Room check: Sofitel Hotel, Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires' Sofitel is a fine place to rest your head in one of the world's great cities. Photo / Creative Commons image by Flickr user emilyd

Winston Aldworth checks in to a traditional hotel in the Argentine capital.

Location? The Argentinian capital is a whopper of a city, and the Sofitel has a good spot in the Retiro section of town. Wherever you're going around the city, you'll need a cab.

Check-in experience? A fabulous lobby with marbled walls and views up through a glass ceiling to the exterior of the hotel tower. The staff are efficient and mundo helpful.

The style? Old school. This is the kind of traditional joint where the unflappable concierge wouldn't even know how to raise an eyebrow.

The rooms? After the glories of the foyer, the rooms are rather on the functional side. I was in 303, a corner spot with decent-sized bathroom. The TV only played a dozen or so free-to-air channels, with just BBC World and CNN for the English speakers, so we were able to keep up with Melbourne Grand Prix results and events in Vanuatu. There's no iron in there. You'll need to phone the front desk and get the ironing kit sent up when preparing your pants for a tango evening. A couple of times, towels I'd left on the floor to be changed were simply rehung.

Something to eat or drink? The hotel restaurant is right by the entrance - it's fine for breakfast, but head out for dinner. The bar in the foyer is nice. The beers around here are mostly of the thirst-whacking lager variety, but the selection of reds will hit the mark. Just along the road, you can start your day with coffee and a sweet treat at a bakery called Farinelli and finish it with cocktails at Floreria Atlantico.

What's in the neighbourhood? The Israeli embassy is down the corner, with de rigueur protest barriers going up on our last day.

Exercise? The small, basement gym has a treadmill and enough dumbbells to get a sweat up. There's also a blue-tiled swimming pool which, with just one lane stretching about 12 metres, is so little that it's actually rather cute.

Joggers beware: Dogs in Buenos Aires poop wherever they want and rather than a hard set of road rules around pedestrian crossings, drivers opt for a horn-based negotiation system. Nonetheless, there are a couple of nice runs from the hotel, the nearest of which is a few laps of the park by the "English Tower", built by expat Brits in Buenos Aires back in 1910. Across the street from it, the Argentinians have since built their memorial to local boys who died fighting for the Malvinas. Nice touch.

The bed? A comfy double.

Noise? In a rowdy city, this place manages to keep the volume down.

Bathroom? When you're changing the water temperature in the shower, the trick is to push the little button on the inside nob.

Would I return? A fine place to rest your head in one of the world's great cities.

CHECKLIST

Sofitel Buenos Aires is at Arroyo 841, Capital Federal, C1007AAB, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Phone: +5411 4131 0000 or email reservas@sofitel.com.