Practical tips for your trip to Asuncion, Paraguay – what to see, do, eat and try

Asunción has become (unexpectedly) a center of interest for a specific group of Slovaks and Czechs who suddenly started traveling there in droves to obtain permanent residency. While Asunción will probably never be the most sought-after tourist resort in South America, there is plenty to try there. I’ve compiled handy tips into this article – please feel free to add to them. 🙂

As for Paraguay itself, this article is excellent and covers everything you need, plus lots of practical tips: www.czickontheroad.cz/jak-vypada-paraguay-zajimavosti. The article is in Czech, but www.deepl.com will translate it into any language later.

What to expect from Asunción (for those going first time)

As for the capital city of Paraguay, Asuncion, somehow the stress and chaos of other South American capitals has been forgotten. Asuncion looks more like a pleasant suburb where you can hear the birds chirping in the morning than the country’s capital.

Of course, it also depends on where you are in Asuncion. We stayed in Villa Morra (Hotel Five), a wealthy residential neighborhood with restaurants, cafés, and designer shops. Most of the buildings are low, 2—to 3-story houses. The roads here are one-way, and on Saturdays and Sundays, there is barely a car on the road.

Those staying in the historic centre around the Catedral or Encarnation districts, for example, will have a different experience. There, you’ll find historic colonial buildings and more hustle and bustle, people, and dirt (and some good cafés and restaurants).

Asunción has a total of 70 neighborhoods. Some are affluent, residential and safe, others are not.

Poor barrios/neighborhoods in Asuncion

Among the most dangerous in Asuncion, especially after dark, are:

• La Chacarita – goo.gl/maps/Yu3SZsa19cCXfGLLA
• Tablada Nueva – goo.gl/maps/Q8LvVgMEYqDrjNnAA and also all the marshes around
• Bañado – both Sur and Norte (flooding is frequent) – goo.gl/maps/yC9Eq6zpnfhspDaQ 
  

To give you an idea of what I mean by bad barrios:

Bañado Sur:

 

La Chacarita:

 

Downtown (places around the Presidential Palace and Congress), people on the forums are also called “shady” after dark, so you must be extra careful there.

Here is more info on the poorer neighbourhoods, which are not, in principle, dangerous: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-good-and-bad-neighborhoods-of-Asuncion-Paraguay

An overview of the less safe neighborhoods in Asuncion is summarized on this map:

In principle, however, Asuncion does not have neighborhoods as dangerous as Bogotá in Colombia, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, or other South American cities. However, some neighborhoods in Asuncion are dangerous for European (and especially Slovak and Czech) proportions.

Safe, affluent residential neighborhoods in Asuncion

• Ykua Satĩ
• Las Lomas
• Carmelitas
• Villa Morra (here is also Hotel Five, where most of us will find a temporary home, at least for the first few days)
• Recoleta
• San Cristóbal
• Mariscal Lopez—especially the northern part and the south of Jara—is the part of Asuncion where the most expensive plots are sold, and there are luxury residential villas.

A special tip for a nice, colorful neighborhood to spend an afternoon in is Loma San Jerónimo. It’s a mini neighbourhood with a few streets where you can find colourful stairs and also nice murals (graffiti).