accommodation
Five Cool Rooms, Palermo Soho
This hotel in fact has 16 rooms, all of which are indeed very cool. The "five" relates to the number of people in the family of the owners, siblings Adriana and Gustavo Teplixke. Located in the heart of the hip Palermo district, the former boarding house is a minimalist but tropical urban enclave of concrete, wood and bamboo. There are sliding windows, white walls and llama-wool rugs in the rooms, which are divided into Small (very small), Medium and Large. The building's crowning glory is its roof terrace, complete with hot tub, loungers and barbecue.
Faena Hotel+Universe, Puerto Madero
Shrinking violets were clearly not what Argentine fashion mogul Alan Faena and designer Philippe Starck had in mind when creating Faena Hotel + Universe. Set in the newly fashionable docklands area, the seven-storey former grain factory is a stylish celebration of all things flamboyant and rococo – from lashings of dark red velvet and gold furnishings to the etched mirrors and portraits of Eva Peron in each of the 108 guest rooms. And it claims to be more than just a hotel: there are cutting-edge exhibitions in El Academy, shows in El Cabaret and an experience manager, assigned to each guest, who can help arrange anything from tango classes to vineyard tours.
The Cocker, San Telmo
This 19th-century Art Nouveau town house, with its five quirkily stylish suites and lush roof gardens, is on a tree-lined street in the historic San Telmo district. Its British owners, Aidan Pass and Ian Spink, fell in love with it during their honeymoon, and spent a year transforming it into a boutique hotel, which they named after their resident cocker spaniel Rocco, and opened last summer. A grand piano, ornate balconies and a fireplace set a distinguished tone in the living area, while the suites feature a mix of modern design classics and antiques. One of the most striking is the 19-03 garden suite, where a modern white four-poster bed and a bathroom within a glass cube stacked on top, takes centre stage.