We are back to update our information on traveling to Uruguay, with the second part of our Colonia, Montevideo and Punta del Este tours guide. The third and final in the series will appear sometime over the weekend.
If you missed our Buenos Aires to Colonia information and our views on Colonia (that received the response we fully expected) please use this link: Buenos Aires to Colonia to review the first blog in this series.
We left you having a mid-afternoon lunch in Colonia ready for the next stage of our tour that takes you by road to Montevideo, for one evening in a hotel and the next day sightseeing Montevideo before you travel to Punta del Este.
Firstly, we would like to point you to a New York Time article on Montevideo that we found most enlightening and helpful – NEW YORK TIMES MONTEVIDEO. More to the point, for a short tour of the city, we are not sure our blog would improve upon this very good travel article by Seth Kugel.
The trip by road from Colonia to Montevideo is just two to two hours and thirty minutes, three hours at the most and we can arrange for a coach or remise to make the journey dependent on travelers budgets.
We love Montevideo, anyone who tells you it is a poor cousin of Buenos Aires is out of his or her tiny minds.
Montevideo is a great city and the Montevedians are just the most wonderful city folk we have met anywhere in the world. Montevideo is a smaller city than Buenos Aires without the hordes of tourists and sightseers.
Montevideo feels more like Europe than Buenos Aires, dare we say it. In addition, our Uruguayan mates are quite sure that the tango has its origins in Montevideo’s old city port – an interesting debate to avoid!
As part of the Viceroyalty of the Rio del La Plata, originally built by Spanish colonialism, Montevideo suffered British invasion and capture, then British investment and later an influx of European, mainly Italian, immigrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – sounds very familiar does it not.
The old city is where we spend most of our time. The walk through the Plaza Independencia to the gateway of the original citadel along to Plaza Constitucion, which has many art and craft stalls, bars and alfresco eating is very nice and forms part of our city tours.
When choosing where to stay in Montevideo, avoid the downtown hotels. This advice also comes with a few words of caution, because downtown Montevideo can be quite dangerous at night for those who do not know their way around.
Although, we caveat that by saying, we have only heard stories and given that we have been back and forth many times, we have never had a problem or witnessed any problems – maybe we were lucky.
Taxis are cheap and we suggest that you use taxis after dark to be on the safe side.
New York Time recommends that it is best to stay in an upscale neighborhood like Pocitos, which is quite right. Just outside the city centre are some great barrios with quality hotels in residential neighborhoods that face the sea and the rocky sand beaches. Contact us for Montevideo hotel reservations, the Buenos Aires Stay team will advise or book for you.
After a supper and a night in Montevideo, Buenos Aires Stay recommends an early start and a four hour tour of Montevideo with lunch, before you set off by remise or coach (it is your budget, you choose) for a long weekend in Punta de Este.
Tomorrow we will update this series of articles that take you on a tour from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Colonia to Montevideo, and then Montevideo to Punta del Este from Thursday morning to the following Tuesday.
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