Guides
Hidden gems and curated places around the world hand-picked for you for your next nomad journey.
Parillas or Argentinian Steak experience
Argentina doesn't just cook beef — it has a religion around it. The parrilla (grill) is the social institution that organizes everything else: Sunday afternoons, birthday lunches, first dates, and the kind of long dinners that start at 9pm and end when the wine does. Understanding how a porteño parrilla works will make you a better eater in this city for the rest of your life. **The basics:** every cut arrives at the table medium to well-done unless you specify otherwise — ask for jugoso (juicy/medium-rare) if you want any pink. The asador controls the timing, and pushing for anything faster than they're ready to deliver is bad form. A proper parrilla meal starts with provoleta (grilled cheese with oregano), moves through chorizo and morcilla (blood sausage), and arrives at the main cuts: bife de chorizo (sirloin), ojo de bife (ribeye), or vacío (flank) — served with chimichurri and a basket of bread.
Vintage cocktail bars of Lisboa
Some Lisbon bars feel like they were built last year. These ones feel like they've always been there. Pavilhão Chinês with its five rooms of antique tin soldiers, Procópio behind an unmarked red door celebrating 50 years of jazz and political conversation, Foxtrot with its fireplace and snooker table running until 2am — these are the bars where the city's writers, intellectuals, and old guard have been drinking for decades. Save this guide for the night you want Lisbon to feel like Lisbon.
Unique cocktail bars of Lisboa
The cocktail bars locals send each other to. Nine-seat speakeasies, Basque-Italian cocktail dens, secret rooms tucked into Praça das Flores — every one of them small, distinctive, and the kind of place you normally find wandering the streets off the beaten path.
Wine bars of Lisboa
Portugal makes some of the most interesting wine in Europe and almost nobody outside the country knows it yet. These are the rooms where you can actually taste it — small-producer naturals at Black Sheep on Praça das Flores, sommelier-led flights through every Portuguese region at Bico in Bairro Alto, indigenous-variety deep-dives at By the Wine on Rua das Flores.
Old schools cafés of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires officially protects its most historically significant cafes under the "Bares Notables" designation — a government heritage program for places too culturally important to let disappear. There are over 70 of them, and most have been serving the same cortado and medialunas to the same neighborhood regulars for over a century. These aren't specialty coffee destinations — the coffee is fine, the atmosphere is the point. Order a submarino, take the window table, and stay as long and stay as long as you want. Nobody will rush you. **What to order:** cortado or submarino, medialunas, whatever's in the pastry case. **Neighborhoods:** _Monserrat, San Nicolás, Almagro, Balvanera, Recoleta._