Palermo is where Buenos Aires goes to eat, drink and dress well, and CasaSur Palermo is calibrated precisely to that neighbourhood. The 61-room boutique sits on Costa Rica, one of the barrio’s leafy side streets, close enough to the weekend crowds around Plaza Serrano to walk everywhere that matters and far enough to sleep properly. Under the jacarandas in November, when the pavements turn purple, the location is close to unbeatable.
Rooms are larger than the boutique label suggests, with king beds dressed in Frette linen, rainfall showers and balconies on the upper floors that look over Palermo’s low rooflines and treetops. The look is warm mid-century rather than design-hotel showy: leather chairs, timber, lamps from local makers. There is no full room service, the lobby bar covers the basics, which tells you the hotel expects you out among the parrillas and wine bars, as it should.
The rooftop is the trump card: a compact pool and sun deck that earns its keep from spring to autumn, with the hammam and sauna downstairs to sweat out the previous night’s malbec. Breakfast runs to proper medialunas and fresh juice, and the front desk’s restaurant instincts are sharp, which matters in a neighbourhood with this much choice. As a base for first-timers and returners alike, it is the sensible answer in Palermo: unshowy, well run and priced fairly for what Buenos Aires has become.