The Best Spa Hotels to Book in Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Alvear Palace is in a choice location – next to Recoleta Cemetery and the city’s biggest parks; but what really stands out is the spa – with its lavish indoor pool (with as-you-swim skyline views), its hammam-style wellness area (with steam baths, saunas, pressure showers and a hydrotherapy pool) and its myriad beauty and massage treatments. Rooms range from retro Edwardian (with embroidered bedspreads and burgundy carpets) to modern neo-rococo – with light palettes offset by golds, floor-to-ceiling windows and marble bathrooms.

This hipster boutique hotel is right in the heart of Palermo Hollywood – the Williamsburg of Buenos Aires, busy with bars and restaurants. Interiors are straight from the private home of a Scandinavian architect: expect minimalist blocks of raw wood and stone, elegant modern furniture and light flooding in through vast expanses of glass. Bedrooms have patterned wallpapers – color-matched to curtains and cushions. Bay windows overlook the pool and garden, where English afternoon tea on the lawn is served on tiered plates stacked with Eton mess, key lime pie and bagels with marmalade.

With its back turned to the adjacent six-lane highways and railway yards of Buenos Aires’ port, the Four Seasons shuns ugly urbanity and instead dreams of Paris. Its facade faces wealthy, faux-European Recoleta, and its rooms occupy an opulent mock-Baroque château. Views take in the emerald pool, and interiors flaunt Second Empire decor (Italian marbles, fustian drapes) or contemporary, Starck-style soothing creams. With movements choreographed to tango, masseurs in the spa soothe muscles with French red-wine unguents. The rightly award-winning parilla-restaurant serves succulent Porteño steaks.

With glittering chandeliers, a stepped lawn garden big enough to be in the Hamptons and a grand neoclassical facade, this 1930s mansion is Gatsby-gorgeous. Large and lavish rooms have polished woods and modern, muted palettes. Tubs sit in intimate marble bathrooms. Services are myriad – there’s even an in-house tailor, florist and art gallery – alongside a fabulous bar, lined with intricately carved oak panels. And the Ahín cellar spa is Hollywood star-luxurious – with a huge pool, hydrotherapy suites, saunas and bountiful beauty treatments.

On a quiet street on the edge of Palermo Soho, the boutique-style Duque is perfectly positioned for Buenos Aires’ nightlife. Set in a large Parisian-style belle époque townhouse, it’s an easy walk from Plaza Guemes. There are dozens of restaurants and bars right on the hotel’s doorstep. Plush bedrooms in taupes and creams are resplendent with polished mahogany floors and satin headboards. Some have balconies. The diminutive spa has a sauna, whirlpool tubs and a Scottish shower (with water alternating between Highland-chilly and South-American-hot.)

It may not be a Buenos Aires beach resort, but the 725’s heart-of-downtown position makes it an ideal choice for a business stay. Better still, the Casa Rosada and cathedral are a stroll away, and the Art Nouveau Galería Güemes (where Antoine de Saint-Exupery once kept a seal in his apartment’s bathtub) is on your doorstep. Rooms are modest cubes, decorated in contemporary light tones and dark, polished woods, offset by pistachio or orange blankets and cushions. Rates include breakfast, while the rooftop bar and pool have skyline views and the spa offers a cozy sauna.

It’s all about the views at the Icon, which occupies a skyscraper in Buenos Aires’ fashionable new Puerto Madero docklands. The top-floor restaurant and spa are perches from which the sprawling cityscape and glistening River Plate extend at their feet. Deluxe or junior grand view suites frame views of the Darsena River and the skyscraper-spiked downtown district in wall-high picture windows. Interiors display a palette of trendy taupes and dark greys, with Asian screens, soft velveteen sofas and lambent, amber lighting. All in all, a beautiful Buenos Aires affair.