My husband and I were fortunate enough to get rooms at the Miravida Soho for seven nights in September. I did a tremendous amount of research on TA before booking our room here. The glowing reviews seemed almost too good to be true, but I can tell you now that this place completely lives up to its reputation.
THE LOCATION: as a young, married couple, we wanted to stay in a location that had energy and lots of hip boutiques, restaurants, and bars. Palermo Soho was the perfect spot for us. We RARELY ever took a taxi. We simply walked to restaurants, bars, museums, etc. We walked around at night a lot and never felt unsafe.
THE SERVICE: Impeccable. James, the owner, was so helpful and pleasant and truly seems to care about providing the best hotel experience. He was almost always present (whether in the lobby area or the wine bar area) and available to answer any questions that we had. Oh, and never underestimate staying at a hotel where the staff speaks English. While I am all for cultural immersion and appreciated the opportunity to practice my Spanish, having James (a Canadian ex-pat) around made it much easier to ask obscure questions or to simply have a conversation about the wine we were drinking. We enjoyed many nights just sitting at the wine bar having conversations with James and other couples we met over a good Malbec. The girls who work at the Miravida were also so helpful and they always seemed to have a smile on their faces. From calling taxis to making dinner reservations to planning excursions for us, they were always available to help.
Another thing that we appreciated was that James allowed us to pay for our total stay of seven nights (we stayed at the Miravida for two nights, then left for Bariloche for five nights, and returned to the Miravida for another five nights) after we returned from our mini excursion to Bariloche. Other hotels, such as the Art Suites, refused to let us do that even though they were holding our luggage for us.
Another gesture I appreciated was that when I originally wanted to book a room for seven nights, James indicated that that particular room was not available the seventh night, but that he did have a nicer suite available. James gave us the nicer room on the last night at the basic room price and had our luggage moved to the suite. It is small gestures such as these that make the Miravida stand out from other hotels.
THE HOTEL: When we first arrived, we admired the architecture of the building right away. We loved how even though the place was renovated, it maintained a lot of its original charm and didn't feel overly "trendy-modern."
The rooms were very clean and comfortable. The beds have thick, soft comforters and fluffy pillows. Each room has a safe and some of the upgraded rooms have mini bars. We stayed in the full range of rooms from the smallest to the largest and we noticed that even the smallest room was sufficient for our needs: a place to sleep at night! We really didn’t spend too much time in the room.
The wine bar on the first floor quickly became our favorite place. This was the area where we had our daily breakfasts, and, at night, it transformed into the wine bar/social area. It was so much fun to be able to have a few drinks with other patrons of the hotel and we quickly became friends with all the nice people that we met at the Miravida. We loved the wine bar so much that we even came back to the Miravida to simply have drinks even after we had switched to staying at the Mine Hotel for our last two nights in BA.
THE PERKS: Every morning we rolled out of bed at our leisure, knowing that we didn't have to rush downstairs in order to take advantage of the included breakfast. Out of all the places we stayed during our 25 day trip to Peru and Argentina, this was the only hotel that didn't have a time constraint on breakfast.
The breakfast is wonderful. I tried pretty much everything on the menu: fruit and granola yogurt parfait, french toast, poached eggs over spinach and roasted red peppers, eggs with yummy fried potatoes, and the delicious crepes. It was so nice being able to start the day with a substantial meal. On the one morning that we had to leave super early for a flight to Bariloche, Jim gave us muffins and yogurt that we could take with us.
After eating the amazing breakfast day after day, we had to try the chef's dinner. We were lucky that we were staying at the hotel on a thursday night (they only serve dinner on the weekends and thursday night) and Sebastian, the cook, served up a delicious meal. He even made a perfectly spiced traditional cazuela at the request of another diner. My husband thought his steak was one of the best he had eaten in BA.
Overall, we highly recommend this place (can you tell?) It's a telling sign when you find yourself back at the Miravida for pre-dinner wine and conversation, even when you are staying at a different hotel! It's really the people and the ambience that had us keep going back. Our seven night stay at the Miravida was definitely the best hotel experience we have ever had.







