Caminito Buenos Aires the colourful neighbourhood of Argentina is also the most crowded, so be prepared, it can be a tourist trap. Located in La Boca which is also known as one of Buenos Aires sketchiest neighbourhoods, as we were about to find out.
It’s hard to miss when travelling to Argentina, Caminito Buenos Aires is everywhere when you do any type of research into Buenos Aires in particular. Know for its vibrant and dramatic colours.
Caminito Buenos Aires is an area in La Boca that consists of a few streets that have been absolutely covered in colour. Bright yellows, reds, greens and every other colour in the spectrum. Because of this, it attracts literally thousands of tourists every day, and this influx of tourists has resulted in the local people swarming to capitalize.
The best time to visit would be early morning to dodge the hoards of tourist and tours that flock here.
The location of Caminito is about a 30minute wall from the centre of Buenos Aires or quick uber which only costs a few dollars. We decided to walk to see a bit of the neighbourhood, including the famous La Boca stadium where all the famous football games are held. On the way there it was safe enough, it wasn’t until later that afternoon we found out it wasn’t.
Once arriving at Caminito Buenos Aires you will notice the buses of tourist buses and the dramatic increase in both travellers and colourful houses.
So What do you even do in Caminito?
Basically, all you do in Caminito is walk around and look at the buildings, to be honest. Unless you are there to pay for overpriced souvenirs and take in the somewhat tacky culture.
But walking around Caminito Buenos Aires in itself is a beautiful experience, you have the buildings, the stairs, even the cobblestones on the streets are painted bright colours. It’s not just the colours, there is an array of street art, performers and vendors looking to sell arts and crafts.
It is a truly unique place. Just be prepared to say no to all the hustle, it can somewhat be compared to the likes of the world-renowned Asia hustle.
One thing though…don’t make the one mistake we did.
We arrived around midday, and naively enough we thought it would be fine. Caminito Buenos Aires gets so packed that it is hard to fully take it in and enjoy it. We were to busy dodging tourists lining up to take photos or weaving through the restaurant seats that have spilled out onto the streets.
Caminito Buenos Aires is amazing, just do in the early morning or late evening to avoid the crowds and the frustrations!
Leaving Caminito we thought why not walk in the opposite direction we walked in just to check out the streets and a new part of Buenos Aires. We were still in the La Boca area but because we have a ‘safe’ walk there we thought it would be safe enough to wonder.
How wrong we were, firstly a group of ladies tell us where Caminito was and put emphasis on us to turn around. We ignored it thinking they were being nice and pointing us to Caminito. We carried on.
Then an older lady saw us and her jaw dropped, she immediately told to leave asking us what on earth we were doing there. ‘This is dangerous’ quick go that way.
Not sure what would have happened if we carried on, but I’ll pass this information on to you. Just stick to Caminito Buenos Aires when visiting the area and use uber’s to get to and from the area.