More and more travelers are choosing Buenos Aires as their destination in Latin America. Don’t waste time wondering how many of those travelers are digital nomads, expats, or simple tourists. Keep the fundamentals of this: Buenos Aires has a lot to offer you as a foreigner.
Of course it is advisable to be aware of everything about a destination before arriving there: standard of living, security, culture, urban architecture, etc. But more important is to delve into the reasons in favor of choosing one place or another to continue with your life.
Do you have Buenos Aires as one of your candidates to reside or do your experience as a digital nomad or expat? In this article you will be convinced why the capital of Argentina, one of the most beautiful and advanced in Latin America, is your next destination. Let us begin!
Why is Buenos Aires your ideal destination as a digital nomad or expat?
The Ideal Gateway to Latin America
If you learn to live with the Argentinians, their lifestyle, and habits, you are ready to continue through the rest of Latin America.
For many foreigners unfamiliar with the Latin American way of life, the initial impact can be considerable. In Latin America, despite cultural differences between countries, we are societies with both positive and negative aspects. Joy, optimism, resilience, friendship, family unity, and closeness coexist with inequality, poverty, lack of opportunities, and other issues that affect the entire continent without exception.
But if you are looking for a country in Latin America to start your adventure, Argentina is your best choice. We are a traditionally multicultural country with over 200 years of history, shaped by natives and immigrants who contributed to what we now call “Argentinidad.”
Argentina is the third most populated country in South America after Brazil and Colombia. However, its demographic and ethnic composition is very diverse, reflecting various migratory flows that found in this country a place to develop their life projects.
Moreover, Argentina has the second-highest GDP in South America and the third in Latin America. We have a strong and large economy that, in the last decade, has been paralyzed due to economic policies promoting equal opportunities and wealth distribution at the expense of isolation, merit, and capitalization. Despite successive crises, Argentina’s human capital and wealth make it a country ready to take a big step forward.
Additionally, when you visit Argentina as a gateway to Latin America, whether as a digital nomad, expat, or tourist, you are choosing the ninth largest country in the world and the second largest in Latin America in terms of territory. We have the privilege of a diverse, vast territory filled with landscapes, climates, and geographical features that are hard to find in other countries.
Connection with All Latin American Countries
Buenos Aires is one of the most important capitals in Latin America. Despite being in the southern part of the continent, it ranks as the sixth city with the highest passenger air traffic in Latin America.
From Buenos Aires, you can travel not only to other major cities in Argentina (Rosario, Córdoba, Mendoza, Bariloche, Ushuaia, Misiones) but also to other countries in the region such as Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, and, a bit further, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
Despite being in the southern part of the continent, Buenos Aires is a great starting point or hub to explore other countries in Latin America and even other cities in Argentina.
We Are a Mecca for Digital Nomads and Travelers
In 2022, Buenos Aires received over 72,000 digital nomads and expats who chose the city for work and tourism.
The number tends to increase over time, making it clear that Buenos Aires has become the mecca of a new labor trend and a new way of living.
The fact that many foreigners are already living or have experienced residing in Buenos Aires allows others who want to follow this path to take the step without fear of being alone or left to their own devices.
We know perfectly well that digital nomadism and the new culture of work and tourism have a strong root in the feeling of “community.” When many digital nomads collaborate and help each other with information and advice, this activity, which remains individual, gains a more social component.
We Have the Best Level of English in Latin America
We know that language is not only a cultural barrier but also a significant and social one. When it is difficult for us to understand a society’s language or, even if we study it religiously every day, we find a closed or hermetic cultural scenario to practice with natives, the experience can undoubtedly become difficult.
Contrary to most trends in Latin America, Argentina maintains its first place on the podium of countries with the best command of English on the continent. According to international studies, Argentinians have a high level of competence in the language, directly translating into a better ability to converse with foreigners and understand at least essentially what they need.
Of course, the Spanish language in its Argentine variant is not easy to learn. Remember that in Latin America, all countries have their own Spanish variant that, while maintaining common grammatical rules and sense standards across each community, is not free of peculiarities.
These peculiarities define the language’s use in daily life. For example, colloquial terms, vocabulary, words with double meanings, metaphors and irony, verb tenses, and pronunciations or imperatives.
But when you reside in Buenos Aires, you must know that you are in the capital with the best English comprehension on the continent. Most shops, businesses, accommodations, and natives you interact with have had mandatory English in school. Then, each person decides how and when to train the language, although there is no shortage of options: institutes, schools, training courses, and modern mobile apps.
Don’t forget that Buenos Aires, and Argentina as a whole, has a receptive tradition towards Anglo-Saxon culture, which also positively permeates language management. Music, books, movies, and everything you can imagine have a great reception among Argentine audiences.
In this sense, if you are concerned about being able to communicate clearly in your native language while acquiring the basic notions of Spanish, Buenos Aires is your ideal destination as a digital nomad or expat.
A Modern City
For a digital nomad or expat dreaming of working from any country, Argentina and Buenos Aires are their favorite destination in Latin America.
In Buenos Aires, we have excellent transportation, a thriving economic activity, and all the facilities to not only accommodate you comfortably but also enjoy your stay and work with complete peace of mind.
The City of Buenos Aires also welcomes eco-friendly transportation systems thanks to its policy of promoting bicycles and discouraging private cars. In any case, you will always have a transportation option when you want to get around.
A unique feature of Buenos Aires is that you can find everything you need without leaving the jurisdiction. What do I mean? Parks, squares, places to practice sports or train, restaurants, bars, cafes, museums, shops, and much more. Indeed, Buenos Aires has it all to make you feel at home or even better.
Additionally, the design of Buenos Aires means that traffic and the flow of people are not concentrated on a single avenue or road, something very common in other Latin American cities. Buenos Aires has major avenues running vertically and horizontally, so no matter where you stay, you can quickly get where you want.
All Climates in One Place
While in Buenos Aires, we know exactly when it is autumn, winter, spring, or summer; elsewhere in the country, weather conditions vary significantly. Not many countries in the world have the virtue of having several climates in one territory. From the polar cold of Patagonia to the dry heat of northern Argentina, passing through a city like Buenos Aires or the Pampas region where winters can be as harsh as summers.
If you are a traveler who gets bored with stable weather or countries where the seasons pass unnoticed, Buenos Aires is your ideal destination. Here you will learn that each season of the year manifests itself throughout the 365 days in temperature, sunlight hours, humidity, wind, and rain.
Lots of Things to See and Do
If there is one city in Latin America where you will never get bored, it is Buenos Aires. It is unlikely you will stay in Buenos Aires and watch the clock as if counting the remaining hours to leave the city.
Buenos Aires is a city that envelops and embraces you with its cosmopolitan aura. For any foreigner, and even for the natives, it is impossible to know the city 100%. There will always be something to do or see, so your stay could stretch infinitely.
And if you are also charmed by our way of being as Argentines? Then the formula is perfect for choosing Buenos Aires as your next destination on your journey as a digital nomad or expat.
Whatever You Want to Eat and Drink, You Will Find in Buenos Aires
Not only will you visit the city where the best meat in the world is eaten, but Buenos Aires is also a melting pot of gastronomic currents and cuisines from around the world. I am not exaggerating: in Buenos Aires, you can eat whatever you want because there will always be a place preparing it.
Italian, Spanish, Peruvian, Japanese, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Korean, Caribbean, Mexican, and much more. All these expressions of world gastronomy coexist with our own Argentine and porteña cuisine, influenced by different parts of the world.
For many digital nomads and expats, food is not a decisive criterion when choosing or discarding a city as their next destination. However, others understand that the habit of eating is an experience, impossible to underestimate as a traveler wanting to experience the world’s cultures.
Everything, absolutely everything you want to eat and drink, you will find in Buenos Aires. From our flagship dish, the Argentine asado, to pastries known as “facturas” (the equivalent of French bakery products), mate, pasta, stews, pizza, and much more.
Affordable Cost of Living
With all this, we have left the economic aspect for last. Isn’t the cost of living important for a digital nomad or expat? Of course, it is, but in Buenos Aires, this aspect is not a problem for foreigners.
For many years, due to devaluations and economic policies that prioritized distribution over wealth generation, Argentina became a cheap country for foreigners. And I am not only referring to currencies like the dollar or euro; even for neighboring countries, coming here to shop was a deal too good to pass up.
Argentina has experienced a drastic change in economic policies since December 2023. With the rise of libertarian president Javier Milei, it is expected that the price gap between the local currency and foreign currencies will gradually close. In fact, in the first months of 2024, the purchasing power of major foreign currencies in Argentina has significantly decreased.
However, Argentina’s structural distortions in its economic indicators and each of its productive sectors suggest that the stabilization process will take at least a whole year. Many compare this economic “adjustment” process to those carried out in countries like Greece or Portugal.
Learn how to change money in Buenos Aires
Nonetheless, Argentina and Buenos Aires continue to be (and will remain for a while) very accessible places for the pockets of digital nomads and expats.
When comparing Buenos Aires with other Latin American cities, the relationship between the cost of living and what you get in return is substantially favorable to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, for example, you can travel on public transport for half a dollar and stay in central hostels for less than 30 dollars a night.
In short, Buenos Aires not only remains a convenient city in terms of cost of living but also offers a good level of services and goods to its inhabitants. The current economic cycle in Argentina, which begins with a severe economic recession, aims to achieve greater commercial openness with the world and stimulate foreign investments in strategic sectors.
Last Considerations
We could continue with an article of 500,000 words and still leave out reasons that make Buenos Aires a convenient choice as your next destination, whether you are a digital nomad or an expat.
Is it a coincidence that so many travelers and digital workers choose Buenos Aires to live and travel? It is evident that not everyone can be wrong about what this beautiful city has to offer.
Even if you plan to travel throughout Latin America and not just limit yourself to Buenos Aires, you will find the best starting point here. While practicing your Spanish to navigate other Latin American cities where English may not be as widespread, in Buenos Aires, you can communicate without problems in this language. Of course, other foreign communities may have some additional difficulty if English is not their native language. However, the fact that your stay is in a city where the “world” language is perfectly spoken is an advantage impossible to underestimate.
Living in Buenos Aires and discovering everything my city has to offer will undoubtedly be a turning point for you. Many digital nomads, expats, and even tourists are so charmed by the country and the city that they ultimately choose it as their new home.
Additionally, we are an optimistic, cheerful society with a positive attitude toward foreigners. You will never encounter a closed or insular community in Argentina, much less in Buenos Aires.
How could a society and culture like Argentina’s turn its back on foreigners when, thanks to them, we are what we are?
(Featured Image Source: Dylan Gillis/unsplash.com)
