The Best Ice Cream in Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo

Understanding how to read a map is a critical skill for everyone, at some point in their lives. For our kids, that time has started pretty early. So, when H (10) kept begging for an ice cream tour of Buenos Aires after hearing that the city was known for its world-class helado, we decided to turn it into a learning experience for her.

The assignment combined navigation skills with research and decision-making: Use Google’s My Maps to plan out the logistics of an ice cream tour. Set the parameters for the tour — the maximum distance between stops; routes and transportation methods between stops; allowable portion sizes at each location; and whether to try a single flavor across shops or explore each heladería’s specialities. Each pin on her map needed to include why she chose that location, and the flavors most praised in reviews.

Before we share H’s ice cream findings (spoiler alert: we tried 14 heladerías across 2 weeks), here’s what made this project work as both an educational experience and a delicious adventure:
– She set a 1.5 km maximum walking distance between shops. Anything further would require a ride on one of Argentina’s many public buses.
– Each stop was limited to 2 flavors in the smallest cup or cone size
– Her rating system was out of 5 cones, and her rating criteria included texture, flavor, and the answer to the question, “Would I want this again?”
– Not every heladería in Buenos Aires looks kindly on sampling flavors, but when one did, she decided to try its highest-rated flavors as well as her new go-to favorite: frutilla (pronounced fru-tee-sha, which is a mix of red fruits). She would (scientifically) choose the flavor that she liked the best, figuring that would give the heladería the best chance of getting a high rating from her.

Now, for what you really want to know… where to find the best ice cream in Buenos Aires, according to a very dedicate 10-year-old researcher.

H visited each heladería between 2-5 p.m (prime ice cream hours in January) and ended up finding some neighborhood gems that even some of our tour guides and Airbnb hosts hadn’t tried. Her reviews are refreshing and straightforward — just honest opinions about what makes each place special–or not.

Starting with her must-visit gems:

#2 –
#3 –
#4 –
#5 –

Solid Neighborhood Options

#6 –
#7 –
#8 –
#9 –
#10 –

H would skip again, unless convenient

#11 –
#12 –
#13 –
#14

And the number one favorite was:

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John Doe

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