The sexy bucket list holiday hotspot where the pound is strong – with £4 cocktails and a saucy tango everywhere you turn

HOW’S it going with those Bucket List destinations? New Zealand just too far right now? Japan too pricey? Maldives too cliché?

Well, maybe now is the perfect time for you to tick off sexy and vibrant Argentina.

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Buenos Aires is a brag-to-your-friends city break that is achingly cool and, once you’re there, incredibly cheap.

You can enjoy a cocktail in a bar ranked in the world’s top 50 for the equivalent of just £4, while a 30-minute taxi ride across the city comes in at about £3.

Food-wise you can get the “Best Burger in South America” for £10, or feast on a plate of the finest freshly cooked empanadas with a litre of beer for just £7. Not bad, huh?

Argentina’s economy is currently having a bumpy time, and its national currency, the peso, is currently suspended in the UK. But don’t let this worry you — tourists armed with pounds, euros or (especially) US dollars are in a strong position.

If you take any of the above currencies to a Western Union exchange, for example, you will get more than double the official exchange rate.

I took some US dollars I had lying around — and when I changed them in Buenos Aires I got more than 800 pesos per dollar while the official exchange rate was about 350.

Those £4 cocktails ended up feeling twice as cheap.

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Cool European feel

But as affordable as Buenos Aires is, it’s the vibe and its beauty that are the real appeal.

It’s the reason many Brazilians quietly hop down there, to hang out in the party district of Palermo in search of a cool European feel to their city break.

There, the criss-crossing tree-lined streets buzz with restaurants and rooftop bars on almost every block.

Street-art tour groups meander down colourful cobbled alleyways and past myriad edgy shops touting all types of fashion.

For liquid refreshment, pop into Tres Monos for a beer or cocktail and soak up the atmosphere of a venue ranked No11 in the World’s 50 Best Bars 2023.

For food, cool Asian-Argentine fusion restaurant Nino Gordo will tantalise your tastebuds.

But if you fancy affordable Michelin-starred food, Don Julio is just around the corner. Just book well in advance.

A short taxi ride from Palermo takes you to this beautiful city’s more widely known sights.

The 235ft Obelisk is a good place to jump out and start taking pictures, before wandering down to the bustling San Telmo street market on weekends, with an astonishing variety of stalls stretching for miles.

The stunning Floralis Genérica sculpture is another must-see, sitting proud at the peak of United Nations Plaza with its giant chrome petals opening each morning at 8am and closing again at the end of the day.

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A guided tour of Teatro Colon and a wander round the crypts of the Recoleta cemetery ought to mean you’re ready for more cheap but delicious refreshment.

A queue every day at 4pm outside a fairly ordinary-looking florist is a sign that you’ve stumbled upon opening time for Florería Atlántico, a speakeasy-style cocktail bar hidden through a rear door and underneath the shop (and another in world’s Top 50).

Elena, the restaurant in the nearby Four Seasons hotel, boasts that it serves the best burger in South America.

Transferring its expertise in sumptuous steaks over to bar food, the impressive burger – using top-quality dry-aged beef – will only set you back about £10.

No visit would be complete without seeing a sensual Argentine tango — and there is as much choice as you’d expect.

Whether you want the full stage show extravaganza of Senor Tango, or a more intimate open-air ‘milonga’ performance in a park or cafe in Almagro — it’s not hard to find somewhere to be entranced by the intensely sexy dancers.

As well as steak and tango the other thing that most people think of at mention of Argentina is wine, and in particular Malbec.

For those tourists who love their red, the chief wine-growing region of Mendoza is a short hour-long flight from Buenos Aires (prices from about £60 return) — with over 206 wineries hosting tours and tastings of varying intensity.

With the imposing Andes mountains providing the backdrop, many vineyards have restaurants to serve you mouth-watering food paired with specially selected wines from their own collections.

Using Mendoza city as a base, it’s a good idea to hire a driver, for as little as £50 a day, to ferry you between the wineries.

True wine buffs will love that they can pick up some genuinely top-notch red for a fraction of what they’d pay back home. Just try to stay under the 18-litre limit.

With the proximity of the mountains to Mendoza you can also sate your hunger for outdoorsy pursuits here — hiking, horse riding, rafting and hot-air balloon rides are all a short trek towards the peaks. And of course you can ski to your heart’s content in their winter.

So, once this Bucket List destination is ticked off, you’ve got a tough decision to make.

Do you go back again next year to explore further? Or do you save up for a few years to try to make New Zealand happen?

I know what my pesos are on.

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