Alvear Palace Hotel

Recoleta is the setting, a district of wide boulevards and leafy squares in Buenos Aires, and the Alvear Palace has stood at its centre since 1932. The hotel keeps its Belle Époque bones intact: crystal chandeliers, velvet armchairs and gilded wood panelling fill the public rooms, a French inheritance still visible in every corridor. It holds 207 rooms and suites, decorated in Empire, Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, with butler service, fresh flowers and Hermès amenities as standard. The Alvear Suite runs to 104 m² and pairs an oval living room with a marble bathroom and jacuzzi; the Presidential Suite reaches 114 m². High tea is served in L'Orangerie. It draws a well-dressed local crowd, not just guests, into a room styled like a winter garden. Ten function rooms handle everything from a boardroom of a dozen to a ball for 400. The Alvear Spa covers 8,600 square feet, a quiet, light-filled space built around a circuit of sauna, steam and pressure showers, with treatments developed by La Prairie exclusively for the hotel. Rooftop views over the Río de la Plata reach from the upper-floor suites. The hotel remains non-smoking throughout, with rooms fitted for guests with disabilities and connecting rooms available on request.