If you are travelling to Buenos Aires by bus from other points in Argentina, or on international services from neighbouring countries, you will arrive at Buenos Aires’ huge main long-distance bus terminal, known as Retiro , on Avenida Antártida and Ramos Mejía. There are good facilities at the terminal, including toilets, shops, cafés and left luggage. Unlike the majority of the country’s bus terminals, Retiro is located very centrally. Taxis are plentiful and the Retiro subte station is just a block away, outside the adjoining train station. There are also plenty of local buses leaving from the myriad stands along Ramos Mejía, though actually finding the one you want might be a rather daunting first taste of local bus transport. Bus 5 or 50 will take you to Congreso and the upper end of Avenida de Mayo, a good hunting ground for accommodation if you don’t have anything booked.

Few tourists arrive in Buenos Aires by train these days; the only long-distance services arriving in the capital are from Tucumán, Santa Rosa in La Pampa Province, Rosario and various cities in the province of Buenos Aires. Trains from the Atlantic Coast, Tandil and Sierra de la Ventana and La Plata, in the province of Buenos Aires, arrive at Constitución , in the south of the city at General Hornos 11 (Ferrobaires for Buenos Aires Province tel 011/4304-0038; Metropolitano Línea Roca for La Plata tel 011/4959-0783); those from Mercedes and Lobos in the province of Buenos Aires and Santa Rosa at Once , in the west of the city at Avenida Pueyrredón and Calle Bartolomé Mitre (TBA for Mercedes and Lobos tel 011/4866-5181; Ferrobaires for Santa Rosa tel 011/4861-0043). Retiro – actually composed of three adjoining terminals – is located on Avenida Ramos Mejía, just to the east of Plaza San Martín, and is the arrival point for trains from Rosario (TBA tel 011/4317-4407) and Tucumán (TUFESA tel 011/4313-8060). All three terminals have subte stations (Constitución, Plaza Miserere and Retiro, respectively) and are served by numerous local bus routes: 60 from Constitución to Avenida de Mayo, Plaza del Congreso and Avenida Callao; 9 from Constitución to Retiro, via Brasil, Piedras, Esmeralda and Avenida Santa Fe; 5 from Once along Calles Bartolomé Mitre and Libertad to Retiro; 86 from Once along Calle Hipólito Yrigoyen to Plaza del Congreso, Plaza de Mayo and San Telmo.