Ever since the Bush twins partied in Palermo while their father’s Republican party took a thumpin’ in the 2006 U.S. midterm elections, every taxi driver in town knows where to find Hotel Home Buenos Aires (Honduras 5860, tel. 011/4779-1008, www.homebuenosaires.com, US$150–210 s or d). Even U2 stayed here (and welcomed other guests to their party) when they played Buenos Aires, but you needn’t be a big name to enjoy its imaginative design, spacious rooms and suites, and ample common spaces, including a large garden with pool that’s uncommon in this part of town. With neighboring properties it forms a mini-greenbelt that’s remarkably quiet for such a lively neighborhood. A secluded garden apartment goes for US$460.

Retiro’s Meliá Buenos Aires Hotel (Reconquista 945, tel. 011/4891-3800, www.solmelia.com, US$152 s or d) has 209 rooms, including 18 suites, in a modernistic hotel with luminous rooms, a gym and business center, and entire nonsmoking floors. Rates include a sumptuous buffet breakfast; there are discounts from mid-December through February.