Country Guide: Uruguay

Name: Uruguay

Continent: South America

Capital (and Largest) City: Montevideo

Language: Spanish

Currency: Uruguayan Peso

Drives on the: Right

Time Zone: Uruguay Standard Time (UTC -3)

Adaptor Types: Type C, Type F and Type L

Description: Uruguay is one of South America's smallest countries and can be found in between Argentina and Brazil. It also has a coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and Río de la Plata. Like its neighbour Argentina, it is famous for football and tango dancing, and it is also often considered to be the most progressive country in Latin America.

Why You Should Visit: Uruguay isn't one of the top Latin American tourist destinations, but I would definitely recommend going there! The UNESCO World Heritage town of Colonia del Sacramento is just a short ferry ride away from Buenos Aires, and is such a picturesque place to spend a day exploring. There are also some great beaches and beautiful green countryside to discover all over the country. And the fact that it's so small compared to most other South American countries makes it easy to get around!

Fun Fact: 95% of the energy used in Uruguay now comes from sustainable sources.

My Blogposts About Uruguay

Charlotte's Travel Adventures

- An Eventful Day in Uruguay (Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento)

- UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Colonia del Sacramento)

- Travel Tips: My Ten Favourite Beaches (Colonia del Sacramento)

- Travel Tips: My Top Ten Historical Destinations (Colonia del Sacramento)

- Charlotte's Travel Adventures is 5 Years Old! (Colonia del Sacramento)

Clockwise starting from top left: Parroquia San Francisco de Asís, Montevideo; all other photos taken in Colonia del Sacramento

Check out the rest of my Country Guides here!

An Eventful Day in Uruguay!

I woke up early on my second morning in Buenos Aires and went down to the Buquebus terminal to catch the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, a hour away across Río de la Plata. My plan was to spend the day there and get the ferry back at five pm. However, this wasn't quite how things worked out!

Going through security at the terminal was kind of confusing. After getting my passport stamped, I followed some of the other passengers in what I thought was the direction I was meant to be going. I was asked to show my ticket and was then directed through a tunnel. Before I knew it, I was on an amazing boat! It honestly looked like something out of a film.

I hadn't expected to board the boat so early, but I didn't think anything of it until the boat left an hour earlier than I thought it would. When I went to the Bureau d'échange, I discovered I'd made a mistake! This boat was going to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, which is about an hour and a half further away than Colonia!

However, all the staff on the boat and at the port in Montevideo were really helpful and completely sorted out my situation. After I arrived at the port, I was told to come back in half an hour, so I had a little bit of time to see some of the old city.

Then I was put on a bus that went to another part of Montevideo, where there was a big shopping mall and bus terminal. There I was given a bus ticket to Colonia, but first I had an hour or two to look around the mall and the surrounding area.

I spent the following two and a half hours on a bus travelling across the Uruguayan countryside. It's a really beautiful country, with lots of green fields and rolling hills. It looks like England but with added palm trees!

We arrived in Colonia at around half-past three. Luckily, I had been given special permission to use my five o'clock ferry ticket at nine o'clock, so I had plenty of time to explore! As the name suggests, Colonia is an old colonial town. It's filled with riverside beaches and quaint little buildings. It was such a picturesque place to visit and I had an amazing time there.

As you can see, it's a very photogenic place!

The boat back to Buenos Aires was much more crowded and much less glamorous than the boat to Montevideo, and trying to get an Uber at eleven pm from the terminal car park was a chaotic experience! But I arrived back at my hostel feeling very happy after having spent a day in a beautiful country I'd never been to before. I'm really grateful to everyone who helped me after my mistake, and I'm left with many great memories of Uruguay.