Coming up today, the Palladio Hotel in Buenos Aires’ upscale Recoleta neighborhood. The
hotel might have a small footprint, but if you subscribe to ‘location,
location, location’ then this is right up your alley. The full tour is starts in 15 seconds.
Hi there and thanks for watching. I’m from the US and I live in Vietnam- but the country that I’ve
spent the most time in besides them over the years has been Argentina. What I love about the city
is how much parks and urban plazas play a part in life in Buenos Aires and this MGallery property
is located directly on one of the best in the city, Plaza Rodriguez Peña and is actually built
on the former site of Peña’s residence which was incorporated into the design. For more specific
info about my rate and booking method, what I think a fair price for my room would be and my
roster of videos in queue for the weeks coming up, please check out the pinned comment below.
One very quick note about Argentina in general. They are in a never ending currency crisis. Prices
that you may see in any of my Argentina videos are posted based on the official exchange rate to USD.
Of course, you can cut those prices essentially in half
if you use the much more popular black market exchange rate.
The exterior of the hotel is modern but unassuming. Due to the smaller size of the hotel,
the majority of its common spaces are all located in this elongated reception area
which leads to the bar and then to the restaurant space in the rear.
The decor throughout the hotel is stylish but understated-
especially for an MGallery which sometimes feature some over the top design languages.
5. Let’s quickly take a look at the exact location. Located in the north east of the city,
the Palladio is an easy 30-40 minute drive from Ezezia the primary international airport-
but much closer to Jorge Newbery which serves domestic and regional flights.
On Avenida Callao, just a few blocks away from Avenida Sante Fe, the hotel is on the southern
edge of the upscale Recoleta neighborhood- famous for it’s architecture, cultural institutions and
the strangest looking library on earth. If you’ve ever heard of Buenos Aires being referred to as
the Paris of the South, that has a lot to do with the architecture in this popular tourist area.
Opened in 2018, the lobby bar and restaurant are adequately sized for its 113 rooms
and the spaces present themselves smartly.
Up on the 11th floor is the small spa and fitness center as well as the outdoor pool. This pool,
which you’ll see is nothing all that special, is consistently used as the cover photo for
this hotel on many booking sights and I just don’t understand why. The hotel has a lot going for it.
There’s nothing wrong with the pool, but it’s certainly not a destination in and of itself.
Time to head up to my room now on the 2nd to highest floor. I always enjoyed the
casino like elevators. Felt like I won the jackpot each time I reached my destination.
On the 12th, 13th and 14th floors the hotel is only three rooms wide.
The floors below are five rooms wide. Why am I talking about this? Of the 113 rooms here,
98 have balconies facing the park. If you are staying here, you’ve gotta get one of those rooms.
There are multiple booking categories- I choose a deluxe suite, in reality just a longer room,
but specifically with a high floor park view and it was totally worth it.
I love really deep rooms setup like these. If I knocked something in the room
it would be the variety of throw pillows and the throw runner on the bed- which is just a
pet peeve of mine. If it wasn’t just washed, I don’t want it on my bed. But, I digress.
I’ll touch on this a bit more in my next video, but Buenos Aires isn’t exactly known for it’s
amazing array of hotels on offer or the condition that they are in- so, when I first walked into my
room, I was very pleasantly surprised about not just the condition of the room- which
at just four years old should be pretty good- but I appreciated the quality of materials used.
Because of currency restrictions, it’s very expensive to import materials into Argentina.
But, the developers here were clearly set on offering a world class product.
Throughout the room there are plenty of USB ports and outlets, but note that the majority of outlets
are not universal and use type I plugs, the same type mainly found in Australia & New Zealand.
At the desk though, there were a variety of outlets for American or Euro pin style plugs.
The minibar had a Nespresso machine and at least by Argentinian standards,
the mini fridge was stocked pretty well.
And then behind that we have a huge expanse of closets- each well outfitted with drawers
or amenities which would make this room a really nice place to stay for a week or two.
The creams and cool brown tones continued into the bathroom which was laid out very nicely with
a bathtub, toilet and bidet in one room and the separate shower on the other side of the vanities.
Finally, the room's best feature, this balcony with this absolutely incredible view.
While some other hotels will offer a similar expansive view,
very few of them in Buenos Aires will afford it from your own balcony.
We are facing east and it was also a great place to catch some surreal sunrises.
Wouldn’t you know that’s a perfect segway into my moment of marketing.
I really do hope you’re enjoying the video so far, if you are please give it a thumbs up and
subscribe- always feel free to leave comments with questions you may have- I reply to all of them.
Also, if you’re into full length sunrises, city ambiance videos
or full length in flight videos- feel free to check out one of my two new channels as well.
Links to both are in the description below and thank you in advance for considering.
Time to head down to breakfast. The restaurant is a decent size but the service and the food left
a lot to be desired. Offerings are limited to the buffet on offer and I ended up self
serving myself coffee most of the time as well. I am of the unpopular opinion that,
besides their fantastic beef, dulce de leche and alfajores- Argentinian food tends to be
bland and lacking in variety and this buffet went to prove my point. If you ever wanted to
see plain old ham and plain old cheese utilized in 65 different ways, get yourself to Argentina.
And by the way I’m not complaining. Argentina is still one of my favorite places on earth-
it just has a few quirky challenges to it.
This back room is part of the original Peña residence. And let me point out, while the service
in the restaurant was not great- in general the rest of the staff were beyond fantastic.
Need a SIM card? The front desk has them, need an exchange house recommendation?
Get a card from the front desk, have any questions while calling from the room?
Expect a manager to get the answer asap. Really really natural but impressive hospitality.
Alright that is all there is to write for this one so let’s get into The Flip Flop Score.
I really loved my stay here and of all of the hotels I’ve ever stayed at in Buenos Aires on this
trip or prior, this would be the only one that I’d go out of my way to stay at again. The lowest
score here was for the food- you might wonder why it’s not lower based on what I said- and
fact of the matter is it’s all relative and bland as it may be, they did try to do a lot with the
limited items on offer. Overall a solid 90/100. I really hope you enjoyed this video and will give
it a thumbs up if you did. Please subscribe for two new hotel or flight review videos every week.
Join me next time for my stay at the Alvear Icon Hotel in Buenos Aires’ Puerto Madero.