Uruguay

Montevideo — often ranked among the most liveable cities in Latin America — has the Rambla (a coastal promenade of around 22km) and the Ciudad Vieja (old city) with its mix of Art Deco, neoclassical and colonial architecture. The Mercado del Puerto for the traditional parilla (grill) lunch.

The Rambla runs for around 22km along the Río de la Plata, east from the old city to Carrasco. On weekends much of the city walks, cycles and drinks mate along it.

The Mercado Agrícola (a 1913 iron-and-glass market building, restored as a food hall with Uruguayan craft beers, cheese, charcuterie and grills). The Teatro Solís (1856, Uruguay's main theatre, on the Plaza de la Independencia) for an evening performance or a guided tour of the neoclassical interior.

Uruguay and Argentina trade places as the world's biggest beef eaters per head — roughly 45–50kg per person a year. Most cattle are grass-fed, mainly Hereford and Angus.

The Feria de Tristan Narvaja (Montevideo's best-known Sunday street market — second-hand books, vinyl records, old coins, fresh produce and street music). The Museo Histórico Nacional for the story of José Artigas (Uruguay's national hero, less known abroad than Bolívar or San Martín).

José Artigas (1764–1850) is less known outside the region than other independence leaders. He advocated land reform, equal rights for indigenous peoples and federal self-government, all radical in 1815. He died in exile in Paraguay aged 86, never returning to Uruguay.

About 2h45 by bus from Montevideo. Colonia del Sacramento (UNESCO World Heritage Site) — founded by the Portuguese in 1680 on a peninsula opposite Buenos Aires, with a barrio histórico of cobblestone streets, 17th-century ruins and the lighthouse above the Río de la Plata — is entirely walkable in half a day.

Colonia changed hands repeatedly between Portugal and Spain until 1777, and both left their mark on the old town. The lighthouse (1857) stands beside the ruins of the Convent of San Francisco.

2h from Montevideo. Punta del Este — one of South America’s best-known beach resorts, with beaches on both the Atlantic and the calmer bay side of the peninsula, and La Mano (Mario Irarrázabal's hand sculpture, 1982) — is at its busiest in January and February.

Punta del Este's high season (January–February) draws crowds from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and prices peak. From March the beaches are much quieter and prices drop.

Casapueblo (the white, sculpted building on the cliffs, built by Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Villáro, now a hotel and museum, on a cliff above the Portezuelo beach). Drive west to the Canelones wine region (about 1h30) for Tannat wine tastings at Bouza or Bodegas Carrau.

Tannat — a thick-skinned, deeply coloured red grape from Madiran in France — is Uruguay's national variety, brought by Basque immigrants in the 1870s, and makes dark, firm, tannic reds.

3h from Punta del Este. Cabo Polonio — a remote cape on the Atlantic coast with no grid electricity or road access (visitors park at the entrance on Ruta 10 and take 4×4 trucks across the dunes), a lighthouse, a small year-round population and colonies of sea lions and fur seals on the rocks — is one of the wildest points on the Uruguayan coast. Return to Montevideo.

Cabo Polonio has no grid power and no private cars; homes use solar panels and generators. The sea lion and fur seal colonies are visible from the lighthouse and the rocks below. The area is a protected national park.