 3-5). Ethnic food is expensive compared to the U.S. (although tourists probably won't be eating much of this). So are toiletries and, of course, anything imported.

Even though it's about 4.39 pesos to the dollar, and local prices are pretty inflated, it's still a good time to travel to Argentina. 

Allie adds that Spring or Fall are the best times to be in Argentina.

She also makes this recommendation:

Those who want to experience Buenos Aires to the fullest should contact Madi Lang, who runs BA Cultural Concierge. She'll organize a customized itinerary for your visit, book you into a smart boutique hotel or charming apartment (at a fair price), arrange a guide, driver, or cell phone, and generally ensure that your entire visit will go smoothly and be memorable.

That's good enough for us, and it should be for you, too.  Contact Madi at www.baculturalconcierge.com.

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Alexandra Lazar's lively blog, Pick Up The Fork, is our go to source for anything and everything to do with food in Buenos Aires. We especially recommend her recent post Eat As The Porteños Do – Lazar's take on the best places to eat the most typical local breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  

Residents call themselves Porteños because BA is a port city situated on the Rio de la Plata, or River Plate, after which the beloved Argentine soccer club is named. 

Be sure, too, to catch an Argentine soccer match. It's an experience. Because the fans are usually more excitable than the players, don't go on your own unless you speak Spanish well and feel very comfortable in a dark alley around 3AM. Your hotel, or Madi Lang, will make arrangements for a group visit with an escort.

The Artful Traveler: Budapest's Spectacular Summer

The Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti once remarked, "If you come from Paris to Budapest you think you are in Moscow. But if you go from Moscow to Budapest you think you are in Paris."

While that may have been true a few generations ago, Budapest today is a major destination for savvy  travelers.

We haven't visited in some time. We are itching to return after reading a dispatch in The Economist on the grand Hungarian capital's summer arts and festival scene.

"This central European nation’s dazzling cultural and musical heritage is now enjoying a renaissance," gushed A.L.B. in The Economist.

The Danube divides the two halves of Budapest, gloriously illuminated at night

While the Budapest Spring Festival just ended in March – a show starring John Malkovich and based on the autobiography of Jack Unterweger, an Austrian serial killer, apparently was one of the highlights – April brings both the Titanic International Film Festival, a mammoth celebration of Hungarian cinema,  and Budapest 100, paying homage to the city's arresting architecture with tours of  the city's historic buildings and lesser known treasures.

Many other festivals and cultural events abound throughout the Summer.

"Evita" at the Budapest Summer Festival in 2009

From June 8 to September 8 the Budapest Summer Festival offers scores of open-air concerts, dramas, operas, and musicals on Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube. This year there's a musical based on Count of Monte Cristo, Moliere's The Misanthrope in Hungarian, and Puccini's Turandot, presumably not in a Magyar translation.

On June 23 the city's varied fine arts, history, science, and specialty museums remain open until 2:30am for the popular annual Night of the Museums. One ticket affords admission to all of them, as well as free transit on the municipal bus system until 5:00am, with special bus routes between collections to speed you safely on your nocturnal itinerary.

And then there's Sziget, one of the largest indie and alternative music festivals anywhere. Some 400,000 high-spirited spectators are expected this year between August 6-13.

With seven venues, including a pop-rock mainstage, a Europe stage, World Music stage, a Rock and Metal stage, and a party arena, there will be something for nearly everyone.

Enthusiastic fans at the Sziget Festival

On the program are international stars, such as the Chemical Brothers, Judas Priest, Kaiser Chiefs, Good Charlotte, and The Gotan Project plus less well known acts with intriguing names like Manic Street Preachers, Flogging Molly, Gogol Bordello, La Shica, Goran Bregovic Wedding And Funeral Band, and The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77.

And those are just the ones we can pronounce. Coachella is bound to be pretty tame by comparison.

Certain to prove less intense is the Festival of Folk Arts, taking place from August 18-21. The event brings the finest Hungarian craftsmen and their work to Buda Castle from across the country. A variety of different folk crafts ranging from woodcarving to egg painting will be on display, and visitors can partake in many of the activities, as well as enjoy live folk music and dance performances.

When you've had your fill of music, drama, arts and egg painting, Budapest's summer food festivals are just the ticket.

Budapest's famous Széchenyi Bath. Not too shabby!

Restore yourself at the Foie Gras Festival (May 18-20), Budai Gourmet (June 7-20), Czech Beer Festival (June 6-12), or the Palinka Festival (May 10-13). Palinka is a type of potent Hungarian brandy. Three hundred different varieties will be offered, assuring both a good time and a splitting headache the next morning.

That's when you should take the day off and head to one of the numerous spas and thermal baths for which Budapest is famous.

Two of the most famous are the spa at the Hotel Gellért and Széchenyi Thermal Bath, a sprawling Baroque complex built in 1913. This palatial bath "includes a whirling corridor, underwater effervescence production, neck shower, water beam back massage installed in the sitting banks and many other services," according to budapest.com.

The translation may be a bit shaky, but you get the idea.

After a heady week or two of concerts, plays, brandy, quaint crafts, and raucous partying at Sziget, what could be a better way to bring your Hungarian idyll to a satisfying close?
 

The Enlightened Traveler: What's Going On In Paris And London

If you think you are a savvy traveler, then you'll want to always know what's going on in Paris and London.

Here are two web resources we rely on to keep au courant:

There's so much to do in Paris, one of the great destinations for art, food, strolling, and... shopping! That is why we frequently check Chic Shopping Paris for the latest boutique openings and sales. Lots of terrific shopping tips, too.

We also are dutiful readers of the weekly arts and culture e-mail published by London's Telegraph. In it you'll find useful, up-to-the-minute information about theatre, art exhibits, music and more. Sign up for the paper's Arts Agenda here.
 

The Enlightened Traveler: Brazil, Mexico City - What Are You Waiting For?

If you believe the Wall St. Journal – and you should, so long as you avoid the editorial pages at all cost – two of the top tourist destinations right now are Mexico and Brazil.

Then, again, we've been saying that for years now.

Despite drug wars and scare inducing headlines, Mexico ranks 10th globally in tourism. Americans still make up the largest group of visitors. Tourism overall has picked up in Mexico and is expected to reach record levels in 2012.

Most of the drug-related violence has been concentrated in the North.

Not to be missed in Mexico City: murals by Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros

Mexico City remains one of the safer parts of the country. That's a good thing, as the seat of government is home to the kind of world-class cultural institutions, restaurants, and shopping that artful travelers appreciate.

Another plus: it's one of the less expensive major capitals and can be reached by plane from the U.S. in just a few hours.

Read our post from 2009 on what to do in fabulous Mexico City.

Brazil, too, has experienced an uptick in violence, although we've never felt unsafe in the parts of Rio de Janeiro that tourists prefer.

Rio's Santa Teresa hotel, its highly rated restaurant, and arty
surrounding neighborhood are hot, hot hot right now

If anything, Brazil is more secure and more enjoyable today than ever, thanks to a booming economy, rising standard of living, and government preparations for the Olympics in 2016 and World Cup in 2014.

Don't wait for those events to visit. Brazil is ready right now for its close-up.

There's so much to do in the planet's third largest democracy. The Wall St. Journal has just devoted its entire weekend edition to amazing Brazil. It's full of great, up-to-the-minute restaurant and shopping tips. Make sure to devour it before you plan your trip.

Read The Luxurist's Rio de Janeiro suggestions right here.
 

Very Hip iPod Speakers and Other Small Electronics for Very Cool People

When it comes to portable and home electronics, we sell some choice stuff.

We offer quality audio products from top lines like Sony, Zennheiser, Shure, JBL, and Apple.

We also sell several hard-to-find audiophile brands that make memorable gifts for your most important clients and VIPs. These are the kinds of things preferred by celebrities and other show business VIPs.

Introducing award-winning Tivoli Audio - the finest, coolest table radios, CD players, and iPod speakers you've never heard of.

Tivoli iPod speakers, alarm radios, and Internet radios come in multiple finishes

Tivoli products will please and amaze critical listeners and sophisticated design purists alike.

With exceptional tone, rich bass, stunning clarity, and handsome wood cabinets, they represent a level of sound quality, fit, and finish unequaled in their price range.

Every model begins with a handmade wood cabinet that is both beautiful and is the ideal acoustically inert speaker housing.

Tivoli uses cherry, ash, walnut and sometimes exotic woods, burnished to a lustrous finish or spiffed up in luminous stains or sleek enamels in shades of high gloss red, blue, silver, piano black, and others.

Each speaker contains a heavy-magnet, long-throw driver that is mated to a frequency contouring circuit. This automatically adjusts output over half-octave increments, resulting in musically accurate tonal balance and bass response.

Technical specs aside, the main thing is whether or not you like what you are hearing from any piece of audio equipment. Trust us, the folks you give Tivoli products to are going to like them a lot.

Tivoli CD, iPod player and radio component system.
Sounds great, looks smart, timeless at home or office

Tivoli's complete range of Internet radios, table radios, iPod speakers, and bookshelf component systems start at a very reasonable $200. Most cost no more than about $700.

They all make wonderful, appreciated gifts for start or end of production, awards recipients, birthdays, or other special occasions.

And, as we said before, they're not the same old, same old.

Call us at (310) 581-6710.

We will be happy to show you our full line of stunning Tivoli Audio products and help you select the ones that will make the impression you require.
 

Why You Buy What You Buy. Or, "Think, Boys. Think!"

It's not easy to pick a gift that will make the right impression.

Baboushka oven mitt: practical but what does it say about you?

"The great challenge lies in making the leap into someone's else's mind," writes Dan Ariely in the Wall St. Journal.

The Duke University professor of behavioral economics says that when consumers choose gifts, they don't act rationally. And rightly so, he adds!

He divides gifts into four groups.

He calls the first "straightforward economic exchanges." You need underwear, so someone gives it to you. Not too exciting, but from an economic standpoint you get full value from it.

Another type of gift is "one that tries to create or strengthen a social connection." Ariely cites the example of bringing a bottle of wine when you go to someone's house for dinner, as a way to say thank you. This is the opposite of economic efficiency, but likely to be much more appreciated than the underwear.

A third category is the "paternalistic" gift. You select something you think the recipient should have, like a membership to Weight Watchers. This "ignores the preferences of the person getting the gift." No kidding!

His final type of gift is "one that somebody really wants but would feel guilty buying for themselves." Unless you're Warren Buffet, you should have no problem coming up with your own examples.

Ariely's best advice: "If your goal is to maximize a social connection, don't give a perishable gift like flowers or chocolate." Once the recipient finishes these gifts, there's no reason to think of you anymore.

He suggests giving something permanent that is used intermittently. That way, they'll think of you every time they use your gift. Or at least, you hope they will.

Choose carefully. You want the connection between you and the gift to be a positive one. It's not smart to give socks, a shower curtain or an oven mitt – no matter how useful these items may be – to someone you want to impress. But you knew this already.

Better yet, when you must wow VIPs and valued customers, call JASPER & JAMES at (310) 581-6710.
 

The Artful Traveler: Musée d'Orsay – Renewed, Refreshed, Remarkable

The Musée d’Orsay in Paris, home to a spectacular collection of Impressionist masterpieces and other late 19th and early 20th Century artworks, has reopened all of its galleries to the public after two years of extensive renovation and a dramatic rethinking and rearrangement of its holdings.
Housed in a 1900 Beaux-Arts railway station and boldly transformed into a museum in 1986, the d’Orsay has become one of the most popular attractions in the City of Lights. More than 60 million have visited over the past two and one-half decades.

New Musee d'Orsay galleries

What has changed?

For one, the ubiquitous white walls are a thing of the past. In their place are deep purple, midnight blue, red and lavendar-grey ones that critics feel are more hospitable to the vivid colors of the Impressionist works on display.

Lighting has been redesigned throughout. There is more natural light in some galleries, while the sometimes harsh natural light in other rooms has been replaced with a carefully designed artificial scheme that shows off the paintings to better effect.

Unchanged, Gae Aulenti's 1986 main hall

Some of the ceilings have been removed to reveal structural beams in a nod to the building’s original industrial purpose.

Exhibition space has been expanded considerably, allowing more of the world's largest collection of Impressionist works to be shown.

What has not changed is the museum's impressive, massive arched main hall, designed by the Italian architect Gae Aulenti.

The renovations are the work of four architectural firms.

Noteworthy is the stylish Café de l’Horloge, also known as the Cafe Campana and described as an aquatic Jules Verne-inspired fantasy. It's housed in a former clock tower. Brazil’s Campana design duo is responsible for the transformation.

What's for lunch? Who cares!

Still, the main draw at the d’Orsay are its art treasures from the likes of Manet, Rodin, Courbet, Van Gogh, and Gaugin – paintings and sculptures that reside not merely in a former railway station but live on in our collective cultural memory and continue to enthrall and inspire, even as we hurtle into the vast unknown of this 21st century.

For more on the Musee d”orsay click here.
To see our other posts on Paris, click here.

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Closer to home: Two singular exhibitions featuring Impressionist masterpieces have just opened in the U.S.

Atlanta’s High Museum is offering more than 100 works of art borrowed from the Museum of Modern Art in a show they are calling “Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters.” On view until April 29, it aims to reveal the connections and deep influences between modern masters of the past century.

Tip: Don't miss the Maple Bacon Brittle ice cream at Morelli's on Moreland Ave.. For more on what to do in Atlanta, read this.At the Milwaukee Art Museum, “Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper” includes more than 100 pastels watercolors, and drawings by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. The comprehensive overview is said to be the first of its kind in the U.S. It runs through Jan. 8.

While in Milwaukee, be sure to sample the dense, sticky, chewy Morning Buns, hard to find outside of this part of the country. And, as you may well fly through Chicago, you’ll want to stop at the extraordinary Art Institute for Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.” This large, absorbing masterwork enchants and mesmerizes – no matter how many times you have seen it.