Montevideo: A Guide to Uruguay's Capital

Plaza Independencia: the Palacio Salvo behind the statue of Artigas. (Photo: Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, sits on the east bank of the Río de la Plata, across the water from Buenos Aires and often overlooked beside it. It is the country's political and cultural centre: an old town, a long waterfront, beaches, museums and a lively food and music scene, with a slightly old-fashioned air. It had 1.3 million people in 2011, more than ten times the next-largest Uruguayan city, and its metropolitan area holds about two million, half the country. Its people are friendly and helpful enough to make it feel much smaller.

A short history

Nobody is sure where the name comes from. The monte is usually taken to be the hill on which the Cerro fort now stands. One theory reads it as "Monte VI De Este a Oeste": the sixth hill, counting from east to west. Another credits a sailor on Magellan's voyage around the world who cried out on seeing a hill, though that voyage came two centuries before the city was founded.

The Portuguese began the fort in 1723; the next year the Spanish started the city itself across the bay, where the old town is now. In the three centuries since, Montevideo has belonged to the Spanish and Portuguese empires, been held by the British for a few months in 1807, and been part of Brazil and of what is now Argentina, before becoming the capital of the new Republic of Uruguay in 1828. After mid-19th-century turmoil, including an eight-year siege, came prosperity and waves of European immigrants; the grand villas and parks of the Prado date from then. An economic collapse in the 1950s gave rise to a left-wing guerrilla movement and then a military dictatorship, which lasted until democracy returned in 1985.

The fort on the Cerro, where the city began. (Photo: Da dinges, Public domain)

Getting there and around

Carrasco International Airport is about 15 km east of the centre, with flights from major South American cities, Panama City, Miami and Madrid; city buses and intercity coaches both run into town. Don't change money there: airport rates run about 20% worse than the official rate, against about 3% at a cambio in the centre. From Buenos Aires, Buquebus runs a fast ferry straight to the old town in about two and a half hours, or a cheaper, longer route via Colonia, whose old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, finishing by bus. Long-distance buses use the Tres Cruces terminal, which doubles as a shopping mall.

Buses are the city's only mass transit. A free STM card makes fares cheaper and lets you change buses, but stops have no route maps and are sometimes unmarked, so a routing app helps. You board at the front and pay the driver or the conductor. Taxis are metered and plentiful but not cheap; ride-hailing is often cheaper. Trains serve only suburbs and towns to the north-west, from a terminal near the grand Estación Central General Artigas, abandoned in 2003. The centre is best on foot: the city runs along a low ridge that ends in the old town's peninsula.

The old town and the centre

Plaza Independencia, at the head of Avenida 18 de Julio, the main shopping street, is the city's emblem. On it stand the Art Deco Palacio Salvo, once the tallest building in South America; the Artigas monument, with a mausoleum beneath it holding the ashes of José Gervasio Artigas, a hero of independence, under an honour guard; the Palacio Estévez, the presidents' office until 1985 and now a museum of the presidency; and the Puerta de la Ciudadela, one of the few surviving pieces of the old city wall.

Through the gate lies the Ciudad Vieja, where perhaps half of what visitors come for is found: Teatro Solís, the main theatre; the cathedral on Plaza Matriz; the Cabildo, the parliament under Spanish rule and in the first decades of independence; the covered Mercado del Puerto, full of grill restaurants; the decorative-arts museum in the Palacio Taranco; and museums of pre-Columbian art, of the painter Joaquín Torres García and of carnival. The Museo Andes 1972 tells the story of the plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes in October 1972, and of the 16 who survived more than two months before rescue.

Teatro Solís. (Photo: Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pérez Castellano, a pedestrian street in the old town. (Photo: Ypsilon from Finland, CC0)

Along 18 de Julio: the 40 m obelisk, raised in 1930 for the centenary of the first constitution; a small fountain covered in lovers' padlocks; and the Palacio Municipal, with a viewing platform in its tower. The Tile Museum shows more than 5,000 decorative tiles.

Along the Rambla

The Rambla, the 22 km waterfront road, is where Montevideo goes outdoors: to walk, cycle, fish and drink mate, best at sunset. East of Parque Rodó it passes a string of beaches and neighbourhoods: Barrio Sur, home of candombe and the Afro-Uruguayan community; Punta Carretas, with a lighthouse on the city's southern point and a shopping mall built in a former prison, its gate kept inside; Pocitos, with the city's favourite beach and the big MONTEVIDEO letters at its eastern end; and leafy, upmarket Carrasco, farthest east.

Pocitos beach. (Photo: Ypsilon from Finland, CC0)

The Montevideo sign by Pocitos beach. (Photo: Ganímedes, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Punta Carretas lighthouse. (Photo: Ypsilon from Finland, CC0)

North and west

The neoclassical Palacio Legislativo, the parliament, was completed in 1925 for the centenary of the declaration of independence. Torre Antel, 157 m tall, is the country's highest building and has a viewing platform. El Prado, the largest park in the city proper, holds the botanical garden and the Museo Blanes, devoted to Uruguayan art of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Farther out, Parque Lecocq is a semi-open zoo with llamas, capybaras and ostriches, and the Fortaleza General Artigas on the Cerro looks back over the whole bay. Most of the city's few dangerous districts are on the north-western outskirts.

The Palacio Legislativo. (Photo: Felipe Restrepo Acosta, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Football, carnival and tango

The first football World Cup was played in 1930 at the Estadio Centenario and won by Uruguay; the stadium, still in use, has a football museum. The Gran Parque Central is the oldest football stadium in the Americas.

Carnival runs for about 40 days from the last week of January, and Montevideo claims it is the world's longest, mixing European and African traditions. Tango belongs as much to Uruguay as to Argentina: La Cumparsita, one of the most famous tangos, was written by a Uruguayan and first performed here, and UNESCO lists tango as the intangible heritage of both countries. At New Year, the party begins before noon in the old town, and at midnight crowds gather on Pocitos beach.

In the football museum at the Estadio Centenario. (Photo: Ypsilon from Finland, CC0)

Tango outside the Mercado del Puerto. (Photo: Ypsilon from Finland, CC0)

Eating and drinking

Uruguay is famous for its beef, grilled in parrillas; the restaurants in and around the Mercado del Puerto are the classic place for it. Sides are ordered separately, portions are large, and many restaurants add a cover charge (cubierto). The national sandwich is the chivito, beef and vegetables piled high, sometimes served on a plate to eat with a knife and fork. Look out also for breaded milanesa, fresh pasta and gnocchi, desserts drowned in dulce de leche, churros, square pizzas and fainá, a flatbread of chickpea flour baked in the pizza oven.

Nights start late: before midnight you may have a bar to yourself. The pedestrian streets of the old town, Bartolomé Mitre above all, are full of cafés and music bars.

Asado, grilled meat. (Photo: Ypsilon from Finland, CC0)

Staying safe

Montevideo is safe by regional standards, though less so than it was. Watch for pickpockets downtown and for thieves who smash car windows. Away from its pedestrian streets the old town is best avoided after dark, as are the waterfront outside it and, in summer, the Ramírez and Pocitos beaches at night; the Cerro and some outer districts are best avoided altogether. Loose paving stones can squirt dirty water after rain. Driving with any alcohol in the blood is illegal, and smoking is banned in enclosed public places. Call 911 for the police; 104 reaches the fire brigade.

The seasons are the reverse of the north's. Summer days often pass 30 °C, with cool nights; winter rarely freezes, but wind and damp make it feel colder, and rain falls evenly through the year.

Sources

• "Montevideo" from Wikivoyage, by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changed: rewritten in hubnx's own words and condensed; listings, addresses, prices, opening hours and phone numbers left out; each photo under its own licence, credited in its caption. This page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.