As we couldn’t cover everything we wanted, I decided to have a second part covering Life in London vs Buenos Aires to discuss about nightlife, safety, relationships, money and career.

In the previous article about Life in London vs Buenos Aires we covered differences such as weather, groceries & food, healthcare and time management.

But there were many open questions such as, how’s the nightlife in each city? are both safe places? how are relationships, is it easy to make new friends? what if I want to move, will I have a good career or my salary will be good enough?

Before I forget, I’ve also made a video about Life in London vs Buenos Aires – Part II:

5. Nightlife 🕺

Once again, everything in London is about optimising time. So restaurants, pubs, clubs and pretty much everything starts and finishes relatively early. If we talk about restaurants, in London it’s not strange to see some places doing breakfast, lunch and dinner and working many hours. And they close latest at 11pm. There might be you know, some exceptions going till midnight.

In Buenos Aires, restaurant don’t open before 8pm. Like even at 8pm you might find the restaurant really empty. Only from 9pm you start seeing people. I remember in London booking restaurants for 7pm and packed already…. whereas in Buenos Aires this is “merienda” time (like a tea time). Again, there might be some exceptions and you’ll find people eating earlier at home but that’s typically how it works when going out.

Also in London there are pubs that can open till midnight or perhaps till 1 am on weekends whereas in Buenos Aires there are “bars” that again run till late 2 or 3 am easily just before the “club” opens. So it’s what we call “previa” (warm up drinks with our friends before the club).

British pubs are quiet, relaxing environments, and although there are pubs in Argentina, they don’t serve the same function as they do in the U.K. This is because Brits occupy pubs in the same way Argentinians occupy coffee shops. Brits will happily go to a pub during the day (without fear of judgment) to work, read, take meetings or simply enjoy a drink. The pub brings a sense of community and such a cultural icon.

6. Safety 🚓

Both have key neighbourhoods that are safe and some that you certainly need to keep an eye on your belongings.

In London, of course if we are in a very crowded are, full of tourists, we might want to be mindful right. Or if we come back home late probably we also want to pay attention like everywhere else. Generally I feel safe in London or at least in terms of the places I go and the things I do.

In Buenos Aires, I feel like ever since the financial crisis in 2001, theft and robberies have risen and pickpocketing can be common in certain areas. Locals we know how to be behave but tourists I think it’s always wise to do some research before.

Of course, there’s always people saying I travelled to this place and nothing happened… or this is the safest place in the world. But I’d like to say it’s always a good practice to keep an eye on our stuff anywhere we go.

7. Relationships 🙏

At the beginning in London it’s probably harder to make relationships as most of the time we’re working. Life outside work seems to be challenging to manage. It’s not so common to meet our friends in houses as we tend to live in small places (at least in the early days when we have limited budget) and also there’s so many great places to meet outdoors that it’s almost pointless to meet at home.

In Buenos Aires, it’s certainly much easier to make new friends and meet outside work. The people and lifestyle create a warm environment to welcome new visitors. Perhaps, it’s just enough to meet us only for few hours and then we’ll invite you to go out. We’ll share our favourite drink “mate” 🧉 (like a strong tea) and talk about life for hours.

Just to clarify, relationships are important in both cities. But because London is a super fast paced international city and financial centre, everything flies. When I go to Buenos Aires for holiday, I feel like I’m in a slow motion film in a positive way. It just makes me feel, “hey… slow down, life is not just money and career”.

8. Money & Career 💸

London is an absolutely fantastic place to start ours careers. It’s one of the largest and most influential cities in the world, playing a central role in finance, technology, fashion, medicine, art and it’s truly a global cultural centre. But life can be very expensive. The average wages in London obviously are the highest in the UK and very competitive with any city in Europe.

But finding an affordable place to live in London is challenging. Food, clothing and transportation are very expensive as well. So at the end of the day here, we want to land a good job, grow fast, make a decent income, buy our first property and build a strong network and figure out our next step. Long term life in London is certainly not for all of us but to start our careers I really think it’s one of the best places in the world. You just keep learning by being in such a multicultural environment. 💡

And here the comparison is difficult because Buenos Aires is not the multicultural place that London is. So in terms of career, we can’t really compare. But to be fair I think that Buenos Aires it’s an interesting place to study, there are free universities and I do believe that if we know what we actually want in terms of education or more like specific areas, there can be good opportunities for exponential growth.

But the challenge here is more at the country level. Argentina has defaulted on its debt 9 times and inflation has often been in the double digits. This resulted in several large currency devaluations. So, assuming that context, it’s much harder to progress. Not impossible… but certainly more challenging.

In case you’re wondering, I love both cities and like anywhere else there’s pros and cons. My big lesson here is not just comparing life in London vs Buenos Aires. It’s about how these experiences can change our lives. 🚀