My first glimpses of the South American metropolis of Buenos Aires were from the window of a taxicab overloaded with suitcases, diapers, sippy cups and soothers. My husband and I were also packed in, along with our 15-month-old daughter, who was strapped into the car seat we’d lugged thousands of kilometres. But even the view from the window was worth this continental schlep. We zipped down the sprawling 9 de Julio Avenue; past the grand Colon Theatre, one of the most famous opera houses in the world; and onto narrow side streets lined with restaurants, bakeries and shops. Already this city looked like it had a lot to offer.

Buenos Aires is known for its culture, nightlife, high fashion and fine dining. It was in the city’s port area where the tango was born. In its chaotic streets, literary giant Jorge Luis Borges drew his inspiration. And more recently, a vibrant film industry has put Buenos Aires on the map of world cinema. After having a baby, I didn’t think that I’d be hopping on a plane headed south of the equator. That was until my husband and I got a travel bug so bad that we couldn’t say no to the possibility of adventure, even with our baby in tow.

So we booked our flight, packed our bags and headed to the city. When we arrived, we were surprised to find that Buenos Aires is one of the most family-friendly places we’ve visited. Everything that lures scads of tourists is easily available to people whose travelling companions prefer milk to Malbec — that is, everything that takes place before bedtime.

where to sleep

The taxi whisked us to the one-bedroom furnished apartment we had rented in Recoleta, on the advice of our travel agent. The treed neighbourhood on the edge of the downtown has narrow streets and old stone buildings that reminded us of Paris’ sixth arrondissement. Elderly ladies stroll the streets, young couples hold hands and Maclaren strollers abound.

There are a number of different agencies in Buenos Aires that will set you up with a furnished apartment for your holiday (see links on final page). Ours looked just as it did online: spacious and tastefully decorated. Staying in an apartment rather than a hotel room was a good decision because we were able to feed our daughter and put her to bed at a reasonable time and then enjoy a calm dinner together that we cooked ourselves in the kitchen or ordered from one of the many nearby restaurants. And we saved money too: Our apartment only cost $600 for a two-week stay.

what to do

The taxi ride from the airport was the only time we needed to wrestle our giant car seat into a cab. We always opted for public transit because the city has an efficient metro, known as the Subte, that can deliver you to various sights. Some of the metro lines date back to the early 1900s and are still serviced by some antique subway trains with wooden railings and floors and lights that flicker on and off in the tunnels.

While these historic trains are fascinating to see and actually fun to travel in (they feel a bit like an amusement park ride), there are fewer modern amenities like escalators in the stations they visit. Luckily for us, there always seemed to be a well-dressed young man offering to help my husband carry the stroller up the stairs.

So we took the Subte all over the city. We rode it to the antiques and art market in the neighbourhood of San Telmo, where street performers entertained our daughter. We took it to the two main art galleries: the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (MALBA), where the country’s cutting-edge artists are on display, and the National Museum of Decorative Arts, where there were canvasses that even our daughter enjoyed. And then to the funky and quickly gentrifying neighbourhood of Palermo, where we sipped espresso and fresh fruit smoothies in hip cafes, watched an impromptu puppet show in the park and then visited the Evita Museum, a memorial to Eva Duarta Peron, the Argentine president’s wife who stole the heart of the nation in the 1940s.

All this sightseeing with an energetic toddler was made possible, and even pleasant, by the city’s abundance of parks. It seemed that every five city blocks or so we would come across a park kitted out with swings and a slide. Our daughter would have the chance to run around and play before returning to the stroller.

But even the time she spent in the stroller seemed to be enjoyable for her because the streets looked so different from what we were used to. Dog walkers are very popular in Buenos Aires and tend to take out more than a dozen animals at a time — an extremely exciting sight for a small child. Waiters, dressed in black and white, would dart across busy streets delivering trays of tiny espresso cups to nearby apartments. And there was always some friendly person ready to make funny faces at our little girl.

where to eat

We knew that Buenos Aires was a fine-dining destination with hundreds of great restaurants. But we didn’t know that practically every restaurant we visited, from food court eateries to white-linen establishments, would have a high chair waiting for us and a children’s menu or a chef willing to cook up whatever we wanted to feed our daughter. If we asked for chicken soup, the waitress would simply respond by asking if we wanted rice or potatoes in it. Broccoli and mashed potatoes on a plate? No problem, even though we adults ordered duck confit and beef tenderloin.

Then there were the bakeries. Argentina is known for its dulce de leche, a thick caramel delicacy made from milk and sugar. We all indulged equally in its various forms — meringue-topped pie filled with a two-inch thick layer of the sweet stuff, breakfast pastries not unlike croissants filled with it and alfajores, little cookie-and-dulce-de-leche sandwiches. And because many Italians have immigrated to Argentina over the last century, gelato and ice cream is never in short supply. We particularly enjoyed the sundaes at one Italian chain called Freddo and were delighted to find out that they actually deliver ice cream to your apartment via motor-scooter, a handy discovery for parents like us who were apartment-bound in the evenings.

a good reason to go

Before travelling with our daughter, we never really thought about whether or not she’d enjoy a trip. But after seeing how much she relished the experience of being with her parents in a new city, we realized that it was actually worthwhile to take her on the adventure (rather than just being a selfish indulgence of our own travel whims). The three of us ate new foods, saw interesting sights and even learned new Spanish words — coche for stroller, chupete for soother (as in “You’ve dropped your chupete,” something we heard often).

Sure, travel with a toddler isn’t the same as travel was when we were just two. But what we lost in impulsiveness, we gained in seeing things through the eyes of a child. Now we look back on our trip with great fondness. It was a time for bonding, like a honeymoon for our young family.

After having her second child, Toronto-based writer Sarah Elton is looking forward to her next family vacation — to Ottawa!

how to survive a flight to south america

For the parent of a toddler, the prospect of an at least 13-hour cross-continental flight is scary. Here’s how we managed to survive our flight from Toronto to Argentina:

• Stick to the bedtime routine At night, we pretended we were at home and followed our usual bedtime routine (minus the bath). Though she wasn’t very comfortable sleeping on our laps (nor were we), she slept through the night and was in a miraculously good mood the next morning.
• Take a breather Our plane stopped in Santiago, Chile, before continuing to Buenos Aires and rather than pushing on to our final destination, we decided to hop off for a few days of sightseeing. This made the next leg that much easier.
• Bring food We brought snacks. A whole lot of snacks. We also brought a sippy cup that we tethered to our backpack that we could fill with organic milk from a tetra pack I’d brought from home.
• Come prepared to fight boredom We kept a bag of toys and books within arm’s reach at all times, just in case she started to fuss.
• Keep the goal in mind Perhaps what served us best on the long haul was the thought that we were doing something fabulously fun and adventurous with our child — something our own parents thought we were crazy for doing.

Tip Lonely Planet recommends the following apartment-rental agencies in Buenos Aires argentinago.com, apartmentsba.com, bytargentina.com.