URUGUAY for Vacation(s): A few tips

Napoleon

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Hola amigos,

I just got back from a lovely long weekend in the pseudo "resort town" of Punta del Diablo. I've got a few money related tips for those who will be heading over to Uruguay for vacation.

TAKE AMERICAN DOLLARS AND NOT PESOS!!!

Let me 'splain.

Many stores & restaurants accepted US Dollars and most were at a rate of US$1 to UR$19.6

Not everywhere accepted AR Pesos, but those that did usually were at a rate of AR$1 to UR$3.5

That works out to buying US Dollars at a rate of US$1 to AR$5.6

YES! You read that correctly. For everyone bitching and moaning about paying over AR$4.50 for dollars, you bet get used to bending over if you want to go to Uruguay and use your pesos.

In fact, our group crashed the first night at a hostel in Montevideo and the rate was UR$340/person (US$17.35/person), but if you wanted to pay in AR Pesos, it was AR$100. (That is a rate of US$1 to AR$5.76.)

So if you only have AR pesos, then do whatever you have to do to get US dollars.

DUTY FREE CHUY(UR)/CHUÍ(BR):

The one place on our trip that allotted a good rate for AR Pesos was the Duty Free border town of Chuy, Uruguay & the other side of the street Chuí, Brazil.

In the first shop we stopped in on the Uruguayan side, they were giving a US$1 to AR$4.27 exchange rate, which is AMAZING! So if you are going to take AR Pesos, then that is the place to spend them. And there was a lot of junk in those stores, but there were also some great deals. Especially on electronic appliances like irons, electric water kettles, and coffee makers.


Credit cards are accepted in areas. Probably a lot more in Punta del Este & La Barra than in Punta del Diablo, Cabo Polonia, La Pedrera, & Paloma. The last four were a little crunch, sometimes overpriced (La Pedrera & Cabo Polonia), but always accepting of dollars. Pesos... not so much.

Oh, and gas isn't cheap either. But that's to be expected.

If your credit card is from a bank outside of Argentina, then you're probably ok, but I'd guess that banks inside AR are going to get shtupped.

If you have any other questions, fire away.
 
Bigboxer said:
And gas is going up again in Uruguay, making a litre of regular 35.6 U$Y pesos..or ~$1.75 U$S per LITRE..!!!

http://www.elpais.com.uy/111213/pecono-612321/economia/economia-autorizo-suba-de-5-9-en-combustibles/

That sounds about right. We were figuring that our Premium 95 (or whatever we were told to buy for the brand new VW GOL that we rented) worked out to about US$1.75 to US$2/liter because we were thinking it was well over US$7/gallon.

So YES, Uruguay is going to be expensive. But you don't have to make it more expensive than it has to be.
 
http://www.redmulticar.com/uk_fleet.html Biggest rental Co. in UY.....

Terms and Conditions

- VAT (22%) is included in all rates.
- Partial insurance is included for all our vehicles.
- Warranty deposit of USD 800, payed with a credit card.
- 23/DEC/2011 - 11/MAR/2012: High season.
- 30/DEC/2011 - 08/JAN/2012: New Year (High season rates + 50%).
- 30/MAR/2012 - 08/APR/2012: Holly season (High season rates).
 
RichardP said:
How much was the car rental per day?

We rented from Multicar in Montevideo www (dot) redmulticar (dot) com from Thursday at about 11:00am until Sunday at 5:30pm and it was US$183 total. (US$150 + US$33 in taxes). Our car was literally brand new. I think that it had 20 kilometers on it and was built in Brazil. We were the first renters. It still had a white sticker across the upper windshield above the driver. (Both did. Our group rented two cars.)

They have at least two locations in Montevideo (or at least a drop-off location at Tres Cruces bus station) and at least one location in Punta del Este.

I would think that the rates would be higher in January and probably February as well. Maybe even higher as early as this weekend.
 
If you have a foreign ATM card, just withdraw money in USD from ATMs in uruguay. They're accepted everywhere at as good a rate as you'll get buying UR$ from the ATMs and you won't be stuck with some worthless uruguayan pesos when you leave.
 
PhilipDT said:
If you have a foreign ATM card, just withdraw money in USD from ATMs in uruguay. They're accepted everywhere at as good a rate as you'll get buying UR$ from the ATMs and you won't be stuck with some worthless uruguayan pesos when you leave.

Wait, you can get dollars from the ATMs in Uruguay? I didn't know that!
 
bradlyhale said:
Wait, you can get dollars from the ATMs in Uruguay? I didn't know that!

Actually, I have no idea. I didn't try this. I now wish that I had. :eek:
 
...why not just get Uruguay pesos from the atms there?

The one time I tried to get dollars from an atm in Uruguay, it didn't work. But that was a year and a half ago. It may also be possible to get dollars from the teller at a bank.

But again, seriously, go to an atm and withdrawn $Ur instead of taking dollars or pesos argentinos.
 
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