The River, the Coast and the Interior
South America’s quietest country in ten unhurried days: Montevideo’s Rambla and market grills, the smuggler’s town of Colonia, the Atlantic coast out to a village with no road, and an estancia in the grassland interior.
Montevideo
Half the country lives here and it still feels like a large town. Ciudad Vieja in the afternoon, then the Rambla at sunset with everyone else — thermos under one arm, mate gourd in the other hand.
The market and the art deco
Lunch at the Mercado del Puerto, a nineteenth-century iron hall given over almost entirely to wood-fired parrillas — order by pointing at the grill. Afternoon: the Palacio Salvo, the Teatro Solís, and the Torres García museum.
Colonia del Sacramento
Two hours west: a Portuguese smuggling base founded in 1680 opposite Buenos Aires and traded between crowns for a century. The cobbled Barrio Histórico is UNESCO-listed and empties completely once the day-trip ferry leaves — which is the argument for staying the night.
Carmelo and the wine
An hour north into a river-delta wine region working with tannat, the grape Uruguay took from south-west France and made its own. Small family bodegas, no crowds, and lunch that runs long.
East to the Atlantic
Back through Montevideo and out along the coast. Punta del Este is the high-rise one; keep going to José Ignacio, a lighthouse village that became fashionable without entirely losing the plot.
Cabo Polonio
No road reaches it. You leave the highway and cross the dunes in a four-wheel-drive truck to a village inside a national park with no mains electricity, a lighthouse, and one of the largest sea lion colonies on the Atlantic coast of South America.
The dark sky and the sea lions
Without a grid there is nothing to dim the sky, and the night here is the best on the Uruguayan coast. Days are for walking the dunes and watching the colony from the rocks below the lighthouse.
Punta del Diablo and Santa Teresa
North to a fishing village that became a summer town without quite stopping being a fishing village, and the Santa Teresa fortress — built by the Portuguese, finished by the Spanish, and now sitting in a park of planted forest above empty beaches.
Inland to an estancia
West into the grassland the visitors skip. A working estancia will put you on a horse, feed you an asado that takes four hours, and demonstrate that the gaucho tradition here is a job rather than a costume.
Out
Back to Montevideo for the flight, or take the ferry across the river to Buenos Aires — the crossing takes a little over two hours and is the most civilised international border in the region.
Good to know
Uruguay is the most expensive country in South America by a clear margin. Budget closer to southern Europe than to the Andes.
January and February are the Argentine holidays — the coast is full and prices double. December and March are better in every respect.
Cabo Polonio is reachable only by the official dune trucks. There is no ATM, limited signal, and generator power for a few hours a day. Bring cash.
Shorter or longer?
Montevideo, Colonia and the coast as far as Cabo Polonio.
Add the ferry crossing and three days in the Argentine capital at either end.
The hot springs along the Uruguay river at Salto and Paysandú, four hours north-west.