Located on the banks of Rio de la Plata, Colonia is a friendly riverside town that draws people from all over the world

Colonia is one of Uruguay’s real treasures. In fact, I would rank Colonia at the top of Uruguay’s list for a year-round, quality lifestyle at an affordable price. Located on the banks of Rio de la Plata (just across from Buenos Aires), it’s a friendly riverside town that draws people from the world over.

What’s always attracted me (and most visitors) to Colonia has been its historic center, known as Barrio Histórico. Founded by the Portuguese in the 1680s, Colonia’s Barrio Histórico is one of the best examples of restored and preserved Portuguese colonial architecture that you’ll ever see.

Antique, period homes surround the central plaza, with interiors that are still graced with rustic stone floors and heavy grey-stone walls. The rooms are small and sometimes cell-like, as was the style of that time. In many cases, you can see where the Portuguese used one style of stonework on the house—up to a level of about seven feet—and then the Spanish used another style, many years later, in order to make the houses taller.

Unlike most resort areas of Uruguay, Colonia “never closes”. Even in the dead of winter—in July—you’ll see a good number of visitors strolling its cobblestoned streets, enjoying the high-end restaurants, classy boutiques, sidewalk cafes and shady parks. It’s a good place to operate a rental property, a tourism-related business, or a B&B.

Colonia is a place where you’ll still see antique cars along the streets, going back to the 1930s…as you will in much of Uruguay’s interior. And I was surprised to find that most of them have current license plates, and are used by people as their primary vehicle, rather than a Sunday showpiece.

I try to get here at least once per year, and find the four-hour drive from my home in Punta del Este to be well worth it. I liked Colonia since the first time I saw it.

You can find great value colonial-period homes here. Some may not have been remodeled from their original structure and finishings. Others may be in the historical center, but not be a true colonial-period home. But you should be able to buy in the Barrio Histórico for less than $200,000…sometimes a lot less.

I’m preparing a presentation on this area for the Live and Invest in Uruguay E-Conference. You can register here.