CAPITAL MONTEVIDEO - POPULATION 3.4 MILLION - AREA 176,220 SQ KM - OFFICIAL LANGUAGE SPANISH
Uruguay's not the in-the-know-traveller's-secret it once was, but that's because this compact place – the second-smallest country in South America – offers so many tempting reasons to visit. Nowadays far less crumbling, Montevideo is slowly on the up, with new, cool boutique hotels springing up alongside bustling bars. Inland you'll find colonial small-town gems and cattle ranches raising prime beef for dinner, while the sparkling beaches are a hit particularly with Argentinean and Brazilian tourists. Come here too for the dazzling Easter Carnaval. Uruguay is, by local standards, a particularly progressive place: late 2007 saw it become the first Latin American country to legally recognize same-sex civil unions, a sign of even better things to come.
|
