South America Travel Inspiration

Are you planing to visit South America, or have you already booked a trip? We visited the Argentina and Uruguay in October 2015 and stayed in South America for a total of two weeks. We now want to give future visitors inspiration about what you can see and do in the countries together with all of our impressions of this amazing destination. Welcome to The South America Travel Inspiration!

We have written blog posts about our visit and you will below find both a short description about each post and a link to the post in case you would like to read even more about it. During our stay in South America we traveled around to a few different destinations and tried to get to know the place as much as possible.

Some Facts About Argentina and Uruguay

Argentina

Population: ~43.417.000
Official language: None (de facto language is Spanish)
Capital: Buenos Aires: (~2.890.000 inhabitants)

Uruguay

Population: ~3.427.000
Official language: Spanish
Capital: Montevideo (~1.305.000 inhabitants)

South America: Our Itinerary

Our itinerary turned out to be as follows:

Day 1: Flight from Stockholm Arlanda to London Heathrow
Day 2: Flight to Miami International, one day in Miami Beach, flight to Montevideo
Day 3: Arrival in Montevideo
Day 4: Day in Montevideo
Day 5: Bus to Colonia del Sacramento, a few hours in Colonia del Sacramento and ferry to Buenos Aires
Day 6: Day in Buenos Aires
Day 7: Day in Buenos Aires
Day 8: Day trip to Tigre
Day 9: Day in Buenos Aires
Day 10: Day trip to La Plata
Day 11: Boat to Colonia del Sacramento and bus to Montevideo
Day 12: Day in Montevideo
Day 13: Bus to Punta del Este
Day 14: Day in Punta del Este and Maldonado
Day 15: Bus back to Montevideo Airport, flight to Miami International
Day 16: Day in Miami and Miami Beach, flight to London Heathrow.
Day 17: Flight to Stockholm Arlanda, arrival back home.

Where We Stayed

Pocitos Plaza Hotel – Montevideo, Uruguay

Quite a cozy hotel not far from the waterfront. We spent two nights here before continuing to Buenos Aires. It was easy to get to and from the hotel as the bus stop was just outside of the entrance. Buses went to and from Tres Cruses and from there it was possible to take additional local buses to either the central part of Montevideo or the airport. It is also from here that most long distance buses depart.

The hotel itself had everything we expected it to have. A small but nice breakfast and a good location. The employees in the reception were also really helpful in helping us with directions and tips.

El Conquistador Hotel – Buenos Aires, Argentina

This was the largest of the hotels we stayed at. We spent a total of six nights here and were really satisfied most of the time. The reception assisted with everything from directions to money exchange. They also had the best of the breakfasts we had during our trip. We had one dinner in the hotel restaurant and it as well was probably the top one during our trip as well.

The only minus was the receptionist the morning we were checking out. Every other receptionist earlier had said that there were not going to be any problems for them to arrange a taxi in the morning of our departure. So it was quite a surprise when that the receptionist that morning had a different opinion. He called once, said the taxi would arrive in 15 minutes. Then after half an hour, still no taxi and only comment from the receptionist was that it didn’t seem like the taxi will come. He also didn’t want to call them once more to ask. Really the worst service we had during our whole trip. In the end we had to run (!) to the port.

Hotel Vivaldi – Montevideo, Uruguay

Back in Montevideo we spent 2 nights at Hotel Vivaldi. The hotel cannot have been open for many weeks as some floors were still not finished at the time of our stay. The room looked like we were the first people to stay there and we really had everything we needed. Even a microwave, plates and glasses. It was perfect as we wanted to try some of the food from the supermarket close by. The breakfast might have been a bit boring, but it was sufficient.

This hotel were in the same area as Pocitos Plaza Hotel and it felt safe to walk around here. Especially since the area was not as unknown after the first nights in Montevideo.

Atlántico Boutique Hotel – Punta del Este, Uruguay

Our last two nights in South America were spent in Punta del Este. On the tip separating Rio Grande from the Atlantic was Atlántico Boutique Hotel. It was probably the nicest of the hotels that we had booked. Not regarding stars or class in any way, but just the atmosphere. It felt more open and less like a hotel – which was nice after 2 weeks away from home. The location was really good for walking around in Punta del Este and it was tempting to take a swim in the swimming pool.