Renting apartments in San Telmo

Hi everyone,

I am making my first visit to BA on Dec. 14th. Have spend the past month in Lima and have loved every minute of it. I have been planning this trip for months and can't wait to finally see BA.

I do have a couple of questions. I am looking at renting an apt. Have found it to be both cheaper than hotel and much easier to bring chicas here. They like the set up.

My question is: I have centered my search around RECOLETA and Downtown. It seems most of the action is centered in these area. Anyone have an idea which would be best for first timer? At first I was going to stay a week in each to see which area I liked the best, but don't like the idea of moving once settled in. Also found a really nice place in San Telmo, which attracts me because I am a writer and like the sound of the area with it's funky nature.

Thanks for any words of advise. Hope to meet some of you guys.

San Telmo will be the less expensive option for renting. It's much more Bohemian and while it's not exactly in the middle of the club area, it's not too far from the mongering scene. It may be a little less safe than Recoleta or Downtown but nothing to worry too much about.

LOMACK58,

BsAs is not such a large town in my opinion. You will find that no matter where you stay, Palermo for example you will be bussing or subwaying to San Telmo all the time or San Martin or whatever each and every day sometimes twice. Anyway the internet postings for apartments now are all bullshit becuase when you enquire about the ones you like they are all occupied soooooo best to set up in a hotel and after you get here start checking REAL availability.

[QUOTE=BundaLover]LO the ones you like they are all occupied soooooo best to set up in a hotel and after you get here start checking REAL availability.[/QUOTE]Great concept but in practice it doesn't work quite like that, unfortunately. Usually when an apt is occupied you can't get access. And the ones that aren't occupied for viewing depend largely on the willingness of the realtor / agent to take the time to show the place. Best you can do, often, is get the address and floor number and view from the outside checking for roaring collectivos, yapping dogs and whatever else might disturb your tranquility. Think about it. If you're paying for and residing in an apartment do you want be disturbed by future tenants trapsing through at various hours in inspect mode?

I really thank each of you for feeding back to me some of your ideas. Sitting in Lima, looking at all the web sites and craigslist for apartments has been a challenging task. Again not knowing the areas, only what has been posted by most of you guys.

My main concern has been that staying at a hotel for a few days can almost cover the cost of an apt. While I am not a tight wad, I do have to watch my cash as I don't start back to work until March or April. Now I have found a place on Bernardo de Irigoyen and Cochabamba in San Telmo. It rents for $200 per week. Again not knowing the area, would I feel safe walking at night. I usally don't have much problems as I am fairly big and don't look rich.

If I go the hotel route can anyone recommend a place for say $50.00 per night in decent location. I am having a tour with Roxana on the 17th of Dec. So I'm sure she will advise some areas / apartments for me. Again, I thank all of you for your input. Any of you guys in town during this time. Would be nice to meet a few people in BA as I am most likely going to be there for a month or two.

Thanks again.

[QUOTE=Lwomack58]Now I have found a place on Bernardo de Irigoyen and Cochabamba in San Telmo. It rents for $200 per week. Again not knowing the area, would I feel safe walking at night. I usally don't have much problems as I am fairly big and don't look rich.

Thanks again.[/QUOTE]LW58,

I lived in San Telmo for nearly a year and never felt threatened. IMHO, that area is no more dangerous than other areas, which is to say, not very dangerous. I never had a problem at night. As an aside, I don't think Bernardo de Irigoyen and Cochabamba is technically in San Telmo. I think that is Monserrat. There is a difference and you will not be in the midst of the San Telmo scene at that address, though not all that far away. Some owners advertise their places as being in San Telmo when they are not.

I also agree, I have to go to San Telmo almost everyday and I don't think it's dangerous AND I don't see more gays than in Palermo, Recoleta or Barrio Norte.

San Telmo is the old part of the city, and, accordingly with my research, the apartments that quote less expensive in San Telmo, are less expensive because the apartments are old and with old furniture, no services, etc. Some has renovated the apartments and they furnished with style and the rates are quite similar to Palermo and Recoleta. May be, a bit less expensive. Also, as Doggboy remarked, many 'try' to market other areas as "San Telmo", unfortunally, there are no regulations regarding this issue, as well as I have wrote in this forum in the past, many take advantage by marketing barrio norte as 'Recoleta' and again, it's not same.

Now, in regard of the occupancy of the apartments, almost no agency will show the apartments in person. The inmobiliarias they do it. The inmobiliarias have a 1 month commission, and more hassle to rent. They can do that because they have people in the area who show a lot of apartments everyday. The internet agencies has people who works indoors and answers emails the whole day. They will only attend the check-ins and check-outs in person. The agencies generally invested a lot of time and resources to make nice pictures of the apartments and write down a description for each one. Of course, there is a lot of bad designed agencies with lack of enough information and graphic description of the units they show.

The internet agencies currently offers best rates than the inmobiliarias, especially when considering the high commissions inmobiliarias charge.

In my agency, we have bookings in advance, and after the years, we have some clients who return frecquently to Buenos Aires, so that help us to be almost fullbooked within like one month in advance.

So I have expressely designed the apartments page to get a quick idea of the availability, plus a calendar for each unit.

I don't know why, some times I keep receiving questions regarding the availability of the apartments.

On the other hand, if you try to book one week so much in advance, the owner risk to lose a longer term rental.

As BundaLover wrote, the city it's not that large and sometime you'll have to go to San Telmo, Belgrano, Palermo, for a chica, for a restaurant or other attraction.

Basically, if you stay at:

San Telmo, Puerto Madero, Downtown * Anyway, I would not reccommend it that much, Retiro, Recoleta, Barrio Norte, Palermo, Belgrano, you'll be central.

*Downtown it's ok, but at night gets empty.

The other menctioned areas are very friendly at night and especially during the summer (with the express exception of January when the whole city gets empty, especially 2006 and 2007)

For the folks who has been in town and lazy to discover San Telmo, here are 100 pictures of the neighborhood, it's quite interesting. [url]http://www.barts.com.ar/barts/citypics.php?location=san_telmo[/url]
especially those with the model. That day was so nice, many turned to the model and many took pictures of her. I had to ask my assistant to place herself to cover the model from the professional cameras but was very hard to accomplish. Those bastards acted like thiefs! So I think some versions of MY MODEL may now be on blogs over the internet.

However, it was a great session.

For additional info about San Telmo, location limits, real estate, etc [url]http://www.barts.com.ar/barts/articles/articles_detail.php?recordID=san_telmo[/url]