Buenos Aires in 7 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)

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A 7-Day Buenos Aires Itinerary on a Budget

A full week covers the core city (see the 4-day itinerary for that pacing on its own) plus three of the best day trips within reach: Tigre, Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, and San Antonio de Areco, with a fourth trip, Luján, added here. Honestly, once you’re past a week, most travelers do better flying onward to wider Argentina, Iguazú, Patagonia, or Mendoza, than adding an eighth day in the capital. Costs below are USD-equivalents; check a live rate on dolarhoy.com close to your trip since Argentina’s peso and inflation both move fast.

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Day 1: Plaza de Mayo, Microcentro, and Recoleta

Plaza de Mayo and its free back-of-house Casa Rosada museum, then the Obelisco and Avenida 9 de Julio. In the afternoon, Recoleta Cemetery, ticketed for foreign visitors at roughly $15-20 USD (residents with a DNI still enter free), where Evita rests in the Duarte family tomb, not one marked “Perón.” The free Floralis Genérica sits nearby. Dinner at a parrilla to start on the asado cuts.

Day 1 running cost: ~$40-55 per person.

Day 2: San Telmo, La Boca, and Tango

San Telmo’s antique shops and cobblestones, the Feria de San Telmo on Sundays (Plaza Dorrego and Calle Defensa, 10am-5pm). La Boca and Caminito in the afternoon, strictly by the safety rule: taxi or Uber in, painted blocks only, taxi or Uber out, daytime only. A tango show closes the night, El Viejo Almacén or El Querandí (roughly $58-99 USD with dinner) or the cheaper Café Tortoni version, distinct from the paid sidewalk dancers in La Boca.

Day 2 running cost: ~$65-110 per person.

Day 3: Palermo, Asado, and Nightlife

Palermo Soho and MALBA (roughly $7-10 USD, half on Wednesdays) in the first half of the day, Palermo Hollywood in the afternoon, then a full asado dinner and a Fernet con Coca to close it out.

Day 3 running cost: ~$50-70 per person.

Day 4: Tigre, El Ateneo, and Puerto Madero

Tigre and the Paraná Delta, about an hour by train from Retiro: the Puerto de Frutos market and a delta boat ride. El Ateneo Grand Splendid back in the city, free to browse, then Puerto Madero in the evening, the Puente de la Mujer bridge and the free Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur, dinner on the waterfront (budget a short taxi back, since there’s no Subte here).

Day 4 running cost: ~$55-80 per person.

Day 5: Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

The passport day trip: a Buquebus ferry to Colonia, about 1h15 each way, from roughly $65 USD (Colonia Express is the budget option), first boat around 8:15am. Colonia’s UNESCO-listed old town is small, walkable, and a genuinely different pace from Buenos Aires; a relaxed lunch there rounds out the day before the ferry back.

Day 5 running cost: ~$75-105 per person.

Day 6: San Antonio de Areco

The classic gaucho town, 1.5-2 hours out, best done as a full day: the town itself, and if timing allows, an estancia asado or horse-show day (the Día de la Tradición festival each November is the peak version).

Day 6 running cost: ~$35-55 per person.

Day 7: Luján and a Slow Close

Morning. Luján, about an hour by bus, home to Argentina’s top Catholic pilgrimage site, the neo-Gothic basilica, free to enter. A half-day out is enough.

Afternoon and evening. Back in the city for a slower final stretch: the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes if you haven’t done a museum day yet, or a last unhurried walk through Recoleta or Belgrano. A final asado or a fugazzeta pizza at a spot like Banchero, El Cuartito, or Güerrín is a fitting last meal.

Day 7 running cost: bus to Luján ~$5-10 + a day’s meals ~$20-30 = roughly $25-40 per person.

Seven-day total: roughly $345-515 per person, one tango show, one full asado, and all four day trips included. A week is a genuinely complete Buenos Aires trip: the core city and its best-known excursions, with nothing left rushed. If you have more than a week in the country, the honest move is to fly onward rather than pad the capital further. See our Buenos Aires budget guide and place guide for the full sight-by-sight cost rundown.