My husband and I just returned from Buenos Aires, and we absolutely loved the Mine Hotel. We booked it after seeing that it was #1 on Tripadvisor, without knowing much about the city. Now that we've spent ten days there, we are incredibly happy that we chose a hotel in the trendy, relaxing area of Palermo Viejo. (best restaurants in town, especially La Cabrera (5 blocks or so), and we also loved the Criollo Parilla two blocks over. Also great for affordable quality shoes and handbags, since the shops in the touristy areas tend to be low quality.)
After a long exhausting day of shopping, sightseeing, and petting stray kitties in BA's parks and Recoleta cemetery, we found it such a relief to come home to the Mine Hotel. Like a calm (very quiet!) oasis in the middle of a crowded, noisy metropolis. We stayed in the upgraded room (superior?) with a jacuzzi, which was worth the extra money. The design of the rooms and even the bathroom is amazing, with slate tiles on the walls and an attractive decor. Our balcony overlooked a gorgeous swimming pool, though it was too cold in July to go swimming of course (the pool is outdoors).
Only thing we didn't like as much was the restaurant food. Presentation and quality were good, but it was all a bit bland, and sometimes the flavor/texture combinations were lacking.
Two things we loved most:
1. The super comfy bed and comforter. We slept amazingly well (I usually don't sleep well in hotels).
2. The people who work at the reception desk. They spoke English extremely well (amazing in a city where nobody else seems to speak much English!), and they were always happy to answer our many questions, and give us advice. (We needed it... got counterfeit peso bills from our own tour operator, and had a taxi driver swap our bill and then claim ours is false. The hotel told us how to handle and prevent these things the way the portenos (locals) do in BA)
My husband and I spent several hours chatting with Ladislao and Guillermo, who work at reception in the evening. (one evening we chatted until 2am!) We've now added them on Facebook so we can keep in touch, and we hope they'll come stay with us at our house in the U.S. or with our family in The Netherlands.
So in short: The Argentina vacation was not the most stellar vacation I ever had (and it was freezing cold), but the Mine Hotel totally made up for everything. We'll return to Argentina some time, even if just to stay at the Mine Hotel again. I wouldn't even consider going anywhere else. Coming from someone who's spent a lot of time staying in great hotels all over the world, this hotel gets my highest recommendation!
PS: Free high speed WiFi was included too, which is very important to us.
