The Best Places to Live in Uruguay for Every Budget

Montevideo’s waterfront
Montevideo’s waterfront offers city living with beaches, cafés, and ocean views.|©iStock/Rudimencial

Have you considered retiring in Uruguay? This small South American country offers vast ranchlands, beautiful beaches, and a warm, welcoming culture. It’s also popular with expats for its economic, social, and political stability.

And despite its modest size, Uruguay offers a range of appealing cities and towns where retirees can enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.

Here are some of the best places to live in Uruguay, divided into three categories:

  • The best places to live in Uruguay for a couple with a budget between $2,900 and $3,800 per month.

  • The best places to live in Uruguay for a couple with a budget under $2,900 per month. (These are great places to live, but with few other English speakers around.)

  • Options for couples with a budget over $3,800 per month. (These places are popular with high-earning expats and affluent retirees.)

Note: Budget categories include rent, utilities (including internet and cable TV), cell phone plans, healthcare plans, and money for dining out and entertainment. In areas where most expats get around by bus and taxi, the budget assumes using buses and taxis. In areas where most expats own cars, the budget includes the cost of car ownership.

$2,900 to $3,800 per month

Uruguay: $2,900 to $3,800 per month
©iStock/Wirestock

The most affordable areas where you’ll find other English-speaking expats.

Montevideo’s Ciudad Vieja and Centro

Montevideo is Uruguay’s capital. It fronts the Río de la Plata, a large body of water notched into the east coast of South America. The population of the Montevideo metro area is about 1,800,000 (half of Uruguay’s population).

Montevideo is divided into 62 distinct neighborhoods. The oldest neighborhoods include Ciudad Vieja (Old City), where Montevideo was first founded in 1730, and Centro, the first annexation to Ciudad Vieja.

These neighborhoods comprise Montevideo’s downtown. It’s where you find the city’s:

  • original plazas and earliest architecture

  • top museums and art galleries

  • live performance theaters

Housing options include apartments in historic buildings, older modern buildings, and new buildings.

Montevideo’s Cordón Neighborhood

Cordón is an up-and-coming area that’s popular with many young Uruguayan professionals as well as expats. It’s where you find the main campus of the University of the Republic (Uruguay’s state university). It’s also close to the city’s main hospitals.

Apartment options include places in new buildings, as well as apartments in older buildings that are good candidates for remodeling projects.

With the growing interest in Cordón, you can find more good cafes and interesting shops. (Especially near Constituyente Street.)

For many expats, Cordón’s revitalization and the creative energy that comes with it make this neighborhood a colorful and attractive place to live.

Note: Ciudad Vieja, Centro, and Cordón are easy places to get around in without a car.

Atlántida: A Small Coastal Town Not Far From Montevideo

Atlántida (population 13,600) is a Río de la Plata beach town with suburban single-family homes, large sandy beaches, and many trees.

And it’s just 30 miles east of Montevideo’s Centro. So expats who live in Atlántida can enjoy the lifestyle of a small coastal town. Yet still be close to the shopping, services, and entertainment options of Montevideo.

Like most beach towns in Uruguay, Atlántida has an annual rhythm. In the Southern Hemisphere summer months of January and February, the beaches and restaurants get busy with visiting vacationers.

Then, in the fall, things quiet down. And the full-timers get the beaches and town back to themselves.

Some expats settle in communities just outside Atlántida, where housing prices are a little lower. These include Villa Argentina, Las Toscas, and Parque del Plata Sur.

Most expats living in the Atlántida area own a car.

City of Maldonado’s Centro

Maldonado (population 102,000) is a middle-class city. Founded in 1755, its Centro includes a plaza with a fountain, fronted by a cathedral. Extending north from the central plaza is Sarandí, a shop-lined pedestrian street.

The best quality of life for this budget range is a modern apartment near Maldonado’s Centro or the city’s bus terminal. Maldonado offers everything you need for a comfortable life. And it’s just a short bus ride to the beaches of Punta del Este—the most prestigious beach resort city in South America.

Maldonado’s Centro is an easy place to get around in without a car.

Less Than $2,900 Per Month

Uruguay’s smaller cities and beach towns offer space, nature, and a slower pace.
Uruguay’s smaller cities and beach towns offer space, nature, and a slower pace.|©David Hammond

Great places to live, but with few other English-speaking expats around.

Salto

Salto (population 114,000) is a low-rise city on the Uruguay River in northwest Uruguay. It’s a region known for its hot spring resorts and water parks.

Salto’s main street (called Uruguay Street) passes through two impressive plazas. Its riverfront includes two manicured parks. And the Salto Shopping mall is the largest shopping mall north of Montevideo.

Homes and apartments in Salto give you more space for your money than in Montevideo. Most expats in Salto own a car.

La Paloma

La Paloma is a town of 8,500 on the Cabo de Santa María (Cape of Santa María) on Uruguay’s rural Atlantic coast.

At the end of the cape is a lighthouse and a bay. The bay is a good place for kayaking when it’s calm and kite-surfing when the wind comes up. When the conditions are right, La Paloma’s ocean beaches offer some of Uruguay’s best surfing waves.

Like Atlántida, life in La Paloma follows a rhythm. In summer, the beaches and restaurants get busy with vacationers. In the off-season, things quiet down.

La Paloma beach communities stretch for 3½ miles along the cape’s south coast. Outside the city limits, you find additional coastal communities extending 2½ miles northeast of the cape.

Most homes in La Paloma are single-family homes on their own lots, although you can find some apartment buildings.

Besides coastal communities, some expats live outside of town on acreage or in a private community. Most expats in La Paloma own a car.

Treinta y Tres

Treinta y Tres (population 25,900) sits in a region of cattle ranches in eastern Uruguay. It’s a city with low buildings, lots of trees, and two large, beautiful parks. One of the parks, Parque del Olimar, fronts a river, where you can boat and swim. Thirty miles north of Treinta y Tres is a canyon called Quebrada de Los Cuervos (Ravine of the Ravines). It’s where you find more plant, bird, and wildlife diversity than anyplace else in Uruguay. In Treinta y Tres, you can live close to city conveniences like shopping, cafes, and hospitals. Yet, be on the doorstep of wide-open spaces ideal for hiking and horseback riding. Most people in Treinta y Tres live in single-family homes. You find lots of affordable taxis in Treinta y Tres. So, it’s an easy place to live without a car.

Note: In Salto, La Paloma, and Treinta y Tres, you don’t find English-speaking expat groups. To live in these areas, you’ll need to learn some basic Spanish and acclimate to the local culture.

Over $3,800 Per Month

Upscale Montevideo neighborhoods and Punta del Este offer luxury homes and beach living.
Upscale Montevideo neighborhoods and Punta del Este offer luxury homes and beach living.|©iStock/xeni4ka

Popular communities with high-earning expats and affluent retirees.

Montevideo’s Pocitos Area

The Pocitos Area includes the adjoining Montevideo neighborhoods of:

  • Pocitos

  • Punta Carretas, an adjoining neighborhood southwest of Pocitos

  • Buceo (the western part of it, bordering Pocitos)

The Pocitos Area is about two square miles in size. It’s the city’s most popular community for modern apartment living. It’s where you find Montevideo’s most visited sandy beach, two large shopping malls, and more than 100 restaurants and cafes.

With the strong demand for Pocitos Area apartments, rents tend to be higher than in many other parts of the city. But many expats believe it’s well worth it.

The Montevideo Neighborhood of Carrasco

Carrasco is a neighborhood of roomy single-family homes and spacious low-rise apartment buildings on the eastern edge of Montevideo. It’s also known for exclusive sports clubs, such as the Carrasco Lawn Tennis Club, and the city’s top-ranked private schools.

Arocena Street, the main street in Carrasco, is lined with shops and good places to eat.

Carrasco is popular with Uruguayan professionals and working expats, such as embassy personnel, corporate representatives, and consultants.

The Private Communities of La Tahona and Carmel

La Tahona is a gated community with homes built around a golf course. Carmel is a gated community with homes around a lake.

In both of these neighborhoods, you find spacious executive-style homes—many with swimming pools. Neighborhood amenities include gyms and clubhouses.

You find La Tahona and Carmel in Uruguay’s Department of Canelones, which is about 10 miles from Carrasco.

And they’re seven miles from Zoneamerica, a business and technology free-trade zone with around 350 businesses.

For shopping and dining out, many people living in La Tahona and Carmel drive to Carrasco. However, as these communities grow, more nearby stores and businesses are opening.

Most Uruguayans and expats I know living in La Tahona and Carmel are organizational leaders, businesspeople, or work in finance.

Punta del Este

Punta del Este is a beach resort city 80 miles east of Montevideo. It’s known for its clean beaches, landmark restaurants, and impressive apartment towers.

Apartment-building amenities in Punta del Este often include social areas and gyms. Building services often include a front desk with porters and daily housekeeping for your apartment.

In high-end apartment buildings, amenities may include swimming pools, banquet rooms, and beach clubs. Services may include garage attendants to wash your car, maintenance personnel to fix little things around your apartment, personal trainers in the gym, and staff to run a summer day camp for your kids or grandkids.

Like most coastal towns in Uruguay, Punta del Este gets vacationers in the summer. The difference is that here the number of seasonal visitors reaches into the hundreds of thousands.

Besides being a beach resort town, the Punta del Este area is a college town with half a dozen universities.

In Punta del Este, you find a rapidly growing community of full-time residents, including many expats. It’s estimated that more than half of English-speaking expats who move to Uruguay settle in the Punta del Este area.

Note: Most expats in Carrasco, La Tahona and Carmel, and Punta del Este own a car.

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