Uruguay Atlantic Coast Route: Montevideo to Cabo Polonio

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Montevideo

   Montevideo is a city that faces the water and sits down beside it. A long waterfront road, the Rambla, runs for about twenty-two kilometres along the river Plate, and on any evening the whole city seems to be on it, with people walking, jogging, fishing or sitting with a thermos of hot water and a gourd of mate, the bitter herbal tea that Uruguayans carry everywhere. The river is so wide here that it looks like the sea, though it is brown with silt, and the Atlantic begins farther east.

   Read the complete Montevideo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Montevideo is where the day begins. Next is Piriapolis.

2. 2. Piriapolis

   Piriápolis was invented. In the 1890s an energetic Uruguayan businessman named Francisco Piria bought a stretch of empty coast and dunes below a pair of granite hills, and set about building a seaside resort from nothing, with a hotel, a promenade, a castle for himself and a mineral-water business. The town grew from that dream, and its old-fashioned seafront still wears a faintly European, Belle Époque air, with a long curving promenade, a pier, and the grand Hotel Argentino, built in 1930 and still standing on the front.

   Read the complete Piriapolis write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Piriapolis comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is Punta del Este.

3. 3. Punta del Este

   Punta del Este is a long finger of rock and sand that juts into the South Atlantic, where the broad brown waters of the Río de la Plata meet the open ocean. For much of the year it is a quiet fishing and yachting town of about seven thousand permanent residents, and from late December to February it fills with Argentines, Brazilians and Uruguayans in search of sun, parties and sand. The peninsula divides two coasts: on one side is the Mansa, the calm, sheltered beach facing the river estuary, and on the other the Brava, where Atlantic swells roll in with real force.

   Read the complete Near Punta del Este write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Punta del Este. Next is Jose Ignacio.

4. 4. José Ignacio

   José Ignacio is a fishing village that fashion found, a scattering of low houses, sand lanes and a lighthouse on a small peninsula east of Punta del Este, where the Uruguayan coast turns wild. For decades it was a quiet place of fishermen and a few summer cottages, and some of that spirit remains in the unpaved streets, the old boats pulled up on the beach and the whitewashed church. Today it also has stylish restaurants and discreet hotels that draw visitors from Buenos Aires and São Paulo in summer, and it is quiet and nearly empty in winter.

   Read the complete Jose Ignacio write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Jose Ignacio, late in the day. Next is Cabo Polonio.

5. 5. Cabo Polonio

   Cabo Polonio has no road. You leave the pavement of Ruta 10 at the park gate, park the bike, and either walk across the dunes or climb into a big four-wheel-drive truck for the ride across the sand, because vehicles of any ordinary kind are not allowed in. It is a small settlement of ramshackle houses perched on a rocky cape, with no mains electricity or running water, lit by candles, lanterns and a few solar panels, and it has a gloriously end-of-the-world feel. The sunsets here are said to be among the best in South America.

   Read the complete Cabo Polonio write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Cabo Polonio. That is the ride.