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There are so many milongas in Buenos Aires that the Argentines invented the verb ‘milonguear’ (“touring milongas”). If you’re lucky to visit Buenos Aires, you’ll find it hard to avoid them – but why would you do that? Experiencing a milonga first hand will change your perception of tango forever. There are so many, that at first, it can be brain frazzling to try and make sense of it all and decide on where to go. |
Wonderful Buenos Aires milongas
Try as many as you can, with a bit of help from your new friend (cafeine, that is), go and experiment, have a great time and above all: respect the milonga, respect the dance floor, respect other dancers. Then come back and give us all the gossip! There will be plenty.
Below we’ve listed the milongas we like and a short blurb about our experience in each of them. Ask anyone else and they might tell you something completely different! This is fine, enjoy gathering information and forming opinions. Tango is nothing if not honest, ever changing and passionate.
Monday |
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Salon Canning |
Salon Canning boasts the best wooden dance floor in Buenos Aires. It’s smooth and in our opinion, just slippery enough. It’s also square, which makes it easier to manoeuvre (or so we heard from a local milonguero friend). True, Salon Canning can be a little bit intimidating at the beginning but it quickly grows on you. They usually have very good live music and dance performances. Probably our favourite milonga – the one we tend to resort to if we need to recover from a bad night somewhere else. |
Bendita Milonga |
A nice little milonga, young and friendly. Better to wear jeans and to leave your flashy new tango shoes at home. |
Tuesday |
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Salon Canning |
If you didn’t get enough of Canning on Monday. Same venue, different name. |
Milonga 10 |
A small venue, with a very good level of dancing but quite exclusive. Even if you don’t get to dance, you’ll still enjoy watching local porteños dance, most of them professionals or aspiring professionals. |
Wednesday |
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La maldita milonga |
Same place as the Bendita milonga, but on another day. One is blessed (bendita), the other cursed (maldita)! |
Thursday |
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Milonga de Los Zucca |
A beautiful venue, set in the mythical Centro Región Leonesa, Los Zucca used to operate under the name Niño Bien. Niño Bien closed in 2013 and reopened a year later under the management of the friendly Magdalena and Roberto (los Zucca). Los Zucca is the right place to boast your new outfit or your new shoes. Appropriate knowledge of the basic milonga etiquette is more than preferable. |
Cochabamba 444 |
This is more of a local venue. It is very friendly, casual with a good level of dancing (lose the head turning dress or suit for a pair of jeans if you want to blend in). |
Friday |
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Salon Canning, |
You really don’t have to go to Canning everyday of the week but you can if you want to. |
La Baldosa |
A local milonga, a little bit out of the way but very enjoyable for it’s cute, localised feel. The regulars will chat the night away at this milonga. It feels almost homely. |
Club Sin Rumbo |
An interesting milonga to experiment. A very traditional and formal milonga. It might be hard to get in and you might want to go with a teacher. Perfect knowledge of the basic milonga etiquette is required. |
TangoCool! (práctica) |
A friendly practica, with lots of space which tends to attract more Nuevo couples. |
Saturday |
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La Milonga del Mundo |
The temple of tango this is. Slightly out of the way but unmissable. The practica on Wednesdays is especially highly recommended. |
Milonga 10 |
Some porteños say it’s the best milonga in town on Saturdays because it doesn’t host a bad tanda and we couldn’t agree more. Beware of couple-itis on Saturdays. The place is very small so if you go alone, go early so that you can grab a table – better get yourself a comfortable seat on a Saturday if you go to a milonga unaccompanied, that’s all we can say. |
Sunday |
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Torquato Tasso |
A local, friendly milonga. |
Everyday |
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La Viruta |
A great place to finish the evening as it is free from a certain hour (1 am during weekdays and 3am during weekends if we remember well), which means that seasoned milongueros tend to all gather there after their respective milongas have closed. A fun place to go, although the dance floor is not the safest – beware of ganchos, boleos and what have you. Highly recommended: Sunday morning breakfast with delicious media lunas and café con leche. Wednesday and Sunday late nights (e.g. 3 am) are good times to go as professionals tend to gather there to unwind. |
Our experience is just a tiny portion of all the milongas in Buenos Aires but our feet begged to rest after these, so we did. Also, new milongas appear all the time: just how many milongas can one city host?! For a complete listing of Buenos Aires milongas (to the best of our knowledge) go to: http://www.buenosairesmilongas.com/