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I am landing in Buenos Aires a day prior to Christmas eve. Not my planning but my employer's. I have to wait till Christmas to catch my return flight.

I was wondering what would the situation be in Buenos Aires around that time. Is everything closed? Or are there some things I can do? Or will it be me just walking around Buenos Aires? I checked some things to do on TripAdvisor but most show no availability around Christmas.

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    Your employer is sending you to Buenos Aires from December 23rd (a Saturday) to December 25th (Christmas day)? Unless you are going there to work on a specific event I would be surprised if anything happened during that time. I hope you get good compensation for that trip!
    – jcaron
    Commented Sep 20, 2023 at 10:53
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    Actually I am going somewhere remote. The return flight I have to catch is from Buenos Aires.
    – DumbCoder
    Commented Sep 20, 2023 at 16:14
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    The good thing is that flights on Christmas day tend to be very quiet. But while I don't know Buenos Aires at all, I expect that like in many other places: Saturday everybody will be extremely busy with last minute shopping, and Sunday and Monday will be completely dead. In many places even finding a restaurant can be a challenge, even in hotels. There are places where even transportation comes to a halt on Christmas (like London!) so make sure you plan well ahead on how you will get to the airport.
    – jcaron
    Commented Sep 20, 2023 at 17:05
  • Not specifically sure about Argentina, but based on multiple trips elsewhere over Xmas, you can sometimes find places open for food on Christmas day that aren't doing special Christmas dinners. Hotel bars that also offer food may still have some of their menu; and there's the possibility of ethnic restaurants (many will be booked up, but you stand more chance if you find one that doesn't take reservations). Or a takeaway. I'd definitely recommend planning ahead even if you don't book - or buy your own food to eat in your room.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Sep 22, 2023 at 12:36

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I was recently in Buenos Aires on Christmas Eve (Nochebuena) and on Christmas Day. Most places closed early on Christmas Eve, if they were open at all, and as I recall, they were mostly still closed the following day.

If you reserve ahead of time, you can find plenty of restaurants that have a special holiday dinner for Christmas Eve, and probably some with some kind of Christmas Day meal. If you do not, they will probably be completely booked and not taking regular seating. At least, to judge from the half-dozen that I checked out.

At least on Christmas Eve, most of the grocery stores that one would normally expect to be open late are closed, but I did see that some small grocery stores were open. From talking to a few of the employees, I got the impression that these stores might have disproportionately been owned by immigrants who were not Christian or did not observe Christmas quite as strictly, so some neighborhoods with a larger foreign population might be a good place to look for shopping on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

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