Outside in Buenos Aires: Parks & Pools

With summer heat in the city often approaching anything between 30 and 35 degrees centigrade, finding a place outside where you can get some fresh air and maybe even some fresh water to enjoy gets very important. However with the Plata being so full of all kinds of waste, going for a dip on the shoreline is hardly advisable and public recreation options on the river are few and far between. 

Luckily Buenos Aires has a lot of public space and parks can be found in almost any neighbourhood. The biggest in the city itself is Parque 3 de Febrero also known as Bosques de Palermo located around the intersection of Libertador and Sarmiento. It contains a lake, a Japanese rose garden, jogging and cycling lanes and even a planetarium.

On any sunny day you can find thousands of people enjoying the weather here and with vendors passing by selling anything from icecream to hammocks, you won't be wanting for anything. A problem is that the lake and other small ponds and fountains are all strictly no swimming.

For a city as big as Buenos Aires finding a public swimming pool can be surprisingly hard. Most of the bigger hotels open up their swimming pool to non-guests but this is often a fairly costly option.

A good alternative is Parque Norte, a complex of pools and sports fields close to the Aeroparque downtown airport. The offer single entry as well as monthly and season passes and have a discount for members. It gets very busy on weekends and during the holidays and everybody has to get their feet examined for fungus by some med students before you can enter the pool, but it is one of the only easy accessible places to swim within the city. The Ferrovias train from Retiro station also stops right in front of the park.

If you are staying in BA for an extended period you can also look into Club de Amigos at Avenida Figueroa Alcorta. They offer about the same facilities as Parque Norte, but you have to join as a member for the whole year before you get access to them, so this is no real option if you are only visiting the city.

The cheapest alternatives are the swimming pools that are opened by the city government in a few of the bigger parks in summer. They only charge around 10 pesos entry as of my writing this story. Mostly open from January to March, the biggest is located in Parque Sarmiento next to the Belgrano neighbourhood and directly adjacent to the Gral. Paz highway.

The second city pool is located in Parque Manuel Belgrano at Salguero and Av. Rafael Obligado Costanera, also located very close to the Aeroparque city airport and downtown. The third and final one is located in Parque Roca next to the Autodromo car racing track, but this one is outside of the downtown area and its surrounding highways and borders some decidedly dodgy neighbourhoods, so it might not be your first option if you are not fluent in Spanish or have little knowledge of the city.

I hope these tips help you to escape the summer heat somewhat even if your apartment complex does not come with its own private jacuzzi and olympic size swimming pool. Enjoy the summer!