Montevideo – Highly Livable and Highly Underrated
Montevideo is a very underrated city. Firstly, it is extremely livable. It boasts convenient beaches, excellent parks, and free events. Secondly, as the capital city, you can find anything you may want or need and it’s the hub of Uruguayan culture.
It’s a hard task to boil down everything we enjoyed about our 24 days in Montevideo in one post, but we’re going to try.
Academia Uruguay
We spent three weeks in group Spanish lessons at Academia Uruguay and cannot recommend it enough. The small classes and dedicated teachers improved our Spanish tremendously. On top of that, it was an excellent place to meet other travelers.
In addition, we loved how the school offered curated events each week. The events highlighted Uruguayan cultural elements and served as a social outlet. One day we learned about Yerba Mate, which Ashleigh now drinks daily. We also attended two Carnival events (more on that below).
Ciudad Vieja
The “Old Town” is extremely touristy. Cruise ships drop off passengers almost every day. There is a pedestrian walk to enjoy from Mercado del Puerto to Plaza de Independecia along Sarandí Street. We highly recommend a stroll! Plaza Matríz and Plaza Zabala are picturesque and tree-filled European squares nearby or along the way.
If you decide to stop by the Old Town, try to visit on a weekday. Many businesses close on the weekends.
Best Restaurants
For food, some of the spots that we really enjoyed:
- Sin Pretensiones – indoor/outdoor cafe where Ashleigh had a huge salad.
- Montevideo Wine Experience – primarily for tourists. This shop is run by two millennial men. They are happy to share their passion for Uruguayan wine with tourists and locals alike. Be warned the locals think it is absurdly expensive.
- Empanadas Carolina – there is a steady stream of customers at this empanada spot in Mercado del Puerto. They had a delicious chicken with marinara sauce empanada that we couldn’t find anywhere else!
- Sometimes Sunday – a fabulous brunch spot. Sit inside or outside to enjoy their amazing pulled pork sandwich, Campari spritzes, or iced lattes.
- Cabaña Veronica – best parilla inside Mercado del Puerto
Tango!
Nearby, closer to Plaza de Independecia, we enjoyed the tango show at Bar Fun Fun. Arrive after 9:30pm or get reservations ahead of time online. While we found the show touristy, it offers an introduction to tango in a fun setting. However, if touristy isn’t your style, many plazas host nightly Milongras, which are free public dances. A lesson often proceeds the start of the dance, so show up early to learn!
Cordón Soho
According to the local millennials, this is the cool hip neighborhood to hang out in Montevideo. We loved it! It’s a great option for early evening drinks, fun restaurants, and cafes with great music. El Mingus, which we highlighted in our post here, is also located in this neighborhood. If we returned, we would stay nearby! Here are some of our favorite spots:
Restaurants & Cafes
- We sat outside on the sidewalk at Inmigrantes. It is a triple purpose restaurant, bar and club. My favorite was the Ilegal cocktail that came with a sidecar in a brown bag to hide its ‘illegal’ contents.
- Escaramuzo is a must visit! This super cool and instagrammable bookstore boasts a beautiful back patio cafe. On a hot afternoon, we sipped white wine in the shade outside.
- Cervecería Mala Fama was the prefect stop for a pre-dinner drink. We enjoyed an excellent West Coast IPA and free popcorn.
Live Music
The thing to love about Cordon Soho is the music scene! Out late one evening we stumbled upon TRIBU. This awesome cafe has a rooftop hosting live music on certain nights (check out their Facebook). We saw Urbano Moraes perform in a jazz trio. He is the most influential and famous Uruguayan bassists known for his psychedelic rock. The crowd and the music made for a magical evening.
Mercado Ferrando
This great market in Cordon Soho deserves it’s own call out. One of our favorite spots, which we revisited, was the Mercado Ferrando. This is an indoor two-story market similar to the Chelsea market in New York. There are a few cute little shops and a number of fast casual restaurants. There are many tables inside and on the outdoor patio. We enjoyed sampling more local craft beers at Orientales.
Carnival
Uruguay has the longest Carnival celebration of any country – it’s about 40 days! Thousands of performance groups in five different categories compete and ultimately one group wins in each category. Originally each of the neighborhoods had their own group that would perform for free in the local plaza to practice. Now many of the groups are professional with corporate sponsors to pay for their costumes and salaries.
Our carnival experience began at the inaugural parade. During the parade, every group marches along the main road of Montevideo, Avenida de 18 Julio, to show off their costumes and preview their performances. Broadcast nationwide, This parade lasted for 6 hours! Talk about a party night when the show starts at 8pm.
In addition to the parade, we also attended two tablados which are shows where various groups perform. The first show took place in a small plaza for free. While the other occurred at one of the largest plazas, but cost only $6. There was a professional stage and sound system and about 1,000 in attendance enjoying the program from 9pm-2am (on a Thursday!). There were thousands of people and enjoying and laughing along to the jokes and cultural references and political digs of the Murguistas.
Because of our experience, we’d highly recommend a visit to Montevideo during Carnival. Carnival lasts from the end of January to the first weekend in March. Beware, it will be very warm, but worth it. In addition it’s better to go with a local so they can explain some of the jokes. Otherwise you can go to enjoy the beautiful singing and awesome makeup and outfits of the performers.
Wine tasting
Uruguay grows a lot of Tannat grape. One of the major wine areas is just 20 minutes outside of Montevideo called Canelones. We toured Bodega Bauza, recently rated the number 44 winery in the world. It’s a relatively new winery that started in 1998 and they definitely serve very young red wine at the tasting.
Overall, the wine was not the highlight of the trip. However, the tasting occurs in a formal dining room with very fancy small bites that are definitely worth the price. Also the property is gorgeous and the owner must be extremely rich since there is an incredible garage for tour participants to check out that includes an old Ford Model A, an Alfa Romeo, a classic Jaguar, Vespas, and WW II motorcycles.
La Rambla
Montevideo’s Rambla is the longest uninterrupted sidewalk in the world. Every summer evening the Rambla fills with people sitting and drinking their mate and families eating snacks, teens smoking, and lots of kids. It’s amazing to go and watch the sunset with everybody each evening and to enjoy the cool evening air after a hot summer’s day. We would try to go for a walk about a half hour before sunset almost every evening. This fun, free activity includes awesome people watching as well as a beautiful sunset.
We will never forget our time in Montevideo – it was such an easy, safe city with so much to enjoy day and night!
