BrazilianLiving to appear soon
Interested in real estate and expat life in Brazil? Looking for practical information on buying a second home or making the most of your stay in the country? UruguayNow's sister site, BrazilianLiving.com will go live in November.
And the winner is… Results of the UruguayNow awards for 2010
They may not quite be the Oscars, but UruguayNow has its own awards, six in all, for 2010. We hope that our pale-blue certificates (sorry, but there are no shiny gold statuettes for the moment) will serve as a recognition of excellence in the country's hotel and restaurant sectors. The research was carried out between December 2009 and March 2010. Journalists requiring more details of the selection and award criteria should mail Nick Foster, publisher of UruguayNow at nick@uruguaynow.com. The awards ceremony took place at the headquarters of Uruguay's National Tourism Ministry in Montevideo on 13 April 2010. Our thanks go to the Ministry for their precious support of the UruguayNow travel guide project. The award winners are:
Best-Value Hotel in Montevideo: Regency Golf, Punta Carretas
Best Business Hotel in Montevideo: Sheraton, Punta Carretas
Best Restaurant in Montevideo: Francis, Punta Carretas
Montevideo's Most Innovative Dining Experience: Rara Avis, Ciudad Vieja
Best Boutique Hotel in Punta del Este: L'Auberge
Best-Value Boutique Hotel in Punta del Este: Posada Aldilá
You can find out more about these establishments by visiting the Montevideo restaurants, Montevideo hotels, and Punta del Este hotels chapters of the guide.
Our top web picks
Not yet made it to Uruguay? When you're done with UruguayNow, our choice of the top 6 internet resources for the country is just a mouse click away. In no particular order, they are:
Ola Uruguay: www.olauruguay.com
Mercopress: http://en.mercopress.com/
Benjamin Gedan's Small State: http://benjamingedan.blogspot.com/
Retired in Uruguay: http://wallyinuruguay.blogspot.com/
Uruguay Natural: www.uruguaynatural.com
Global Property Guide: http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Latin-America/Uruguay
For reviews of these sites, please click here.
UruguayNow in the press
UruguayNow's mix of travel and tourist information on Uruguay, hotel reviews for Montevideo and Punta del Este (coming soon for Colonia), restaurant reviews and tips on excursions, sightseeing and lifestyle in Uruguay has been featured in El País, La República, MercoPress and on Uruguay's Channel 5 TV and other news media in the country. Look out for features on cinema and movie-making, estancia tourism, Uruguay's best beaches and Uruguayan wine (and tips on the best bodegas to visit) in our next edition in October 2010. Journalists interested in finding out more about our Uruguay travel guide project should mail nick@uruguaynow.com.
Best of the Web
Keen to get hold of more travel and expat living information on Uruguay? Then we have some good news: UruguayNow's writers have scoured the internet to bring you our top picks. Our basic criteria are that the sites have to be at least partly in English, have a strong focus on Uruguay (of course!) and they have to be active. Our top six for 2010 are:
Ola Uruguay: www.olauruguay.com
Marvellously useful site. Ola's trump card is its wealth of practical info on buying, building and renovating property. But it also contains features on everything from the future of Uruguay's railways and a history of bullfighting in Colonia del Sacramento, to tips on how to reduce your electricity bill. A real find – and constantly updated.
Mercopress: http://en.mercopress.com/
Best news resource in English on Uruguay by a country mile. Visit for breaking news, features and analysis on Uruguay, plus the Mercosur trade bloc, Argentina, Brazil and (surprisingly enough) the Falkland Islands. Highly recommended.
Benjamin Gedan's Small State: http://benjamingedan.blogspot.com/
Really impressive, thoughtful, funny and on occasions argumentative site – now extended to Twitter – by political scientist and freelance reporter Benjamin Gedan. His enthusiasm for Uruguay seeps through all his "Small State" entries. The site covers the rest of Latin America with the same easy authority, but a sojourn in Uruguay clearly marked this blogger for life.
Retired in Uruguay: http://wallyinuruguay.blogspot.com/
Wally Glass details his ongoing struggle against mosquitoes, brushes with officialdom, a recurring dental problem and love of karaoke in charming detail. What makes this blog a winner is the writer's profound connection with his new community on the coast in Canelones and – fundamentally – the honesty and clarity of his observations. Also enthusiastic and well written – with fascinating posts on cemeteries and the Uruguayan capital's café lifestyle, among others – is the Montevideo Living blog at http://montevideoliving.blogspot.com/.
Uruguay Natural: www.uruguaynatural.com
Uruguay's official travel site is strong on ecotourism and sports. Contains very comprehensive (although necessarily uncritical) accommodation lists, particularly for estancias and farms that take guests. Full of fresh ideas – like whale-watching – for your trips to Uruguay. It's just a pity the English translation of the Spanish original is so hit-and-miss.
Global Property Guide: http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Latin-America/Uruguay
What would international real estate writers do without the stats and insight of the Global Travel Guide team? The same holds true, for that matter, for anyone planning to buy property in Uruguay. What makes this site so useful is its wealth of comparative data (Uruguay versus Argentina, Uruguay versus Brazil, etc.) and the manifest sense that information is collated and presented with the best interests of the reader in mind.