Palermo Hollywood

Palo Santo Hotel

★★★★★

Palo Santo is the hotel you notice from the end of the street: its façade on Calle Bonpland disappears behind two vertical gardens about twenty-eight metres tall, planted with more than nine hundred plants that shade and insulate the building and soften the city around it. It describes itself as Argentina's first urban green hotel, and it was built to LEED sustainability standards, with an environmental programme running through its operations. The setting is Palermo Hollywood, the part of Palermo north of the railway line that has become the restaurant and nightlife capital of Buenos Aires, full of parrillas, wine bars, cafés and cocktail bars in converted houses. With twenty-six rooms and suites spread over eight floors, the hotel is small and personal, with a twenty-four-hour reception and staff who know the neighbourhood well. Rooms are designed in a warm, natural style, with wood, stone and plenty of greenery, and many look onto the gardens. The highlight is the roof: on the eighth floor there is a shallow pool, a sun deck and a hot tub, with views over the low rooftops of Palermo, which is at its best in the summer months from December to March. Breakfast is a generous buffet with breads, pastries, fresh fruit, hot dishes and vegetarian and vegan options, served until mid-morning on weekdays and a little later at weekends. There is a gym on the seventh floor, in-room massages can be arranged, and guests can borrow the hotel's bikes for free, a perfect way to reach the Palermo parks and the Rosedal along the neighbourhood's cycle lanes.

Who it suits: couples, design-minded travellers and anyone who wants to stay where the city eats and drinks, with a calm, green retreat to return to. It is one of the best-value boutique choices in Palermo, especially in summer when the rooftop pool comes into its own. It is less convenient for the historic centre, San Telmo and La Boca, which are a twenty- to thirty-minute taxi or subway ride, and families needing large rooms may find the space tight.

Living in it: ask for a room facing the vertical garden for the greenest outlook, and use the bikes on your first morning to ride to the Palermo parks before the heat of the day. Spend a late afternoon on the roof before dinner at ten, as porteños do, and ask reception for current neighbourhood favourites, which change quickly in Palermo. The hotel has no on-site parking, though private garages are nearby, and it does not accept pets.

Practicals and value: Bonpland 2275 in Palermo Hollywood, about fifteen to twenty minutes by taxi from Aeroparque and around fifty minutes from Ezeiza; airport transfers can be arranged. Check-in is in the afternoon and check-out at midday, with late check-out available for a fee. Rates sit in the mid-range for Buenos Aires, and foreign guests paying with a foreign card are generally exempt from VAT on accommodation, so confirm how your rate is quoted.