Uruguay

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As part of a longer South America trip we spent a week in Uruguay, primarily in Montevideo.

Transportation

We took the Buquebus ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo.  It’s a high-speed ferry and takes about 2.5 hours to make the trip.  The Buquebus has several food and drink kiosks as well as duty free shopping and currency exchange (which offers a good exchange rate).  The ferry drops you off at the port terminal steps away from the Ciudad Vieja (Old City) area of Montevideo.  Passport control is done in BA and once you arrive in Montevideo you collect your luggage and clear customs.  Outside there are plenty of cabs waiting with a dispatcher coordinating rides, so it’s an easy arrival in Montevideo. 

In Montevideo, Uber is easy to use, there are plenty of radio cabs, and hotels can arrange private drivers.

We left Uruguay via Carrasco International Airport, which is similar in size to DCA or BWI and we found it very efficient.  We flew American Airlines back to the U.S.:  MVD to Miami to DCA.  

Accommodations

We rented an Airbnb in the historic Palacio Salvo building, which overlooks Plaza Independencia and borders the Ciudad Vieja and Centro districts.  Palacio Salvo was a good location for exploring the city but the neighborhood could be described as gritty.  Other neighborhoods with plenty of Airbnbs and hotels are Punta Carretas and Pocitos.  These neighborhoods are more upscale with plenty of restaurants and shops.  We also spent a night at the Hyatt Centric in Pocitos, which is a comfortable hotel overlooking Playa de la Pocitos.

Tourist Stuff

Ciudad Vieja – The Old City is a self–contained peninsula area where Montevideo was founded.  Through the heart of Ciudad Vieja is a pedestrian street called Sarandi, lined with restaurants, shops, and street market stalls.  The Plaza de la Constitucion is lovely and there are several small museums in the area.  Sarandi takes you to another pedestrian street called Calle Perez Castellano which takes you to the historic Mercado del Puerto.  We found that if you leave the tourist area, the side streets of Ciudad Vieja get sketchy pretty quickly, so best to stick to the tourist areas.  The Old City tends to follow the schedule of the cruise ships, so some afternoons most of the stores and restaurants were shutting down by 4 or 5pm.  Morning to early afternoon is the best time to visit.

Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales – The national gallery of Uruguay.  It’s a cool medium sized art museum with several great unknown-in-the-U.S. Uruguayan artists from the late 1800s to early 1900s.  The second floor has rotating contemporary art exhibits.

Palacio Taranco – A French style mansion that is now a decorative arts museum along Zabala Square in the Old City.  

The Rambla – The heart and soul of Montevideo is the Rambla, a 14-mile uninterrupted waterfront pedestrian promenade that connects the city with the Rio de la Plata.  The Rambla has small parks and beaches and around 5pm to 6pm the denizens of Montevideo start gathering to chat with friends, drink mate, and watch the sunset.  It’s a great place to chill and enjoy city life.   

Restaurants and Food

Jacinto (Ciudad Vieja) – The best restaurant we ate at.  We had seats by the open kitchen and watched awesome looking plates of food being prepared.  Excellent grilled sweet breads with a romesco sauce.  Highly recommend.

Dona Isabel (Ciudad Vieja) – A great cheese and charcuterie store across the street from Jacinto.  They also prepare lovely looking cheese and meat boards with a small wine selection.  We picked up very tasty cheese and salami.  Highly recommend.   

Piwo Helados (Ciudad Vieja) – A good spot for helados, which in Argentina and Uruguay is a cross between gelato and ice cream. 

Mercado del Puerto (Ciudad Vieja) – The Old City port market, which these days is basically a large food hall with parrilla restaurants.  It gets overrun by tourists when the cruise ships are docked but still considered legit by the locals.  If you want your grilled meat fix with a boisterous market atmosphere, this is the place to go. 

Café Le Farmacia (Ciudad Vieja) – A corner café with old pharmacy decor.  A good spot for traditional café fare.  

Confiteria La Corunesa (Centro) – A excellent confiteria with a wide range of desserts.

La Perdiz (Punta Carretas) – This is the kind of restaurant where you want to go with a group and order multiple dishes to share.  Portion sizes are large, good selection of meat and seafood.  We enjoyed the fish nuggets, amazing chorizo, and grilled squid served with rice.  The fries with mushroom gravy were a little odd but enjoyable.

The Lab Coffee Roasters (Nuevo Pocitos) – Coffee shop café with a small outdoor patio area.  Excellent coffee and the shared breakfast for two (café para compartir) is a great deal.  Make sure you try the excellent budin de naraanja (orange cake).  Highly recommend.

Bar Facal (Centro) – Old school café coffee house founded in 1882 known for their traditional Uruguayan food.  They also serve mate if you would like to try the national drink (kind of like a bitter herby green tea)

Bar Tinkal (Palermo) – Another old school joint which has more of a bar vibe, known for their chivitos. 

Dona Martina (Pocitos) – Small store front empanada shop.  The empanadas are premade but cooked to order. 

Cake’s (Pocitos area) – An old house that has been converted into a tea room with light fare and decadent desserts. 

Wineries        

The main wine growing regions of Uruguay are easily accessible from Montevideo and Punta del Este.  Canelones, the largest wine region, is about 30-45 minutes from the main downtown areas of Montevideo and many wineries offer overnight accommodations with a package deal.

We did an overnight at Pizzorno, which is a medium sized winery with a nice tasting room, restaurant, and patio and a four room inn with a small swimming pool.  Our stay included overnight accommodation, wine tour and tasting, a tapas style dinner (which was ok), and an excellent breakfast.  The winery arranged a private driver to pick us up at our Airbnb and drop us off the next day at our hotel.    

 

I’d say Montevideo is a good tourist destination.  The city is easily navigable, most of the tourist areas are close by, although there aren’t a ton of tourist attractions (as compared, perhaps unfairly, to Buenos Aires, which admittedly is a much larger city).  However, we really enjoyed the vibe of Montevideo.  It’s much more chilled out compared to BA, the people are really friendly, there’s great food, and you just can’t beat a beautiful evening relaxing along the Rambla watching the sunset.  The style of living is muy bien!  Given the ease of transit between the two countries, if you are considering a trip to Argentina, I’d recommend tacking on a visit to Uruguay.