Reviews

Apartment ideal for tango vacation

" Thom's Valentino apartment in Palermo Soho has been ideal for us. For this, our first visit to Buenos Aires, we wanted a very liveable, secure apartment in a "safe" neighbourhood that was close to first-class tango maestros who we could take private lessons with, and close to venues for highly-rated milongas. Our preferred Palermo-based maestro suggested the Valentino apartment that his other students had rented and had spoken highly of. Unfortunately, the apartment was occupied by another guest for the first two weeks of our six week trip, so we divided our BsAs stay into two weeks in Retiro and a month in Palermo, thereby giving us an unanticipated benefit of having time in close proximity to the two largest clusters of tango happenings. Thom was generous and helpful in various ways, including getting Guille to organise transport from the airport to our Retiro apartment, and to organise preparation of the Palermo apartment late in the day of our subsequent move to Palermo to facilitate a late checkout for the previous guest and an evening checkin for ourselves. Guille was very welcoming and helpful with her advice and with her answers to our questions. The apartment has been ideal for us in numerous ways. It is quiet, spacious, clean, well equipped, and has two bathrooms, good air-conditioning, good internet and nice outlooks from the living rooms and large sundeck facing south-east and from the bedroom and ensuite facing north-west. By opening the sliding doors at both ends of the apartment we have enjoyed a refreshing cross-breeze throughout the very hot (25C to 35C) January we have experienced. Numerous mirrors and good lighting have been well appreciated when getting ready for outings, and the washing machine and portable clothes line on the front deck have enabled us to keep our laundry right up to date. While the pavement quality, property security grills and traffic management are somewhat third-worldly throughout BsAs, in Palermo the trees, parks, boutiques and (selected) restaurants, cafes, bars and coffee houses are first class, including many that are within two or three blocks of the apartment. There are at least six milonga venues within a ten minute walk, including Salon Canning, La Viruta and Villa Malcolm with some of the smaller-less-well-known ones now among our favourites. For our future return visits to BsAs we will be likely to plan our dates around the availability of the Valentino apartment. "