Most people go home for Thanksgiving and spend the time with their families. While I love my family, I don’t love going home. Plane tickets are crazy expensive, there’s not much to do and nothing new to see. I feel like there’s a better way to spend the long holiday weekend, so much that I try convincing my parents every year to meet me somewhere warm and sunny instead of the gloomy midwest.
In 2017, I didn’t make any Thanksgiving plans. I had a new job and wasn’t sure if I could take extra days off, and I wanted to save the vacation days and money I did have to see somewhere new. I had no plans, until the Sunday before the holiday when I booked a flight with points to Buenos Aires. As far as NYC - BA round trip flights go, the price was great, and I looked into the hotels before pulling the trigger to learn that it would be an affordable destination for a single traveler.
This was my first spur of the moment trip...booking on Sunday, departing on Wednesday, and returning the following Sunday, less than a full week from when my flight confirmation email hit my inbox. Before the trip I had no opinions on Argentina, it wasn’t at the top of my bucket list (or on it, really), but it worked with the dates, I could buy the flights with points, the prices in town were reasonable, and I wouldn’t be losing work days or touring time with layovers and time changes. It was kind of a perfect storm of luck, and it was the best decision I could have made.
In three days on the ground in Buenos Aires, I walked EVERYWHERE, stayed in a nice local hotel, ate the best Thanksgiving dinner I’ve had in recent memory, took a bunch of walking tours, went to the weekly artisan market, ate delicious Argentinian pizza, saw the dead in Recoleta, and had a much better time traveling by myself than I could have ever imagined. The only regret I have is the high volume of selfies, but as a solo traveler that’s all I got. Next time I’ll grow a pair and ask people to take pictures for me.