The central train station of Buenos Aires may not be the tourist attraction of dreams, but throw in a century-old café, a marble viewing balcony and a $7 coffee, and you’re almost there. Café Retiro, located inside the station, beckons back to the coal smoke glamour of yesteryear.

A trip to Patagonia doesn’t have to just entail glaciers, lakes and whale-watching, as Rosalind Walters discovers when she takes to the little-known Patagonian wine route in Río Negro.

Melanie Henderson embarks on the hunt to find dry cider in the Argentine capital, and stumbles on an artisan product worth of a pub in the west of England, The Griffin Dry.

Outside the more frantic neighbourhoods of the capital, in a leafy suburban setting, Bar Olimpo rests quietly on a residential corner in Villa Luro; its charming wooden frame inviting in passers-by.

Imposing and majestic, Alvear Palace Hotel stands its ground amongst the impressive hotels that line the street towards Recoleta Cemetery.

I went to this bar hoping not to use phrases like “typical”, “oak panelling” and “original period charm” but the fact is that Plaza Bar Dorrego, with its graffitied oak panelling, typical selection of Argentine bar food and original fittings is absolutely charming and there’s little I can do to change that.

There’s nothing that says England quite like a cup of tea. In Argentina, a soul warming ‘cuppa’ might be a hard to come by, but the “amorosa” blend available at Claridge Hotel & Bar is pretty close.

Away from Caminito’s brightly-coloured buildings is an entirely different side of La Boca, and among the decaying buildings, La Buena Medida harks back to the area’s illustrious past.

Plump medialunas, a robust drinks menu and a place to read your newspaper undisturbed for a morning – little has changed here since the brothers Cao emigrated from Spain and set up an almacen nearly a century ago.

Enveloped within thick marble wall panels and replica 1930s chandeliers, Hotel Castelar is a charming but faded reminder of an age of Argentine elegance.