Uruguay - Roadtrip from Montevideo

It was a long time since I last have been to South America. Six years ago I was in Chile and already back then I was looking forward to getting back and visiting the next countries on the list in the lower part of South America. The time has come for Uruguay, as the entrance point for the trip to Argentina.

My plan was to spend three days in Uruguay and then take the bus and ferry to Argentina.

I arrived early in the morning at the airport of Montevideo, the capital. The flight was one of the best ever, as I had three seats for myself and a good opportunity to sleep normally. SIM card, collecting money, and having my first coffee were done and I took the public bus to the city center area of Montevideo - called Punta Carretas.

It was 30 minutes to the center and even with many stops, but probably still faster than with a taxi, as the bus has its own lane.

First impression of Montevideo

The hotel was in the area of Pocitos, which is right at the shore of the sea and had many restaurants around. 

Gladly they gave me a room with a good view towards "The lighthouse", a monument of Montevideo.

I took another bus to Tres Cruces, a major central traffic point with all interconnections and buses to everywhere. Here I needed to make a PCR test for Argentina. Also, this will be the departure point to get with the bus to Colonia, from where I will take the ferry towards Argentina.

It was already mid-day, so an entire afternoon left to visit the Old Town of Montevideo. I went there by bus and then exited to walk the remaining part of the street towards the Old Town.

The Old Town of Montevideo is not that big and it's comfortably quiet. No hassle with too much traffic or crowds.

There are many restaurants but they all close down when the sun disappears, which is already at 6pm.

After a couple of hours of walking through the old town of Montevideo, I took the Uber to the other side of Montevideo.

The promenade along the "Playa de Pocitos" is on the other side.

An impressive nice stretch to comfortably walk along, especially during this time of the year. In April, the weather gets already a bit cold when the sun is gone. 

It's like half an hour walk and at the end of the boulevard is the monument "MONTEVIDEO"-Sign.

What I most anticipated when coming to this part of South America, were the steaks. The best meat on the planet can be found right here in Uruguay. 

So the first evening I ordered one of the biggest Steak on the menu and it was perfect.

Day 2 - Driving to Punto del Este

I didn't plan a lot for Montevideo, basically not much more than I did yesterday.

But I found out it's easy to visit other cities which are maybe a few hours from Montevideo. The nicest city within hours' distance was "Punt del Este", on the very east of Montevideo. 

After looking up and calling some rental car agencies, I found one which offered a small car for 40 USD. I rented a car and started driving around 10am, with my goal to visit Punte del Este and be back in Montevideo around sunset.

It's a fantastic, easy, nice drive along the coast and through larger parts of the countryside. The streets are all over perfectly maintained. Gas is very cheap.

There are several viewpoints that are worth a stop.

The whole drive to Punto del Este took is about 125km (one way), which is quite long when I considered that I needed to drive back the same distance in a few hours again.

Woah!!! Punto del Este very nice.

Apart from the main attraction, the harbor and the beach with its many nice apartment buildings, there is this hand in the sand. I think they call it "Fingers".

I really liked this city.

A lot is going on but it's not busy, it's compact, not complicated to get through, it's not hot, not too cold and it has nice scenery from both sides of the peninsula.

In the center were many restaurants and nowhere was a problem to find parking. 

The whole peninsula of Punt del Este is covered with nice spots.

As mentioned above, the ride is another 125km back to Montevideo.

But even though it was my second leg of driving today and a total of 350km, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Back in Montevideo at around 7pm, another delicious steak was on my food plan.

Day 3 - To Argentina by bus and ferry

Had to get up very early in the morning to catch the bus and later the boat towards Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, my country #148.

To get from Montevideo to Argentina, the most common and easy method is the ferry. The two most famous options are 1. a ferry directly from Montevideo to Buenos Aires, or 2. taking the bus from Montevideo to the city Colonia (2h) and then the ferry to Buenos Aires (1h). The whole option 2 is offered by the company Buquebus and the service is great - no hassle or confusion at all.

The early morning drive comes with a nice view of the countryside scenery of Uruguay.

I went for option 2 (which cost around USD 80$) because the schedule was much more convenient and I preferred not spending too much time on the ferry, as I forgot my seasickness pills. Having another experience like the one in Tanzania I planned not to repeat this time. 

Around 11am I arrived at the ferry terminal in Buenos Aires, Argentina.