Calle Florida (Florida street), Buenos Aires

4 more images

Blaque is a women's leather shop, they sell beautiful leather bags, jackets and shoes, but what caught my eye was this wonderful black bag in the window, so I had to check it out.

The salesgirl was so nice and asked us if we needed with anything, to just her. I wanted to see the bag in the window and she promptly brought it to me. The bag was a large travel size bag, big enough to hold my laptop and some other items, so I decided to buy it. After deciding on that bag, I spotted a beautiful aqua blue chain link purse that would go perfect with the aqua blue sandals that I had just bough, so I bought that bag too.

The store was quite crowded, which indicated to me that their goods and service are good.

What to buy: They carry a nice selection of bags, purses, shoes, boots, leather jackets and some jewelry.

What to pay: The two bags cost me $798 pesos, and the best part, I got $115 pesos back from VAT upon my departure from Buenos Aires!

A few years ago I stopped buying these small trinkets for loved ones back home, but I do usually buy a t-shirt for Leo and a small jewelry box for Kristara as well as a fridge magnet for myself.

I searched high and low looking for the jewelry box and finally found a really nice one at a shop here on Florida Street. I'm not sure the name of the shop, but it was in a small shopping center like street.

I picked up the jewelry box pictured below for about $10 pesos. The box is made of leather with tango dancers and Argentina on the cover.

What to buy: A leather jewelry box for about $10 pesos.

What to pay: Quite reasonable, I paid $10 pesos for the jewelry box.

1 more image

Havaianas are a very popular Brazilian flip-flop which comes in all sorts of color combinations. I had been meaning to purchase a pair and when I stumbled upon many stores here in Buenos Aires selling them at a fraction of the cost I decided to pick up a few.

Havaianas are worn by most of the stars in Hollywood and became popular about 3 or 4 years ago. They can be pricey here in the states.

This store had hundreds of different styles and colors to choose from for men, women and children.

What to buy: I purchased a pair of black with a small wedge heel and some decorative flowers for $50 pesos and a pair of gold and purple flat flip-flops for Kristara for $35 pesos.

What to pay: Havaianas in all sorts of colors and syles

1 more image

Liz had some souvenirs to buy for people back home and she was fortunate to find what she was looking for on Florida Street. There are plenty of shops selling post cards, tee shirts, shot glasses, hats, key chains and other touristy gifts.

What to buy: Liz bought some shot glasses for her friends Dave, Koky and Billy (who are typical men who collect shot glasses). Rob bought a shot glass for himself as well as a keychain for his girlfriend back home.

What to pay: The shot glasses were equivelent to $3 USD...not bad for a small souvenir.

We did some shopping but not much here on Florida Street as we actually found the stores' prices to be much higher than other places.

There are so many different types of stores here, from small shops selling "Futbol" items, to ladies clothing, shoes, handbags, as well as men's and children's clothing and shoes as well as a few department stores.

During the evening we also saw street vendors selling all sorts of items like scarves, sandals, trinkets, jewlry and some really nice funky leather writsbands, of which Ferni picked up a really nice one for about $20 pesos.

What to buy: I bought my Havianas at a store on Florida, as well as Ferni's leather jacket, my purses, Leo's futbol jersey and Ferni picked up a really nice looking leather bracelet.

We walked along florida st. many times and found great deals.

We ended up shopping at Silvia y Mario´s , a great family owned store. Great prices and designs, also they had price tag on each garment, which made us feel very confident.

Some other stores didnt carry as many items nor styles that Silvia did, and all her staff was So helpfull.

Dont loose th ewhole afternoon, as we did searching other palces, this is THE place you need to see.

What to buy: leather jackets, shirts, skirts!! Anything in leather you can dream of!!

What to pay: 200-300 uS$, for a hihgj quality custom made garment

This pedetrian walk has it all. It is a nice pedestrian walk specially between Alem Avenue and Cordoba, where the mall is (Galerias Pacifico). This mall offers to of the line brands.

In books stores such as Distal you can find good bargains, a full colored , incredible quality Gauchos Book for 100 pesos (33 us)

For leather we went straight to "Silvia y Mario", a traditional shop whos been in teh bussiness for 30 years, half way from Florida St. on "MT de Alvear st. 550".

Found much better prices, quality and variety of jackets than in the mall. We paid less than $200 for a state of the art jacket.

We were told to have a coffe (ristretto) at Florida Garden, a classic bar, which is in teh corner of Paraguay and Fl st. Their cheesecake rocks!

What to buy: Anything from leather jackets to books, to the finest coffe.

Florida is a beautiful pedestrian walk thats you cant miss. From Cordoba to Alem it is much nicer than Cordoba up. The San Martin Square, the tango dancers, the shops, everyhting is there! Crowded and exciting.

One block from there you can find where Jorge Luis Borges used to live ( Maipu St & MT de Alvear)

Personally I shopped half block from it ( in the crossing streets) where I found better quality , prices and much better service.

For leather we found the greatest store for leather and cashmier. It's called Silvia y Mario, located at M.T de Alvear 550, across the Marriot Plaza Hotel , 1/2 block from Florida Street. It's a factory store that measures you and then custom makes your coats upstairs in the factory. Our coats were made in one day!

For dining we found EL ESTABLO (Paraguay 400), and Las Nazarenas (Alem /Reconquista) , great dining.

FILO is another good choice for a thin incredible pizza (San martin St,)
All best

What to buy: Leather!, on MT Alvear between San Martin & Florida I found better quality tan on Florida itself